Amazon’s announced a new line of 8-inch Fire HD Tablets and they’re touting some notable improvements over previous models. We still have a few weeks to wait until they actually ship in early June, but we thought we’d take a closer look at the specs on offer to see how they stack up against the outgoing Fire HD 8. Are we looking at just an incremental boost or something more? Let’s see what we can uncover.
Old and New Fire HD 8 Tablets Head-to-Head
| Fire HD 8 (2020) | Fire HD 8 Plus (2020) | Fire HD 8 (2018) | |
| Price | $89.99 and up | $109.99 and up | $79.99 and up |
| Display size | 8 inches | 8 inches | 8 inches |
| Display resolution | 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 800 |
| On-board storage | 32GB or 64GB | 32GB or 64GB | 16GB or 32GB |
| Storage expansion | microSD up to 1TB | microSD up to 1TB | microSD up to 400GB |
| CPU | Quad-core 2GHz | Quad-core 2GHz | Quad-core 1.3GHz |
| RAM | 2GB | 3GB | 1.5GB |
| Battery life | Up to 12 hours | Up to 12 hours | Up to 10 hours |
| Connections | USB-C | USB-C | micro-USB |
| Wireless Charging | No | Yes | No |
| Camera | Front and rear, 2MP | Front and rear, 2MP | Front and rear, 2MP |
| Weight | 12.5 oz. (355g) | 12.5 oz. (355g) | 12.8 oz. (363g) |
| Dimensions | 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches (202 x 137 x 9.7mm) | 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches (202 x 137 x 9.7mm) | 8.4 x 5 x 0.4 inches (214 x 128 x 9.7mm) |
| Available colors | White, black, twilight blue, plum | White, black, twilight blue, plum | Black, canary yellow, marine blue, punch red |
As you can see, the latest Fire HD 8 boasts more onboard storage, a faster CPU, more RAM and better battery life. Generally speaking, those should translate to faster overall performance, especially in more demanding apps like games — and less worrying about installing and removing apps and content to conserve storage space.
The inclusion of USB-C is a nice touch as more and more devices are starting to move from the older micro-USB standard and improvements to battery life are always welcome, especially on media-consumption devices.
Product shots also appear to confirm the presence of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, which should be a welcome sight for those who favor wired headphones and dislike messing with adapters or dongles.
Unlike some device lines where the “Plus” moniker notes a larger screen size, the Fire HD 8 Plus bumps up internal specs like RAM and wireless charging support, while sticking to the 8-inch display size.
As with the 2018 version, the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition repackages the standard Fire HD 8 in a more kid-centric case and bundles in family friendly features like a better warranty and access to a year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited.
One thing that’s worth noting, however, is the slight change in exterior dimensions. The 2020 Fire HD 8 tablets are slightly shorter, and wider (depending on how you’re holding them) than their 2018 predecessor, which means your existing cases probably won’t fit, unless they’re “universal fit” cases with a bit of wiggle room for adjustment.
Of course, this is just an initial look at available specs and we’ll need to get our hands on the latest Fire HD 8 to truly weigh in on its improvements. For now though, are there any current Fire HD 8 users out there? If so, let us know what you think of these updates in the comments below.
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