Fire HD 8

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Handle9

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#242833 16-Nov-2018 08:47

We're looking at buying Fire HD 8s for the kids (6 and 4) for Christmas. We are going to be traveling a fair bit and the main uses are Netflix/YouTube, reading apps and Mathletics.

Is there any reason these wouldn't work for this use lm? For the money they seem the best solution, especially the kids edition.

rb99

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#2127771 16-Nov-2018 09:11

Bought a couple of HD10s the last time they were on sale and they're pretty impressive. There's a few steps to go through if you want to add Google Play store and download stuff from there.

Sorry, can't comment about the HD8 or the Kids version. Not sure what you get with the kids version for the extra money apart from the heavy duty case (which might well be worth it considering the trouble I had trying to get anyone to send a case for ours from Amazon). Maybe you get special kids software, though don't know how that'll work outside the US.

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#2127778 16-Nov-2018 09:28

I picked up a Fire HD8 while I was in the US last month simply because it was a cheap tablet and I wanted one to have a play with.

For kids the device is probably prefect. The quality of the screen is pretty average and the unit is definately underpowered but works well and it's dead simple to install the Play Store on it.

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#2127779 16-Nov-2018 09:28

Or, instead of using a third party, use the Geekzone link to go to the Amazon Black Friday sale deals page.

Referral links: Quic Broadband (free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE) | Samsung | AliExpress | Wise | Sharesies

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Handle9

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#2128048 16-Nov-2018 16:35

Cool thanks all.

For those wondering the kids edition gives the big case, a year of Freetime (the amazon kids service) and a 2 year no questions asked warranty.

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#2128140 16-Nov-2018 19:05

I've had a Fire HD 8 for almost a year and can recommend it as being good value and tough. Interestingly it only just started showing the "special offers" a couple of weeks ago.

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#2131904 22-Nov-2018 14:24

I'm assuming you need to order these via Youshop as they don't ship to NZ direct it seems? How does that impact the 2 year warranty etc?

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rb99

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#2133099 24-Nov-2018 08:59

Correct about the Youshop thing. No idea about the warranty, though I guess it would be OK, apart from the possible shipping costs ?

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#2151714 29-Dec-2018 00:59

So the kids were overjoyed to get "iPads" for Christmas.

I haven't done a heap on the devices since setting them up.

Amazon freetime is really good for kids. They love being able to choose apps and install them themselves and it's pretty stress free for me as they can't spend any money.

The parental controls are also excellent. I can switch the tablets off from any web browser as well as put time limits on them. The cases are pretty robust, other than a direct drop on the glass they'll be difficult to smash.

On the negative side the devices are pretty underpowered. They are slow and laggy and have average screen quality. To be fair though they were cheap and work ok for kids playing Disney Princess games and watching Netflix. Putting a 64gb card in them makes them a good device to put offline Netflix and Plex content on.

Overall they are fine for kids to consume media, I wouldn't own one myself but I'm not exactly the target audience. At a landed cross of around NZD$150 each they represent pretty good value for money.

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#2151743 29-Dec-2018 08:13

thanks for the info!