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Amazon's Alexa Tablet 12 Pro Takes Aim at iPad Pro With Lower Price and Key Trade-Offs

Amazon's Alexa Tablet 12 Pro challenges Apple's iPad Pro with a 120Hz 12-inch display, stylus and keyboard support, Play Store apps and a $550 price. Engadget reports that Amazon matches some display metrics but trails on chip performance, memory and tablet-specific apps.

AI News Feed · 2026-10-09 07:40

Amazon's Panos Panay told Engadget and other outlets that the screen was the one thing the company would not compromise on. The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro has a 12-inch LCD touchscreen with a 2,800 x 1,840 resolution, 280ppi, 500 nits of brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate. The 13-inch iPad Pro uses a tandem OLED panel with a 2,752 x 2,064 resolution, 264ppi, a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,000 nits of brightness. By pixels per inch, Amazon edges ahead, but Apple's OLED delivers higher contrast and double the brightness. Both companies offer matte glass options: Amazon's Nanomatte finish, co-developed with Corning, reduces glare and gives a paper-like look in the Kindle app, while Apple's nano-texture glass is limited to 1TB and 2TB iPad Pro models. That makes a matte display far cheaper on the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro.

The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro does not match the iPad Pro in performance or memory. Amazon uses the MediaTek Dimensity 8400, a chip released in 2024 and primarily intended for smartphones. Engadget said it is capable for web browsing, video streaming and light productivity, but it is not a laptop-class system-on-chip like the M5 in the iPad Pro. The 128GB Alexa Tablet 12 Pro has 8GB of RAM, and the 256GB model has 16GB. Apple's iPad Pros start at 12GB and offer 16GB on 1TB and 2TB models. The iPad's specifications give it more processing power for editing and rendering video, and potentially faster AI performance.

Software is another dividing line. The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro runs Android, which lets it download and run far more apps than Amazon's earlier Fire tablets could through Fire OS and the Amazon Appstore. Even so, the Play Store still has fewer bespoke tablet apps than Apple's App Store, Engadget said. If a user depends on a specific niche app, the odds are better that it has a tablet version on the App Store. For Amazon Prime subscribers, the Alexa Tablet 12 Pro can do things an iPad cannot, including recommending content to read and watch and integrating with the Alexa+ AI assistant.

Despite the similarities, Engadget concluded that Amazon's cheaper price does not necessarily mean buyers get the same experience for less. The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro competes on display refresh rate, matte glass availability, Play Store access and Amazon services, while the iPad Pro counters with OLED brightness, laptop-class processing and a larger tablet-app ecosystem.

Editor's Summary

Amazon's Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is positioned against Apple's iPad Pro with a 120Hz 12-inch display, stylus and keyboard support, Play Store access and a $550 price. Engadget reports that Amazon matches or exceeds some display metrics, but the iPad Pro offers an OLED screen with higher brightness, an M-series chip and more RAM. The tablet runs Android, which has fewer tablet-specific apps than iPadOS, though it offers advantages for Amazon Prime subscribers.