The $139.99 Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet is a repackaged version of the company’s Fire HD 8 ($99.99) suitable for children ages 3 to 7. This includes a large protective case, a 6-month subscription to Amazon Kids+, robust parental controls, and a 2-year worry-free warranty. Although tablets aren’t powerful enough to run today’s top games and apps, they are a reasonable starting point for young children. Amazon Kids+ content is the heart of the tablet experience, and the service has a lot of great content for kids, but we hope it doesn’t become an ongoing expense after the short trial period ends. All told, the $189.99 Fire HD 10 Kids has a bigger, better screen and runs more robust apps and games, making it the best Amazon tablet for most kids.
Design: All in a child-friendly case
Amazon makes a lot of tablets for kids. Fire Kids tablets are made for children ages 3 to 7. It comes with a thick case, a no-questions-asked warranty, and a six-month trial subscription to the Amazon Kids+ service, which offers carefully selected content for this young age group. . You can extend your trial to one year for an additional $10, which we recommend. After that, it costs $5.99 per month, or $48 per year for Prime members. For non-Prime members, it costs $7.99 per month or $79 per year.
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Fire Kids tablets come in three sizes. Fire 7 Kids starts at $99.99 with 16GB, Fire HD 8 Kids starts at $139.99 with 32GB, and Fire HD 10 Kids starts at $189.99 with 32GB and 1 year of Amazon Kids+.
Amazon also makes a tablet for older kids called the Fire Kids Pro. Kids Pro tablets offer all the same features at the same price as the Kids version. The only difference between them is that the case they come with is a little slimmer and the Amazon Kids+ subscription shows content suitable for children between 6 and 12 years old.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
Fire HD 8 Kids has the exact same hardware as Fire HD 8. Its defining feature is the included case, which Amazon says is safe even for children. The colorful, bulbous case is made of thick foam that completely encases your tablet. The tablet measures 8.7 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 18.3 ounces, making it larger and heavier than the tablet alone (7.94 x 5.40 x 0.37 inches, 11.88 ounces). Fire HD 10 Kids is larger (10.5 x 8.19 x 1.06 inches, 23.61 ounces) and Fire 7 Kids is smaller (6.4 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches, 15.1 ounces).
Case colors are Blue, Disney Pixar Cars, Disney Princess, or Grape. I reviewed the Disney Princess version, which is featured in this review. The price of the case alone is $32.99. The Disney Princess case is bright pink with purple accents and includes portraits of six Disney princesses on the back, including Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Merida, and Moana. The top of the case has a cutout that gives your little finger access to the power button, volume rocker, USB-C charging port, and 3.5mm headphone jack. Otherwise, your tablet will be completely locked into the case. The right side of the screen houses the selfie camera for video calls in landscape mode, while the top left of the device has a cutout for the rear camera.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
The case has a built-in plastic hinge that acts as a handle or adjustable stand when pulled out. The hinges of the Disney Princess case are dark purple. It requires a little force to hold and move. Parents may need to help, as young children may not be able to adjust on their own.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
The Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet isn’t waterproof despite its huge case. There is no IP rating for dust or water, so care must be taken to keep children away from pools and baths. However, with a two-year worry-free warranty, if your tablet breaks, we will replace it free of charge, no questions asked.
The tablet’s 8-inch screen has a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels. The Fire HD 10 Kids has a larger, sharper screen at 10 inches, 1,920 x 1,200 pixels, while the Fire 7 Kids has a smaller, lower-resolution screen at 7 inches, 1,024 x 600 pixels. The Fire HD 8’s screen is perfectly fine for indoor use, but it’s often hampered by glare when used outdoors or in direct sunlight.
In addition to the tablet and case, the box includes a USB-C cable and a 5W charger.
Performance: Perfect for kids
Your tablet’s battery should last for long car rides. Amazon didn’t reveal its dimensions, but the tablet ran for 9 hours and 41 minutes when streaming HD video over Wi-Fi. The Fire HD 10 Kids lasted 10 hours and 18 minutes, while the Fire HD 7 Kids lasted 9 hours and 30 minutes.
It took 2 hours and 1 minute to fully charge the tablet from zero using the 15W wired charger. When using the included 5W charger, the tablet takes approximately 5 hours to fully charge and must be left charging overnight.
