Amazon Fire HD 8 (2015)

bright IPS screen, good color reproduction, decent stereo sound, good build, fast dual-band Wi-Fi, expandable storage

tied to Amazon, low system performance, low resolution, very scratch-susceptible rear, no GPS, NFC or UMTS/LTE, middling camera modules

Amazon's Fire HD 8 still achieves "Good" in our rating. The positive aspects are its color accuracy, the IPS screen, fast dual-band Wi-Fi and decent stereo speakers. The buyer will not find an ambient light sensor or NFC. The system performance could...

Direct access to some great Amazon services ; Flex-free frame

Low-res screen ; No Auto brightness mode ; Unreliable performance ; Several cheaper, better rivals

Amazon’s latest budget tablet just doesn’t match the best out there.

The Amazon Fire HD 8 is affordably priced and houses a microSD card slot for extra storage. The screen is bright and the speakers are satisfyingly loud. Amazon Prime members can stream or download movies and TV shows in the Prime library, and download...

The plastic design feels cheap. Large games are slow to load and gameplay gets occasionally sluggish. Performance can also lag when downloading apps or video. To truly take advantage of what the tablet has to offer, you need an Amazon Prime membership.

Amazon Fire HD 8 is an affordable way for the whole family to take advantage of all the Prime media library perks that come with the cost of membership.

Expandable storage ; First to run Fire OS 5 ; Affordable

Fingerprint magnet ; Cheap aesthetics ; Lacklustre screen

This new ‘HD’ tablet family and the Fire HD 8 in particular round out Amazon’s device family nicely, bridging the gap between the basic Fire slates and last year’s update HDX pairing..

The Fire HD8 is a very cheap tablet that's best suited to casual users who already have an Amazon Prime subscription. It's geared entirely to entertainment rather than productivity, with a focus on casual gaming, music and video streaming. That makes...