Amazon Fire 7 - tips n tricks

[apolloa]

Double the storage and new colors seem to be it.

Here's a link to an article about the 2017 Fire 7:
https://www.pcmag.com/review/339029/amazon-fire-7-2017

and a quote from the "Chipset and Network" section:
"The Fire 7 runs Fire OS 5.4, based on Android 5.1, on a 1.3GHz Mediatek processor. It benchmarks like a very low-end smartphone, and sometimes even worse, because I kept running up against the limits of its 1GB of RAM."

There are other websites that mention it is a quad-core processor.

I looked a bit further and apparently it does have a more powerful processor in the new model, no idea what they’ve done with it though?

Reading through your excellent thread again, it seems you decided to remove some of the amazon bloatware, keep the amazon store, and not use any google play store or services. Is that right? And you ended up with a cool little fast tablet?

 

[sracer]

I looked a bit further and apparently it does have a more powerful processor in the new model, no idea what they’ve done with it though?

I'm puzzled too. Since the processor is running at the same clock speed and same number of cores, any improvements in performance will probably be minimal.

Reading through your excellent thread again, it seems you decided to remove some of the amazon bloatware, keep the amazon store, and not use any google play store or services. Is that right? And you ended up with a cool little fast tablet?

Little? Yes. Cool? Yes. Fast? eh, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Performance is adequate. My perception of performance might be skewed because I've been doing a lot of experimenting with the HD 8 and HD 10. I'll spend some more time with the 7 and recalibrate my expectations and post a follow-up.

For the $35 I paid for it, and the limited scope of intended uses, it is totally worth it, IMO.

 

[sracer]

Reading through your excellent thread again, it seems you decided to remove some of the amazon bloatware, keep the amazon store, and not use any google play store or services. Is that right? And you ended up with a cool little fast tablet?

After spending some dedicated time with the 7 this morning, I'd say that "fast" is not the adjective I would use to describe performance. The UI is generally responsive but at times there can a momentary pause before it completes the action requested.

Starting apps is slow, but once they're loaded, they run fine. Media consumption is fantastic. Music and video playback looks and sounds (with headphones) great.

As I've mention in previous posts and threads, I'm a fan of EarthCam, Pluto TV, Mobdro, and TeaTV and the Fire 7 makes a terrific portable player for those streaming services.

 

[sracer]

Return of the (not-so) Magnificent 7

Greetings all. It's been well over 2 years since I last tinkered with the Fire 7. I had given away my 2017 Fire 7 a year ago but was recently looking to get something Android-based in something larger than my smartphone but smaller than my HD 8.

And on cue, Amazon has the Fire 7 on sale for $35.

Fire 7 tablet, 7" display, 16 GB, (2019 release), Black

Fire 7 is our best-selling tablet—now 2X the storage, faster quad-core processor, hands-free with Alexa, and 2X as durable as the latest iPad mini. Complete tasks, enjoy movies on the go, browse recipes, or ask Alexa for the weather—making your every day easier.

www.amazon.com

It arrived on Wednesday, along with the orange case.



My plan is to ONLY use this for music and video playback, and light reading... no email. no social media. no gaming.

The first thing I noticed was how much more sluggish out-of-the-box the 2019 Fire 7 is compared to the 2017 Fire 7. I guess the increased drag of Fire OS is heavier than it was back in 2017.

The first thing I did (which turned out to be a bit of a mistake) was to update to the latest firmware. If you get one, don't do this. Fire OS 7.3.2.2 is the latest that will get downloaded and the current version of the Fire Toolbox (25.2) doesn't fully handle that version (though nearly everything works)

The next thing I did, which should've been the first and only thing, was to run Fire Toolbox to take control over the look and feel of the device...

[WINDOWS/LINUX][TOOL]Fire Toolbox V37.1

Fire Toolbox V37.1 All-In-One Toolbox for Fire Tablets! The Fire Toolbox is a collection of useful ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tweaks that can be applied to Amazon's Fire Tablets. The Toolbox project aims to help users fully customize...

forum.xda-developers.com

I disabled the lockscreen, and disabled most of the Amazon bloatware that I wouldn't need for this device.

Installing Google Play and Services didn't go well... the system is just too weak to handle it. So I reset the device to factory default and re-ran the Fire Toolbox.

I installed VLC and Moon Reader+ from the Amazon app store. These two are able to handle my mp3 and mp4 files, and epub books respectively.

Moon Reader+ struggles with my cbz vintage catalog files (they can be upwards of 200MB) and the Kindle reader does an adequate job of handling .pdf files.



