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Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa, 8" HD Display, 16 GB, Blue - with Special Offers (Previous Generation - 6th)

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 24,557 ratings

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16 GB
With Special Offers
Blue
The ad-supported option (also known as Special Offers or Lockscreen Ads) displays sponsored screensavers on your device's lockscreen. Learn more
  • Fire HD 8, now with up to 12 hours of battery life, 2X the storage, and 50% more RAM for faster performance
  • Stunning 8" HD display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, and Dolby Audio. Available in four colors.
  • Now with the Alexa cloud-based voice service - just press and ask
  • Enjoy millions of movies, TV shows, songs, Kindle e-books, apps and games
  • Prime members get unlimited access to a huge selection of songs, books, videos and more
  • 16 or 32 GB of internal storage and a microSD slot for up to 200 GB of expandable storage
Engineered by Amazon

Fast and responsive

Enjoy your entertainment with a fast 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Fire HD 8 now delivers faster performance thanks to a 50% increase in RAM over the previous model.

Power when you need it

Now with up to 12 hours of mixed-use battery life, Fire HD 8 gives you the flexibility to go where the day takes you.

Beautiful HD display

Fire HD 8 features a widescreen 1280 x 800 high-definition display with over a million pixels (189 ppi) and a bright, vivid picture. Enjoy movies and games in a crisp, clear HD resolution, with less glare and more brightness thanks to a stunning IPS (in-plane-switching) LCD display.

Capture life’s moments

Fire HD 8 features a 2 MP rear-facing camera for taking photos or shooting 720p video. The front-facing VGA camera is perfect for Skype calls with friends and family.

No more worrying about storage space

Now with 2X more internal storage, Fire HD 8 comes standard with 16 GB. Expand your tablet’s storage by up to 200 GB using a microSD card, and keep photos, movies, and compatible games and apps with you. Plus enjoy free unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content and photos taken with your Fire tablet.

Stands up to everyday life

Amazon engineers Fire tablets to hold up against everyday life. As measured in tumble tests, Fire HD 8 is 2X more durable than iPad Mini 4 (and costs a lot less too).

Designed for Entertainment

Read

Choose from millions of Kindle e-book and magazine titles. Connect with the largest online community of book lovers on Goodreads. Discover over a million titles with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. Also, listen to your favorite books with Audible. Plus, enjoy exclusive Kindle features you only get from Amazon like X-Ray, Whispersync, Vocabulary Builder, Page Flip, Blue Shade and more.

Watch

Enjoy all your favorite movies and TV shows on Amazon Video, Netflix, HBO NOW, and more. Discover hundreds of thousands of TV episodes and movies, plus fling Amazon Video content to your TV using Second Screen. Enhance your video experience with features you only get from Amazon, including ASAP, X-Ray, On Deck, and FreeTime Parental Controls.

Play

Over 400,000 apps including favorites like Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify. Play great titles like Frozen Free Fall, Angry Birds Slingshot Stella, and Sonic Dash from developers like Disney, Gameloft, Rovio Entertainment, and more.

Meet Alexa

Alexa comes to Fire Tablets

Alexa provides quick access to the entertainment you want, including music, games, audiobooks, and more. You can also ask Alexa questions, check your calendar, get news, find sports scores, and even control your smart home. All you have to do is press and ask.

Be Entertained

Whether you’re looking for your favorite playlist or need a quick joke, you can ask Alexa. Just press and ask for a song, artist or genre, and stream directly over Wi-Fi. Alexa also provides voice control for Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn, IHeartRadio, and more.

One Press. Millions of Possibilities.

When connected to Wi-Fi simply press the home button for 1 second then ask. Alexa will respond to you and will even show visual responses to certain questions.

Stay Informed

Now you can ask Alexa a question and get an immediate voice response. When you press and ask, Alexa can pull up your Flash Briefing, Wikipedia articles, news, sports scores, and more.

Everyday tasks made easier

Alexa on Fire tablets helps make the everyday easier. Just press and ask to set alarms and timers, check traffic, your calendar, to-do or shopping lists, and more.

