Amazon Fire HD 8 Specifications, Comparisons & Important Details

As the name suggests, the Amazon Fire HD 8 is an 8-inch tablet that is sold in most countries where Amazon is operating in. Its main highlight is its inexpensive price. Starting at 79.99$, it is cheaper than most competitors with similar hardware. The 8-inch screen offers an HD resolution, we‘re getting a quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB to 32GB internal storage. While it is an Android tablet, it is running Amazon’s version of Android with a heavy integration of their services including Kindle ebooks, Amazon Video and Audible.

Highlights

• Very inexpensive
• 8-inch HD screen
• Good performance
• Excellent battery life
• Deep integration of Amazon services

Amazon Fire HD 8: The Basics

As you might expect from a cheap tablet, the Amazon Fire HD 8 does not offer a full metal body. Instead, it is completely made out of plastic and has nice rounded corners. Premium features like a fingerprint reader are missing but there are a micro USB port and a micro SD card slot.

The tablet offers an 8-inch IPS screen with an HD resolution of 1280 x 800. While we‘re certainly not getting the highest pixel density here, it is still quite impressive at this price point. Other specifications include a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and a 16GB to 32GB internal storage.

In my review, the Fire HD 8 was powerful enough for most games. Obviously, it is not a dedicated gaming tablet. But the performance is decent, especially at under 100 dollars.

Read now: My Amazon Fire HD 8 review

Amazons Android

Unlike most of its competitors, it is not running Googles Android. There is no Play Store, no Gmail, no Chrome and no YouTube app. Instead, Amazon customized the interface quite heavily and pre-installed there own apps. That includes their Amazon Silk browser and all their services like Kindle ebooks, Amazon Video, Amazon Music, Audible and the standard Amazon store.

Even though the interface is heavily customized, it is still running Android. That means that you can install most Android apps – including the Play Store, YouTube and other apps that are not offered by the Amazon App Store. They are not officially supported though, so you might lose your warranties.

Full Specifications

Fire HD 8 Alternatives

The 8-inch tablet market is very crowded so there are tons of direct competitors out there. Most brands can‘t compete with Amazon’s aggressive pricing though. Tablets with very similar hardware are the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 2017, Lenovo Tab4 8 and Huawei MediaPad T3 8. All those alternatives are running Googles Android but cost noticeably more.

If you don‘t want to spend much more but are looking for a nicer screen, you can check out a couple of Chinese brands. One very interesting alternative is the FNF iFive Mini 4S. That one offers a higher resolution display, similar performance, and vanilla Android Marshmallow.

Availability & Price

The Amazon Fire HD 8 is available in most countries in which Amazon is operating in. Obviously, that includes the United States and Canada, but also most European countries. You can get it in Britain, Germany, and India as well. As of now, it is not easy to get in countries like Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia or Thailand.

Depending on the market, the prices vary a bit. Usually, you can get it for around 80 dollars or around 100 euros.

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Amazon Fire HD 8

Read now: Our Amazon Fire HD 8 Review

Considering the price, the Amazon Fire HD 8 is a great tablet. Its highlights are a very good performance, long battery life and decent build quality. While it is an Android tablet, it's not Google's but Amazon's Android. So Google's apps are not officially supported.

Positive

• Very inexpensive
• Great performance
• Outstanding battery life

Negative

• No Google apps

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Articles about this tablet

• Amazon Fire HD 8 (2016) Review: Best Cheap Tablet?