What is the Amazon Fire HD 8?
The Amazon Fire HD 8 is one of the cheapest tablets you can buy from a recognisable brand. It costs around £79.99, and unlike similarly priced Android slates it’s not completely terrible.
If you consider yourself a tech-head and aren’t buying for someone else, you may want to consider spending a little more. However, the Fire HD 8 is perfect for those with more modest expectations, and easy to recommend to family buyers that aren’t after something as fancy as an iPad.
It’s the perfect way to binge on some Prime content, and the addition of Alexa finally gives it something other tablets simply don’t have.
The top-most part of the plastic casing does move inwards by about a millimetre under finger pressure, but this is more likely to be the battery cover. While non-removable, it’s mostly there to look nice and take the brunt of any impact; the real structure of the Amazon Fire HD 8 is inside.
I’m looking at the red version of the Amazon Fire HD 8. It’s a pleasant shade and has a textured finish that both looks and feels better than glossy plastic. The tablet is also available in a wide array of hues, including a vivid new yellow that I have a soft spot for.
The Fire HD 8 succeeds in a manner that sounds like an insult: it isn’t rubbish. However, I’ve used many sub-£100 tablets over the years that are, frankly, rubbish – and a constant reminder that you opted to cheap out.
Despite its price, there are areas where the Fire HD 8 impresses. For example, it includes 16GB storage and there’s a 32GB model available, too. This was ample to allow for me to install a handful of data-greedy games; many sub-£150 tablets provide only 8GB. The Fire HD 8 also has a microSD slot on the side, an important extra if you want load up some movies for a long plane journey.
Amazon Fire HD 8 – Screen
The screen, however, may put a few folk off. Its specs are basic, as is the case with all the lower-cost Fire tablets, but what is most evident is the lack of display contrast in a well-lit room.
The screen is highly reflective, making blacks appear quite grey. This isn’t the usual symptom of the LCD screen’s backlight showing through, but is a result of the different layers of the screen’s structure reflecting a small amount of ambient light.
As such, the Amazon Fire HD 8 will look quite low energy compared with your smartphone, unless you increase the screen brightness by quite some margin; this will make the contrast seem better. There’s no Auto brightness setting here, so you have to make any alterations manually.
Amazon is hyping up the new IPS panel used here, which should be improvement over the previous model. Yet, the difference seems very minor and while viewing angles are marginally better it’s not the most noticeable switch.
Other parts of the Amazon Fire HD 8 screen are perfectly fine for the £90 price. 1,280 x 800 pixels spread across 8 inches doesn’t look super-sharp, but the software does a good enough job of smoothing out fonts so they don’t appear ugly.
This is one area where the more gadget-savvy among you may be disappointed, given that Amazon calls this an “HD” tablet. It’s only just sharp enough to avoid looking awful, and small fonts in the browser are unflatteringly pixellated.
How good colours appear will depend on how liberal you are with the brightness slider. The contrast-sapping screen style makes colours appear quite low-energy until you jack up the backlight. However, in isolation colours are actually respectable; they’re not anaemic.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 display goes pretty bright too, which is handy to combat all those screen reflections if you’re going to use it outdoors.
Amazon Fire HD 8 – Software
The Amazon Fire HD 8 runs Fire OS, which is based on Android but looks and feels completely different. If you’ve used an Amazon tablet before then nothing significant has changed. But it’s worth a quick primer if you’re new to the Fire range.
Fire OS is the most brazenly service-driven tablet software system anywhere. It’s made up of a bunch of homescreens, most of which push other Amazon-owned platforms. There’s Instant Video, the Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk, Audible, and more.
Fire OS is the most brazenly service-driven tablet software system anywhere. It’s made up of a bunch of homescreens, most of which push other Amazon-owned platforms. There’s Instant Video, the Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk, Audible, and more.
