Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet (newest model), 8” HD Display, 3GB memory, 32GB, designed for portable entertainment, Emerald

Got this for my 3 year old daughter and she loves it! It’s super fast, has a nice, clear screen, and it gets loud. The kid apps on there are great and gives little ones tons of things to do to keep them entertained and busy, especially when you need them to be out your hair for a minute. This tablet is very sturdy and I’m not worried about the screen cracking or anything. I never had an Amazon Fire tablet break on me and I have purchased quite a few for myself and my children. This tablet will last my daughter a long time. The color is very pretty, which is a plus. My daughter loves this tablet, and so do I.

I like it? I owned a 9th Gen Amazon Fire 7 tablet which I traded in on this new Fire 8. The Fire 7 was a huge disappointment, and I found during the few times I used it I would just get frustrated, so it was more often just left at home, and finally tossed in a drawer and forgotten until I found out I could trade it in. However, I really didn’t want to keep taking my larger iPad Air on trips. Not only because of the size, but because they aren’t cheap and I was always worried about it getting damaged or stolen. So, I thought I would give the Fire tablet family one more chance. I wanted something smaller, much cheaper, and good enough that I wouldn’t want to toss it across the room with frustration. So, when Prime Days rolled around I decided to give this Fire tablet a chance. For under $60 with the trade in discount and the money from the old Fire 7 it certainly checked the box for ‘cheaper’ than my iPad Air (we are talking 1/10th the price). But, for the big issue - would it be ‘good enough’? Yes it is. The old Fire 7 was slow, glitchy, had terrible resolution, would just die sometimes, didn’t have the guts to easily retrieve emails, let alone stream videos, the internet browser was useless, and the apps were so slow, I just gave up downloading them, even simple games would lock up the tablet. And let’s not talk about battery life or charging times - both dismal on the Fire 7. The new Fire 8 is plenty fast, I took it on a short trip and found that I could easily get, answer, and organize my emails. I found the apps I needed for streaming - Paramount, Peacock, Disney, Hulu, HBO, PBS and of course, Prime, and the resolution, streaming and download times are just fine. I like that it is compatible with Alexa, I can easily check my security cameras while on the road with a screen that is good enough to see some detail, regulate the HVAC system, turn on and off lights, everything I use Alexa for while at home. Of course it is highly integrated into the Amazon ecosystem, but for me, that is OK. I have Amazon Prime, Kindle Unlimited (but there is a very good Libby app available as well), Amazon Music Unlimited and more, which all perform flawlessly on this tablet. The resolution, while certainly not iPad standard, is plenty good for watching movies and TV series. I don’t like watching movies on my phone, it is just too small, but the slightly larger screen size seems to make sense. Same with emails - they download quickly and I like the larger format for answering them. I really don't like to read on the phone, but this Fire tablet seems to be a great size for reading, and has a decent blue light filter. The few word games I like to play on the road are decent, and unlike with the previous Fire tablet, don’t crash. But the biggest surprise is the Silk Browser, it is quite decent, plenty fast, and again, I like the larger screen over surfing the internet on my phone. Battery life is really good, along with charging time. And I like that it has a USB C charging port, so it matches the rest of my electronics, so fewer cords. A few little dings. The sound is just so-so. I rarely will use the speakers, as I normally use earbuds (which paired seamlessly), so it isn’t that big of a concern for me. 64GB storage is a bit small, but since you can expand that by using a MicroSD card, again, not a big issue. The screen is prone to fingerprinting, but a quality screen protector, which I would have purchased anyway, solved that. So, from someone who is very much an ‘Apple Girl’ I was pleasantly surprised with this small tablet. Great for traveling, fits into my small crossbody purse, is pretty light, and has done everything I wanted it to do. It will not get tossed into a drawer and forgotten like my previous Fire tablet, but will become a travel buddy. Is it as good as an iPad? Of course not. Is it ‘good enough’, and do I ‘like it’? The answer to both is, ‘surprisingly yes’.

Leaving my original review below. Originally liked this a lot, but within 24 hours realized (1) it was extremely slow and glitchy, (2) the screensaver ads and the $15 bribe to remove them is garbage - especially considering that this device is only worthwhile if you get if for really cheap, (3) the browser it comes with is horrible and it doesn't allow you to download Google chrome, (4) the battery life is ridiculous, and it seems to struggle to charge with any cords other than the one it came with. I used it a few times as a screen for Jackbox games - for anyone who doesn't know what that means it's only responsibility was staying on while we use our cell phones to play a game. It couldn't even do that. When I submitted my return request, Amazon offered me $11 to keep it. I considered it, but it got on my nerves so much I decided to send it back anyway. I got another Android device that was about $70 and am sad that I sent that one back before knowing how poorly this one functions. _________________________________________________ Incredible device. After discovering Amazon Luna, I wanted a device that I could game on & didn’t want it to be the ones I use for work so I bought a couple tablets to test out. This one was the winner and by a landslide. I was hesitant because all the reviews said the tablet was good for “light gaming” and I intended to play more graphically detailed games like Skyrim and Fallout. Let me tell you that the performance of those games on this tablet exceeded that of my MacBook, HP laptop, annd any Android tablet I tried. So impressive. Teeny complaint or really an FYI for people considering this for hardcore gaming (which is likely no one lol) - if you want to buy a controller that attaches to the device, it gets a little wonky bc the volume buttons are located where the external controller attaches. I made it work, and it’s 10x lighter and easier to use than a steam deck, but just be mindful of that when you look for a controller. I also bought the Luna controller and hated its guts lol but that’s also an option.