Amazon Fire HD 8, the characteristics of the new tablet

Amazon launches the new 8-inch Fire HD tablet: more powerful than the previous one and with a battery that lasts up to 12 hours. Price less than 100 euros

It has just been announced, but will not arrive until June 3, the new Amazon Fire HD 8, the next-generation 8-inch tablet produced by Amazon. Now, despite the very low price, the Fire HD 8 offers a better screen and a processor much faster.

This is a product dedicated to those who are fully immersed in the Amazon ecosystem, aimed primarily at mobile viewing of movies and TV series from Amazon Prime Video. But also to reading Kindle eBooks and magazines available on Amazon, as well as listening to songs on Amazon Music. The fact that the Fire HD 8 is an "Amazon-centric" device can also be deduced from the fact that it does not integrate the Google Play Store but the Amazon Appstore. You can still use it for video games, thanks to a special mode that reduces notifications and distractions, but Amazon reminds you that it is incompatible with Audible, TIMVision, Mediaset Play, Sky Go, Infinity and Now TV, that is, with all the competitors of Amazon's streaming services.

Amazon Fire HD 8: technical characteristics

Amazon has revealed only some of the technical characteristics of its new Fire HD 8 tablet. Of course, the screen is 8 inches, while the internal storage space can be 32 or 64 GB (but is expandable up to 1 TB with microSD card). The RAM is 2 GB, while the processor is an unknown quad-core 2 GHz frequency that, according to Amazon's statement, is 30% faster than its predecessor. The battery, of unknown capacity, promises up to 12 hours of battery life even with heavy use and can be recharged via USB-C in less than 5 hours. The operating system is Fire OS, derived from Android. Aesthetically, the Amazon Fire HD 8 is not beautiful, due to a thick bezel that surrounds the screen.

Amazon Fire HD 8: how much it costs and when it arrives

Amazon Fire HD 8 is not yet available in Europe, but you can already pre-order it on the Amazon website at a cost of 99.99 euros for the 32 GB version. But, beware: this price is valid only if we accept the "special offers", that is the possibility for Amazon to send us advertising when the tablet is in energy saving mode (e.g. sponsored screensavers). If we don't want the special offers we have to spend more instead: 114.99 euros. The 64 GB version, on the other hand, costs 129.99 euros or 144.99 euros (respectively with, or without, special offers).