Do I need a Kindle Fire 10" while they're on sale for $100?

[Craig234]

If not, I'm glad. Is it to wait for better or what?

If so, which model, e.g., less or more memory. Someone said that 'special offers', an obnoxious euphamism for advertising, wears down the battery? I still find it hard to believe years ago I got the 8.9" on sale for almost $500. Ugh. Battery stopped working before long, can't be replaced.

 

[UNCjigga]

It’s a trap. Buy an iPad... unless the Fire is for kids under 12 and you plan to use FreeTime.

 

[Craig234]

It’s a trap. Buy an iPad... unless the Fire is for kids under 12 and you plan to use FreeTime.

Isn't an ipad far more expensive? My budget for 'crap I don't need like this' fits the Fire better.

 

[balloonshark]

I have an older model and I like it because of the large screen. I mainly use it for simple tasks like surfing, checking the weather, etc. I even have Google Play installed which is pretty simple to do. The sd card slot is a nice bonus because you can buy the cheaper the 32GB model and still expand your storage if needed. The only thing though is I wish it was like a normal tablet instead of having the Amazon UI/launcher. With that said the lockscreen is the only place you see the special offers and once I swipe to open it always goes to all my app icons. You can pay the $15 to have the special offers removed and I think I remember hearing of people who called in to complain about them to having them removed.

 

[Roland00Address]

Both the 2020 Fire HD 8 Plus (which is different than the Fire HD 8) and the 2019 Fire HD 10" look disappointing.

The HD 8 Plus has 3 gbs of ram, and a quad core A53. A53s are faster in something than the Nexus 2013 and slower in some things than the Nexus 2013. This is because A53 is a 64 bit core but a "small" core that does less work in a similar mhz.

The HD 10 only has 2 gb of ram, but it had a quad core A73 and also an additional quad core A53 (so an octo core.) A73 is good, not great. Aka the best android silicon from 2016 when cortex A73 chips were shipping, but the iphone 7 soc (Apple a10) from 2016 massacred the best of the best A73 chips. Well the current $330 iPad (which goes on sale for $250) is much faster than the A73 since it too has an Apple a10 in it just like the iPhone 7.

-----

If the price was $80, while simultaneously having the HD 8 or 10 had the SoC of the A73, and the ram of the 3gb I consider it worth it. But currently I think the HD 8 Plus and HD 10 are both devices I find disappointing. Yes they may be cheap but they are both handicapped in a way that is going to show its age real quick with current software on Android, or mere web browsing.

 

[Craig234]

Thanks for the cold water, helping me say no to giving a company that does some bad things money.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I think the Fire HD 8 and 10 tablets are amazing for their price points. Especially when Amazon has a sale. They have sales on these so often I'd never buy one at their regular price. Just wait a few weeks, like now and they'll have another sale.
It's a cheap sturdy plastic tablet you can toss into the bag and take where ever and not worry too much if something bad happens too. You can load Google Play Services and install just about any regular Android app onto it.
If you just need something for web surfing, social media apps, playing some light games, reading books, watching movies, they work perfectly fine.

 

[ElFenix]

If not, I'm glad. Is it to wait for better or what?

If so, which model, e.g., less or more memory. Someone said that 'special offers', an obnoxious euphamism for advertising, wears down the battery? I still find it hard to believe years ago I got the 8.9" on sale for almost $500. Ugh. Battery stopped working before long, can't be replaced.

the 10" is new as of last october, so not worth waiting for something better from kindle land. and you won't find a better 10" android tablet for cheaper. you probably have to go up into the couple-few hundred dollar range to find a truly better android tablet, but at that price point you should be getting an ipad anyway.

my 8" fire hd tab (2016 or 17 version iirc) slowed down a lot when loading google play (common issue) so that it was barely usable for anything other watching netflix. haven't had that issue with the 10" i got earlier this year. worth it for the $80 i paid after discounts.

 

[Ravynmagi]

My Fire HD 8 2017 was getting obnoxiously slow too. I ended up doing a factory reset and reinstalling Google Play Services and now it's much better again. Might be worth a try if you don't mind starting over again. The Amazon Fire Toolbox from XDA also made it very easy to reinstall Google stuff again.

 

[Craig234]

Now, supporting messages for getting one. If I do, leaning against $40 for the extra memory; is it worth $15 to not get the advertising screens?

 

[ElFenix]

Now, supporting messages for getting one. If I do, leaning against $40 for the extra memory; is it worth $15 to not get the advertising screens?

the advertising is only on the lock screen. you don't have to pony up the $15 now, so you can decide if they bug you that much.

i have the base model and the memory is fine. if you were using it to take a bunch of pictures or video or downloading a week's worth of netflix then maybe it'd be an issue. i never ran out on my fire hd 8 and haven't on my 10.

 

[jkj2000]

Just my two cents: I have the HD 8 and HD 10, both the most recent 2020 and 2019 versions, respectively. For $100 the Fire HD 10 is quite good.

The lock screen ads are a minor annoyance, and you can pay $15 after the fact to remove them, or you can use an Amazon FireToolbox (look it up) to get rid of the Amazon experience and make it more like a generic Android tablet.

The battery life is excellent (the lock screen chews up almost no battery) and you get a 1920x1080 full HD display. I haven't noticed any sluggishness when surfing and reading eBooks or watching Amazon Prime or Netflix. The latest 2019 HD 10 is a considerable step up in computing power from the 2017 model; it's now an octo-core device and the cores are pretty decent. It's based on Android 9 now, which is pretty recent. I think the 2017 version was still running Android 5 behind the scenes?

It certainly isn't as good as a $329 iPad but it's less than 1/3rd the price. Keep in mind too the iPad is using an A10 chip, which is better than the cortex A73 inside the Fire HD 10, but it's almost four years old and an upgrade in the next iPad release is almost certain. If you're not gaming like mad the Fire HD 10 is a damn good device, and I say this as someone who resisted the Fire HD for years, using Barnes and Noble Nook HD tablets instead.

The Fire HD 8 is decent, only quad core and no full HD display but you can get one for $60 on sale. Both the HD 8 and HD 10 have fairly sturdy cases and aftermarket covers are plentiful.

 

[podspi]

IMHO, these tablets are GREAT for what tablets were originally released for: consuming media. These tablets have more than enough RAM to watch a movie, browse the web, etc. Where they fall down are productivity tasks and multitasking.

 

[Zaap]

We got the HD 8+ for my 5 year old son (so he's not constantly borrowing our iPads) and it's well worth it. As mentioned, the xda tool removes ads, installs Play Store, Nova launcher, and removes all Amazon bloat (if you choose). It's a great tablet once you get rid of all the crap.

It's pretty good for light games and media consumption. Not sure why anyone would expect heavy-lifting from this or any other tablet in the price range tho.

I love that the plus version has an extra gig of RAM and Qi wireless charging. Amazon is sneaky- they hint that you need their wireless stand, but you can set it on any ol' Qi stand and it charges just fine. As a bonus, it becomes an Echo Show when wireless charging, so when my son isn't using it I have it as an Echo in my home office.

 

[KylieHodges]

If you don't have a kindle you, I think it is not neccessary, but if you don't, it is a very good price