When manufacturers launch low-cost gadgets, they typically target developing countries, but there’s a whole different story with Amazon and its $50 tablet.

The newly announced Fire tablet is said to be twice more durable than the latest iPad Air, but there’s no word on how exactly did Amazon measure that. One thing is certain, though. The e-tailer has refreshed its Fire family with 7 all-new products, but there’s no doubt that the most interesting of them all is this low-budget tablet.

Since it carries a price tag of $50 ($49.99, more precisely), one cannot help but wonder if Amazon is turning any profit with this device. As in the case of many other products manufactured by this company, it’s not the tablet itself that brings in the money, but the additional services. Basically, what Amazon would like to see people do is buy (and read) ebooks on the Fire tablet, or just watch TV shows and movies through a streaming services that pay the e-tailer a small commission.

At such a price, some people wouldn’t mind using it as a remote control for other smart devices, or even as their children’s first tablet. I wouldn’t trust kids with a Nexus 9, but a $50 tablet really is something expendable, if it weren’t for the data stored on it.

Amazon has also come up with a deal for families (or even possibly schools): get a six pack by paying for 5 Fire tablets and receiving the sixth for free.

The technical specs are obviously mediocre, but asking for more at this price would just be mean. The manufacturer equipped it with a 7″ IPS display with a resolution of 1024×600 and a pixel density of 171 ppi, as well as a quad-core processor running at 1.3Ghz, and 1GB of RAM. Rear and front-facing cameras were included for basic photography and video calls or selfies. Since the 8GB of internal storage are far from being enough, Amazon enables users to extend this with a microSD card of up to 128GB.

As for software, the Fire tablet runs on Fire OS 5, which is a heavily modified version of Android 5.0 Lollipop. The battery is not exactly the strongest point of this device, but it should be enough for 7 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching videos, or listening to music. As you can see, gaming is not listed, not because the tablet wouldn’t be capable of running games, but because this activity consumes more resources and depletes the battery much faster.

The amount of supplementary media is absolutely mind-blowing, as there are 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, apps and games, all available through Amazon’s own Android store.

Head over to Amazon and get yourself one… or a six-pack! The e-tailer is already taking orders, but it will start shipping on September 30, when the product gets in stock.

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Via: CNBC