Amazon has unveiled three new Fire HD 8 tablets: the Fire HD 8 (2024), Fire HD 8 Kids, and Fire HD 8 Kids Pro, which it says will bring AI capabilities and generative AI tools to the Fire lineup.
The new Fire HD 8 has improved specs including 3GB of RAM and a 5MP back camera (up from 2MP).
Like with the previous Fire 8 HD, Amazon also claims up to 13 hours of battery life and is offering options of 32GB or 64GB storage (with the option to expand that with a microSD card).
Apart from the new Fire HD 8 tablets, Amazon’s AI features will also be available on Fire HD 10 and Fire Max 11 tablets.
The new AI tools include a writing assist feature, which will help refine your writing and is built into the device’s keyboard.
You’ll be able to get webpage summaries when using Amazon’s Silk browser. Also, you’ll be able to create a wallpaper from a prompt.
Amazon adds that the AI tools will begin rolling out to “all compatible Fire tablets later this month.”
Writing Assist and Wallpaper Creator will come to the Fire Max 11 (2023), Fire HD 10 (2023), and Fire HD 8 (2022 and 2024).
Webpage Summaries will be available on the Fire Max 11 (2023), Fire HD 10 (2019, 2021, 2023), and Fire HD 8 (2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024).
Amazon’s Australian website is yet to display availability and pricing for the new devices, though the US website has a price of $99.99 (A$146.12) for the Fire HD 8.
Amazon’s announcement of its new AI-backed tablets comes as many expect the company to imminently announce an AI-enabled Alexa subscription service. Reports from earlier this year indicated that Amazon was bleeding billions – A$37.99 billion by some estimates between 2017 and 2021 alone – selling its devices such as the Amazon Echo.
With Amazon having sold more than 500 million Alexa devices as of 2023, the reports indicated that it was getting ready to cash in on its investments by way of a paid version of its voice assistant.
