Amazon Fire HD 8 review

Amazon is trying to find the perfect mix of quality and price to capture the low-end tablet market. The updated £90 Fire HD sees the company break new ground, but you’ll need to make another decision before you buy

PRICE WHEN REVIEWED

from £89.99

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 REVIEW

For over a decade, Amazon has been the king of online shopping. Need a book with a few quid off? Amazon. Emergency fancy dress outfit? Amazon. The company has wisely decided that it should not try to compete with the best high-end tablets, but instead make affordable devices that are windows to all its best online content. The updated Amazon Fire HD 8 tries to perfect a combination of function and value, but whether or not you’ll agree it does depends on whether you are willing to invest in an Amazon Prime membership. Here’s our Amazon Fire HD 8 review.

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 REVIEW: PRICE AND WHERE TO BUY

Predictably, you can buy the new, updated Fire HD 8 direct from Amazon. It is well priced for the specs, starting at £89.99 with 16GB of storage, double the previous generation.

There’s also a 32GB option that costs £109.99. These two options display adverts on the lock screen for games, books, films and music from Amazon. If you don’t want ads (we didn’t) they will cheekily charge you £10 extra for the pleasure. Still, we think £99.99 for a 16GB tablet is a great deal.

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 REVIEW: DESIGN AND BUILD

The updated Fire HD 8 has a different design from its predecessor, which had a black bezel and glossy black back panel. The new tablet again has an 8in screen with black surrounding bezels but this time a matte plastic rear casing in four colour options: black, blue, tangerine (orange) and magenta (purple).

We’d say that the black version is preferable, simply because it does not give away the tablet’s cheapness. Our blue review sample, while not horrendous in appearance, did keep reminding us it only cost ninety quid. Then again, if you like bright colours or you’re buying for a child, the colours are quite appealing. The unit as a whole measures 214 mm x 128 mm x 9.2 mm, a form you will barely notice in a backpack or handbag.

While the plastic back is not premium in any way, the device overall is surprisingly sturdy. There’s barely any give or flex in the plastic, giving the tablet a reassuring heft. The front of the device has no physical buttons, all of which are reserved for its top edge. It needs only three; a lock/power button on the top right next to the micro-USB port and microphone, and a volume rocker on the top left next to the headphone jack.

On the rear is a 2Mp camera, while the front is a very low-res VGA lens for video calling and (very grainy) selfies.

There is also a welcome micro-SD card slot on the top right edge of the Fire HD 8 that supports up to an additional 200GB of storage – excellent to see on such an affordable device. The two speakers, one at the top and one at the bottom edge of the left edge as you hold it portrait give away the preferable landscape orientation that Amazon has in mind. It starts to give away the fact Amazon is expecting you to watch Amazon Prime videos on the Fire HD 8.

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 REVIEW: DISPLAY

A device called the Fire HD 8 obviously has an HD screen, with a resolution of 1280 x 800 and 189ppi. Also promised is HD video playback, which thankfully holds true and looks excellent. We streamed some episodes of Mr Robot using our Amazon Prime account, and the picture was razor sharp – but we had to have the screen brightness pretty much on maximum. You’ll find you’ll need to do so for most use cases on the Fire HD 8, as otherwise the screen looks quite murky.

Although video playback is HD, text and icons display slightly pixelated. This does not detract from readability, but Fire HD 8 reserves its best display capabilities for HD content direct from Amazon Prime. In our use, even streaming videos from YouTube were normally slightly grainy compared to our experience on more high-end tablets.

However, this wasn’t too noticeable and as with much of the experience of the HD 8, we were reminded that this did only cost £90 – but this ends up being a positive reflection rather than a nagging disappointment. At this price point, there is always compromise, and with the Fire HD 8 there is an acceptable level of it.

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 REVIEW: SPECS, PERFORMANCE AND FEATURES

At its heart the Fire HD 8 is a streaming device. Amazon pre-loads it with apps for Kindle, Amazon Video, Amazon Appstore, Amazon Games, Amazon Music… you get the idea. While a decent enough web browsing tool, the Fire HD 8 is intended as a portal to Amazon content. An Amazon Prime membership is therefore not just preferable; it’s pretty much essential. Without one, you’re locked into the Amazon ecosystem without the key to unlock anything.

The specs of the device reflect that it’s best used for media streaming or low-requirement games. The processor is a 1.3GHz quad-core with 1.5GB RAM – basically enough for the types of content you have access to. The tablet is generally responsive, but its quickest when dealing with Amazon’s own apps. Stray into apps like Facebook or the Silk browser and things chug a little slower.

