See our run down of the twenty best tablets here and our review of the HD 8’s big brother, the Fire HD 10.
Price and where to buy
Usually, the Fire HD 8 is £79.99, but it is sometimes discounted for Black Friday, Christmas and other seasonal events. As with the Fire 7, there’s a specific Kids Edition which costs £129.99. This is great value: it gives you the 32GB model, plus a colourful bumper case, a two-year, no-quibble warranty plus a year’s subscription to Fire for Kids Unlimited. And this is well worth the £30 premium over the standard 32GB model.
Design and build
The updated Fire HD 8 has the same design as its 2016 predecessor. The new tablet again has an 8in screen with black surrounding bezels and has a matte plastic rear casing in four colour options: black, blue, canary yellow, marine blue and punch red.
We’d say that the black version is preferable, simply because it does not give away the tablet’s cheapness. Our red review sample, while not horrendous in appearance, did keep reminding us it only cost eighty quid. Then again, if you like bright colours or you’re buying for a child, the colours are quite appealing. The unit as a whole measures 214 mm x 128 mm x 9.2 mm, a form you will barely notice in a backpack or handbag. While the plastic back is not premium in any way, the device overall is surprisingly sturdy. There’s barely any give or flex in the plastic, giving the tablet a reassuring heft. The front of the device has no physical buttons, all of which are reserved for its top edge. It needs only three; a lock/power button on the top right next to the micro-USB port and microphone, and a volume rocker on the top left next to the headphone jack. On the rear is a 2Mp camera, while the front is a very low-res VGA lens for video calling and (very grainy) selfies.
Display
A device called the Fire HD 8 obviously has an HD screen, with a resolution of 1280 x 800 and 189ppi. Also promised is HD video playback, which thankfully holds true and looks excellent. There is no oleophobic coating on the screen either, so you’ll be constantly rubbing it clean even after a few minutes. In our use, even streamed videos from the web were normally slightly grainy compared to our experience on more high-end tablets. However, this wasn’t too noticeable and as with much of the experience of the HD 8, we were reminded that this did only cost £79.99 – but this ends up being a positive reflection rather than a nagging disappointment. At this price point, there is always compromise, and with the Fire HD 8 there is an acceptable level of it.
Specs, performance and features
The Fire HD 8 is a pure media consumption device. The mentioned 2Mp camera will not win you the Pulitzer, and the awful front-facing VGA camera is barely good enough for video calls – it does work, though this is more dependent on a decent Wi-Fi connection than anything else. While it is capable of recording video in 720p HD, the 2015 generation of Fire HD 8 had a 5Mp camera, which hints at some of the corners cut to keep the new version under £100. We also enjoyed the ability to download Prime content direct to the device. Our sample had 16GB, which isn’t bad, but the attraction is to stick a micro-SD card in it. Then you can download a plethora of video, music, books and more to the device for offline playback. Video in particular looks great if you choose to download in 720p HD, but you can also choose from two lower quality picture files to save storage space. The two speaker grills give surprisingly crisp, clear audio, but their position is slightly annoying – either end of either the top or bottom edge when held horizontally. As with most tablets, we’d recommend a decent pair of headphones (none are included) to best watch films or TV.
Be aware that even with the bundled power adaptor, it takes the Fire an annoyingly slow 6 hours to fully charge. You’ll have to remember to plug it in overnight if you’re nearly out of juice, or carry round a power bank.
Software and apps
Google apps
At this point it’s worth noting that Google apps are not available from the Appstore. This means it’s hard to recommend the Fire HD 8 as a work or productivity tool (although the Evernote app is available) because you can’t sync existing Google calendars and Google Drive. Although access is blocked to the YouTube app on Fire TV and Echo Show, it’s still working on Fire tablets. Nor can you download popular apps like Microsoft Word. However, if you want a tablet that allows easy streaming of your favourite TV shows with the bonus of access to social media, Skype and online banking, the HD 8 is well worth considering. Here’s why you don’t need antivirus on a Fire tablet. When the tablet is charging or the screen is on, Alexa will respond. You can control video and music too, as well as all the smart home features an Echo can handle. It’s great to see on a tablet this cheap. It works surprisingly well, and the voice itself sounds more natural than Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant. In the Alexa app, you can link to your Google calendar, Spotify account and more to add to what it can do.
This allows you to set parental controls, restrict what content they can access and even set time limits to prevent square eyes. It cleverly time limits games and videos but leaves unlimited time for reading, helping you to encourage the right balance of learning through a tablet they might want to regularly get their hands on. This and other features, such as a kids camera mode and a Bed Time feature which encourages routine make the Fire HD 8 a good choice for a parent who wants access to their own Prime subscription on the same device, but with the ability to mould their child’s use of the tablet around different, web-safe preferences. Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
