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When I received the dock, I was very disappointed – not with the dock, but with Amazon’s presentation of it. If you take time to read the many reviews, you will find that many of the negative reviews are based on the functionality of the Show Mode, but this is due to the fact that Amazon’s product page has linked the charging dock with the Show Mode even though they are two separate entities. Show mode on the Fire HD tablets is provided by an OS upgrade and has nothing to do with this charging dock. Once the OS upgrade is done, the Show mode will work if the tablet is plugged in to an electrical outlet. That being said, I will review the charging dock and the OS upgrade for Show Mode separately. I am including a review for Show Mode only because this has been the basis for many of the negative reviews.
SHOW MODE CHARGING DOCK
My video shows how to use the charging dock and some of how it works with Show Mode. First of all, the charging dock itself is not wireless, but must be kept plugged into an electrical outlet. It comes with a back cover for the tablet that includes two contacts on the back that must be positioned on the contacts of the charging station for charging. The stand on the dock can be moved into multiple positions depending on the slant you prefer for viewing. The tablet backing for this dock does not include anything to cover the face of the tablet.
If you don’t take your tablet with you outside of the house, and you want a nice stand to keep it on that also charges it, this would be a good charging stand for you. It is heavy and very well made. If you take your tablet outside of the house, you may want to keep a case that protects the screen of the tablet. Personally, I don’t find it to be a great inconvenience to charge my tablets with a cable connected to the charging docks on my computer. If I want to keep my tablets plugged in, I can just as easily plug them into a power plug with an adapter as keep this charging dock plugged in. This is a very nice and effective dock if it is something that suits your needs and your use for your Fire HD tablet.
Suggestions that I would have for Amazon to improve this charging dock are:
1) Include a rechargeable battery in it so that it can be used truly wirelessly
2) Design as a case for the tablet that can also include a cover to protect the screen of the tablet. This could be something attached permanently or something that stays in place with magnets.
SHOW MODE OS UPGRADE
As mentioned above, I am including this section in my review because Amazon has linked the Show Mode Charging Dock and the OS upgrade, and many of the negative reviews are based on the functionality, or lack of, of the Show Mode OS upgrade. First of all, the Show Mode OS upgrade will work whether you have the charging dock or not. After you have installed the latest OS upgrade, you just need to plug your tablet into a power source for it to work.
The Show Mode OS upgrade definitely does not work the same or have the functionality of the Show or even the Spot. For this to happen, the Fire HD tablets would have to be defined as devices included in the Alexa ecosystem. All of the Echo/Alexa devices can communicate with each other through the Alexa app. As yet, the tablets are recognized as devices in the Alexa app, but do not show as being on-line. The Show Mode on the tablets can access the Alexa devices, but the Alexa devices do not “see” the tablets even when in Show Mode.
For this reason, some of the Alexa commands will work only as outgoing on the tablets. For example, you can use “Alexa, call “John”, and it will work, but you can’t receive an incoming call from John on a tablet. If you say “Alexa, announce dinner is ready” on the tablet, the announcement will be heard on all of your Alexa devices. If you make the same command on one of your Alexa devices, it will not be heard on the tablet. To simplify this, anything outgoing from the tablet Show Mode to other Alexa devices will work – anything incoming from other Alexa devices to the tablets will not work.
Other than commands that require communication to other Alexa devices the new OS, the commands that I have tested work pretty well. As for the speaker quality on the tablets, they have never been the greatest for audio. This isn’t going to change with an OS upgrade. For better sound, you need to connect external speaker(s).
As for the Show Mode upgrade, in my opinion, it is a step in the right direction that needs more development. It was probably released prematurely. Having been into computer software development of the better part of my life, I can say that it is almost impossible to predict every scenario that software will be used. I am sure that the Show Mode OS will be upgraded as problems are solved.
Suggestions that I have for the Amazon development team are:
1) For the tablet Show Mode to work functionally in the Echo ecosystem, the tablets must be included as Alexa recognized devices.
2) Sleep time should have the capability of selecting a longer sleep time or “Never” when the tablet is plugged in and being used in Show Mode. At this time, the screen dims after 1 minute even though the tablet is fully charged and plugged in. Because of this, a tablet in Show Mode is not effective as a clock. When the screen dims, though, Alexa on the tablet will still respond to commands.
3) User selected clock formats and backgrounds should be available as they are on the Spot (and possibly the Show which I don’t have yet).
I hope this review has cleared up some of the confusion between the charging dock and the OS upgrade, and that it helps you in deciding as to whether you should buy this charging dock. I also hope that it helps Amazon developers to integrate the Show Mode on the tablets with the Echo ecosystem. Although the Show Mode may eventually be useful, I have opted to return the dock as it does not serve as an effective case for my tablet.
Update 7/24/18:
Since submitting the initial review, I have tested the Show Mode upgrade on my Fire HD 10, and also bought the Echo Show so I had something to compare to. Everything I described for the Fire HD 8 described above also holds true for the Fire HD 10 except that Show Mode on the HD 10 can be activated without the tablet being plugged in. The Echo Show does work better as a part of the Alexa ecosystem and the speaker are very much better than the tablets as the sound is room-filling and the bass is excellent. The picture quality of the show is vibrant and crisp, but then so is the displays of the Fire HD tablets. Also, the Show display does not dim after one minute - it stays on. The downside of the Show is that you can use it only in Show mode. Although the Show Mode on the tablets isn't quite as good as the Echo Show, you can still use them as android tablets to use installed applications. I am hoping that Amazon will eventually upgrade the OS for the tablets to become a part of the Alexa ecosystem. The problem for Amazon if they do this is that it would render the Echo Show as obsolete. I hope this review was helpful in choosing the devices that are best for your needs.
