Amazon today unveiled the all-new Fire HD 8 with longer battery life and improved performance. The new Fire HD 8 has been designed from the ground up from Amazon to ensure it better caters to the multimedia demands of today’s consumers.
The 8-inch screen of the tablet features a resolution of 1280 * 800 giving it a pixel density of 189ppi. Additionally, for improved performance and multitasking, the Fire HD 8 now comes with a quad-core 1.3GHz processor and 1.5GB RAM. The additional 512MB RAM will help the Fire HD 8 immensely while multitasking, though it is still on the lower end of the spectrum. Amazon is now also offering the tablet in 16GB and 32GB variants, which along with a microSD card means that you will never run out of storage space on the new HD 8. The new HD 8 also comes with a bigger 4750mAh battery which Amazon says is enough for up to 12 hours of “mixed use for a full day of power.”
Other key hardware specs include stereo speakers with Dolby Audio support, front and rear cameras, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Amazon also notes that the new Fire HD 8 is more than 2x durable than the iPad mini 4 in tumble tests whilst costing $300 less than it.
On the software front, the Fire HD 8 runs on Fire OS 5 that replicates the look and feel of a magazine to make finding your content easier. Most importantly, the Fire HD 8 supports Alexa which can be triggered by simply long pressing the home button. The tablet needs to be connected to a Wi-Fi network for Alexa to work though. Like with Echo, you can use Alexa on the Fire HD 8 to play your favorite music, movie, open a game, and more. This feature, however, will not be available out of the box on the HD 8. Amazon plans on adding Alexa support to the new Fire HD 8, Fire HD 10, Fire, and previous Fire HD 8 tablets through a software update in the “coming months.”
The new Fire HD 8 goes on pre-order from today in 16GB and 32GB storage variants and starts shipping on September 21, with prices starting from $89.99. It will be available in four colors: blue, magenta, black, and tangerine.
