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

A bargain a $55. Ordered to replace a very old iPad for my wife. She uses it mostly as a reader (newspaper/books) and not much on the internet. It is slower than the iPad but cast about 1/6 the price. Easy to use/set up. Quality seems good so far. Screen is clear. Placed in a case to protect it.

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’.