The New Alexa Tablets Feel Like a Blueprint for an Amazon Phone

Amazon is rumored to be making a smartphone, and the Alexa-powered experiences on its new tablets give us a taste of what might come if that happens. Is Amazon making a smartphone? A Reuters report from earlier this year revealed details about a device codenamed Transformer under development, with Amazon's Alexa+ AI assistant as the focus of the experience. With Amazon announcing a complete rebrand of its tablet line on Thursday --killing the cheap Fire Tablets and replacing them with premium Alexa Tablets that finally run Android with access to the Google Play Store--we now have a blueprint for what an Android-powered Amazon phone could look like. Amazon's souped-up Alexa+ assistant is front and center on the tablets.