Amazon Fire HD 8 review: £90 tablet revamped for 2020

Amazon’s bargain 8in Fire HD 8 media tablet gets a premium-feeling makeover for its fifth iteration, with a faster processor and rounded corners.

The 2020 Fire HD 8 starts at £89.99 and is based on Amazon’s 10th-generation Fire tablet platform, making it the newest of all of the Fire OS devices.

It has the hard-wearing plastic body of its predecessors, but the corners are more rounded and the bezels around the screen have shrunk at the ends for a more balanced design. The tablet is 13mm shorter on the long side, 9mm wider and 8g lighter, and easy to hold in any orientation.

The upgraded 2-megapixel 720p camera is now in the top edge in landscape too, which is better for video calling. The 720p 8in screen is good enough for the price. Great for watching video, playing games and a spot of browsing, but it will struggle for brightness outdoors.

The top-mounted speakers are pretty good for this size. Perfect when watching video or listening to Alexa tell you the weather from across the room.

The right side of the tablet has the USB-C charging port, headphones socket, power and volume buttons. The microSD card slot is in the bottom right corner.

Specifications

Screen: 8in (1280 x 800) IPS LCD (189ppi)
Processor: 2GHz quad-core
RAM: 2GB of RAM
Storage: 32 or 64GB; microSD slot
Operating system: Fire OS 5 based on Android 5 Lollipop
Camera: 2MP rear camera, 2MP front-facing camera
Connectivity: wifi 5, Bluetooth 5, headphones, USB-C
Dimensions: 202 x 137 x 9.7 mm
Weight: 355g

A little faster all round

Amazon’s Fire tablets have never been star performers, and the Fire HD 8 is no exception. It is 30% faster than the two-year-old model it replaces and has 0.5GB more RAM, for a total of 2GB. It’s also available in a “Plus” model with 3GB of RAM and wireless charging.

The faster processor and more RAM of the standard version of the Fire HD 8 make it noticeably faster than the model it replaces. Generally it performs fine, handling complex websites such as the Guardian well enough. Switching between apps can be a bit sluggish, but once they are loaded they perform as expected. The same goes for games, including graphically intensive ones such as Real Racing.

Battery life is solid for a small and low-cost tablet. The Fire HD 8 will last almost nine hours of watching video streamed over wifi, or longer if the videos are downloaded beforehand. That’s enough to watch three movies back to back.

Charging takes five hours via the included 5W charger, but now that the Fire HD 8 has a USB-C socket it can accept up to 15W of charging power, which reduces the full-charge time to about three hours. I used an 18W phone charger and it worked great.

Sustainability

Amazon does not provide an estimate for the expected lifespan of the battery in the Fire HD 8. Typically tablet batteries last at least 500 full charge cycles while maintaining at least 80% capacity. Amazon does not have a fixed price for the repair of the screen or replacement of the battery out of warranty, and instead suggests customers can fix things themselves using the guides provided by iFixit.

Amazon did not comment on the use of recycled material in the Fire HD 8. It also does not recycle electronic waste directly. Instead it is a member of the WEEE distributor take-back scheme in the UK. The company has pledged that it will be carbon neutral by 2040.

Fire OS 7

The 2020 Fire HD 8 ships with Fire OS 7.3, which was first released with the 2019 Fire HD 10. It is based on Android 9 although lacks Google’s services and apps. Amazon typically supports its tablets for longer than low-cost Android rivals, with several years of software and security updates.

The interface will be familiar to anyone who has used an Amazon tablet over the last five years, based on a carousel arrangement categorised by media type, including books, video, music, games and apps, and so on, plus a more traditional app home screen pane with folders and other bits. Fire OS 7 added picture-in-picture, so you can keep watching videos while you do other things, and improved search.

Amazon’s App Store has most of the media consumption apps you’re likely to want, including Spotify, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, Netflix, Disney+ and Sky Go, and it has a fairly large range of games. But BT Sport, Google’s various apps such as YouTube and Maps, and Apple’s Music and TV are a no-go.

You need an Amazon account to use the tablet, and a Prime subscription giving access to Amazon Prime Video to make the most of it.

Observations

The front and rear-facing cameras are fine for short video calls in good light, but not much more than that.
A “Kids Edition” of the tablet that comes with a very robust case and child-friendly content is available for £139.99.

Price

The Amazon Fire HD 8 costs £89.99 for 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage or £119.99 for 64GB of storage, both of which come with ads on the lockscreen. Removing the ads costs an extra £10.

The Fire HD 8 Plus has 3GB of RAM and wireless charging starting at £109.99.

For comparison, the Amazon’s Fire 7 costs £50, Fire HD 10 costs £149.99 and Apple’s iPad costs £349.

Verdict

The new Fire HD 8 gets a much-needed makeover for 2020.

It is not a radical change, but the slimmer bezels and more rounded design make for a better looking and feeling budget tablet. It’s nicer to hold, a bit more compact, and the upgraded front-facing camera in landscape position improves its use for video calls.

The processor is also a bit faster. It still won’t win any speed records, but it’ll play games, video and browse the web just fine, without being frustratingly slow. The screen and speakers are better than you might expect for the money. Fire OS 7 is capable as a media consumption platform, but be aware no Google or Apple apps are available.

There aren’t many truly low-cost brand-name tablets left, and fewer that get the software support provided for Amazon’s Fire tablets.

While it is £10 more expensive than the old one, if you want a small, low-cost tablet for watching video, the new £90 Fire HD 8 is near unbeatable.

Pros: good screen, good speakers, solid battery life, microSD card slot, USB-C charging, headphones socket, reasonable performance, low cost, Alexa integration.

Cons: cameras aren’t great, slow charging, no Google Play or Apple apps, some apps missing from Amazon App Store, requires Amazon Prime subscription to make the most of it.

Richard Hartley

Technology, Photography & Film