New Amazon Fire HD 8 - Page 6

tomsem · 06-05-2020, 06:07 PM

Another question: is the USB-C port good for anything other than charging and USB file transfer? Can you plugin in a hub, Keyboard/mouse, storage, Ethernet etc.?

HLS · 06-05-2020, 06:30 PM

I am tired o the same look year after year. it is in a serious need of an upgrade

barryem · 06-05-2020, 07:31 PM

I have last year's Fire 8. It's not a bad device and it's cheap but my Samsung Galaxy 8 is much better for only a few dollars more. It has a standard Android interface. It has a better screen and much better speakers. I use both of them mostly for watching videos and the screen on the Fire is okay. It's very good for videos. The speaker isn't. It's pretty useless without a bluetooth speaker. I understand the new one has a similar speaker with similarly poor volume.

Barry

tubemonkey · 06-05-2020, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomsem

Wonder if older Fire tablets will get Fire OS 7 (My 2018 Fire is still on Fire OS 5.x - Android 5.1.1). Was there a Fire OS 6?

That said, I’m not sure it would make any difference - except maybe in terms of the apps available to run on it from Amazon AppStore.

There is a FireOS 6 (7.x Nougat) and your 2018 8th Gen Fire HD 8 should be running FireOS 6.3.1.5

I have my doubts about Amazon upgrading it. So far, the only Fires getting FireOS 7 (9.x Pie) are the new HD 8's and last year's HD 10. The Fire 7 from last year is still running FireOS 6.

Try updating your Fire: Settings --> Device Options --> System Updates

tomsem · 06-06-2020, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

There is a FireOS 6 (7.x Nougat) and your 2018 8th Gen Fire HD 8 should be running FireOS 6.3.1.5

I have my doubts about Amazon upgrading it. So far, the only Fires getting FireOS 7 (9.x Pie) are the new HD 8's and last year's HD 10. The Fire 7 from last year is still running FireOS 6.

Try updating your Fire: Settings --> Device Options --> System Updates

Hah, it is older than I thought. It is 7th generation Fire HD8. 2017, then. It’s still getting updates, but it is 5.6.6.0 (25May2020).

booklover6 · 06-09-2020, 05:30 AM

Google Play store and a few apps successfully installed on the new Fire HD 8.

Amiieey · 07-10-2020, 12:01 PM

Is there a significant difference between the new HD 8 and the last year one? Would it warrant a purchase of the new one?

I know everyone's standards are different but I'm wondering if there's any big differences. I mainly use mine for comics or reading.

issybird · 07-10-2020, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amiieey

Is there a significant difference between the new HD 8 and the last year one? Would it warrant a purchase of the new one?

I know everyone's standards are different but I'm wondering if there's any big differences. I mainly use mine for comics or reading.

I’d say there isn’t a significant difference, certainly not if you’re satisfied with your current version.

In any case, wait! I’ve got the 2018 HD8 myself and it’s good enough for my purposes, although it’s pretty pokey. A little more speed would be nice. My point is, that I got it for Black Friday in 2018, by trading in the version before. At Black Friday sale price + trade-in credit + discount because of trade-in, I spent a total of $27.50 to upgrade, and that was well worth it. I’m hoping there will be a nearly as good a deal this fall. In any case, if your current device is good enough, there’s no reason not to wait and see.

haertig · 07-10-2020, 12:46 PM

I agree. Wait for a sale. IMHO, the type of person who is satisfied with a Fire's performance is not the type of person to jump on the newest version all that quickly. I include myself in this group. Face it, a Fire tablet is quite underpowered as tablets go. So even if they advertise "150% of the previous tablets performance!", that's still a very slow tablet.

The Fire tablet meets my needs. So much so, that I bought a second one recently for my mom. It meets her needs. Note that we are not trying to transcode video on the things. We use them modestly, being the perfect target audience for a $49 device (on sale).

A Fire tablet offers a ton of "bang for the buck", but if you leave off the "for the buck" caveat, then it doesn't offer much "bang" at all.

barryem · 07-10-2020, 07:38 PM

I also usually get a Fire tablet on Black Friday. If they have a sale I'll probably get one again on Black friday.

I don't use them much. I have other, better tablets. But I'll keep it plugged in and charged and ready to go so if I want a tablet really quick it's always there. That's hard on the battery but since I'm replacing it every year I don't care. I usually give my old one to some neighbor in my retirement home.

The new one is a bit faster, at least it's supposed to be. And it charges faster but if you leave it plugged in all the time like I do that means it'll ruin the battery faster so that's a drawback for me, although a pretty minor one.