We used the trial month of Amazon Prime that is promoted when you set up the tablet, and found that it was a breeze to boot up tons of films and TV shows, sync all of our existing Kindle books and hook it up to our (non-Amazon) email account.

AMAZON FIRE HD 8 REVIEW: SOFTWARE AND APPS

As the tablet runs Amazon’s own Fire OS, you don’t have access to the full wealth of content available to users of Apple’s iOS or Google’s Play Store. This isn’t to say that the Amazon Appstore is limited, it just takes us back to the necessity of an Amazon Prime membership should you wish to justify purchasing the Fire HD 8.

However, if you really didn’t want to buy into Prime but like the price, apps available to you from the Amazon Appstore such as Facebook, BBC iPlayer and even Sky Go or Netflix mean that you can still use the HD 8 as a basic Internet device with third party streaming services. But given the prominence of Amazon’s services in the interface and the ease at which it allows you to access them with a subscription, we’d still recommend pairing the HD 8 with Prime.

At this point it’s worth noting that Google apps are not available from the Appstore. This means it’s hard to recommend the Fire HD 8 as a work or productivity tool (although the Evernote app is available) because you can’t sync existing Google calendars, Google Drive and, importantly for casual users, YouTube. You can still access YouTube through Amazon’s Silk browser, but the browser is a bit clunky and unrefined, and highlights again that the Fire HD 8 is best when simply streaming via Amazon apps.

Nor can you download popular apps like Microsoft Word. However, if you want a tablet that allows easy streaming of your favourite TV shows with the bonus of access to social media, Skype and online banking, the HD 8 is well worth considering.

A good feature of the Fire HD 8 is Amazon’s Fire for Kids app. Should you wish to entertain your children with the tablet, you can set up a separate profile for them to use. This allows you to set parental controls, limit what content they can access and even set time limits to prevent square eyes. It cleverly time limits games and videos but leaves unlimited time for reading, helping you to encourage the right balance of learning through a tablet they might want to regularly get their hands on.

This and other features, such as a kids camera mode and a Bed Time feature which encourages routine make the Fire HD 8 a good choice for a parent who wants access to their own Prime subscription with the ability to mould their child’s use of the tablet around different, web-safe preferences.

One thing to note is that Amazon cheekily (or maddeningly, depending on your temper) doesn’t let you give your child access to specific Amazon Prime content without first signing up to Fire for Kids Unlimited. It starts from £1.99 per month, but given you already may spend £79.99 per year on Prime membership, it’s pretty annoying. It does highlight how often Amazon’s adverts and extra payment options encroach unpleasantly on the user experience.

OUR VERDICT

The Amazon Fire HD 8 ticks a lot of the right boxes. It’s affordable, well built and plays back video to an exceptionally high standard. But we’ll say it again – you need Amazon Prime to fully enjoy it. It’s not that it is a complete necessity, but the prominence in the operating system of Amazon’s own apps and services means without a Prime membership it’s a frustrating user experience. This caveat aside, it’s an incredibly priced media consumption tablet that exemplifies Amazon’s place in the low-end market – this over makes it an attractive, interestingly unique option.

Chuwi Hi12 Windows 10 Tablet Review

Windows tablets that can double up as a laptop when required are becoming increasingly popular, but Microsoft’s Surface line is expensive. Alternative Windows 10 tablets such as this Chuwi Hi12 can meet most user’s needs, and at a much lower price.

PRICE WHEN REVIEWED

£194.71 plus import duty from China

CHUWI HI12 WINDOWS 10 TABLET REVIEW: ALL-DAY COMPUTING UNDER £200

Windows tablets that can double up as a laptop when required are becoming increasingly popular, but Microsoft’s Surface line is expensive. Alternative Windows 10 tablets such as this Chuwi Hi12 can meet most user’s needs, and at a much lower price. Also see: Best Windows tablets 2016 and Chuwi HiBook review.

The Surface Pro 4 is incredibly fast, especially in its Core i7 incarnation, but some users really don’t need that much power. For general computing tasks such as reading email, browsing the web and completing basic productivity tasks, it could be considered overkill. Also see: Best new tablets coming in 2016.

The Chuwi Hi12 has a spec more in line with the entry-level Surface Pro 3 with which it shares similar specifications and dimensions. There’s a quad-core fifth-generation Intel Cherry Trail Z8300 processor (Surface Pro 3 has a fourth-gen Core i3, i5 or i7), 4GB of DDR3L RAM and 64GB of flash storage (plus support for an additional 128GB via microSD). In common with the Surface Pro 3 the screen is large and high in resolution at 12in and 2160x1440 pixels, but the Chuwi’s battery is higher in capacity at 11,000mAh (Surface 5,547mAh) – you’ll easily get a full working day and plenty of juice to spare from the Hi12.