Control your smart home

Alexa works with devices such as lights, switches, thermostats, and more from SmartThings, Insteon, Nest, ecobee, and Wink. Switch on the lamp before getting out of bed, turn on the fan or change the temperature on your thermostat while reading in your favorite chair, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie—all voice controlled from your tablet.

Meet Alexa
Fire OS

New Fire OS 5 features

In addition to Alexa, our latest Fire OS update allows you to quickly access great game play directly from the Games tab with Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers. Fire tablet owners will also have easy access to over 65,000 recommendations from ComiXology, which provides an unrivaled library of comic books, graphic novels, manga and more.

Share content with Family Library

Family Library links your Amazon account to that of your spouse or partner so you can easily share apps, games, audiobooks, and books, and it now allows Prime members to share their Prime Video content. Access your family's content across devices—both Amazon devices and free Amazon apps for other platforms, including iOS and Android.

Find the things you love easier

Fire OS is the best entertainment experience on a tablet with quick access to the things you do most. The home screen includes dedicated content pages for books, games, apps, video, music, audiobooks, and Newsstand, making it quick to pick up right where you left off. Powered by Amazon’s recommendations engine, you can quickly browse books, movies, TV shows, music, apps, and games suggested just for you.

No more waiting

With ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction), Amazon movies and TV episodes are ready for you to watch instantly. ASAP dynamically adapts to your viewing habits.

On Deck automatically downloads Prime Video (for Prime members) and the first episodes of Amazon Original Series while your device isn’t in use, ensuring that there is always something new to enjoy instantly, even when offline.

Integrated on-device tech support

Screen Sharing brings Mayday-powered customer service to Fire tablets. Simply call customer service and Amazon experts can connect to your Fire tablet to co-pilot through features by drawing on your screen, walking you through how to do something yourself, or doing it for you—whatever works best.

The best of Prime

Try Prime free for a month

If you haven't tried Amazon Prime in the past, we'll give you a 30-day free trial. Experience what millions of members already enjoy—unlimited streaming of thousands of hit movies and TV episodes, ad-free access to over a million songs, reading a Kindle book a month for free, and Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items. Learn more

Unlimited reading on any device

Prime Reading gives you unlimited access to over a thousand books, current issue magazines, comics, Kindle Singles, and more. With access from any device – including your phone, tablet, or Kindle – you can read however you want, whenever you want.

Stream thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Video

With Amazon Prime, members enjoy unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes at no additional cost, including award-winning Amazon Original Series Transparent, top HBO shows; like True Blood, Girls, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and more popular movies and TV shows; like Downton Abbey, Under the Dome and Transformers: Age of Extinction.

No Wi-Fi, no problem—Prime Video downloads

Exclusive to Prime members, download thousands of Prime Video movies and TV episodes. Watch downloaded videos anywhere—on a plane, on vacation, in the car, or wherever you don't have a wireless connection. Prime Video offers offline viewing, included at no additional cost.

Over a million songs free with Amazon Music

Amazon Music gives Prime members unlimited, ad-free access to over a million songs, more than a thousand playlists, and hundreds of stations with unlimited skips. Find more music from your favorite artists, your favorite genres or let Amazon’s personalized recommendations introduce you to your next favorite band.

Add SHOWTIME, STARZ, and more to Prime

Prime members can add SHOWTIME, STARZ, and more to their Prime membership. These subscriptions are ready to watch anywhere, anytime—no cable or satellite subscription required. Starting as low as $2.99 a month, Prime members can go to Amazon Video to pick and choose their favorite channels to subscribe to, giving them instant access to episodes the same time they air on TV, including Homeland and The Affair from SHOWTIME, and Outlander and Ash vs Evil Dead from STARZ. Prime members can try any or all of these subscriptions with a free trial, and can cancel anytime.

Enjoy millions of movies, TV episodes, songs, books, apps, and games
Enjoy millions of movies, TV episodes, songs, books, apps, and games
Watch

Hundreds of Thousands of movies and TV episodes to stream, buy, or download

Whether you're a Prime member or not, enjoy a huge selection of TV episodes and movies, plus exclusive features like ASAP and Amazon FreeTime. Fire Tablets are an easy way to enjoy Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Hulu Plus, and low-cost movie rentals.

