Amazon Fire HD 8 (2022) Review

Verdict

An honest low cost pill from Amazon, this might swimsuit you properly if you wish to watch movies on the go however are constrained by a decent price range

Introduction

Amazon is not any stranger to the price range pill market, however the newest Hearth HD 8 might provide the very best mixture of options and value of the whole assortment.

Because the title may counsel, the Hearth HD 8 has an 8-inch HD display that has the good thing about being extraordinarily transportable whereas nonetheless providing a decently large-screen expertise. Plus, it has the identical Amazon Hearth OS as earlier entries within the Hearth vary, making it simple to get on with should you’re upgrading from an older Hearth gadget.

Nevertheless, Hearth OS is a considerably double-edged sword. It’s very tied into Amazon’s Prime ecosystem, serving up motion pictures, books and extra – even should you don’t need them – and there are some ommissions by way of apps, missing assist for Google Play.

However, so long as you’re pleased with Amazon’s Hearth pill software program, the Hearth HD 8 stays a really tempting choice for these on the hunt for a discount pill.

Design and Display screen

• Fundamental however strong design
• Good connectivity choices
• First rate display

The Amazon Hearth HD 8 has a fundamental but sensible design. The rear is made from plastic, obtainable in shades of Black, Rose or Denim, and has a matte end.

It doesn’t choose up any greasy fingerprint smears, and it nonetheless feels pretty strong to the contact. Scuffs are potential, although it has held up pretty properly throughout my expertise when, I confess, I haven’t been significantly mild with it or stored it in a case.

The design isn’t going to win many factors for type, because it doesn’t look costly or characteristic many premium supplies in its building. Nevertheless, it’s probably not anticipated on a tool at this value.

There are some respectable connectivity choices for this pill. For those who’re trying to join your headphones, then a 3.5mm headphone jack is obtainable as properly at Bluetooth 5.2 for wi-fi headphones. Then there’s a USB-C connector for charging, and a MicroSD card slot if you wish to increase the onboard 32GB or 64GB storage allowance.

The display measures 8 inches, which isn’t significantly massive for a pill, and though it’s HD (as indicated by the title), the 1280 x 800 decision shouldn’t be brilliantly sharp by fashionable requirements. Watching movies and TV exhibits on this, I’d say that the standard is suitable but it surely’s nothing to shout about.

The colors are washed out, the blacks are extra like gray and the brightness ranges aren’t robust sufficient to fight the solar should you’re planning on utilizing this on a practice.

Efficiency

• No blistering speeds
• Competent sufficient to run many apps
• Not for avid gamers

There’s not a robust processor contained in the Hearth HD 8, however once more, you possibly can’t anticipate that to be the case at this value level. It gained’t double up as a laptop computer, and it gained’t be capable to run high-performance gaming titles, however I discovered that it’s nonetheless completely able to operating my favorite on a regular basis apps, video streaming companies, and a few fundamental video games.

The software program relies on Android, although should you select to purchase a reduced-price model of the pill then you can find it bombarded with adverts. It’s as much as you whether or not that’s definitely worth the trade-off in prices, however it’s reasonably annoying.

You can also’t, by default, entry the standard Android Google Play Retailer you’d discover on top-of-the-line Android telephones. As a substitute, there’s Amazon’s app retailer different which has massive titles (Netflix, Disney Plus, Fb and many others) however not fairly the breadth of Google’s different.

The software program is intently tied to Amazon Prime, funnelling content material from its varied classes onto the gadget. It does work and not using a Prime subscription, however the expertise is considerably restricted.

When booting up the system and flicking between apps, some animations will not be significantly easy however I didn’t expertise any critical shuddering slowdown or crashes, and it appeared eminently able to operating the apps obtainable on its Amazon App Retailer.

You may take a look at the benchmarking efficiency scores within the desk under:

There’s nothing right here to blow your socks off, however the energy on provide is completely enough for powering many standard duties. It gained’t swimsuit you should you’re a eager gamer, however should you plan to make use of this pill to binge video streaming apps and test your emails, then this one can do this.

Once more, the digital camera’s efficiency must be prefaced with a proviso concerning the value. You may’t anticipate high-quality pictures from this gadget, but it surely nonetheless has a front-facing and rear-facing sensor, every with a 2-megapixel decision.

You gained’t be capable to take the sort of beautiful pictures that you’d need to hold within the household album, however you possibly can maintain video calls and take snaps for some future reference. Photographs are somewhat grainy, and the digital camera app itself will be gradual, but it surely does work. While you’re utilizing it for video calls (Skype, Microsoft Groups, and Zoom are all supported) your face continues to be clearly distinguishable.

Above is a pattern picture from the rear digital camera, and although this uninteresting and grainy shot demonstrates the digital camera’s limitations, it nonetheless could be excellent news to you that you would be able to even have picture-taking and video-calling performance on an inexpensive pill like this one.

Battery Life

• Good battery life
• Environment friendly on standby
• Affordable charging pace

battery is crucial to any transportable leisure gadget, tablets included. Amazon claims that this one provides you round 13 hours of battery life in whole, and in my expertise, I definitely felt that it had sufficient battery to get me by way of lengthy journeys or busy days with out fretting about shedding cost too early. For instance, it misplaced 6% battery after an hour of streaming a TV present on Disney Plus.

When on standby, this gadget is very energy environment friendly: over the course of an evening, it had solely misplaced 1% of its juice once I checked the next morning.

Charging shouldn’t be lightning fast, however I discovered that this pill regained its battery at an affordable charge, going from flat-out lifeless to 60% in barely over one hour. It’s not the sort of gadget you possibly can shortly juice up earlier than a journey if that job has slipped your thoughts, but it surely does imply you gained’t have to go away it plugged into the socket all night time to get sufficient energy to do something with it.

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