Fire HD 8 Kids uses the same 6-core 2.0GHz ARM processor as Fire HD 8. The 32GB model I received has 3GB of RAM, while the 64GB model has 4GB of memory.
The tablet works well when switching from app to app and interacting with Amazon Kids+. Some apps sometimes stutter, and it may take a few seconds for the home page to appear after pressing the power button when the tablet wakes up. It’s unlikely that your child will be able to play intense games, but I doubt that will be a problem for the target audience. The tablet performs well enough to run Amazon Kids+ content and other apps you’ve installed, but the Fire HD 10 Kids runs noticeably faster.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
Fire HD 8 Kids uses Wi-Fi 5 to connect to the Internet and Bluetooth 5.2 to connect to wireless headphones and speakers. When tested with a Wi-Fi 6 router, download speeds (318Mbps) and upload speeds (22.5Mbps) were faster.
Your kids will have no problem accessing high-speed streaming when watching their favorite shows on their devices, but they may have trouble hearing because the speakers aren’t very loud or impressive. It can fill a very small room, but it’s best to be directly in front of your tablet no matter what content you’re watching. You can connect wired or wireless headphones to improve sound quality and volume.
The Fire HD 8 Kids has a 5MP rear camera that doesn’t take great photos but is fine for kids to take basic snaps. The camera software is easy to use, just press the camera icon to take a photo, press the video camera icon to record a video, and press the reverse camera icon to launch the 2MP selfie camera.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
The photo itself is grainy and lacks detail, but I doubt kids will care much. It does make your selfies look washed out, especially in low light, but it should be sufficient for photographers just starting out.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
You can set who your child can video chat with, so you don’t have to worry about talking to unauthorized people.
Software: Kids+ is almost a must
A parent is required to set up the Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet for the first time. First you need to choose a language, connect to Wi-Fi, select a country, sign in to your Amazon account, and enable location services. Eventually, you will be asked to set a PIN code to switch between parent and child profiles. Once that’s done, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can create separate profiles for multiple children. You can add up to 4 profiles to each device. Each profile lets you create age-based content filters, set daily screen time and tablet themes, add content to your device, manage in-app purchase requests, and more. You can also pause your device (make it unavailable) for a specific amount of time and unpause it when you’re ready. Once you are happy with your profile, press the launch button and the kids software will load on your screen.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
Show your child how to operate the tablet with audio tutorials. There are three buttons at the bottom of the screen. A back arrow to go to the previous screen, a circle to go to the home screen, and a square to switch or close open apps. Most of the screen is filled with apps you’ve allowed your child to download. The home screen also includes apps for the Store, Browser, Messages, Video Calls, Camera, and a web video app packed with short educational videos.
The Amazon Kids+ section will appear at the top of the screen. It includes buttons labeled “For You,” “Apps & Games,” “Videos,” “Education,” “Books,” “Audible,” “Stations,” and “Quests.” Each button displays age-appropriate content from your Amazon Kids+ subscription.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
I thought the content was a good mix of educational and fun content. I particularly liked the Quest app, which encourages kids to read or watch informative content based on specific themes, such as animals or space. As you complete books and videos, you advance to the next level until you complete the quest. The content of the quests lies in the sweet spot between education and fun, in a way that can capture the attention of both children and adults. For example, some of the Jungle Journey quest videos include an Ocean Mysteries episode about alligators and an episode about Hawaiian birds. There are also books about crocodiles and an app called “Ultimate Jungle Simulator” where you control a tiger in a jungle environment. I’m not a kid, but I had a great time learning about jungle animals using the Quest app.
(Credit: Sarah Lord)
The only downside to the kids experience is that it relies heavily on the Amazon Kids+ subscription. After the initial trial period ends, you will need to pay for a monthly membership to get the most out of your tablet. Without this, you’re limited to the basic apps you have installed and other apps you find in the Amazon Appstore, and it’s up to you to choose which ones for your child.
Verdict: Decent starter tablet
The Fire HD 8 Kids comes with a protective case, 2-year warranty, and Amazon’s Kids+ service. This tablet doesn’t offer the best performance and you’ll ultimately have to pay for a Kids+ subscription to get the most out of it, but it’s affordable and easy for kids to carry around. That said, the larger Fire HD 10 Kids includes all the same features, with a sharper screen, faster performance, and longer battery life for a slightly higher price, so we highly recommend it .
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About Sarah Lord
analyst, mobile
