Today Amazon announced the upcoming release of a new lineup of upgraded Fire HD 8 tablets.
There are three different models: the Fire HD 8, the Fire HD 8 Plus, and the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition. All are available for pre-order right now with an expected release date of June 3rd.
The main upgrades with the Fire HD 8 include a 30% faster processor (2.0 GHz, up from 1.3 GHz), increased RAM (2GB), double the internal storage space (32GB/64GB), and they added a USB-C port.
The Fire HD 8 Plus adds wireless charging and even more RAM at 3GB, and it comes with 6 months of Kindle Unlimited for free.
The Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is the same as the regular Fire HD 8 but it comes with a case with an adjustable stand, an upgraded 2-year warranty, and a 1-year subscription to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited.
The base Fire HD 8 starts at $89 for the 32GB model, up $10 from the previous version. The Fire HD 8 Plus starts at $109 and the Kids Edition sells for $139.
Battery life is estimated at 12 hours for mixed use, up from 10 hours on the last model, and they still have microSD card slots, which have been bumped up to supporting 1TB cards.
Unfortunately the upgrades don’t include an improved display. The new Fire HD 8 tablets still sport the same 8-inch 1200 x 800 resolution screen as before. They can be used for reading if you don’t mind slightly fuzzy text, but with only 189 ppi they are far from ideal as reading tablets—that’s where Kindles come in with 300 ppi E Ink screens that are designed for reading.
Any news on a new Fire 10”?
Unlikely considering the current model was released about 6 months ago.
Hai Nathan,
I like this (/your) blog, it’s really informative. The reason that brings me to this site is because I want to buy a large e-reader (13′) and I needed some information on what is available. I like the comparison pages you got. But the larger ones are still quite expensive. I really got my eyes set on the boox max 3. Do you perhaps know
or predict that it wil change in de foreseeable future? Or do you know of any upcoming models in this size range? I would like to hear from you.
Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work
Kevin
There hasn’t been any indication of any upcoming newer models. Sony and Onyx are the only options currently. The Max3 is the clear winner but Onyx releases so many different models you never know when a newer version is about to drop.
I have a Fire HD 8 ( 6th generation.) The software hasn’t been updated in over a year. One software problem is that when you read a PDF and get out of it, upon reopening it you go to the beginning of the document, not to where you last were reading it.
I think that’s always been a problem with Fire tablets. If you open a PDF sideloaded or downloaded to the device it won’t remember the location after closing. The solution is to send the PDF to your Amazon account using email or a send-to Kindle app and download it as a personal document.
Yeah, but will any of them be fast.
Upon buying the latest model when I began using it again, I though I was back in the 90’s with such a slow processor.
It’s a shame really.
I went out and bought a galaxy 8” just to have one that was faster.
Put the Fire on my bookshelf trying to find someone to give it to.