You might also like: Surface Pro 4 review, Surface 3 review, Surface Pro 3 review

CHUWI HI12 REVIEW: UK PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

The Chuwi Hi12 is available from GearBest for £194.71 (a version that dual-boots Android 5.1 Lollipop is slightly cheaper at £180.28). GearBest also sells the optional keyboard with trackpad, which costs £33.47. GearBest offers free shipping to the UK, but when importing goods from China you may be required to pay import duty. Read our advice on buying grey market tech.

By comparison, the cheapest Surface Pro 4 tablet starts at £749, and even the standard Surface 3 costs upwards of £419. These are both faster and have a more premium design, but as we’ll explain below the Chuwi is a great budget alternative

CHUWI HI12 REVIEW: DESIGN AND BUILD

It might have a super-low price tag, but Chuwi hasn’t skimped on the build materials. The Hi12 has a tough grey (also available in gold) metal case with a large and high-resolution 12in, 2160x1440-pixel (216ppi), 3:2 IPS display that is sharp and offers great colours and viewing angles. From the front the Chuwi looks good, although a tendency to attract fingerprints and various logos on the rear weaken the overall design. See all Windows tablet reviews.

The Chuwi is large and heavy for a tablet, as you’d expect given the screen and battery specs, and the keyboard adds another 600g to the 852g package. It’s still just as portable as most 12in laptops, though, and shouldn’t weigh you down too much when carried in a bag.

Stereo speakers sit at the bottom left and right edges of the device, so you have to be careful you don’t muffle them with your palms when holding up the tablet, but the volume goes reasonably loud. For volume we found it about level with our iPad Air 2, although the Chuwi gave a slightly tinnier sound.

Various ports and connections sit along the device’s left edge. There’s Micro-USB for charging the tablet, mini-HDMI for plugging it into a big screen, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a mic and a microSD slot that can accept up to 128GB. There are also front- and rear cameras, rated at 2- and 5Mp respectively.

As we’ve mentioned the Chuwi can be either tablet or laptop, with a magnetic, plug-and-play keyboard dock sold separately. If you’ll be doing a lot of typing then the keyboard is a lifesaver, holding firm to the tablet and charging itself from the Chuwi’s battery. The keys are generously sized and well spaced, and typing isn’t the chore it is on many Bluetooth keyboards.

You can tilt back the screen for more comfortable typing - although not quite far enough in our opinion, an extra 15- or 20 degrees would be ideal – or flip the tablet round to conceal the keyboard when used in tablet mode. A USB port sits at each side of the keyboard (for left- or right-handed use), but it doesn’t have enough power to drive much more than a mouse. In our opinion the keyboard itself is fine in use, although we’d prefer a UK- to US layout.

We do have a gripe with the keyboard, though: its built-in trackpad is horrendous, far too easy to inadvertently touch and move the cursor and, as we found, use to accidentally zoom in or out onscreen and even resize the desktop icons. A button on the keyboard let's you turn off the trackpad, although you will need to plug in a USB mouse.

CHUWI HI12 REVIEW: HARDWARE AND PERFORMANCE

Core specs for the Chuwi Hi12 include a fifth-generation Intel Cherry Trail 64-bit processor (the Intel Atom X5-Z8300), clocked at 1.44GHz and able to boost to 1.84GHz, 500MHz Intel HD Graphics Gen8, 4GB of DDR3L RAM and 64GB of flash storage (plus 128GB via microSD).

In testing the Chuwi I passed it over to my partner who runs a building firm, and would normally use a combination of a mid-range Windows 10 laptop and an iPad Air 2 to write quotes, check drawings, manage accounts and such like. In his opinion the Chuwi is much better suited to the task than either his laptop or his iPad, portable and plenty fast enough for use with basic productivity tasks, and the long battery life is a killer feature. The only time he saw any signs of lag was when he had several apps open at once.

In my own experience with the Chuwi, I’d suggest that for most users it is more than powerful enough for everyday computing tasks. Intensive games and creative applications will be a no-go for the Hi12, but for checking your emails, having a nose at Facebook and such-like it will play just fine.

We ran the Hi12 through Geekbench 3, AnTuTu and PCMark8 to get an idea of how its performance compares to other Windows 10 tablets.

