The Fire 7 - Amazon's most affordable tablet - has been ticking along for a number of years with few changes. But in the new 2022 version of the tablet, Amazon has given it something of a makeover.

We've seen similar moves from the Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 previously, with a change in the design for narrower bezels leading to a more modern look - the 2022 Fire 7 gets that benefit, now some 12mm shorter than it was before, with those wide bezels banished.

More significantly there's uprated internals with a move to a 2.0GHz quad-core processor over the 1.3GHz previously, and a doubling of RAM to 2GB. Amazon says this leads to a 30 per cent boost in performance, which will be most welcomed.

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Storage stays at same as 16 or 32GB, with 1TB microSD now supported, while the battery life is now rated at 10 hours rather than 7 hours.

Thankfully, recharging now takes place through USB Type-C, so there's no need for that Micro-USB charger and you can charge this tablet with your laptop or (Android) phone charger, which is a bonus for those travelling, as you'll need to take fewer cables.

So this is a definite move forward from the previous version of this tablet, meaning it will be just a little smoother when using Fire OS - Amazon's version of Android - to skip through apps and content.

These tablets are designed around Amazon's ecosystem, so Prime Video is front and centre, but there's full access to a full range of services like Netflix or Disney+, as well as popular apps and games.

There's Alexa onboard too, with voice control, while cameras front and back allow for ad hoc photo snapping or more likely, video calling.

There's a slight bump in the price, so this is a little more expensive than the previous version (which is still available), but we think the upgrades justify the slight bump in price.

As always, however, there's every chance that this tablet might get discounted through events like Prime Day and Black Friday if you want to save a little more. It's available to order now, with shipping towards the end of June.

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