Looking to cut the cord or get more from your cable?

Now you can watch TV without cable with subscriptions to apps like HBO NOW and Showtime, and with Sling TV—which includes ESPN and CNN—you can watch the big game or live news. Or use your cable subscription to stream what you love with on-demand through apps like HBO GO, Showtime Anytime, and Watch ESPN.

Watch on the big screen

Fling Amazon movies and TV shows from your tablet to your big-screen TV using Second Screen. This turns your TV into the primary screen, freeing up your Fire tablet to provide playback controls, a customized display for X-Ray, or simply be a place to email, browse the web, and more while you watch a movie. Second Screen is available for Amazon Fire TV, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

Read

Exclusive titles at the lowest prices

Over one million exclusive titles that you won't be able to find anywhere else. Shop the Kindle Store for millions of books, newspapers, and magazines. Over one million titles are priced at $2.99 or less. Over two million are $9.99 or less.

Read as much as you want with Kindle Unlimited

Choose from over one million titles and thousands of audiobooks. From mysteries and romance to sci-fi and more, freely explore new authors, books, and genres on any device for just $9.99 a month. Create virtual bookmarks with Whispersync, so your Fire tablet picks up right where you left off. Try Kindle Unlimited free for 30 days. Learn more

Enjoy vibrant magazines

Our interactive magazine experience allows you to start reading in just a few seconds with access to any back issue at any time on the cloud. Plus, most Kindle Magazines come with a 30-day free trial.

Share with friends on Goodreads

Fire tablets are integrated with the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations, with over 40 million members, 1.1 billion books added, and 43 million book reviews. See what your friends are reading, share highlights and rate the books you read with Goodreads on your Fire tablet.

NEW—Flip through books while saving your place

Page Flip makes it easy to find pictures, charts, maps and even your notes and highlights from different parts of a book. While you swipe to other pages or zoom out to see page thumbnails, Page Flip automatically saves the page you’re reading, pinning it to the side of your screen so you’ll never lose your place.

Blue Shade

Read comfortably at night…

Blue Shade is an exclusive Fire OS “Bellini” feature that works behind the scenes to automatically adjust and optimize the backlight for a more comfortable nighttime reading experience. Simply tap Blue Shade on the quick actions menu to turn on this feature and enjoy your favorite book, news article, app, or any other nighttime activity without straining your eyes.

…without giving up a good night’s sleep

Recent studies by Harvard Health Publications have shown that evening exposure to blue light from electronic screens can suppress our bodies’ production of melatonin, a naturally occurring hormone. The suppression of melatonin can prolong the time it takes to fall asleep, which in turn can delay REM sleep and reduce alertness the following morning. Blue Shade gives you the option to fine-tune the color settings, with the device intelligently adjusting the color filtering so that at any color or brightness, the blue wavelength light is always sufficiently suppressed compared to other wavelengths.

Play

Over 400,000 apps and games

Fire tablets feature instant access to thousands of the most popular free and best-selling games, social media, premium TV and movie providers, and so much more.

The best games

Enjoy best-selling games such as Game of War - Fire Age, SimCity BuildIt, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Monument Valley, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

Listen

Huge music selection

With millions of songs from thousands of artists, the Amazon Digital Music Store brings all your favorite music to your fingertips. Music you buy on your Fire tablet is saved to Your Music Library for free, and you can play or download it anytime.

Ad-free access to over a million songs with Prime Music

Prime members can enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to over a million songs, over a thousand playlists, and hundreds of stations. Find more music from your favorite artists, follow along to lyrics with X-Ray, or let Amazon's personalized recommendations introduce you to your next favorite band.

Listen to your favorite books

Audiobooks are great for your commute, while cooking, working out—all those times you can listen but can't read. Audible, an Amazon company, offers more than 180,000 titles, including best sellers, romances, thrillers, and much more. Every book is read by a professional narrator, including leading Hollywood actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal (The Great Gatsby) and Kate Winslet (Matilda).

