Amazon launches Fire HD 8 tablet powered by MediaTek

Amazon has upgraded its popular Fire HD 8 tablet with faster performance and better Wi-Fi 5 connectivity, thanks to the MediaTek MT8168, and even added the convenience of wireless charging. As the name suggests this popular 8-inch tablet features a HD resolution display, plus Dolby stereo speakers and a microSD expansion slot that can now support up to 1TB of extra space, giving you plenty of leg-room for off-line media on long journeys.

Powering it is the MediaTek MT8168: a highly power-efficient 12nm SoC with fast peak performance thanks to its 2GHz quad core Arm-Cortex A53 CPU and 800MHz Arm Mali-G52-class graphics. An integrated 600MHz audio DSP provides the capacity to listen and process keywords with ultra-low power – making it ideal for Amazon Alexa voice assistant services.

At 355g the Fire HD 8 is light and portable but has still manages to boost battery life by 20% over the previous model. Amazon includes a new picture-in-picture mode so users can watch Prime Video or other streaming services while also using social feeds, chat apps, email, or web, for example. A Kid Edition Fire 8 HD tablet includes a large ruggedized case with built-in stand and helpful parental controls like Amazon FreeTime.

Amazon Fire 8 HD is available now in a choice of plum, twilight blue, black and white color options.