There are even great E Ink slates for jotting down notes or sketching. Amazon’s Fire tablets are also an affordable way to watch movies and browse the web, as long as you don’t mind their limitations. Android tablets are making a comeback recently as Google refocused its efforts on improving the tablet experience. The iPad’s ease of use and best-in-breed software make it the obvious choice for most people, but if you don’t want an iPad, other options exist. With a wealth of apps for drawing, painting, and making music, they’re also a great outlet for creative impulses. They're not essential but are nice to have around. Winner: The Fire HD 10 offers a bigger screen without adding too much extra weight or thickness.The best tablet can be a portable TV screen around the house and a way to get some light work done away from your desk. Nevertheless, both devices can be expanded to 256GB via a microSD card.īoth Fire HD 8 and 10 accept a 256GB microSD card for extra storage Size & weight The Fire HD 8 is more limited, with a 16GB and a 32GB version. The Fire HD 10 comes in two versions - the 32GB and the 64GB. Winner: The higher spec version of the Fire HD 10 has more on-board storage than the Fire HD 8. Using the Geekbench 3 benchmark app, the Fire HD 8 scored 1,854, whereas the HD 10 did much better with a score of 2509. In use, the Fire HD 10 feels marginally quicker and doesn't suffer from the same confusion when multitasking with various apps. The Fire HD 10 also has more RAM - 2GB compared with the 1.5GB offered by the Fire HD 8. The Fire HD 10 has more computing power of the two, with a faster processor and extra RAM.īoth Fires have quad-core processors, but the Fire HD 10's is the faster of the two at 1.8 GHz. The Fire HD 10 offers a larger screen with more pixels per inch Hardware Screen resolution and pixel density are also greater on the Fire HD 10, resulting in crisper images and darker darks.

Though this difference might not seem like much on paper, it makes the Fire HD 10 feel far more immersive when watching movies.

The Fire HD 10's screen is 2.1-inches bigger than the Fire HD 8's. Winner: The Fire HD 10 has a bigger screen, with better resolution and a greater pixel density. It's worth noting here that because both Fires suffer from overly reflective screens, you'll normally need the brightness on full during the day (which obviously drains the battery much quicker). If we extrapolate these results, then the Fire HD 8's battery would last a total of nearly five and a half hours, while the Fire HD 10's would last nine hours. The Fire HD 10, by contrast, lost 11% of its battery. We found that in this time, the Fire HD 8's battery dropped by 19%. In our tests, we streamed a 60-minute video at full brightness. Winner: The Fire HD 10's battery lasted much longer in our test, despite Amazon's claims to the contrary.Īmazon say that the smaller Fire HD 8 has up to 12 hours of battery life, whereas the Fire HD 10 can only manage up to 10 hours. If you want a device without these, it'll cost £10 more. These are, in reality, adverts that are displayed on the lock screen and in the notification pull-down.

It's important to note here that the above prices are for devices that ship with what Amazon call 'special offers'. However, opting for a lower storage version is a reasonable decision, given that both Fire HD's come with a microSD slot for up to 256GB of extra space. The 32GB Fire HD 8 is currently on offer at just £85, which makes it nearly half the price of the Fire HD 10, and at the time of writing, actually cheaper than the smaller 16GB Fire HD 8.įor anyone who wants more storage, only the Fire HD 10 comes with 64GB, and is £30 more than for the smaller 32GB version.

Kindle fire 10 inch tablets