Amazon launches premium Alexa tablets to take on Apple and Samsung

When Amazon hired Panos Panay from Microsoft in 2023, senior executives hoped he could bring some of the devices magic he pulled off at the software giant to the e-commerce company.

Three years later, Panay is back in his comfort zone.

Amazon on Thursday unveiled an entirely new product lineup: premium Alexa tablets meant to take on devices from Apple and Samsung .

The tablets, featuring aluminum casing à la Apple, puts Amazon in direct competition with the iPhone maker after years of offering lower-budget Fire tablets that have primarily served as entertainment devices.

Panay, senior vice president of Amazon devices, Alexa, and Leo, led the development of Amazon’s new tablets.

The tablets are made for “the moment you need it, in the background when you don’t.

That’s the whole idea,” Panay said in a statement to Fortune .

“We built these around how real people actually live.

How they watch.

How they read.

How a family shares a single screen.” With the new line of Alexa tablets, Amazon is also taking a different approach to software.

Unlike Fire tablets, which are heavily optimized for Amazon services, the Alexa tablets run Android with full access to the Google Play store.

The Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is the most premium offering at $499.99 for the 128-gigabyte version.

It is 6.5-millimeters thin and features a 12-inch, 280 pixels-per-inch display.