The Fire 7 is Amazon's best-selling tablet. It doesn't have high-end specs or an exquisite design, and most certainly does not aim to compete against the best iPads or the best Android tablets. But thanks to its dirt-cheap price, it has remained a highly popular option among budget-conscious buyers. It's the perfect option for anyone who wants a basic tablet for browsing the web, watching Netflix, and reading books. It also makes for a great kids' tablet with its rich app ecosystem and extensive parental controls. Amazon refreshed the entry-level tablet earlier this year with new hardware, bringing a powerful chipset, more RAM and storage, USB-C, and a large battery.

If you're rocking the Fire 7 (2019), you might wonder if you should upgrade to the newer model. Here's everything you need to know to make an informed decision.

Amazon Fire 7 (2022) Vs Fire 7 (2019): Specifications

Design and display: Not much has changed

As far as the design is concerned, the new Fire 7 (2022) looks identical to the previous model. It still has chunky bezels around its display and an all-plastic build. We would have liked it if Amazon gave the tablet a makeover and shrunk those bezels for a more modern look, but it seems we'll have to wait for the next upgrade for that to come true. It's certainly not the worst-looking tablet, and if you don't like the boring Black color, you can also go with Denim and Rose colorways.

Dimensions and weight are the same as the last model, and so is the position of the power button, volume keys, and the 3.5mm audio jack. But there's one big change. The ancient microUSB port is finally gone, replaced by the USB-C port for a more convenient charging experience.

The tablet's display is unchanged from the last model, which is disappointing because that display wasn't that great in the first place. It's pretty low-res, dull, and quite dim. It is a 7-inch display with a resolution of just 600 x 1024, working out to 170 pixels per inch. It's not even HD (720p), and you can easily pick out individual pixels. The max brightness is 300 nits, which is fine for indoor usage but too low for using the device under direct sunlight.

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Upgraded performance, more RAM

The Fire 7 2022 may not look much different than the last model from the outside, but its innards have been upgraded with more powerful parts. The new Fire 7 (2022) is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT8168V/B chipset, featuring four Arm Cortex-A53 cores clocked 2.0GHz. Amazon says the new processor is up to 30% faster than the one in the Fire 7 (2019), which packed a quad-core CPU running at 1.3GHz. The RAM has also been upgraded from 1GB to 2GB which means the new model can hold more apps in the memory and should offer a better multitasking experience.

While these improvements are welcome additions, the real-world performance of the tablet remains underwhelming. In Geekbench, the tablet scored just 166 and 525 points in single-core and multi-core tests. The bottom line: Tasks that don't demand a lot of power, such as web browsing, media streaming, and reading books, should be fine but don't expect to run graphics-intensive games on this hardware.

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Longer battery life but still painfully slow charging speed

The new Fire 7 (2022) rocks the same 2MP front and rear cameras as the Fire 7 (2019); as you would expect, they're not great. The single speaker is also unchanged. However, the battery sees a big update. Amazon says the new model packs a larger battery that lasts up to 10 hours, a marked improvement over the 2019 model's 7 hours of battery life. In the real world, the tablet lives up to its promise. In our video streaming test, the Fire 7 lasted 10 hours and 26 minutes before running out of power. Although the new tablet uses the USB-C port, its charging speed is still painfully slow. With the bundled 5W charger, it takes roughly four hours to fully charge the device. Thankfully, you can use a fast charger to cut the charging time in half.

Software is another area where the Fire 7 (2022) has an advantage over the previous generation. It ships with the new Fire OS 8 based on Android 11. Meanwhile, the 2019 version runs Fire OS 7 based on Android 9 Pie. Fire OS 8 brings many new features and changes, including a system-wide dark mode, the ability to access GPS/location in the background, one-time permissions for apps requesting access to location, microphone, and camera, and other under-the-hood improvements.

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Fire 7 (2022) vs Fire 7 (2019): Should you upgrade?

From the outside, the Fire 7 (2022) looks pretty identical to its predecessor. However, both devices diverge quite a lot internally. The new 2022 release brings several notable upgrades, including a faster chipset, more storage, a switch to USB-C, a longer battery life, and newer software. However, these improvements come with a price bump; the new model starts at $59.99, which is $10 more than the last model. In our opinion, improved performance, more RAM and storage, and USB-C make the Fire 7 (2022) a worthy upgrade over the Fire (2019). However, we can't help but feel that Amazon should have fitted the tablet with a better display. If media streaming is your primary use case, we recommend picking up the Fire 8 HD or Fire 10 HD, both of which have superior displays. Check out our head-to-head comparison of the Fire 7 Vs Fire 8 HD Vs Fire  10 to find out which Fire tablet is best for you.

Even with all its limitations and drawbacks, there's no denying that the Fire 7 (2022) is one of the best cheap Android tablets out there. Amazon also offers a special Kids variant of the Fire 7 (2022) that comes with a rugged case and a 2-year guarantee.