Amazon's Fire tablets haven't gained much traction on the premium end of the market, but their affordable models are great if you just want something for watching videos, reading, using a few basic apps and browsing the web. Looking to further position itself in that niche, today the company announced a modest refresh of its low-cost Fire tablets, as well as a new Kids Edition version of its Fire HD 8 device.

Amazon's bare-bones Fire tablet is now called the Fire 7 and now offers an extra hour of battery life, for eight hours in total, a thinner and lighter body as well as a slight improvement in its display for improved contrast and clearer text. The price for that model remains at $50.

The Fire HD 8 remains virtually the same, except that its MicroSD expansion slot now accommodates cards up to 256 GB and Amazon is cutting its price from $89.99 to $79.99.

Lastly, Amazon is expanding its Kids Edition by launching a new Fire HD 8 Kids Edition for $130. This model includes 32GB of internal storage, comes with a protective case, a two-year replacement guarantee should the device get damaged and one year of Amazon's FreeTime Unlimited service.

The latter is normally $2.99 per month and gives kids unlimited access to age-appropriate movies, books, apps and games, while giving parents the option to set limits on the amount of allows screen time or restricts the types of content kids can access across all categories.