By disabling the bloatware and avoiding Google Play and Services, the Fire 7 does a fine job for this very limited use case. Streaming Pluto TV, Prime Video, and from my own Plex server works quite well.

For $35, I'm pleased with it. But I'll be tinkering more to optimize the experience.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from others how they are using their 2019 Fire 7 and what apps they have found that do a good job of media playback and consumption.

* I have plans to revisit my Fire HD 8 thread soon with a lot more experimentation... I'm super impressed with what THAT can do.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Well since it’s Black Friday I had to pick up a few fire devices. I purchased 2 fire HD8’s to replace my children’s fire 7 tablets and another one in pink for myself. I have to pick mine up from the store later today and the other two will be delivered from Amazon later on today. I managed to get them all for £35 a piece so that’s £105 for the three.

Look forward to using mine. My latest nexus 7 2013’s screen was smashed by mh 3 Year old so I needed something to replace it with. To be honest it was getting long in the tooth but I just love it because it was such a good tablet back in the day.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Return of the (not-so) Magnificent 7

Greetings all. It's been well over 2 years since I last tinkered with the Fire 7. I had given away my 2017 Fire 7 a year ago but was recently looking to get something Android-based in something larger than my smartphone but smaller than my HD 8.

And on cue, Amazon has the Fire 7 on sale for $35.

Fire 7 tablet, 7" display, 16 GB, (2019 release), Black

Fire 7 is our best-selling tablet—now 2X the storage, faster quad-core processor, hands-free with Alexa, and 2X as durable as the latest iPad mini. Complete tasks, enjoy movies on the go, browse recipes, or ask Alexa for the weather—making your every day easier.

www.amazon.com

It arrived on Wednesday, along with the orange case.

View attachment 1918344

My plan is to ONLY use this for music and video playback, and light reading... no email. no social media. no gaming.

The first thing I noticed was how much more sluggish out-of-the-box the 2019 Fire 7 is compared to the 2017 Fire 7. I guess the increased drag of Fire OS is heavier than it was back in 2017.

The first thing I did (which turned out to be a bit of a mistake) was to update to the latest firmware. If you get one, don't do this. Fire OS 7.3.2.2 is the latest that will get downloaded and the current version of the Fire Toolbox (25.2) doesn't fully handle that version (though nearly everything works)

The next thing I did, which should've been the first and only thing, was to run Fire Toolbox to take control over the look and feel of the device...

[WINDOWS/LINUX][TOOL]Fire Toolbox V37.1

Fire Toolbox V37.1 All-In-One Toolbox for Fire Tablets! The Fire Toolbox is a collection of useful ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tweaks that can be applied to Amazon's Fire Tablets. The Toolbox project aims to help users fully customize...

forum.xda-developers.com

I disabled the lockscreen, and disabled most of the Amazon bloatware that I wouldn't need for this device.

Installing Google Play and Services didn't go well... the system is just too weak to handle it. So I reset the device to factory default and re-ran the Fire Toolbox.

I installed VLC and Moon Reader+ from the Amazon app store. These two are able to handle my mp3 and mp4 files, and epub books respectively.

Moon Reader+ struggles with my cbz vintage catalog files (they can be upwards of 200MB) and the Kindle reader does an adequate job of handling .pdf files.

View attachment 1918345 View attachment 1918346

By disabling the bloatware and avoiding Google Play and Services, the Fire 7 does a fine job for this very limited use case. Streaming Pluto TV, Prime Video, and from my own Plex server works quite well.

For $35, I'm pleased with it. But I'll be tinkering more to optimize the experience.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from others how they are using their 2019 Fire 7 and what apps they have found that do a good job of media playback and consumption.

* I have plans to revisit my Fire HD 8 thread soon with a lot more experimentation... I'm super impressed with what THAT can do.

I did manage to get the google play store on my kids fire 7 tablets (2019) tablets but as you said the experience is great. Most of the games they want to play don’t run that well on there which is why I’ve got them the HD8 which does well performance wise.

 

[sracer]

Well since it’s Black Friday I had to pick up a few fire devices. I purchased 2 fire HD8’s to replace my children’s fire 7 tablets and another one in pink for myself. I have to pick mine up from the store later today and the other two will be delivered from Amazon later on today. I managed to get them all for £35 a piece so that’s £105 for the three.

Look forward to using mine. My latest nexus 7 2013’s screen was smashed by mh 3 Year old so I needed something to replace it with. To be honest it was getting long in the tooth but I just love it because it was such a good tablet back in the day.

Fantastic score! The HD8 is head-and-shoulders above the Fire 7. No comparison.

The warning against upgrading to Fire OS 7.3.2.2 applies equally to the HD8. I know that YOU know that, but for anyone wandering across this post might not.