السيد مراجعة الخليج للتكنولوجيا : 8 Reasons I Would Never Buy My Kid an Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet

Slow Speed

There’s no way around saying this so I’ll just say it: the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet is slow. It might be because I am spoiled by the speed of my iPads but navigating the interface of the Fire HD 8 is awful. What I’m used to with the iPad is that every swipe or every finger press on a setting instantly causes an action.  

With the Fire HD 8 Kids tablet, the opposite is usually my experience. These tablets are insufficiently powered for what they are asking users to do. Jumping between apps is excruciatingly slow and often takes multiple screen taps for any action to take effect. 

The reasoning here is that to keep costs down, Amazon fitted its kid’s tablets with slower processors and a lower amount of RAM. I agree this is a great way to keep the cost low, but it’s also a great way to get me to throw this tablet across a room.

Poor App Selection

I won’t deny the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet has a good enough selection of apps. It never lacked something for the kids to do as the basics are all there. I can give credit to Amazon for curating a pretty great selection of educational apps. 

However, even with some good choices on Amazon’s part, these Amazon tablets are missing many apps available from both Android and iPadOS. The thousands, if not tens of thousands, of educational apps available on both of the traditional app stores versus the curated Amazon selection, are quickly discovered. 

It’s as if Amazon has put a moat filled with alligators around a castle that is the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet to keep bad apps from getting in. The caveat here is that it also traps everyone inside this metaphorical castle, so no one is getting out and seeing what else is out there.

No Google Services

Building on the poor app selection thought, not having access to Google services is a big downside. My kid’s elementary school uses Google for just about everything. What helps is that their iPads can access everything they need from Google Classroom to Google Docs and Sheets. These are two of their most important homework elements and yet, Amazon doesn’t include access to these services at all. 

While you might say to me that this is because the Fire HD 8 Kids tablet isn’t geared toward older kids (my kids are both younger than 10), I would say this simply isn’t true. Amazon offers the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet that is billed as being good for ages 6-12. 

Yes, as I alluded to above, you can install Google Services with a few different file downloads. It’s a “hack” to be certain, but you can have Google installed and enabled within 5 minutes. The good news is that if you need to send the tablet to Amazon, just reset everything. There is no warranty risk here but I also recognize many parents don’t want to go this route.

Not Enough Storage

When you consider the base model of the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet only comes with 32GB of storage, it’s pretty disappointing. I’m confident Amazon’s belief system here is that because it doesn’t offer a similar library of apps as the Play Store, it can provide less space. The downside to this is that as a parent, I want to have as much storage as possible. Even if the camera isn’t great, it’s still there and kids do goofy things with cameras. 

It’s not at all surprising how fast photos and videos can fill up storage for anyone who has ever owned a phone or tablet before. More importantly, any tech-savvy parent can easily install the Play Store on this tablet with just a few downloads. Once installed, a door to far more apps is kicked wide open and this means storage for downloading even more apps.

Disappointing Camera

Look, I get it, nobody should buy their child the Fire HD 8 Kids tablet for the camera. It’s just difficult to ignore that once you give a kid a device with a camera, they are going to use it. As sure as I am that the sun will come up tomorrow, a child with a camera is going to get creative. The thing is, the cameras on Amazon’s tablets feel like an afterthought for both the adult and kid-friendly versions. 

I can’t even call them good, just passable. They will take photos and videos and the front-facing camera works for video calls with grandparents, but that’s about it. Anything else beyond that is likely to provide grainy, if not blurry, results. 

I don’t think anyone should use a tablet for photos, but kids are going to be kids, so Amazon should upgrade the camera with future models.

Screen Quality

One more big downside of picking up the Kids HD 8 tablet is the overall screen quality. The 1280 x 800 8-inch display offers 189 pixels per inch, which is adequate for most use cases. However, when you pick up an iPad and compare it, the difference is apparent. It’s disappointing how Amazon seemingly skimped on screen quality, which I again think is to help keep costs down. 

Look, I’m not going to go as far as saying the screen is unusable as that would be untrue. I do think the screen is not quite HD. When it comes to watching videos, it’s just not good enough. A young child won’t know the difference, but as soon as a child hits 5 or 6 years old, I’m confident they are going to see an iPad and know something is different.

Build Quality

I’m confident in saying no one orders the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet because of its build quality. While the Kids version comes with a bulky case to protect against bumps and bruises, Amazon tablets are just okay when it comes to build quality. Even cheap Android tablets feel like they are sturdier and better built than the Amazon Kids Fire HD 8 tablet. 

The good news for most parents is that build quality doesn’t matter as kids don’t know the difference. As a parent, I can tell the difference between iPad build quality and the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet. With the big case Amazon includes to keep the HD 8 safe from clumsy kids, the reality is that it’s also hiding a so-so build quality.

Infrequent Software Updates

One of the best reasons to own an iPad is the reliable updates Apple delivers every year. These updates often include new features that help make your tablet feel like new, at least for a while. On the other hand, Amazon updates for its Fire HD 8 Kids tablet are infrequent at best. 

Another benefit of owning an iPad is that Apple almost assuredly will support its hardware for 5 years or more. With Amazon, it’s hard to say when your tablet will stop receiving updates of any kind. Whether it’s a bug fix or adding new features, there is no guarantee Amazon will continue supporting its tablets for the same period as Apple.