Amazon Fire HD 8
Launched in late 2015, the Fire HD 8 is from Amazon’s fifth-generation tablet range. It shares much with the other two models launched at the same time: the £49 Fire and the 10.1in HD 10, but is notable as it’s the first 8in tablet from the company. Previously, there was just one ‘large’ option: the HDX 8.9.
We’re reviewing the HD 8 and HD 10 together here because they’re so similar, but our comments on performance, screen quality and battery life are based on the HD 8.
Price
You can buy a Fire for £129 from Amazon. For some people, an 8in tablet for under £130 represents good value. An iPad mini 4, which also has an 8in screen, costs £319. There are reasons for the huge price difference, but if you’re just looking for an 8in tablet, the HD 8 is at the cheaper end of the scale. However, it begins to look expensive when compared with its 7in sibling – the Amazon Fire – that costs only £49.
Even more expensive is the HD 10 which costs £169 from Amazon.
As usual, this is the base price, so you’ll have to put up with adverts on the lock screen unless you opt to pay an extra £10 when ordering. And you’ll get only 8GB of storage unless you pony up an additional £20 for an extra 8GB. (With the HD 10, the base model is 16GB, and it’s £30 to upgrade to the 32GB model.)
Cases start from £29, rising to £39 for the leather versions. Third-party cases are also available cheaper, but we’d imagine most people will want to show off the bright back panel and not bother with a fitted case.
Design
As long as you’re not expecting premium iPad-style build quality, you won’t be disappointed. Like certain other tablets, and the iPhone 5c, the HD 8 is unashamedly plastic. It’s available in glossy orange, magenta and blue finishes, or black if you prefer a more understated approach. The HD 10 doesn’t have the outlandish colour options, with a choice of either black or white.
Under the HD 8’s plastic is a metal frame, and the result is a striking tablet that feels solid and sturdy despite its slim 7.7mm thickness and light weight of 311g. The HD is obviously heavier, but 432g is very light for a 10.1in tablet: the 9.7in iPad Air 2 weighs 437g.
Just like the 7in Fire, the HD 8 and 10 have all their ports and buttons on the top edge. Stereo speakers reside on the lefthand edge, or the bottom if you’re holding it sideways to watch a video or play a game. They’re pretty loud, too, and certainly better than the Fire’s mono speaker. In fact, they’re almost certainly better than any smartphone speakers, and the Dolby Audio logo doesn’t harm that company’s reputation unlike some similar logos we’ve seen on laptops.
Front and rear cameras are slightly better too, although they don’t justify the price hike from the 7in model. More on those later.
You also get a slightly faster quad-core processor, running at (up to) 1.5GHz instead of 1.3GHz.
Screen resolution is higher, too, but again it’s nothing to get excited about. The 1280x800-pixel screen gives an adequate 189ppi (common on tablets as far back as 2012), but we’ve seen better at this price – notably the no-longeron-sale Tesco Hudl 2.
Image quality is good, though, with vibrant colours and good viewing angles. It’s laminated, too,