And of course Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Kindle Unlimited offer just about all the movies, music, and books you could want. FreeTime, for example, is one of the better tools for regulating what your kids can access on a tablet. The glossy finish on the screen, in addition to attracting fingerprints like nothing else I've ever used, also makes the Fire 8 HD nearly unusable outdoors.īut there are good things in the Amazon ecosystem. Given the emphasis on consuming Prime Video, it would be nice to see a slightly higher-resolution screen. The LCD screen retains the same 1200 x 800 resolution, which looks, well, OK. What hasn't changed much is the viewing experience. Dimming the screen a little, killing Bluetooth, and cutting back on Mario Kart Tour managed to extend the battery life to eleven hours. In real-world use, which is to say, browsing the web, reading some books, watching videos, and playing games, I hit about nine hours without making any effort to conserve battery life.
The USB-C port is reversible, so it's more convenient, and it's widely used, so you might be able to use the same charger as your laptop or (Android) phone.Īmazon claims that battery life can go up to 12 hours, a full two hours more than the previous Fire HD 8. (I haven't used the 2019 Fire HD 10.) The final bit of hardware good news is that, like last year's Fire HD 10, both of the new models utilize USB-C charging ports.
I can happily say that I haven't noticed either of these tablets running slowly, and that's a first for me. Perhaps more importantly, the pair have faster processors inside. And like previous models, there is a MicroSD card slot to expand your storage capacity up to 1 terabyte. The base storage has been bumped to 32 gigabytes with a 64-gigabyte model also available for both. The Fire HD 8 Plus, on the other hand, adds another gigabyte on top of that and can recharge wirelessly (the wireless charging station bundle ups the price to $140). Under the hood, the 2020 Fire HD 8 has an extra half gig of RAM over its predecessor, bringing the total to 2 gigabytes. Plus, the new camera position also makes it much easier to use the Fire 8 HD as if it was an Echo Show smart display. The front camera has moved from the top of the device to the side, making landscape orientation the default for video chatting.
The slightly more square shape makes the Fire HD 8 easier to hold and offers a better reading experience, both vertically with the Kindle app and horizontally when browsing the web. But I can live with it because the new form is much better. That's disappointing if, like me, you've got several accessories lying around. If you own an earlier Fire tablet, none of the cases or keyboard covers you might have will be compatible. The two new Fire HD 8 models I've been testing have a significantly revamped design.
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