The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is Amazon's first full-Android tablet — and it might rival the iPad Air

Amazon’s Fire tablets have historically been seen as low-cost, low-spec alternatives to the best Android tablets and best iPads , but now the mega-retailer has finally entered the premium tablet market with the Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro.

Yes, the ‘Fire’ nomenclature is gone — and, mercifully, Fire OS along with it.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is the first Amazon tablet to support full Android, meaning users will be able to access the Google Play Store and its millions of streaming, gaming, and productivity apps, including Google Maps, YouTube, and Gmail.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro — which is joined by the smaller Alexa Tablet 11 and Alexa Tablet 8 in a three-product lineup — is also the first Amazon tablet to feature baked-in Alexa+ integration, so it’s got AI chops to rival Apple’s Apple Intelligence-compatible iPads and Samsung’s premium Galaxy tablets.

In other words, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is about as far away from the Amazon Fire Max 11 as the Kindle-maker could have gotten — and Amazon acknowledges that this distinctly premium product marks a dramatic change in strategy for the company.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro with the Alexa Tablet Pro Keyboard and Alexa Tablet Pro Pen Future The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro with the Alexa Tablet Pro Keyboard and Alexa Tablet Pro Pen Future “Without a doubt, this is the biggest leap we've ever made in developing tablets in our history,” Eric Saarnio, Vice President of Amazon Devices International, told me in a briefing for the new Alexa Tablet range.

“And I'm incredibly excited about what the team has built.” Despite their shortcomings, Amazon’s existing Fire tablets have been a hit for the company — “we've sold a ton of tablets over the years, and that’s something we're very proud of,” Saarnio says — but they’re loss-leader products designed to usher customers into Amazon’s digital ecosystem, rather than market-leading tablets in their own right.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, by contrast, is a full-blown premium slate with specs to rival the Apple iPad Air (2026) .

It features a 12-inch, 120Hz display, up to 16GB of RAM, and 3x more CPU power than any previous Amazon tablet.

The Amazon Alexa Tablet comes in three sizes: 12, 11, and 8.7 inches (Image credit: Future) Buyers can also choose to equip their Alexa Tablet 12 Pro with Amazon’s anti-glare Nanomatte technology, which improves visibility outdoors and makes on-screen text look as if it’s sitting on top of the display (I’ve seen it in person, and it’s not a million miles away from the nano‑texture finish on the iPhone Duo’s inner display).