It’s the equivalent of Google getting rid of customisable homescreens and instead just giving you pages featuring different parts of the Google Play Store. The reason the Amazon Fire HD 8 is so affordable suddenly becomes clear: Amazon makes most of its money elsewhere, badgering you into spending money with these services.
This interface style is overbearing and potentially very annoying. It won’t be for everyone, but it certainly isn’t for me. I find the “advert” home screens sloppy, and would prefer to spend a little more money for a more subdued Android style. However, the approach is legitimate given how much you save, and the fact that Amazon’s services are generally quite good.
For example, the app store may not be quite as well stocked as Google Play – and new releases tend to take longer to appear – but there’s plenty here, and much of it can be tried/played for free.
Latest games like Super Mario Run are nowhere to be seen and numerous banking apps are missing, but big-hitters like Netflix are here.
Amazon has also put Alexa, the excellent personal assistant that lives inside the Echo and Fire TV, inside the new Fire HD 8. It has all the skills you would expect – setting timers, playing songs, controlling your smart home – but due to the lack of always-listening microphones you’ll have to hold down the menu button rather than saying “Alexa” to get things started. Still, it’s nice to see it on a tablet.
Amazon Fire HD 8 – Performance
The Amazon Fire HD 8 isn’t all that quick, however. Fire OS feels slower than a reasonably specced Android alternative. Scrolling isn’t always entirely smooth, the custom homepage makes terrible use of screen space, and flicking between 10 of them just isn’t an effective way to get around.
I’ve been playing intensive games on the Amazon Fire HD 8, and all are fast enough to be fun. There might be a bit of frame-rate slowdown at the start of races in Asphalt 8, and the rate also slows in Riptide GP2 when the nitrous motion-blur effects start kicking, but it’s isn’t so serious that it stops games from being fun.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 has a MediaTek processor at its heart, which is somewhat comparable to the low-end CPUs from Snapdragon. It has four 1.3GHz Cortex-A53 cores and the dual-core version of the Mali T720 GPU.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 has 2GB RAM, which is as little as an Android-based tablet can have without tending to feel annoyingly slow. But as in most areas, Amazon has used exactly the right tech for the price.
Amazon has upgraded the Wi-Fi module for this version of the Fire HD 8, and the dual-band support does make streaming slightly more reliable.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 has a MediaTek processor at its heart, which is somewhat comparable to the low-end CPUs from Snapdragon. It has four 1.3GHz Cortex-A53 cores and the dual-core version of the Mali T720 GPU.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 has 2GB RAM, which is as little as an Android-based tablet can have without tending to feel annoyingly slow. But as in most areas, Amazon has used exactly the right tech for the price.
Amazon has upgraded the Wi-Fi module for this version of the Fire HD 8, and the dual-band support does make streaming slightly more reliable.
Amazon Fire HD 8 – Speakers
The speakers are a minor disappointment. There are two drivers, one at each end of the bottom edge when the Amazon Fire HD 8 is held on its side.
With games this provides a hint of a stereo effect, even though the speakers are pointing away from you. However, the tone of the sound is nothing special. It’s a little thin, and lacks the power I’ve heard in older, more expensive Fire models. You can max out the volume without the sound starting to break up, though.
Amazon Fire HD 8 – Camera
The success of the Amazon Fire HD 8 isn’t that it blows your mind with its ultra-high-quality hardware, but that in almost every instance you have to conclude it’s better value than almost anything else. However, Amazon has sacrificed camera quality for these ends.
There’s a 2-megapixel unit on the rear of the device and a VGA camera on the front and these are as basic as mobile device cameras can get. Their resulting images barely hold up to viewing on the Amazon Fire HD 8’s screen, let alone any zooming in or having a closer look on your laptop.
Dynamic range is poor enough to make using the HDR mode a must with shots taken outdoors, but that mode is very slow, making the whole process a bit of a chore.
There’s a 2-megapixel unit on the rear of the device and a VGA camera on the front and these are as basic as mobile device cameras can get. Their resulting images barely hold up to viewing on the Amazon Fire HD 8’s screen, let alone any zooming in or having a closer look on your laptop.
