Amazon announces new Fire HD 8 tablet powered by AI — here’s what it can do

Refreshed image of the Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet
(Image credit: Amazon)

Amazon has announced a new Fire HD 8 tablet. It's a refresh of the Fire HD 8 tablet that last saw an upgrade in 2022.

Like seemingly every single tech device produced this year, the latest Amazon tablet is arriving with generative AI-powered tools. However, if you don't want to pick up a new tablet, the Fire HD 10 and Fire Max 11 will also be getting these AI tools.

The AI tools include a writing assist feature meant to polish up writing, which is part of the tablet's keyboard. It also has AI summaries in the Amazon Silk web browser and AI image generation for wallpapers. 

Amazon says in their announcement that the tools will land on "all compatible Fire tablets later this month.”

One of the things that we dinged the 2022 version of the Fire HD 8 tablet for was slow performance, though it did make our best cheap tablets list for what you get at the $100 price point.

The 2024 upgrade gets 3GB of RAM, up from 2GB in the earlier version. This should help with the AI features. It also has a 5MP back camera, up from 2MP. Amazon is promising 13 hours of battery life. There are two storage capacity versions, a 32GB or a 64GB one, plus the ability to expand it with a microSD card.

The 2024 Fire 8 HD is available in black, emerald and hibiscus with a starting price of $99.99. It's available right now, and Amazon already has it on sale for $54.99 ahead of the October Prime Big Deal Days.

There are also two kid versions, with 32 or 64 GB variants in the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro built for kids ages 6 to 12. It's not clear from Amazon's announcement if the Kids versions come with AI, based on the Amazon store listing it appears not. Though these ones do get all the other upgrades that the normal version received.

According to new rumors, Amazon might launch a new Kindle soon, which will probably get force-fed new AI tools.

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Scott Younker
West Coast Reporter

Scott Younker is the West Coast Reporter at Tom’s Guide. He covers all the lastest tech news. He’s been involved in tech since 2011 at various outlets and is on an ongoing hunt to build the easiest to use home media system. When not writing about the latest devices, you are more than welcome to discuss board games or disc golf with him.