Sync books across multiple platforms with Immersion Reading

Fire tablets can synchronize Kindle text with companion Audible audiobooks with real-time highlighting to create a more immersive reading experience, as well as deepen learning and comprehension. More than 60,000 Kindle books and companion Audible audiobooks are available across a wide array of genres.

Introducing Amazon Music Unlimited

For just $7.99/month for Prime Members (non-Prime price: $9.99/month), stream tens of millions of songs and explore curated playlists, stations, and weekly new releases—on-demand and always ad-free. Plus, with offline listening, your music is always at your fingertips.

Share with your kids

Designed with kids in mind

When kids use Amazon FreeTime, it's like they have their very own personalized tablet. The background color and fonts change to a kid-friendly design and they only see the titles that you give them access to.

Over 10,000 kid-friendly titles with FreeTime Unlimited

Amazon FreeTime Unlimited is the first-ever all-in-one subscription that brings together books, games, educational apps, movies, and TV shows—all the types of content that kids and parents love. From just $2.99 per month, enjoy unlimited access to content including titles from Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, PBS, and more.

Perfect for parents

Amazon FreeTime is built from the ground up to help give parents peace of mind when it comes to tablet use. Parents can create a profile for each of their children and choose which books, apps, games, and videos they want to give their kids access to. Amazon FreeTime is free on every Fire tablet.

Fire Kids Edition also available

The Fire Kids Edition includes the Fire tablet, 1-year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, and a Kid-Proof Case—up to $109 in savings. Plus a 2-year worry-free guarantee. Learn more

Limit screen time, so they don’t just play

With Amazon FreeTime, parents can set daily limits for tablet use, or restrict certain categories—like games and video—while leaving unlimited time for reading.

Buy once, enjoy anywhere

Content on hundreds of devices

It's easy for you to access your content on other devices. The books, videos, audiobooks, and music that you buy can be enjoyed on other devices through Amazon apps, including apps that are available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, game consoles, TVs, and more.

Sync your content across all your devices with Whispersync

Start streaming a movie from Amazon Video on your Fire tablet, pause, then resume watching the same scene on your TV. Whispersync remembers how much you've watched, read, or listened to so you can pick up right where you left off, no matter which device you are using.

Free cloud storage

With every Fire tablet, you get free, unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content including unlimited storage on photos you've taken with your Fire tablet, so you can rest easy knowing that you'll never accidentally lose the content you love. See details

Looking for specific info?

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
24,557 global ratings

Customers say

Customers like the quality, portability, speed, battery life, and performance of the tablet. For example, they mention that it's just the right size to use and carry around, it'll never fall apart, and that it has twice the speed of google maps. That said, they appreciate the performance and say it performs well.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

5,271 customers mention4,032 positive1,239 negative

Customers like the performance of the tablet. They say it does a first-class job, works well with AmazonApps, and is sufficient for productivity. Customers also mention that the physical design is reasonable and the ADB functionality is as expected.

"...I need it to run, plays the games I want to play, and is sufficient for productivity in terms of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, e-mail, and..." Read more

"...All is working well, and I now rate it a solid 4 stars. I use the playstore and several google apps on my device, and there are no issues...." Read more

"...the same lieu as before, the sound card on this tablet is actually pretty good as well, once again to my surprise...." Read more

"...I don't believe I will ever use it for again, given the seriously terrible camera.) Netflix also works like a dream on this thing...." Read more

3,391 customers mention2,720 positive671 negative

Customers like the ease of use of the tablet. They mention that the user interface is amazing, and navigating around is pretty easy to figure out. They also say that it's super simple to get started, and the instructions are easily found online. The tablet is great for casual users, and is a snap to set up and go.

"...reading books on a Kindle; there is less glare, and it is much easier to read, especially in sunlight...." Read more

"...about what I expected ...slightly pixelated, washed out colors, print is readable but not crisp...." Read more

"...Consistent with previous versions of the Fire, email setup was very easy for my main Gmail account, both with the software came with the Fire but my..." Read more

"...(2) The user interface is amazing. After a few hours playing with it, I would argue that this tablet is BETTER than the iPad...." Read more

2,987 customers mention2,752 positive235 negative

Customers appreciate the value of the tablet. They say it is a great little economy tablet for the price.

