Amazon Fire HD 8 ( 2020)
This 8in tablet whips its rivals for value, with a £10 price rise matched by boosts in speed and battery life
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PRICE 32GB, with Special Offers, £75 (£90 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/311fire
No other tablet maker could come close to the previous Amazon Fire HD 8 ( see issue 290, p87) for value, but with 512MB more RAM, double the base storage (now starting at 32GB) and USB-C charging, this 8in tablet stretches yet further away from rivals. It’s also the fastest tablet we’ve seen under £100, packing a quad-core 2GHz MediaTek CPU that proved 30% more powerful than the 2018 version in Geekbench 3.
Sadly, this doesn’t mean Amazon has eliminated the visible judder when quickly swiping between applications, but I wasn’t tearing my hair out in frustration as I have done with previous Fire tablets. Gaming performance is equally improved, tripling its predecessor’s frame rate in the GFXBench Manhattan 3 onscreen test (24fps versus 7fps). You should be able to run most games on Amazon’s Appstore without too many hiccups.
Battery life is another area that has seen a notable increase over the previous version. Despite the small 2% bump in battery capacity, the Fire HD 8 lasted for 15hrs 23mins in our video-rundown test with Flight mode engaged. That’s a notable two-hour jump compared to the 2018 model, putting it among the best tablets for battery life.
Much of this benefit likely comes from software enhancements, with Fire OS 7 now in place. This is the firm’s own software launcher based on Android 9, and if you have used a Fire tablet before, the experience will be instantly familiar. Your
Kindle library, Prime Video content, Amazon Music tracks and a list of your downloaded apps can be accessed with simple swipes on the left and right of the homescreen.
The number of apps in the Amazon Appstore continues to be rather limited, however. Although many popular apps can be found, such as Facebook, Netflix, BBC iPlayer and Disney+, there’s a strong chance that a few of your favourite apps and games will be absent. The good news is that a quick search online will reveal ways to install the Google Play Store, if you’re willing to jump through a couple of hoops.
Amazon hasn’t upgraded the screen, an 8in IPS panel with a resolution of 1,280 x 800. The resulting 189ppi pixel density means it looks blurry by modern standards. Likewise, a recorded sRGB colour gamut coverage of 70% means colours are muted when compared with the punchy, vibrant screens offered by Apple and others. On a more positive note, the Fire HD 8’s screen hit a peak brightness of 396cd/m2 , contrast is great at 1,440:1 and viewing angles are perfectly respectable.
It has the same tough, matte plastic casing as its predecessor, but Amazon has clearly designed this tablet to be used in landscape orientation rather than the portrait-friendly design of the previous model. The 7-megapixel selfie camera now sits above one of the screen’s long edges, and the power button, volume rocker and 3.5mm headphone socket are
“The Amazon Fire HD 8 lasted 15hrs 23mins in our video-rundown test, putting it among the best tablets for battery life”
located to the right. This area of the tablet also includes the new USB-C port. This charges the tablet from zero to full in less than five hours, which is slow. A pair of speakers point upwards on the top edge, and the microSD slot, which can take cards up to 400GB in capacity, is on the bottom.
You can choose a 64GB model for £120, or £130 without “Special Offers” – which is Amazon’s euphemism for pushing adverts through the lockscreen. Alternatively,you can upgrade to the Fire HD 8 Plus, which adds wireless charging, as well as an extra 1GB of RAM. Depending on how much storage you want, the Fire HD 8 Plus costs either £110 or £140.
You have a choice of four tasteful pastel colours: black, “plum”, “twilight blue” and white. Amazon sent me the white model for review, and despite being a cheap tablet – don’t expect luxurious finishes and materials – the Fire HD 8 is an attractive device. It’s lightweight at 355g, doesn’t flex or bend under considerable pressure, and there’s only a slim gap separating the glass-topped screen and plastic backing.
Once again, Amazon has cooked up a fantastically priced tablet with its latest Fire HD 8. The 2018 iteration was already a five-star product, so Amazon’s decision to boost performance, extend the battery life and add USB-C charging for 2020 was always going to earn another recommendation. Make no mistake, even with its drawbacks – such as the old-school screen and software restrictions – you won’t find a better tablet for under £100.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quad-core 2GHz MediaTek MT8168 processor 2GB RAM 8in IPS screen, 1,280 x 800 resolution 32GB storage
2-megapixel rear camera 2-megapixel front camera 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5 LE USB-C connector 3.5mm audio jack 4,850mAh battery Fire OS 7 202 x 9.7 x 137mm (WDH) 335g 1yr limited warranty