Amazon Fire HD 8 (2022) Review

Worth When Reviewed

From $99.99. Mannequin reviewed $129.99

Greatest Costs At the moment: Amazon Fireplace HD 8 (2022)

$99.99

Amazon’s Fireplace HD 8 pill has, for a protracted whereas, been our decide of the vary. It sits within the center between the smaller Fireplace 7 and greater Fireplace HD 10.

This new 2022 mannequin is nearly indistinguishable from the 2020 mannequin, however is now dearer. Every thing is dearer, sure, but it surely grates to pay extra for a brand new gadget with little in the way in which of actual upgrades.

We known as the Fireplace HD 8 a “sensible combo of operate & worth” in 2018, a “price range pill no brainer” in 2019 and stated it was “nonetheless high quality worth” in 2020.

However now, in 2022 with primarily the identical limitations, similar poor cameras, similar display, gradual charging and no perceivable enhance in efficiency, it’s a lot tougher to advocate it.

Options & design

• Plastic construct
• Headphone jack
• Standard design

Amazon calls the 2022 Fireplace HD 8 “All-new”. However put it facet by facet with the earlier era and also you’ll want a spot-the-difference competitors to establish any exterior modifications.

The buttons and USB-C port have been rearranged barely, however aside from that, this is similar pill with a chunky bezel across the display and a cheap-feeling plastic body and again.

Jim Martin / Foundry

There’s a useful headphone jack, perfect for when children need entertaining on lengthy journeys, and two audio system within the prime edge for if you don’t wish to use headphones.

They could assist Dolby Atmos, however that doesn’t imply they sound good. You gained’t wish to take heed to music on them and so they’re solely satisfactory for watching movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Jim Martin / Foundry

If there’s a spotlight it’s that the Fireplace HD 8 has the most effective battery lifetime of the Fireplace pill vary at “as much as” 13 hours. That’s yet one more than the Fireplace HD 10 and three greater than the Fireplace 7.

How lengthy you truly get between fees is determined by what you employ the Fireplace HD 8 for. Watching downloaded movies is pretty energy environment friendly so ought to get near the declare, however enjoying Roblox or different video games will severely shorten the battery life.

And the unhealthy information is that it takes 5 complete hours to cost from empty.

As earlier than, Amazon provides a Plus model of the Fireplace HD 8 which prices $20 / £20 extra, however fees in three hours, has extra RAM and provides wi-fi charging too.

Each variations can be found with both 32GB or 64GB of storage, and you may nonetheless add a microSD card to increase that by as much as 1TB further.

Display screen

• 1280×800 pixels, 189ppi
• IPS LCD

One of many causes we’ve historically beneficial the HD 8 over the Fireplace 7 is as a result of it has a bigger, increased decision display. Most telephones as of late have screens virtually as large because the Fireplace 7, however with a lot increased resolutions.

Even now in 2022, the HD 8 nonetheless has the identical display it’s all the time had, with no upgrades. This implies a decision of 1280×800 pixels which equates to 189 pixels per inch.

To place that in context, even price range telephones have screens with round 400ppi. But Amazon has caught resolutely to the identical decision yearly. I wouldn’t name it ‘blocky’ but it surely’s not as sharp as you would possibly anticipate from a model new gadget, and that’s noticeable if you’re studying pages of textual content.

Jim Martin / Foundry

I didn’t have the 2020 mannequin handy for direct comparability, however the display on the brand new model seems to be decrease high quality.

It isn’t notably vibrant, the backlight isn’t very even throughout the display and brightness and colors change as you progress the pill in your arms and take a look at the display at an angle.

Colors are high quality and, general, it’s acceptable for a price range pill, but it surely’s disappointing that there’s no enchancment, and probably even a slight decline in high quality.

Software program

• Locks display adverts
• No Google apps or providers
• Designed for Amazon providers

A very powerful factor to grasp about Fireplace tablets is that they don’t seem to be Android tablets. They do run Android beneath Amazon’s extremely customised Fireplace OS interface and so they do run Android apps.

The important thing distinction is that there aren’t any Google apps or providers. No Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Images, Drive or the rest. And that features the Google Play retailer.

To put in apps, there’s Amazon’s personal Appstore. This has a wide selection of common apps and video games, however a much smaller general selection than the Play retailer.

Jim Martin / Foundry

So long as you don’t have to do on-line banking or use particular good house gadgets from a Fireplace pill, you’ll be okay.

Leisure is properly coated with apps for many of the big-name streaming providers within the Appstore.

You possibly can management many good house devices with Alexa on the Fireplace HD 8, however solely if in case you have one other gadget equivalent to an Android cellphone or iPhone on which to put in the app and join it to Alexa.

You gained’t discover apps for Google Residence, Nest, Philips Hue, TP-Hyperlink Tapo, WiZ or Samsung SmartThings within the Appstore.

It’s attainable to make use of Amazon’s Silk internet browser to observe YouTube and use Gmail and Google Maps, however the expertise – in comparison with having devoted apps – isn’t almost nearly as good.

Fireplace OS is as an alternative designed to make it easy to entry Amazon’s providers equivalent to Prime Video, Kindle, Amazon Music and – after all – to purchase bodily merchandise from Amazon.

Except you pay further if you purchase a Fireplace HD 8, you’ll see adverts for such services on the lock display, and so they change each time you activate the pill. If these will hassle you, then it’s $10 /£10 further to not see them.

Fireplace OS itself is pretty intuitive, with a Residence display containing apps, not too long ago used apps and a Uncover part that largely promotes Amazon’s personal content material.

