Amazon's New $50 Fire Tablet

If you want an ereader get a paperwhite imo. But if you actually want a screen tablet this may not be a bad bet. There are lots of good cheap android devices these days too. Fire does run android but in my dev shop we treat fire with special care due to both the heavy modification and different store.

It's not a pure android device so you're going to be very much locked in to the amazon market.

If you want to do basic web surfing stuff, this is a phenomenal deal. I doubt you'll find a better one.

If you want to experience all that modern Android tablets are capable of, these tablets will not provide that. In particular anything related to Google services (mail/apps) and Android apps that are delivered through the Google Play store but not delivered though the Amazon store. There are a lot of mainstream apps that don't bother to push their apps to Amazon's store.

Further, there's probably a market for people who want simple devices laying around at their bedside, couch or table that's bigger than their phone, more functional than an e-reader but not as clunky as a laptop (still very much a form factor for desks) for doing light digital stuff like reading the news, e-reader, checking email, browsing the web, watching video etc. None of this really requires high-end specs. This is exactly what I bought the Nexus 7 for (intro'd at $200 for the 7 and $230 for the 7 2nd gen), for my girlfriend, and she hasn't run a single app yet in the last 2 years that'd have required more specs than this tablet. The only thing she might miss is the N7's beautiful screen compared to the 170 PPI Fire tablet, but after buying a MBA a few weeks ago she still hasn't noticed the 128 PPI yet despite me pointing it out to here a few times and she's super happy so even here I think the Fire tablet would've more than sufficed for her use.

Granted with 5 inch phones becoming the norm the 7 inch form factor is being squeezed a bit, but at $50 it's still a very interesting little consumption device to have laying around.

It's not for me but I've got several family members for whom it's pretty good value.