Amazon's new Alexa Tablet 12 Pro ditches Fire OS, swaps in full Android, and prices itself as a genuine iPad Air rival.
The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is the first Amazon tablet with access to the Google Play Store, meaning real versions of Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps instead of Amazon's walled-off app store. It also bakes in Alexa+, Amazon's AI assistant, directly into the tablet rather than as an app, with a dedicated Dynamic Tab that can expand into a full-screen interface. The base model has a 12-inch, 120Hz display, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 chip, starting at $549.99. A higher-RAM configuration with Amazon's anti-glare Nanomatte display option costs more, and two smaller models, the Alexa Tablet 11 and Alexa Tablet 8, round out a three-device lineup with lower specs and lower prices.
Amazon's Fire tablets were always loss leaders: cheap hardware meant to pull people into buying things on Amazon, not to compete on specs. The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is a different bet, pricing full Android hardware about $200 under the iPad Air's $749 starting price, even though its Dimensity 8400 chip is nowhere near as powerful as Apple's M4. That gap matters because Alexa+ itself costs $19.99 a month unless you're already a Prime subscriber, so Amazon is still finding ways to get paid after the hardware sale.
A cheaper screen paired with a slower chip and a subscription-gated assistant isn't obviously a better deal than an iPad Air. It's just a different one.