When Amazon hired Panos Panay away from Microsoft in 2023, senior executives at the e-commerce company hoped he could bring some of the devices magic he had pulled off at the software giant. Three years later, Panay is back in his comfort zone.

On Thursday, Amazon unveiled an entirely new product lineup: premium Alexa tablets designed to take on devices from Apple and Samsung. Featuring aluminum casing in the style of Apple's hardware, the tablets put Amazon in direct competition with the iPhone maker after years of offering lower-budget Fire tablets that primarily served as entertainment devices. Panay, senior vice president of Amazon devices, Alexa, and Leo, led the development of the new line.

The tablets are made for "the moment you need it, in the background when you don't. That's the whole idea," Panay said in a statement to Fortune. "We built these around how real people actually live. How they watch. How they read. How a family shares a single screen."

A Different Approach to Software

With the new line of Alexa tablets, Amazon is also changing its software strategy. Unlike Fire tablets, which are heavily optimized for Amazon services, the new devices run Android with full access to the Google Play store. That marks a break from a hardware line built to keep users inside Amazon's own ecosystem, and it means buyers are no longer limited to software curated around the company's services. Amazon will phase out the Fire tablet line while keeping security updates active for four years. In a statement, the company said it has "limited supply available" of the new devices.

The most premium offering, the Amazon Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, is priced at $499.99 for the 128-gigabyte version. It measures 6.5 millimeters thin and features a 12-inch, 280 pixels-per-inch display. A pricier $549 version includes a "Nanomatte" display that the company said dramatically reduces screen glare. The tablet can be paired with a new Alexa Tablet Pro Pen and Pro Keyboard, creating a laptop-like setup similar to what Apple offers.

The lineup also includes a $329.99 Alexa Tablet 11 with an 11-inch display, an 8.7-inch Alexa Tablet 8 as the entry-level model, and two kids tablets.

Undercutting Apple on Price

The new tablets represent a notable step up from the Fire line—the Fire HD 10, with a 10.1-inch display, carries a list price of $154.99 for 32 gigabytes and is often on sale. Even so, Amazon is pricing the new Alexa tablets below Apple's tablets. Apple's 11-inch iPad costs $449 for the 128-gigabyte version, while the 11-inch iPad Pro—which features a 264 pixels-per-inch display and is 5.3 millimeters thin—starts at $1,199 for the 256-gigabyte version. The flagship Alexa Tablet 12 Pro's $499.99 starting price comes in less than half of the iPad Pro's entry point and $700 below Samsung's Galaxy Tab S12+.

Although Amazon undercuts Apple on price, Apple leads in display technology, connectivity, thinness, and storage options. Samsung, meanwhile, offers its new Galaxy Tab S12+ starting at $1,199.99 for the base 256-gigabyte model.

Amazon's move upmarket comes as tablet shipments decline. Market research firm IDC reported that global tablet shipments fell 12.3% year over year in the second quarter of this year to 33.6 million units, with U.S. shipments down 31.6%, as surging memory costs pushed prices up.

A Boost for Alexa+

One of Amazon's primary goals with the tablets is to get people using Alexa+, the company's updated AI-based virtual assistant, which it rolled out in general release earlier this year. On the tablets, Alexa can read what is on-screen to help with tasks, while "live sessions" allow for hands-free conversation. Alexa+ gave the company's flagship assistant a smarter, more human upgrade and added AI capabilities such as booking restaurants. It is free for Prime members and available as a stand-alone subscription for $19.99 per month. The new devices effectively give Alexa+ a fresh, screen-based home beyond the Echo speakers that anchored Amazon's earlier hardware strategy.

Amazon has not said how many subscribers Alexa+ has, and the update has been overshadowed by leading chatbots from OpenAI and Anthropic. Amazon initially struggled to roll out the smarter Alexa, and its original financial strategy centered on selling underpriced Echo smart speakers with Alexa in hopes of getting people to spend more across its ecosystem. That approach failed to work, and when it became clear that Alexa+ could not be profitable on its own, Amazon tied the new assistant to its Prime memberships.

Panay's Premium Push

Panay is known as the "godfather" of Microsoft's Surface tablets, which were popular during his tenure at the company. At Amazon, he has worked to give the company's products a more premium and focused feel, from Alexa+ to the Kindle Colorsoft, the first color Kindle e-reader, to the revamped Kindle Scribe models that compete with cutting-edge paper tablets like reMarkable.

He has also streamlined the number of events the company holds and changed its hardware tactics, which for years included a flurry of product launches. Known as an effusive onstage showman, Panay has turned product launches into a flashy, intimate affair that feels closer to Apple's past legendary showcases than to the overwhelming Amazon events that preceded him.

The new Alexa tablets go on sale Oct. 14 in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, with a rollout to the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain starting Oct. 19.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.