Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsA pretty good upgrade over the previous generation of the Fire HD 8
Reviewed in Canada on June 5, 2020
The new Fire HD 8 runs a much newer version of FireOS, which is based on Android 9, as opposed to the older version of the previous gen. FireOS is still quite restrictive out of the box, but it is easy to overcome as it is based on Android, which means that you can easily sideload the Google Play Services and the Google Play Store. Sure, it might not be so easy if you are not so technicaly inclined as I am, but it allows you get the access to almost the full catalog of apps available on Android.
As for the hardware and performance, it might not be the "fastest" or the "best" specs you might get out of a tablet, but for 110$, it's quite a good deal. At this price point, you would be hard pressed to find a small Android tablet with an IPS panel, USB type C and a relatively recent version of Android. For the same price, assuming we go with big name brands, you could get an Acer Iconia One 7, which is a quite old model, which runs on a slower CPU, has an older version of Android and has a crappy build quality, let alone half of the storage and half of the RAM. Without going into the details, you can easily see why this little tablet is one of the best bang for the buck, whether it's for a disposable use, for thinkering or anything that you can let your imagination go.
As a final point, whilst being aware of the numerous restriction of Amazon's own FireOS, the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020) is one, if not the best tablet available at this price point. Sure, it won't replace my 6th Gen iPad or even my 10.5in iPad Pro, but if you set your expectations properly, and are fully aware of the restrictions of the Android fork built by Amazon, it's definitely a tablet that I will recommend.
