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Amazon’s Fire HD 8 tablet has been one of the best budget tablets available for years, offering a better screen and processor than the entry-level Fire 7, at a lower price than the higher-performance Fire HD 10.
Now Amazon is refreshing the Fire HD 8 with new 2022 models that… look an awful lot like the versions the company released in 2020. But there are a few key changes. The new 12th-gen Fire HD 8 has a processor that delivers 30% better performance, a slightly lighter body, and a small price hike. The new Fire HD 8 sells for $100 and up, while the 2022 Fire HD 8 Plus starts at $120.
That’s $10 more for each model than the previous-gen version. But it’s not really surprising when you consider that not only are you getting a speed boost… but also that Amazon’s probably trying to keep up with inflation.
Amazon continues to offer two version of the Fire HD 8. The standard model has 2GB of RAM and supports only wired charging, while the new Fire HD 8 Plus has 3GB of RAM, support for wireless charging, support for faster wired charging, and a higher-resolution rear camera.
Here’s how the 12th-gen Fire HD 8 line of tablets stacks up against their 10th-gen predecessors:
| Amazon Fire HD 8 (2022) | Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022) | Amazon Fire HD 8 (2020) | Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2020) | |
| Display | 8 inch, 1280 x 800 Dolby Atmos support | 8 inch, 1280 x 800 Dolby Atmos support | 8 inch, 1280 x 800 | 8 inch, 1280 x 800 Dolby Atmos support |
| Storage | 32GB or 64GB + microSD (up to 1TB) | 32GB or 64GB + microSD (up to 1TB) | 32GB or 64GB + microSD (up to 1TB) | 32GB or 64GB + microSD (up to 1TB) |
| RAM | 2GB | 3GB | 2GB | 3GB |
| CPU | MediaTek MT8169A 6 x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 2 GHz | MediaTek MT8169A 6 x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 2 GHz | MediaTek MT8168 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2 GHz | MediaTek MT8168 4 x ARM Cortex-A53 @ 2 GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G52 2EE MC2 | Mali-G52 2EE MC2 | Mali-G52 3EE MC1 | Mali-G52 3EE MC1 |
| Battery | Up to 13 hours | Up to 13 hours | Up to 12 hours | Up to 12 hours |
| Ports | USB 2.0 Type-C | USB 2.0 Type-C | USB 2.0 Type-C | USB 2.0 Type-C |
| Charging time |
|
| 5 hours (5W wired) |
|
| Audio | Stereo speakers 3.5mm headphone jack | Stereo speakers 3.5mm headphone jack | Stereo speakers 3.5mm headphone jack | Stereo speakers 3.5mm headphone jack |
| WiFi | WiFi 5 | WiFi 5 | WiFi 5 | WiFi 5 |
| Bluetooth | BT 5.2 | BT 5.2 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Cameras | 2MP front & rear | 5MP rear 2MP front | 2MP front & rear | 2MP front & rear |
| Latest OS version | Fire OS 8 | Fire OS 8 | Fire OS 7 | Fire OS 7 |
| Dimensions | 202 x 137 x 9.6mm | 202 x 137 x 9.6mm | 202mm x 137mm x 9.7mm | 202mm x 137mm x 9.7mm |
| Weight | 337 grams | 342 grams | 355 grams | 355 grams |
| Starting price (MSRP) | $100 | $120 | $90 | $110 |
Amazon also continues to offer Fire HD 8 Kids and Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablets which come bundled with colorful, sturdy kid-proof cases, a 2-year worry-free guarantee, and a 1 year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
You also don’t have to pay extra to remove ads from the lock screens of Kids edition Fire tablets. They ship without any advertising on the lock screen.
The new Fire HD 8 Kids and Kids Pro tablets sell for $150, and there’s also a new Fire HD 8 Kids Disney Design Bundle with Mickey and Disney Princess case options that sells for $160.
All of Amazon’s new 8 inch tablets are up for pre-order starting today and they should begin shipping in October.
Amazon is also adding “Tap to Alexa” functionality to Amazon tablets, allowing users to access the Alexa voice assistant on a tablet with touch rather than voice.
Another thing to keep in mind is that while these tablets are faster than the versions Amazon released two years ago, they’re still budget tablets. They have 1280 x 800 pixel displays rather than full HD and just 2GB to 3GB of RAM. And they ship with Fire OS, which is Amazon’s fork of Android designed for tight integration with Amazon’s apps and services.
If you regularly read Kindle eBooks, watch TV shows and movies on Prime Video, or stream music from Amazon Music Unlimited, these tablets might be up your alley. And they can run many third-party Android apps as well. But there are far fewer apps available from the Amazon Appstore than Google’s Play Store, and Amazon’s tablets don’t officially support Google Play.
While there have been folks sideloading Google’s app store on Amazon’s tablets for years, that’s gotten tougher to do this year with the rollout of Fire OS 8, which is based on Android 11.
The good news is that Fire OS 8 adds a few new features including a Dark mode, support for screen mirroring and a “Display Size” accessibility feature that lets users magnify all on-screen content or reduce the size of content to fit more on the screen at once.
IMG PowerVR GE8300 is the GPU source Mediatek
Oh and CPU are A35
Nope. Not sure where you got that, but it’s 6 Cortex-A55 CPU cores @ 2 GHz and Mali-G52 2EE MC2 graphics.
Oh, and for anyone wondering about this whole thread of comments, it started before I updated the article with the specs from Amazon’s developer pages, which were not available when the article was initially published.