"...experience is that what the Fire 8 is capable of makes it a real bargain at the price...." Read more

"...Overall, this is a super tablet, and the bargain price makes it that much more so...." Read more

"...It makes the Fire 8 attractive on price alone, and as you've seen above, it's not even a bad device!Now for some neutrals:*..." Read more

"...For me this tablet is an extremely good value! iPads are beautiful things, and they seem to just work really well all the time...." Read more

2,665 customers mention1,949 positive716 negative

Customers like the speed of the tablet. They say it's fast, twice as fast as Google Maps, and responsive. They also say the startup and wakeup is fast, and the apps all run smoothly so far.

"...choices and bugs that I'm not a fan of, but otherwise, the phone functions smoothly...." Read more

"...It's good quality, has a great display, it's quick and snappy, has great battery life and looks great in blue ;)..." Read more

"...doesn't really run Hearthstone well at all, for example, and it runs a bit too slow for me on the Fire 7; the performance improvement on this Fire..." Read more

"...is a built in map app (you can also install google maps) is twice as fast as google maps and great for just casual browsing...." Read more

2,526 customers mention1,995 positive531 negative

Customers like the quality of the tablet. They mention it's a great product that will give them a lot of entertainment. They say it runs the apps they need it to run, plays the games they want to play, and is sufficient for casual games, browsing the web or photos, and watching movies. Customers also say it'll be fine for casual gaming, video watching, and video chatting.

"...It runs the apps I need it to run, plays the games I want to play, and is sufficient for productivity in terms of documents, spreadsheets,..." Read more

"Gorgeous, capable tablet if one understands its limitations when they buy it, and are willing to figure out its quirks...." Read more

"...The fact that you can download movies or tv shows and watch them offline itself is amazing...." Read more

"...Even if it ends up collecting dust, it is an incredibly cheap and great tablet that will give you a lot of entertainment. I am enjoying it so far." Read more

2,077 customers mention1,873 positive204 negative

Customers like the portability of the tablet. They say it's just the right size to use and carry around, and is small enough to be watchable in bed without contacts or glasses. They also say it fits very nicely in one hand and doesn't get too heavy. Customers also say that it'll fit like a small portable TV.

"...The size is spot on too. Any bigger and it starts to feel big...and heavy...like my iPad Air. Yes I have two iPads with Retina displays...." Read more

"...This tablet is basically a tiny touchscreen laptop, and I was thrilled to have been able to get this instead of a simple book-reader device...." Read more

"...0.4 inches and at 12 ounces, it certainly is light and can be carried in one hand easily...." Read more

"...The bigger size is nice, but I would have preferred the smaller screen with similar or better resolution.2...." Read more

1,455 customers mention1,065 positive390 negative

Customers like the battery life of the tablet. They say it's outstanding, has great charging times, and doesn't drain if left in standby. Some customers also mention that the tablet runs all day.

"...Battery life is excellent...." Read more

"...If this tablet survives for say, 4-5 months, and the battery life is reasonable, I will probably update this review to 5 stars...." Read more

"...So I can see why some reviews say the battery drains and doesn't last the maximum 12 hours which is advertized, but, of course, it's not going to..." Read more

"...It's good quality, has a great display, it's quick and snappy, has great battery life and looks great in blue ;)..." Read more

1,481 customers mention484 positive997 negative

Customers are mixed about the apps. Some mention that it allows more apps to be downloaded than on the previous kindle versions, and the app store has a good variety of apps for almost everyone. They also appreciate the ability to make folders by dragging apps over them, which is great for organizers. However, others say that apps like YouTube are not available and the lack of Google apps will put off some.