Dynamic range is poor enough to make using the HDR mode a must with shots taken outdoors, but that mode is very slow, making the whole process a bit of a chore.
Its selfies will make your face look blotchy and blurred, without a hope of picking up any fine detail.
It’s a sad state of affairs, but this is exactly the sort of camera I’d include if I was in charge of the Amazon Fire HD 8 design. A better but still remedial camera isn’t worth adding even £10 to the price of this tablet. The cameras are here so you don’t have to give the kids your phone when they want to take pictures of the dog.
Amazon Fire HD 8 – Battery Life
Amazon says this year’s Fire HD 8 lasts for up to 12 hours of a charge, which is a similar claim to the previous model.
This largely holds up – at least in “lab”-like conditions. At 50% display brightness, an hour and 15 minutes of Netflix consumes 10% of the battery, which is a great result. The issue I’ve found is that since ambient light saps contrast from the screen, you’ll be inclined to crank up the brightness in most conditions.
At max brightness, which is close to what I’d use to watch Netflix in my lounge, an hour of streaming wipes 12% off the battery. So we’re back to just over eight hours of streaming off a charge. That you can get such stamina at top brightness is still impressive, though.
To really see how quickly I could drain down the Fire HD 8, I played Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes at max brightness. This drained 17% of the battery, suggesting you’ll only get 2.5 to 3 hours when the tablet is working flat-out. It’s a reminder of quite how good modern processors are at scaling up and down to the task at hand.
This largely holds up – at least in “lab”-like conditions. At 50% display brightness, an hour and 15 minutes of Netflix consumes 10% of the battery, which is a great result. The issue I’ve found is that since ambient light saps contrast from the screen, you’ll be inclined to crank up the brightness in most conditions.
At max brightness, which is close to what I’d use to watch Netflix in my lounge, an hour of streaming wipes 12% off the battery. So we’re back to just over eight hours of streaming off a charge. That you can get such stamina at top brightness is still impressive, though.
To really see how quickly I could drain down the Fire HD 8, I played Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes at max brightness. This drained 17% of the battery, suggesting you’ll only get 2.5 to 3 hours when the tablet is working flat-out. It’s a reminder of quite how good modern processors are at scaling up and down to the task at hand.
Should you buy the Amazon Fire HD 8?
The Amazon Fire HD 8 is a good tablet at a great price, making it easy to recommend if £100 is your absolute maximum budget.
Its screen is fair, the build quality is fine and there’s plenty of storage. While it doesn’t feel incredibly fast, it has enough power to do justice to some of Android’s most impressive games. Plus having Alexa on a tablet is a nice touch, if far from essential.
Just make sure you’re willing to live with the downsides. The screen contrast nosedives as ambient light increases, and some of you will hate that 85% of the Amazon Fire HD 8 feels like an advert. The “HD” sharpness is miles off that of an iPad or a higher-end Android tablet too. Oh, and the cameras are dreadful. You also really need to be an Amazon Prime member to get the most from this device.
These issues may encourage some of you to spend a little more. But Amazon does appear to have succeeded in making the best tablet at the price.
Its screen is fair, the build quality is fine and there’s plenty of storage. While it doesn’t feel incredibly fast, it has enough power to do justice to some of Android’s most impressive games. Plus having Alexa on a tablet is a nice touch, if far from essential.
Just make sure you’re willing to live with the downsides. The screen contrast nosedives as ambient light increases, and some of you will hate that 85% of the Amazon Fire HD 8 feels like an advert. The “HD” sharpness is miles off that of an iPad or a higher-end Android tablet too. Oh, and the cameras are dreadful. You also really need to be an Amazon Prime member to get the most from this device.
These issues may encourage some of you to spend a little more. But Amazon does appear to have succeeded in making the best tablet at the price.
Perhaps the best sub-£100 tablet, as long as you can stomach the heavy-handed Amazon software.
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