The Fire HD 8 has always played second fiddle to its smaller sibling, but with twice the storage, better screen and speakers, that’s no longer the case

Amazon’s bigger, 8in HD version of its rock-bottom tablet, the Fire HD 8, has always played second fiddle to the £50 Fire 7, but not any more.



Fatter, heavier but cheaper

Unlike the new Fire 7 tablet, the 2017 Fire HD 8 is actually thicker and heavier than the previous version, weighing 28g more and being 0.5mm thicker at just under 1cm deep.

Side-by-side with 2015’s Fire HD 8 it’s hard to see any difference. The outside is still hardwearing plastic, the sides and corners still rounded, but now it comes in a collection of bright colours.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The back is one solid-feeling piece of textured plastic. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

Amazon claims it’s twice as durable as Apple’s iPad mini 4 and it certainly feels like it could take a knock or two without much issue. At 369g, it weighs as much as a large paperback.

One of the best bits about the Fire HD 8 is its speakers, which are mounted in the side (or top if held in landscape orientation) and produce fairly good, clear and loud audio, for a tablet. They were pretty good for watching a TV show while cooking, and make using Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa – which is now built into the tablet – much more like the experience you might get from an Echo Dot than the tinny speaker of the Fire 7.

The 8in, 720p screen is good but not great. Text is crisper than on the Fire 7, but still not up to the standards you might expect of a modern smartphone or premium tablet. It has good viewing angles, solid colours and is bright enough to be watched indoors, but struggles a bit outdoors.

I found reading on it surprisingly good though it’s nowhere near as clear and sharp as an e-reader. The integrated Blue Shade feature helps keep reading at night comfortable by reducing brightness and the amount of blue light emitted by the screen.

Specifications

Screen: 8in (1280 x 800) LCD (189ppi)

8in (1280 x 800) LCD (189ppi) Processor: 1.3GHz quad-core

1.3GHz quad-core RAM: 1.5GB of RAM

1.5GB of RAM Storage: 16GB; microSD slot also available

16GB; microSD slot also available Operating system: Fire OS 5 based on Android 5 Lollipop

Fire OS 5 based on Android 5 Lollipop Camera: 2MP rear camera, 0.3MP front-facing camera

2MP rear camera, 0.3MP front-facing camera Connectivity: Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth

Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth Dimensions: 214 x 128 x 9.7 mm

214 x 128 x 9.7 mm Weight: 369g

A day’s battery

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The microSD card slot is in the side of the tablet for if you need more storage than 16 or 32GB. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The new Fire HD 8 has the same 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 1.5GB of RAM as the last one, and performs similarly. It will handle most apps and games perfectly fine, if with slightly longer load times and slower frame rates than you might be used to on a top-end smartphone.

It is not what I would call snappy, but the Fire HD 8 scrolled, launched apps and switched between apps without any moments of lag that made me question whether I actually tapped a button or not.

With the brightness set at around 70%, the Fire HD 8 easily lasted long enough between charges to view three movies with a bit of light internet use in between and battery to spare. Playing games hurt the battery life a bit more, as did setting the brightness to max, but all in you’ll get around a day’s usage out of the HD 8. Charging it took forever, though, at around six hours, so best done overnight.

Fire OS 5.4

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alexa integration is the highlight of Amazon’s new version of Fire OS. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The Fire HD 8 runs Amazon’s customised version of Android called Fire OS 5.4, the same version as the Fire 7. It looks quite different to the traditional Android experience from Google, lacks Google apps and only has access to the Amazon App Store, not the Google Play Store.

Navigating it is easy with clearly marked panes filled with apps, games, books, video, music, magazines, and audio books etc. It makes the best of what is a media consumption device, rather than a working device.

There is an email app, Amazon’s Silk browser, contacts, calendar, WPS Office and other bits pre-loaded that do general information management and light office duties should you need them.

The Fire HD 8 has Alexa built-in and works pretty well. You have to hold the home button to get it to listen to you, but the speakers are loud and clear enough to hear the answer to your query from across the room. The screen also displays interactive cards such as music controls or more details on a weather forecast while Alexa speaks to you.

Observations

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The screen is perfectly good enough to watch three berks make a fool of themselves in cars. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The cameras are pretty poor, producing blurry shots with little in the way of detail – only to be used in an emergency

There’s a for kids edition of the tablet with a rubber case and no Alexa, but there also kids apps on the default version and fairly good parental controls

It requires an Amazon account to use and a Prime account to make the most of it

The 16GB of storage is enough for a good handful of TV shows and movies, but the microSD card slot is there if you need more

It doesn’t come encrypted out the box, but the option is available

Price

The 2017 Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet costs £80 for 16GB of storage “with special offers”, which are little adds on the lockscreen for recommended content from Amazon’s store. It costs £10 to remove the adverts. The version with 32GB of storage costs £100 with adverts.

Verdict

The Amazon Fire HD 8 has always played second fiddle to the cheap-as-chips £50 Fire 7, but this year with the price cut by £10 to just £80 for the starting Fire HD 8, it is actually worth the extra money.

You get twice the storage, much longer battery life, a slightly better screen and much better speakers, which make the Fire HD 8 quite a compelling package, if all you want to do is consume media. It’s no iPad, but then it doesn’t try to be. It cuts the right corners to get the job done at a price worth paying.

There are some cheaper no-name alternatives, but with the Fire HD 8 you get a brand name, support and experience very difficult to match at £80. If you’re just looking for a cheap tablet to watch a bit of video on, play the odd game and occasionally find the answer to a question, this is the one to buy.

Pros: it costs just £80, HD screen, microSD card slot, good battery life, feels durable, good speakers, Alexa Cons: rubbish cameras, very slow charging, chunky, heavy for the size, no USB-C

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Fire HD 8 is a bit big and heavy for prolonged one-handed reading. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

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