"...a previous device were not entirely positive--sometimes updates don't apply as one expects, undocumented app interactions get you, or things just do..." Read more

"...system, there is flexibility like accessing storage, side loading third party apps, even installing Google Play..." Read more

"...Cons:* No Google Play or Android Apps Without Sideloading* Worthless Camera*..." Read more

"...There is not a built-in YouTube app but there is a shortcut link you can install (it's tiny) and I think launches YouTube in the browser and it..." Read more

Amazon did it right this time, really enjoying my tablet! (4 updates) -- 4th update has some tips
5 Stars
Amazon did it right this time, really enjoying my tablet! (4 updates) -- 4th update has some tips
I am thrilled with the new Fire HD8 - even before it gets Alexa! At that time I will likely be ecstatic! I am far from a tablet novice - I had the original fire; the $50 fire; the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3; and the Galaxy Tab S 10.5. My phones have always been Samsung flagship phones, currently the S7 Edge. I say this to show that I 1) have experience with kindle fires, and 2) generally tend to have high standards for my most used devices -- I KNOW what is a good tablet and what is a so-so tablet. Admittedly, my previous fires have been "so-so", but I wanted something inexpensive yet adequate to take places with me instead of my Galaxy Tab S 10.5.My HD8 is the 32gb option, with offers. Most users will likely be fine with 16gb and perhaps an added 32gb or 64gb SD card. However, I know how I use my devices, so went with the 32gb option, as well as a 64gb micro SD card. In the 48 hours I have had my new Fire, it has become my device of choice, even over my $500 samsung (more convenient size). I use the large samsung tablet as a computer replacement; whereas the new Fire replaces my two 7 inch tablets as the "go to" device.Before receiving it, I wasn't sure about the low resolution (1280 x 800) on this tab, but honestly, it's not a problem! Sure, it's not bright and beautiful like my Tab S ... but its crisp, clean, and clear. The colors are sufficient, but not vibrant, sadly. (The comparison photo below is the HD8 (2016) and Fire 7 (2015).Sound is quite good, with good volume. The speakers are on the left side when portrait, on top (or bottom) in landscape. I prefer them on top. The sound is good enough that you can enjoy a movie without having to use earphones, unless in a noisy environment, in which case you would likely want to use earphones anyway. Music was okay, but I prefer listening through bluetooth headphones for premium quality, and it delivers there also.Whatever chip is used for the cpu is zippy and responsive. I have tested and used a variety of apps, games, and functions in trying this tablet out, and there has been no lag whatsoever, no hesitation, no hangups. Using the silk browser, surfing the web was quick and easy. At most, there was a half second lag for some graphics heavy pages (note that my high speed router is in my room, but even so, the $50 fire lags, not so this one!)The only feature that is "less than" on this tablet, are the cameras. The rear facing camera is only 2mp, and photos with it are about what I expected ...slightly pixelated, washed out colors, print is readable but not crisp. It's usable in a pinch, when the alternative is no picture/video, or for reference/documentation; but it's not what you would want to use for travel or family photos that are of importance. For reference photos, pet photos, posting to facebook, it's adequate, but "just".Battery life is excellent. I multi-task and heavily use tablets, with a lot of twitter (have found it to be battery intensive on all devices); a lot of web use, music streaming, texting (on messenger) and watching you tube. I've already gone through two battery cycles (100% to 15%) and the first one was ten hours (actual use time) and the second nearly 11, so it's very close to the maximum advertised.Overall, this is a super tablet, and the bargain price makes it that much more so. It has exceeded my expectations and hopes in most all functions, and will be a welcome alternative for throwing in my backpack.UPDATE: October 30, 2016 The Alexa update was pushed to my device on Oct 29th (verified with amazon customer service) and it "bricked" my tablet, rendering it unusable, will not turn on. After several hours on phone with four reps at customer service, it is being returned for a