Can the 4,980 yen Amazon tablet be used for games? [Hard Review]

A super-discount tab that you can buy for 5,000 yen, and it's a great game!? Price's tablet "Fire" has appeared. I tried to verify how "usable" this unparalleled low-priced tablet is as a terminal through benchmarks and gameplay.

"Fire Tablet" (8GB, Black) Price: 8,980 yen (Prime member exclusive price: 4,980 yen)

Fire tablet with "Fire OS 5" customized by Amazon on Android. As of September 30th at the time of writing, the stock status is "usually shipped within 2 to 3 months". The reason for its popularity is its price. The regular price of 8,980 yen is quite cheap, but if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can purchase it for an exceptionally low price of 4,980 yen.

Fire bundle list. Includes USB charger and micro USB cable

The annual membership fee for Amazon Prime members is 3,980 yen. Some people may feel expensive when they hear this, but in addition to benefits such as free express delivery and delivery on a specified date and time, from September 24th, movies and TV programs called "Amazon Prime Video" will be available at a flat rate. An all-you-can-watch VOD (Video On Demand) service has also been launched. You can also enjoy Japan-exclusive content such as the spin-off drama "Fear the Walking Dead", which is a prequel to The Walking Dead, so it's a great deal, isn't it?

Some people may be worried about the performance and quality of a tablet that can be purchased for 4,980 yen.

Processor: MediaTek MT8127 (quad core, maximum 1.3GHz) Display: 7 inches (1,024 x 600 dots, 171dpi) Audio: Monaural speaker, microphone Storage: 8GB Micro SD card slot: Yes (supports up to 128GB) Camera: Front Camera, 2-megapixel rear camera WiFi: Single band Continuous operation time: 7 hours Size/weight: 191 x 115 x 10.6mm/313g

It's not high spec, but it's a well-balanced system configuration.

It has a plasticy texture, but strangely it doesn't feel cheap

Compared to the latest smartphone "Xperia Z5 Premium" equipped with a 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160 dots) display, the number of pixels does not even reach 8%. However, the smaller number of pixels means less burden on the processor and memory (RAM). So the Fire runs reasonably well despite its frankly "poor" processor and memory.

I tested the Fire with Quadrant Standard Edition and 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme to see the performance in action. I also did the same test on my Nexus 7 (2013) for comparison.

The Quadrant Standard Edition scored 5,209 for Fire and 7,002 for Nexus 7. 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme scored 3,326 for Fire and 7,752 for Nexus 7.

Fire scored 5,209, Nexus 7 (2013) scored 7,002

Fire scored 3,326, Nexus 7 (2013) scored 7,752

Fire has a MediaTek MT8127 (quad core, up to 1.3 GHz) processor, and Nexus 7 (2013) has a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 (quad core, 1.5 GHz). The MT8127 was released in 2014, and the APQ8064 was released in 2012. The former is more recent, but the benchmark results show that the clock frequency of the installed CPU and the Nexus 7, which has a rich GPU, are the winners. It happened.

I actually tried playing the 2D graphic puzzle game "Puzzle & Dragons" and the 3D graphic car racing game "Real Racing 3", but although I could feel some frame drops, it hindered the gameplay itself. there is no. This is due to the low resolution of the display at 1024 x 600 dots, which puts a low load on the processor.

Puzzle & Dragons is a relatively low-load 2D game. I don't see any problem with this

"Real Racing 3" requires high specs to draw 3D graphics in real time

On the other hand, there may be many people who are dissatisfied with the quality of the graphics. Personally, I didn't care much about the characters and the background graphics, but the jaggies of the characters gave me a slightly cheap impression. I can easily say that it does not affect the gameplay, but if you are very particular about graphics, please take a good look at the image posted above and judge for yourself.

Another thing that bothered me while playing both games was the load times. It takes a little longer to load and develop graphic data. It took about 10 seconds for "Puzzle & Dragons" and about 25 seconds for "Real Racing 3" from tapping the app icon to displaying the game screen through the logo screen. It's a relaxing time, but it can be frustrating when you want to play quickly in your spare time.

Because it is a customized Android, Fire does not support the "Play Store" operated by Google. Apps and games will be available from Amazon's own "Android App Store". Many major games such as "Game of War", "Puzzle & Dragons", "Chain Chronicle", "Shuutsu Toshi", and "Minecraft" are provided, but not all the games on the Play Store are covered. Also, like "Ingress", apps linked to a Google account cannot be used. This limitation should be carefully considered.

Amazon's own "Android App Store" on the Fire. Like the Play Store, it is also possible to install remotely from a PC browser

Search for apps and games by Fire tablet model from the Android app store on your PC browser

When I searched for "Ingress" in the Fire Android app store, I didn't see "Ingress" itself, but three third-party apps were listed.

However, as of September 30, there are 131,702 Fire games available in the Amazon Appstore. It will be enough for the number of lineups.

Recommended as a smartphone sub-device

If you understand the limitations of Fire and buy it!

Fire is primarily a tablet dedicated to Amazon's content services. Reading e-books with the Kindle app and watching movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video are really comfortable. However, since content such as apps and games is also provided in its own store, it is not possible to play, for example, "Monster Strike".

However, we must not forget that the price of 4,980 yen for Amazon's prime members was made possible because of Fire, which was created to promote the use of Amazon's content services.

Games are mainly played on smartphones, and some games are played on Fire with a large 7-inch display. If you have a light stance of simply giving up on titles that are not available for the Fire, the Fire will be a very cost-effective sub-machine that allows you to comfortably enjoy e-books, movies, and TV programs.

(C) 2010-2012 Aurora Softworks(C) 2013 Futuremark Corporation(C) GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.Real Racing 3 (C) 2013 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved.