You will need an Amazon account to use the tablet, and it prompts you to take up a Prime subscription, which grants access to Amazon Prime Video and makes the most of the tablet’s features – though it isn’t essential. Responses are accompanied by a visual, too – ask Alexa how many teeth a dog has and your tablet pulls up a picture of a pooch to go with the verbal response (the answer is 42, by the way). Alexa works brilliantly and the HD 8’s voice pick-up is admirable.

You get the same battery life (up to 12 hours) and 2MP front camera as you do with the newer HD 10, and though the 1280 x 800 (189ppi) screen resolution is a step down from the HD 10’s 1920 x 1200 (224ppi) 1080p Full HD screen, it still looks remarkably good.Īt five hours, the HD 8 takes an hour longer to reach full charge than the HD 10, and the HD 8’s new Quad-core 2.0GHz processor is a slight step down from the HD 10’s Octa-core 2.0GHz processor, but in our tests both tablets perform just as snappily.Ĭonsidering the Fire HD 8 starts at just £90 / $90 and gives you hands-free Alexa, there are plenty of tablet perks on offer here for the money. The HD 8’s dual speakers with Dolby Atmos support are found along the left side of the tablet when held this way. One small gripe is that the power button is situated towards the left of the top edge of the tablet when held in portrait mode, and since the USB-C charging port, 3.5mm headphone jack and volume controls are also found along this top edge, it can make the functions feel a little busy. The Fire HD 8's 8-inch Full HD display (as with all Amazon Fire HD tablets, the model number denotes the screen size) makes it roughly the same height and width as a paperback book, but the tablet is slim, rounded at the edges and surprisingly light – perfect for holding and slipping into a bag.

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