refund. Replacements are always refurbished items, so I chose refund instead. I still think it's a great tablet, but sometimes there are issues, and in the interest of honesty and full disclosure, needed to add this.2nd UPDATE: November 10, 2016 Okay, apparently this is the "Goldilocks" of my tablets (just right!) and I could not live without it. By the 10th day without it, I was really, REALLY missing it, so I ordered a new one, this time investing in the extended warranty "just in case". I received the new one today, everything is perfect with it, and it feels so, SO good to have a Fire HD8 back in my hands. I know it sounds silly, but even though the specs of this are less than one of my tablets, and slightly better than two 7" ones - the 7" ones now feel too small, and the 10.5" one I have is just too large for most uses. The 8" Fire is just the right size for everything short of computer replacement. In the few hours of use, I've checked everything out and all is well. I will, however, update again, in about two months, to make sure this review is kept current. Right now, despite the issue with one tablet, it's still at least 4.5 stars in my book, but I won't hesitate to revise if that changes.3rd Update: December 31, 2016 It's now been 7 weeks with my second Fire HD8 tablet. All is working well, and I now rate it a solid 4 stars. I use the playstore and several google apps on my device, and there are no issues. I also had several apps that frequently updated throughout the day, like periscope, facebook, twitter, news aggregators. With all of these apps, the tablet began lagging badly at least once a day, sometimes twice, and even with an app like Cleansweep on it, I would have to reboot. Finally, I uninstalled periscope and the news aggregators; but kept facebook and twitter and a few others similar. That made a huge difference in the lag. There just isn't enough RAM to handle heavy updating every half hour or so, nor does the tablet recover ram well. I also run 10 email accounts on the tablet (I use "bluemail") and set most of them to sync once daily, just two of them sync every hour. With the tweaks I have done, I am happy with the Fire HD8, and it runs smoothly most of the time.4th update (and perhaps final) and tips -- April 22, 2017I use the Fire HD8 daily, all day long, going through a battery cycle a day, sometimes more. With recent firmware updates, my Fire tablet is running smooth and fast, and I very rarely experience any lag. I used to reboot it daily, now I do so once a week or less. Apparently the firmware updates made a difference. I also have tweaked this tablet to the max, and thought I would share a few basic tips. (I really feel like, at this point, I should just write a Fire HD8 guide ... but I digress.)Tips:Get to know your tablet. Go through every single setting and sub setting and sub-sub setting and tweak anything you want. You can always go back and change it later.Turn off everything automatic, unless it's a feature you like. Turn off: on-deck, adaptive brightness, automatic navigation, recommendations and most notifications. This streamlines the ram usage.Keyboards are apps, email is an app, if you don't like the ones on the tablet, go to the amazon appstore and install an alternative one.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2016
Digital Storage Capacity: 32 GBOffer Type: With Special OffersColor: BlackVerified Purchase
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2016
Digital Storage Capacity: 32 GBOffer Type: With Special OffersColor: MagentaVerified Purchase
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5.0 out of 5 stars Amazon did it right this time, really enjoying my tablet! (4 updates) -- 4th update has some tips
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2016
I am thrilled with the new Fire HD8 - even before it gets Alexa! At that time I will likely be ecstatic! I am far from a tablet novice - I had the original fire; the $50 fire; the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3; and the Galaxy Tab S 10.5. My phones have always been Samsung flagship phones, currently the S7 Edge. I say this to show that I 1) have experience with kindle fires, and 2) generally tend to have high standards for my most used devices -- I KNOW what is a good tablet and what is a so-so tablet. Admittedly, my previous fires have been "so-so", but I wanted something inexpensive yet adequate to take places with me instead of my Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