In PCMark8 Home the Chuwi recorded 1010 points. That’s about half the score of a proper budget laptop, such as the £300 Asus X555LA-XX290H which scored 2028 points, but it’s fair to say most Windows 10 tablets wouldn’t do so well. For example, the £279 Asus Transformer T100HA scored 1338 points in PCMark8, while the £549 Acer Aspire Switch 11 turned in 1916 points. It’s difficult to get excited about the Chuwi’s score, but given the price difference it’s really not all that bad. Although the Surface Pro 4 turned in 2682 points, this was the mid-range Core i5 model.

The Chuwi gave a better showing in Geekbench 3 and AnTuTu. It recorded 792 points in Geekbench 3 single-core and 2309 points in the multi-core component, then 75,055 points in AnTuTu. For a cheap tablet these scores aren’t bad, although compared to the Windows competition they look low. The Asus laptop managed  1906- and 3981 points respectively in Geekbench’s single- and multi-core tests, while Asus’ tablet was capable of 948- and 3095 points. The Acer Aspire Switch 11 turned in 2208 points single-core and 3975 points multi-core. An entry-level Surface Pro 4 with a Core m3-6Y30 processor  is capable of around 2495 single-core and 4811 multi-core according to the Geekbench database. Also see: Best tablets 2016.

Battery life is outstanding, and the 11,000mAh cell should last all day and then some. It’s quick to charge, too, able to accept a 3A input – we found it took around 8 hours to refill the battery with a fast charger.

We had an issue with the built-in microphone not being recognised by the tablet, but this was solved by uninstalling the Intel audio driver and rebooting the Chuwi.

OUR VERDICT

At under £200 the Chuwi Hi12 is a fantastic Windows 10 tablet with a large, high-resolution screen and capable – if not fast – performance. Battery life is excellent and the design is mostly good, but if you plump for the optional keyboard consider yourself warned about the trackpad.

Huawei MediaPad M3 review

PRICE WHEN REVIEWED :

from €349

HUAWEI MEDIAPAD M3 REVIEW

For years a strictly B2B company, Huawei is making strides in the consumer market in an attempt to put the pressure on rivals like Samsung and LG. The MediaPad M3 is the company’s latest attempt to make the best tablet on the market. Announced at IFA 2016 alongside the Nova smartphone and its bigger version the Nova Plus, we got our hands on the slate beforehand to put it through its paces. We take a look at the Huawei MediaPad M3 and, basically, see if it’s as good as an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

HUAWEI MEDIAPAD M3 REVIEW: PRICE AND WHERE TO BUY

At the time of writing, the MediaPad M3 is not yet on sale. It'll be available in selected regions, including the UK, from 26 September 2016. The UK pricing is not yet confirmed, but the base model (32GB Wi-Fi only)  €349, which is roughly £290. The iPad mini 4, for comparison, currently starts at 16GB Wi-Fi only for £319.

The 32GB model with LTE is €399, which is the same price you'll pay for the 64GB Wi-Fi only model. The highest priced MediaPad is €449, which gets you 64GB and LTE. 

We'll update this page as soon as UK pricing is confirmed, along with where you can buy.

HUAWEI MEDIAPAD M3 REVIEW: DESIGN AND BUILD

 This tablet is the follow up to Huawei’s MediaPad M2 10.0, and the most obvious design change the orientation from landscape to portrait. As the name suggests, it was a 10in tablet. The new MediaPad M3 scales things down to 8.4in along with becoming portrait in design. This makes the M3 feel distinctly thin, almost like a huge smartphone to look at and hold. When compared with an iPad mini 4, its screen is taller and its bezels pleasingly thin. The MediaPad M3 is a tad thicker than that 6.1mm iPad, coming in at 7.3mm - barely noticeable.

There’s no denying the MediaPad M3 is a beautiful piece of kit. It has diamond-cut chamfered edges, and the same curvature and finish as some of the company’s flagship smartphones like the Huawei P9. Now that the M3 is portrait to naturally hold, there’s a front facing camera at the top and a fingerprint scanner/home button at the bottom.

The tablet loses the four speaker grills of the MediaPad M2, instead having two; one each on the top and bottom edges of the device. They are, like on the M2, manufactured by Huawei’s audio partner Harman Kardon. They still manage to pump out audio at a decent level, but it's what you'd expect from a tablet. For long video viewing sessions, reach for some headphones.

On that bottom edge of our review sample was also a microphone, micro-USB port for charging and data transfer as well as a SIM card slot if you fancy a cellular plan.

The headphone jack is located on the top while the rear of the device is a clean silver sheen, with an iPhone-esque aerial line at the bottom, subtle Huawei logo and a white aerial strip at the top that also houses the camera sensor. The left edge is completely clean, while the right has a subtle volume rocker just above the power/lock button.

