Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022)
MSRP $120.00
“The Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus is an affordable tablet for people who love Amazon services, but it comes with some serious caveats.”
Pros
- Low prices
- Excellent build quality
- Amazing battery life
- For basic tasks
Cons
- Ad-supported model isn’t worth the savings
- Camera is terrible
- Fire OS’s frustrating limitations
An expensive tablet is something of a questionable purchase these days, particularly if you’re living on a tight budget, or already own a large smartphone. That’s why a super-affordable tablet like the Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022) is so appealing. You get almost everything you would expect from an iPad, or any premium tablet, for less than an iPod. ad-supported Netflix subscription. The analogy is quite appropriate, as Amazon has managed to get the HD 8 Plus at such a low price. Are the tradeoffs worth it or have Amazon cut corners too much?
Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022) design
Surprisingly the Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus feels very functional. It’s not fancy or premium, but the textured plastic back is actually really nice. Compared to glass or aluminum, it is easier to grip and won’t show wear and tear as easily. I very much appreciate the presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a feature I’ve missed in high-end modern phones and tablets. A USB-C port is also available on the Fire HD 8 Plus, which is a great feature and comes with a charging brick. This is something that’s not often found in devices these days.
However, the screen bezels are very obtrusive and make the device less portable than tablets with smaller bezels. This is a compromise I’d expect to find in a budget tablet.
Amazon claims the Fire HD 8 Plus leaves a smaller carbon footprint because of its packaging. While the packaging is 100% recyclable, that is a great thing. However, the benefits of this packaging are not very clear. The packaging is made from wood fiber-based materials from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources, but such claims of responsible forestry are often of questionable merit, and I’d be much more impressed if the packaging was made fully from recycled materials.
The optional case makes the Fire HD 8 Plus feel and look much more premium. A good case is almost essential for a tablet, given how many I’ve seen friends and family break over the years.
Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022), display and performance
Although the HD 8 Plus display is only OK, it does offer decent color, contrast, sharpness, and sharpness. It was however a little dim. At max brightness, it was very difficult to use outdoors, and at 1280 x 800 resolution, it’s not impressive — but it gets the job done. Although not exceptional, the speakers of the Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus sound great.
Overall, the HD 8 Plus’s performance is excellent. When browsing the home screen, using a web browser, or streaming media, it’s snappy and responsive. It boasts a 30% increase in processing speed over the predecessor. This allows for split-screen and picture-in-picture capability. The HD 8 Plus supports gaming and I was able t enjoy it. My Friend Pedro: Ripe For Revenge. Despite it not being graphically challenging, I experienced frame rate drops.
Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022) camera
The camera on the HD 8 Plus is the worst I’ve used in years. The HD 8 Plus’s image quality is terrible even in broad daylight. Even in mildly dim interior lighting, photos can look blurry and unclear. The selfie camera captures 2MP still images, 720p video capture and 5MP stills. The rear-facing camera takes 1080p video and 5MP stills.
Nearly two decades ago, the first digital camera I used produced higher quality images with better resolution. Also, the interface to the camera is as simple and hard to use as possible. These cameras are so bad it’s questionable whether they should have been included in the first place.
Software for Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022).
Fire OS is a modified version of Android that runs on the HD 8 Plus. It’s been a while since I used a Fire OS device, but the experience hasn’t improved since I last picked up an Amazon device. It’s ugly and locks you into Amazon’s ecosystem, as it doesn’t offer access to the Google Play Store. This means that you’re restricted to apps acquired through Amazon’s own app store, and a lot of popular apps are missing or put behind a confusing paywall.
Ultimate Guitar is a free app in the Google Play Store, but it costs $3 to download on Amazon. I already pay an annual subscription for Ultimate Guitar, and I’m not about to spend an extra $3 for the privilege of using it on the Fire HD 8 Plus. Some apps, such as YouTube, installed fine but failed to launch properly.
If you look at the Fire HD 8 Plus as a portal into Amazon’s ecosystem, it makes a lot more sense than as a traditional tablet.
Basically, once you venture outside of Amazon’s own apps and a handful of aggressively monetized mobile games, it’s a pretty miserable experience. You can use the Amazon app as a first-party app, or you can use Alexa voice commands to control the device. Smart speakers. If you look at the Fire HD 8 Plus as a portal into Amazon’s ecosystem, it makes a lot more sense than as a traditional tablet.
Amazon Fire HD 8+ (2022) Battery and Charging
The Fire HD 8 Plus has a very impressive battery life. Amazon estimates that the Fire HD 8 Plus will last for 13 hours with mixed browsing, streaming, gaming and streaming. Unfortunately, it’s mildly slow to charge, taking around three hours to go from empty to full.
Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022), price and availability
Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus’s $120 price tag is a redeeming feature. That’s just a fifth of what an iPad Mini will cost you, but as someone who owns last year’s iPad Mini, I believe the iPad Mini is five times the tablet that Fire the HD 8 Plus is. The HD 8 Plus is an advertising-supported tablet. This means that the lock screen of the HD 8 Plus can be used as an advertisement and the home screen displays ads.
At first, this didn’t bother me too much, but over time I really grew to loathe the constant ad bombardment. People I’ve known who’ve used these devices have given them up because they couldn’t put up with ads anymore. However, you can buy the Fire HD 8 Plus without lock screen ads for an extra $15, which I would highly recommend if you’re planning to buy this device.
However, the bargain price of the Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus isn’t even really that good when you look. For $10 less at the time of publication, you can pick up a Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite that has similar specs to the HD 8 Plus, and it isn’t infected with baked-in advertisements or hobbled by Fire OS and the absence of the Google Play Store.
The $120 price is for the 32GB storage version. If you want 64GB of storage like the model I tested, it’ll set you back $150. And if you want the case bundled in, it’s $195. The Amazon Fire 7This tablet is more affordable than an Amazon tablet on a tight budget, at only $60
Only for Amazon Superfans: A tablet
The Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus (2022) is an improvement over its previous iterations, and that’s really the best thing I can say about it. The Fire HD 8 Plus is fundamentally a portal through which Amazon’s services can be accessed, and the only people I’d recommend it to are those who just want a tablet to watch Amazon Prime streaming, listen to Amazon Music, and interact with Alexa-enabled smart home devices. All others will do better with any other tablet.
Editors’ Recommendations