I may decide to get the Plus model next Black Friday to get the wireless charging, but I might not. I'm not sure it's worth the extra $20 to me, the way I use it.

Barry

tomsem · 07-10-2020, 08:26 PM

I have a couple of Fires I’m prepared to trade in towards a new one, but it has to be a better deal than the current deal ($30 credit for the 2018 HD8 with no discount towards a new one). Probably $5 for the older HD7.

I pulled out my HD6 (it has been sitting on shelf for maybe a year). The battery was still at 100%!

kevinp · 08-02-2020, 09:27 PM

I have a 6th gen HD 8 that I use everyday. I've installed the Google Play store and the Firefox browser. Unfortunately, Firefox is very slow on my tablet. Is there a considerable speed upgrade on the new HD 8 that warrants replacing my tablet? I'd be interested in speed comparisons between the HD 8 (standard) and HD 8 Plus with the 3 GB of memory also.

tomsem · 08-03-2020, 02:55 AM

I ran Geekbench 3 on my HD8 (2017) and HD8 Plus (2020).
Single core score 629 vs 922
Multi-Core score 1860 vs 2792

So roughly 50% faster.

GFX OpenGL
Here it is more dramatic. The older Fire couldn’t even run some of the tests, and of those they both ran, the Plus was 2-6x faster.

It’s also much faster than my Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is a little faster than my older Fire.

I don’t intend to install Google Play or use the Plus for any web browsing but it is reasonable to suppose that Firefox would run much better on one of the new Fires than on your (even older than my old) Fire.

That said, it is a cheap tablet so it isn’t going to blow you away.

stumped · 08-03-2020, 04:55 AM

that's not really a far comparison- you are pitting a 2017 model against a 2020, but for fire tablets, each yearly new gen has added incremental performance improvements
I postulate the a 2020 HD8 will be just as fast as a 2020 HD8plus ( all the plus adds is wireless charging, a bit more RAM, maybe one other thing - but its same CPU , same GPU, same screen, same Fire OS. I cant see how you can get a significant speed increase out of that

kevinp · 08-03-2020, 10:58 AM

That's exactly the comparison I was looking for. I wanted to know how the new tablets ran compared to the old! Also, I suspect the "bit more RAM" would probably make a difference when there's multiple tabs "open" in Firefox.

I realize it's a cheap tablet and don't expect great things. But, for what it is, even my old one has been great for what I use it for (except the web browsing). I will definitely get one of the new ones, but I'm willing to wait until they go on sale. My old tablet still works fine.

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06-05-2020, 06:07 PM	#76
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,942 Karma: 27060153 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	Another question: is the USB-C port good for anything other than charging and USB file transfer? Can you plugin in a hub, Keyboard/mouse, storage, Ethernet etc.?

06-05-2020, 06:30 PM	#77
HLS Wizard Posts: 2,133 Karma: 16342480 Join Date: May 2017 Device: Sage, Scribe, Boox Note 2 Plus, iPad Pros and Samsungs S6,S7,S8	I am tired o the same look year after year. it is in a serious need of an upgrade

06-05-2020, 07:31 PM	#78
barryem Wizard Posts: 2,459 Karma: 68781975 Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Arkansas Device: Paperwhite 4	I have last year's Fire 8. It's not a bad device and it's cheap but my Samsung Galaxy 8 is much better for only a few dollars more. It has a standard Android interface. It has a better screen and much better speakers. I use both of them mostly for watching videos and the screen on the Fire is okay. It's very good for videos. The speaker isn't. It's pretty useless without a bluetooth speaker. I understand the new one has a similar speaker with similarly poor volume. Barry

06-09-2020, 05:30 AM	#81
booklover6 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,545 Karma: 14008730 Join Date: May 2008 Location: PA (USA) Device: Kobo Clara, 2E, Libre 1, PW4, PW5, 2022 Kindle, Kobo Libre Colour	Google Play store and a few apps successfully installed on the new Fire HD 8.

07-10-2020, 12:01 PM	#82
Amiieey Connoisseur Posts: 71 Karma: 2032204 Join Date: Aug 2015 Device: Kobo Clara HD, Likebook Mars, Kindle Fire HD 8	Is there a significant difference between the new HD 8 and the last year one? Would it warrant a purchase of the new one? I know everyone's standards are different but I'm wondering if there's any big differences. I mainly use mine for comics or reading.

