The new tablet is easier to hold in one hand than its predecessor because the proportions are more balanced, ideal for reading books. You need an Amazon account to use the tablet, and a Prime subscription giving access to Amazon Prime Video to make the most of it. But BT Sport, Google’s various apps such as YouTube and Maps, and Apple’s Music and TV are a no-go. Fire OS 7 added picture-in-picture, so you can keep watching videos while you do other things, and improved search.Īmazon’s App Store has most of the media consumption apps you’re likely to want, including Spotify, BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, Netflix, Disney+ and Sky Go, and it has a fairly large range of games. ![]() The interface will be familiar to anyone who has used an Amazon tablet over the last five years, based on a carousel arrangement categorised by media type, including books, video, music, games and apps, and so on, plus a more traditional app home screen pane with folders and other bits. Amazon typically supports its tablets for longer than low-cost Android rivals, with several years of software and security updates. It is based on Android 9 although lacks Google’s services and apps. The 2020 Fire HD 8 ships with Fire OS 7.3, which was first released with the 2019 Fire HD 10. Swiping across the home screen switches between various types of content, getting you straight into what you want to watch, read, play or listen to. The company has pledged that it will be carbon neutral by 2040. Instead it is a member of the WEEE distributor take-back scheme in the UK. It also does not recycle electronic waste directly. Amazon does not have a fixed price for the repair of the screen or replacement of the battery out of warranty, and instead suggests customers can fix things themselves using the guides provided by iFixit.Īmazon did not comment on the use of recycled material in the Fire HD 8. Typically tablet batteries last at least 500 full charge cycles while maintaining at least 80% capacity. SustainabilityĪmazon does not provide an estimate for the expected lifespan of the battery in the Fire HD 8. ![]() ![]() I used an 18W phone charger and it worked great. That’s enough to watch three movies back to back.Ĭharging takes five hours via the included 5W charger, but now that the Fire HD 8 has a USB-C socket it can accept up to 15W of charging power, which reduces the full-charge time to about three hours. The Fire HD 8 will last almost nine hours of watching video streamed over wifi, or longer if the videos are downloaded beforehand. The same goes for games, including graphically intensive ones such as Real Racing.īattery life is solid for a small and low-cost tablet. Switching between apps can be a bit sluggish, but once they are loaded they perform as expected. ![]() Generally it performs fine, handling complex websites such as the Guardian well enough. The faster processor and more RAM of the standard version of the Fire HD 8 make it noticeably faster than the model it replaces. It’s also available in a “Plus” model with 3GB of RAM and wireless charging. It is 30% faster than the two-year-old model it replaces and has 0.5GB more RAM, for a total of 2GB. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The GuardianĪmazon’s Fire tablets have never been star performers, and the Fire HD 8 is no exception. With the microSD card slot you can quickly add lots of cheap storage.
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