There’s a For You display that additionally has a listing of not too long ago used apps together with “Watch subsequent” for Prime Video and ideas for different apps and video games you would possibly wish to obtain.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Swipe down from the highest and also you’ll discover a brightness management, numerous shortcuts to settings equivalent to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, plus a toggle swap for Present Mode.

Enabling it turns the Fireplace HD 8 into an Echo Present, displaying rotating house screens with information, climate, recipes and different issues.

Efficiency

With earlier Fireplace tablets, I haven’t run our standard Geekbench and GFXbench checks. There are two causes for this. First, it was awkward to put in these apps as a result of they weren’t on the Appstore. Second, the outcomes would have been meaningless to most individuals seeking to purchase an affordable pill.

Each apps at the moment are on the Appstore, however neither would work correctly or give any outcomes. Geekbench 5 crashed on the finish of every check and didn’t document a rating, whereas GFXbench refused to connect with the back-end servers to obtain the benchmarks.

This implies I can’t say for certain if the additional two processor cores make the HD 8 30% quicker as Amazon claims.

What I can say is that this pill nonetheless feels underpowered. Even swiping across the house screens and the notification shade can depart you ready for the display to catch up, and apps take longer to load that you just’d anticipate.

The Silk browser floor to a halt each time I  tied to go to any complicated internet pages, equivalent to Google Images. It crashed a superb few instances and stop again to the house display, too. A lower than perfect expertise when you’re attempting to make use of Google providers.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Present Mode works okay, though it isn’t as responsive as an actual Echo Present. When you have different Echo gadgets, you’ll in all probability discover they reply first earlier than the Fireplace HD 8 has received its act collectively.

Cameras are the identical 2Mp ones discovered within the Fireplace 7 and plenty of Fireplace tablets over the previous couple of years. It’s onerous to overstate how unhealthy they’re. The rear one captures smeary photographs and jerky video, whereas the entrance one is ample for video calls, however not selfies.

The underside line is that that is nonetheless an affordable pill and has accordingly entry-level efficiency.

Worth & availability

• Begins at $99.99/£99.99
• Advert-free mannequin is $10/£10 extra
• 64GB of storage provides $30/£30
• Fireplace HD 8 Plus is $20/£20 greater than equal non-Plus mannequin
• Children Editions value $149.99/£149.99

The place the Fireplace HD 8 used to value $89.99/£89.99, it’s now on the cusp of $100/£100. And also you’ll pay $10/£10 extra for the ad-free mannequin.

In the event you suppose 32GB isn’t going to be sufficient storage for apps, video games and downloading movies to observe, the 64GB mannequin is an additional $30/£30.

Go for the Fireplace HD 8 Plus and also you get an additional 1GB of RAM (which makes virtually no distinction) and wi-fi charging. That’s $20/£20 further.

You should buy the Fireplace HD 8 from Amazon, naturally, however quickly you’ll additionally have the ability to purchase it from different retailers. On the time of this evaluate, on the pill’s launch date, it was solely accessible from Amazon.

There’s a selection of black, denim (blue) and rose (pink).

Amazon additionally sells the Fireplace HD 8 in two completely different children variations. One is named the Children and is geared toward ages 3-7, and the opposite is the Children Professional geared toward 6-12s.

Each value $149.99/£149.99 and comes with a protecting case. The Children mannequin has a chunky bumper case that’s straightforward to carry and provides wonderful safety.

For older children, the Professional has a slimmer case in a choice of extra grown up designs, and a extra grown-up interface too.

Each embrace a 12 months’s subscription to Amazon Children+ which incorporates a wide range of age-appropriate content material together with video games, e-books, audible books, movies and extra, all of that are ad-free.

Within the UK, the youngsters tablets have 32GB of storage within the UK, however within the US you’ll be able to go for 64GB when you’re keen to pay an additional $30.

As ever, they arrive with a two-year guarantee that covers unintended harm. The common Fireplace HD 8 (and Plus) has a single 12 months of guarantee that doesn’t cowl harm.

It’s price noting that the common fashions embrace the Amazon Children app, which lets you lock down the pill at sure instances, select what content material your children can use and prevents them utilizing the unfiltered web.

You gained’t discover a terrific price range pill for a lot below $200/£200, however you’ll discover some suggestions in our roundup of the most effective price range tablets.

Verdict

Fireplace tablets could also be low-cost, however the brand new HD 8 – particularly when you go for the additional storage and select the ad-free mannequin – is getting fairly costly.

You could be glad to just accept the restrictions of the Appstore and never having any Google providers, but it surely’s price figuring out you should purchase a similar-spec Android pill for nearly the identical cash. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is obtainable from Amazon.com for simply $109, and within the UK for below £120 from numerous retailers together with Argos.

It provides related efficiency and construct high quality, however will not less than have all the same old Google apps, together with the Play retailer.

There are a great deal of un-branded (or no-name) Android tablets to be discovered on Amazon for even lower than this, too.

I’m certain market forces have dictated Amazon can now not promote Fireplace tablets as cheaply because it as soon as did, however with virtually no enhancements to be seen over the previous few years (except you rely the USB-C port) this 2022 Fireplace HD 8 doesn’t characterize the good worth it as soon as did.

Amazon Fireplace HD 8 (twelfth gen): Specs

• Fireplace OS (based mostly on Android 11)
• 8in 1280×800 HD IPS touchscreen, 189ppi
• 2.0GHz hexa-core processor
• 2GB RAM
• 32/64GB storage (microSD as much as 1TB)
• 2Mp primary digicam, assist for 720p HD recording
• 2Mp front-facing digicam
• 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 5
• 202 x 137 x 9.7mm (7.94” x 5.40” x 0.37”)
• 335g / 1.88oz