Overall we reckon Huawei has done a great job with the design of the MediaPad M3. Portrait orientation makes sense on an 8.4in device, and most tablets designed landscape make sense if used with a keyboard. You can hold the MediaPad M3 with one hand - just – but there won’t be much you can do other than read an e-book. At 310g you’ll probably be using it two-handed for all tasks.

It’s not a complete iPad clone – which is good – but the screen is perhaps a sliver too tall rather than wide. We can imagine the MediaPad M3 as a to-die-for 5.5in smartphone, but as an 8.4in tablet, the dimensions are just a tiny bit off. Only just.

HUAWEI MEDIAPAD M3 REVIEW: DISPLAY

The display of the MediaPad M3 is excellent, boasting a full-HD 2560 x 1600 resolution with 359 pixels per inch. While the design of a tablet is first port of call for impressions of premium quality, it has to be married with the software and how the screen displays it all. Thankfully the MediaPad M3 is well prepared to deliver the media its name promises.

Colours and app icons pop nicely; it’s a pleasure to zip around Android Marshmallow. If anything, the backlight could be a tad brighter, particularly during the day, but we are nit picking slightly. However, next to an iPad Air (first generation), the whites on full brightness are crisper and clearer on the MediaPad M3, though arguably not quite as natural.

There's also an 'eye protection' mode, something akin to Apple's Night Shift but less refined. You can toggle it on and off manually via the pull down shortcut tray, and you may want to use it if reading in the dark, but otherwise it's a bit gimmicky. 

Games like Asphalt 8 look amazing, while video playback is as smooth as you’d expect from Huawei’s Kirin CPU on its latest flagship tablet. The display more than holds it own here compared to rival devices like the iPad mini 4 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. 

HUAWEI MEDIAPAD M3 REVIEW: SPECS AND BENCHMARKS

As mentioned, the MediaPad M3 is rocking a Huawei-made Kirin 950 processor, paired with a respectable 4GB RAM. Our LTE model came with 32GB of on-board, non expandable storage which may not be enough - there's luckily a 64GB version, which is more reasonable, but costs €449, €50 more than the 32GB model with LTE.

There's also a slot that takes a nano SIM, but remember you can get a Wi-Fi only version if you prefer. It also takes a micro SD card for expandable storage up to 128GB. At 8.4in, the MediaPad M3 is a good size if you're after a tablet to use with a data plan as it's compact and light enough to carry around all day, stuffed full of your favourite music and films. 

The MediaPad M3 did very well in our standard benchmark tests. It scored an immense 5060 in Geekbench 4’s multi-core benchmark score. The iPad Air 2 (admittedly a two year old tablet) scored 4643, while the iPad mini 4 scored 3108. The M3 is actually not far behind the iPad Pro 9.7in that scored 5257. On paper, Huawei has produced a lightning quick tablet. In actuality, it can perform noticeably slow, but only in highly intense games such as Asphalt 8, where gameplay occasionally lagged.

For most users however, the MediaPad will be completely adequate for all tasks. Video playback is buttery smooth, and 8.4in is a great size for throwing in a bag for the bus or even a long plane ride; videos look amazing on it.

HUAWEI MEDIAPAD M3 REVIEW: CAMERAS

We’re still firmly in the ‘never take a photo with a tablet’ camp, but if you are truly forced to, then luckily the MediaPad M3 is up to the task. It has a 8Mp main camera that produces pleasingly crisp, defined images.

The front facing camera is the one you’ll probably use most for video calling (and those quintessential selfie sessions, some of you. There’s no shame in it). Huawei has put some quirky but largely useless functions on this camera’s software, such as a beautifying mode where you can make your eyes bigger and your skin whiter. It’s pretty odd.

Obviously this isn’t an iPad, so there’s no FaceTime, but if you’ve got a SIM card then you can use Google Duo, which is excellent. Failing that, Google other video service Hangouts works well, as does Skype. The MediaPad has no problems keeping up with these types of calls as long as you have a decent Wi-Fi connection.

OUR VERDICT

In a stagnated market, the Huawei MediaPad M3 initially feels a little underwhelming. After extended use though, we reckon it’s a cut above the mid-range, but then again, from €349, you are paying for it. It’s a good alternative to an iPad if you want an Android tablet that’s bigger than an iPad mini but smaller than an iPad Air 2. But, who is specifically looking for that? The MediaPad is excellent and we recommend it, but it lacks a certain ‘wow’ factor that's largely down to the high number of existing Android tablets. The MediaPad 3 is a cut above, but you should also consider Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series for a similarly excellent Android tablet experience.