Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8 Unboxing

Another day, another tablet, another Kindle. It’s the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8! This mid sized device is on sale right now for $60 dollars so I had to pick one up to test it out. Let’s get it out of the box!

In the Box

Let’s start with what comes in the box. First thing you’ll see is the tablet, on the same tray style packaging as the other Kindle Fire devices. Then out comes the same micro USB cable. Interestingly, this looks like the same exact wall charger as the Kindle Fire 7: a 5 Volt, 1 Amp charger. Now we’ve got the usual info cards and that’s all.

Tour

After we’ve got the Fire HD 8 out of the plastic wrap, we can take a look around it. On the bottom there’s nothing at all. On the right is a covered microSD card slot. On this time are two stereo speakers just like the Fire HD 10. Up on top we’ve got the power button, the micro USB input for charging and data, a microphone, the 3.5mm headset jack, and the volume rocker.

Specs

The Fire HD 8 is running the newest Fire OS 6.3.0.1, that’s Android 7.1.2 Nougat. This hardware is going to look a bit familiar as well. It’s the MediaTek MT8163. That's a quad core ARM Cortex-A53 running at a maximum of 1.3GHz. The on board GPU is a Mali-T720. This system on a chip is actually the same one that’s powering the new NOOK Tablet 7”, except that it’s paired with 1.5GB of RAM. The on board storage is 16GB, with 9.23GB free on first boot. It also has a micro SD card slot. The screen is an 8" IPS LCD with a resolution of 1280x800. WiFi is pretty good, with 802.11 a/b/g/ and n dual band, that’s both 2.4 and 5GHz support. The Bluetooth is 4.0.

The tablet has two cameras. The front camera is 1.9MP this time and can shoot video at a maximum of 720p. This looks like one of the best front facing cameras on these devices I’ve tested so far. The rear camera is also 1.9MP and can shoot in 720p as well. There are two stereo left facing speakers in portrait mode and downward firing speakers in landscape mode. The battery is listed as 4,750 mAh.

OS: Android 7.1.2 Nougat, Fire OS 6.3.0.1

SoC: MediaTek MT8163

CPU: Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 @ 1.3GHz

GPU: Mali-T720

RAM: 1.5GB

Storage: 16GB (9.23GB available)

Screen: 8" 1280x800 IPS LCD

WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n dual band

BT: 4.0

Cameras: 1.9 MP Front (720p) and 1.9MP Rear (720p)

Speakers: Stereo (left/bottom-firing)

Battery: 4750mAH

First Boot and Impressions

On first boot, I got another update. This one didn’t take very long though, only about 10 minutes. After that I jumped right into the UI, installed an app, and moved around the UI.

This Fire HD 8 definitely feels like a step up from the Fire 7. It doesn’t seem to be slowed down much by Amazon’s custom UI here, and the advantages of the newer Android Nougat based Fire OS 6 seem apparent. The menus are more straightforward and the UI seems more responsive. With these specs, the newer Cortex A53s, the Mali T720, and the extra half a gigabyte of ram, this is expected.

This is looking positive for the Fire HD 8, which right now is just $59.99, which is a limited time offer from Amazon. THat puts it only $10 dollars more than the Fire 7 right now. That extra $10 dollars gets you a newer, faster processor and GPU, a little bit of extra RAM, a slightly bigger screen with a higher resolution, stereo speakers, a larger battery, and a much nicer front facing camera. If you’re in the market right now for a small tablet, and you’ve got your heart set on a Kindle device, spend the extra $10 dollars.

Buy one yourself directly from Amazon: $59.99

That’s all for this short unboxing, of the Kindle Fire HD 8. Check out the companion video below for the full tour and unboxing. If you'd like to see more about this Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8, or any other Kindle or NOOK device really, stay tuned because I’ve got some benchmarks coming up next for this tablet, and that’ll be followed by some comparisons. That's all for this one, so thanks for reading, and have a great day!