07-10-2020, 12:46 PM	#84
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,897 Karma: 31522252 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Fire HD8 Gen7, Moto G7, Sansa Clip v2, Ruizu X26	I agree. Wait for a sale. IMHO, the type of person who is satisfied with a Fire's performance is not the type of person to jump on the newest version all that quickly. I include myself in this group. Face it, a Fire tablet is quite underpowered as tablets go. So even if they advertise "150% of the previous tablets performance!", that's still a very slow tablet. The Fire tablet meets my needs. So much so, that I bought a second one recently for my mom. It meets her needs. Note that we are not trying to transcode video on the things. We use them modestly, being the perfect target audience for a $49 device (on sale). A Fire tablet offers a ton of "bang for the buck", but if you leave off the "for the buck" caveat, then it doesn't offer much "bang" at all.

07-10-2020, 07:38 PM	#85
barryem Wizard Posts: 2,459 Karma: 68781975 Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Arkansas Device: Paperwhite 4	I also usually get a Fire tablet on Black Friday. If they have a sale I'll probably get one again on Black friday. I don't use them much. I have other, better tablets. But I'll keep it plugged in and charged and ready to go so if I want a tablet really quick it's always there. That's hard on the battery but since I'm replacing it every year I don't care. I usually give my old one to some neighbor in my retirement home. The new one is a bit faster, at least it's supposed to be. And it charges faster but if you leave it plugged in all the time like I do that means it'll ruin the battery faster so that's a drawback for me, although a pretty minor one. I may decide to get the Plus model next Black Friday to get the wireless charging, but I might not. I'm not sure it's worth the extra $20 to me, the way I use it. Barry

07-10-2020, 08:26 PM	#86
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,942 Karma: 27060153 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	I have a couple of Fires I’m prepared to trade in towards a new one, but it has to be a better deal than the current deal ($30 credit for the 2018 HD8 with no discount towards a new one). Probably $5 for the older HD7. I pulled out my HD6 (it has been sitting on shelf for maybe a year). The battery was still at 100%!

08-02-2020, 09:27 PM	#87
kevinp Fanatic Posts: 583 Karma: 3549018 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Michigan Device: Kindle Scribe, Kindle PW (10th & 11th gen); Fire HD 10	I have a 6th gen HD 8 that I use everyday. I've installed the Google Play store and the Firefox browser. Unfortunately, Firefox is very slow on my tablet. Is there a considerable speed upgrade on the new HD 8 that warrants replacing my tablet? I'd be interested in speed comparisons between the HD 8 (standard) and HD 8 Plus with the 3 GB of memory also.

08-03-2020, 02:55 AM	#88
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,942 Karma: 27060153 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	I ran Geekbench 3 on my HD8 (2017) and HD8 Plus (2020). Single core score 629 vs 922 Multi-Core score 1860 vs 2792 So roughly 50% faster. GFX OpenGL Here it is more dramatic. The older Fire couldn’t even run some of the tests, and of those they both ran, the Plus was 2-6x faster. It’s also much faster than my Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is a little faster than my older Fire. I don’t intend to install Google Play or use the Plus for any web browsing but it is reasonable to suppose that Firefox would run much better on one of the new Fires than on your (even older than my old) Fire. That said, it is a cheap tablet so it isn’t going to blow you away.

08-03-2020, 04:55 AM	#89
stumped Wizard Posts: 3,305 Karma: 10259306 Join Date: May 2016 Device: kobo forma, Kobo Libra, Huawei media Tab, fire HD10, PW3 HDX8.9,	that's not really a far comparison- you are pitting a 2017 model against a 2020, but for fire tablets, each yearly new gen has added incremental performance improvements I postulate the a 2020 HD8 will be just as fast as a 2020 HD8plus ( all the plus adds is wireless charging, a bit more RAM, maybe one other thing - but its same CPU , same GPU, same screen, same Fire OS. I cant see how you can get a significant speed increase out of that

08-03-2020, 10:58 AM	#90
kevinp Fanatic Posts: 583 Karma: 3549018 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Michigan Device: Kindle Scribe, Kindle PW (10th & 11th gen); Fire HD 10	That's exactly the comparison I was looking for. I wanted to know how the new tablets ran compared to the old! Also, I suspect the "bit more RAM" would probably make a difference when there's multiple tabs "open" in Firefox. I realize it's a cheap tablet and don't expect great things. But, for what it is, even my old one has been great for what I use it for (except the web browsing). I will definitely get one of the new ones, but I'm willing to wait until they go on sale. My old tablet still works fine.