My HD8 is the 32gb option, with offers. Most users will likely be fine with 16gb and perhaps an added 32gb or 64gb SD card. However, I know how I use my devices, so went with the 32gb option, as well as a 64gb micro SD card. In the 48 hours I have had my new Fire, it has become my device of choice, even over my $500 samsung (more convenient size). I use the large samsung tablet as a computer replacement; whereas the new Fire replaces my two 7 inch tablets as the "go to" device.

Before receiving it, I wasn't sure about the low resolution (1280 x 800) on this tab, but honestly, it's not a problem! Sure, it's not bright and beautiful like my Tab S ... but its crisp, clean, and clear. The colors are sufficient, but not vibrant, sadly. (The comparison photo below is the HD8 (2016) and Fire 7 (2015).

Sound is quite good, with good volume. The speakers are on the left side when portrait, on top (or bottom) in landscape. I prefer them on top. The sound is good enough that you can enjoy a movie without having to use earphones, unless in a noisy environment, in which case you would likely want to use earphones anyway. Music was okay, but I prefer listening through bluetooth headphones for premium quality, and it delivers there also.

Whatever chip is used for the cpu is zippy and responsive. I have tested and used a variety of apps, games, and functions in trying this tablet out, and there has been no lag whatsoever, no hesitation, no hangups. Using the silk browser, surfing the web was quick and easy. At most, there was a half second lag for some graphics heavy pages (note that my high speed router is in my room, but even so, the $50 fire lags, not so this one!)

The only feature that is "less than" on this tablet, are the cameras. The rear facing camera is only 2mp, and photos with it are about what I expected ...slightly pixelated, washed out colors, print is readable but not crisp. It's usable in a pinch, when the alternative is no picture/video, or for reference/documentation; but it's not what you would want to use for travel or family photos that are of importance. For reference photos, pet photos, posting to facebook, it's adequate, but "just".

Battery life is excellent. I multi-task and heavily use tablets, with a lot of twitter (have found it to be battery intensive on all devices); a lot of web use, music streaming, texting (on messenger) and watching you tube. I've already gone through two battery cycles (100% to 15%) and the first one was ten hours (actual use time) and the second nearly 11, so it's very close to the maximum advertised.

Overall, this is a super tablet, and the bargain price makes it that much more so. It has exceeded my expectations and hopes in most all functions, and will be a welcome alternative for throwing in my backpack.

UPDATE: October 30, 2016 The Alexa update was pushed to my device on Oct 29th (verified with amazon customer service) and it "bricked" my tablet, rendering it unusable, will not turn on. After several hours on phone with four reps at customer service, it is being returned for a refund. Replacements are always refurbished items, so I chose refund instead. I still think it's a great tablet, but sometimes there are issues, and in the interest of honesty and full disclosure, needed to add this.

2nd UPDATE: November 10, 2016 Okay, apparently this is the "Goldilocks" of my tablets (just right!) and I could not live without it. By the 10th day without it, I was really, REALLY missing it, so I ordered a new one, this time investing in the extended warranty "just in case". I received the new one today, everything is perfect with it, and it feels so, SO good to have a Fire HD8 back in my hands. I know it sounds silly, but even though the specs of this are less than one of my tablets, and slightly better than two 7" ones - the 7" ones now feel too small, and the 10.5" one I have is just too large for most uses. The 8" Fire is just the right size for everything short of computer replacement. In the few hours of use, I've checked everything out and all is well. I will, however, update again, in about two months, to make sure this review is kept current. Right now, despite the issue with one tablet, it's still at least 4.5 stars in my book, but I won't hesitate to revise if that changes.

3rd Update: December 31, 2016 It's now been 7 weeks with my second Fire HD8 tablet. All is working well, and I now rate it a solid 4 stars. I use the playstore and several google apps on my device, and there are no issues. I also had several apps that frequently updated throughout the day, like periscope, facebook, twitter, news aggregators. With all of these apps, the tablet began lagging badly at least once a day, sometimes twice, and even with an app like Cleansweep on it, I would have to reboot. Finally, I uninstalled periscope and the news aggregators; but kept facebook and twitter and a few others similar. That made a huge difference in the lag. There just isn't enough RAM to handle heavy updating every half hour or so, nor does the tablet recover ram well. I also run 10 email accounts on the tablet (I use "bluemail") and set most of them to sync once daily, just two of them sync every hour. With the tweaks I have done, I am happy with the Fire HD8, and it runs smoothly most of the time.

4th update (and perhaps final) and tips -- April 22, 2017
I use the Fire HD8 daily, all day long, going through a battery cycle a day, sometimes more. With recent firmware updates, my Fire tablet is running smooth and fast, and I very rarely experience any lag. I used to reboot it daily, now I do so once a week or less. Apparently the firmware updates made a difference. I also have tweaked this tablet to the max, and thought I would share a few basic tips. (I really feel like, at this point, I should just write a Fire HD8 guide ... but I digress.)
Tips:
Get to know your tablet. Go through every single setting and sub setting and sub-sub setting and tweak anything you want. You can always go back and change it later.
Turn off everything automatic, unless it's a feature you like. Turn off: on-deck, adaptive brightness, automatic navigation, recommendations and most notifications. This streamlines the ram usage.
Keyboards are apps, email is an app, if you don't like the ones on the tablet, go to the amazon appstore and install an alternative one.
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