Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro Kids Tablet Specifications
Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro is a great alternative to Fire HD 8 Kids, offering its services to pre-teens and giving them more freedom while maintaining parental control.
Key features
Slim and shock-resistant case While the Pro model case isn't as chunky as the base model, it still offers plenty of protection.
8-inch HD displaygives you larger size and 1280 × 800 images clearer and brighter than the cheaper Fire 7
Amazon Kids and Kids + subscription Modified programs give kids more freedom, without reducing the level of parental control.
Introduction
Fire and Fire HD Kids tablets are a hit with younger children, and with parents who get the value of a large shock-resistant bag and plenty of kid-friendly content when clicking.
However, older children will not be very impressed. Once they get to the top of elementary school, they seem to become more sensitive about using products that look like they were made for "toddlers" – and want more freedom than the regular Amazon Kids interface provides.
That's where the Kids Pro collection comes in, including the 2021 Fire HD 10 Kids Pro and the all-new Fire HD 8 Kids Pro. These still come with a protective protective case – one that's slimmer and more adult-looking – along with a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
You can get a choice of greenish, blue or pink finishes, and the tablets come with a different rotation on the children's interface that gives your offspring more freedom to explore. The actual devices are the same as the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids (2022) – and the same standard Fire HD 8 tablet – but the overall look and feel are different. It's perfect for rallying older high schools.
design
Solid protective case with lots of reinforced edges
Handy handle that moonlight as a holder
One USB Type-C port for plug and charge
This case makes the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro much larger than the bare Fire HD 8, adding an extra centimeter to height and nearly an inch wide (in portrait mode) for an overall size of 21.2 × 16.2 cm.
Its thickness is 17 mm chunky. This still gives the tablet a lot of protection, with plenty of padding around the edges and corners and the raised profile around the screen. It also makes the tablet easier to carry, and with a similar foldable handle/stand for Fire HD 8 Kids, you won't panic when carried on the stairs or across a hard floor.
Moreover, the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro optimizes the design of the other tablet in one main way, using contrast-colored buttons in the case that control the power and volume below. These make these controls easier than clips on Fire HD 8 Kids, and you also get good-sized slots for the USB Type-C charging port and headphone jack.
One of the strengths of the Fire HD Kids line is that protection is more than just physical protection. If the tablet breaks down within the first two years, Amazon's warranty promises to replace it without quirks.
screen
Resolution 1280 × 800
Decent brightness levels but faded flat colors
Very reflective for use in bright sunlight
If you're familiar with high-end iPad and Android tablet screens, the screen on Fire HD 8 Pro Kids can be a little shocking. It has a resolution of 1280 × 800p, which means you can see the pixel structure if you look closely, which means you lose a bit of clarity and detail.
The most dangerous, while relatively bright – I measured it at 477 nits – it also suffers from a lack of contrast and color depth. Photos, games and videos do not have the power found on other tablets.
Fire HD 8 Kids Pro runs Amazon Fire OS with a review of the Kids user interface. This has two tabs. Initially, you get a slightly modified version of the normal user interface for kids, with rows of large, square buttons that take you directly to apps, games, books, music stations, and video content from the Kids+ service, although – depending on your child's age and profile – is oblique for older pre-teenage children.
In the second, you get something closer to the regular Fire OS home screen, with standard app icons and access to Audible and Amazon Music (if you have subscriptions), along with a custom version of the Fire OS browser, Silk.
As a parent, you can control which sites your kids can visit through the browser-based dashboard, add sites that make them happy to use, and list sites you don't want. Bing is used as the main search engine, with Safesearch always turned on, while filtering does a powerful job of blocking access to sites you'd rather not find. However, it has allowed me to find YouTube and watch some very unsafe material there, so you may want to either block that or not leave browsing completely unattended.
You can install additional apps for your kids, but they can also order apps for themselves; I received an email asking for approval with a link to the control panel, where you can accept or decline. There's a similar niche for paid add-on content from the store, including apps, games, and Kindle books. At the same time, in-app purchases are blocked by default.
Overall, Amazon has struck a good balance between giving older kids greater freedom and keeping parents under control, although you should still check the dashboard to see what sites they visit, and apply children's profiles and parental controls to any video streaming apps they download. The kids program doesn't do that for you. It's also frustrating that you can't add content from Amazon Prime Music or Amazon Prime Video if you have the right subscriptions, except for purchased movies and TV shows.
When it comes to performance, you get enough to keep things running smoothly and use the right set of family-friendly apps and games, but that's not enough for more demanding titles like Genshin Impact or PUBG (and that's not available through the Kids App Store, anyway). I had no problems running games like Sonic Force or How Wheels Unlimited, and the hardware can extend to more ambitious games like Asphalt 8.
For some reason, I couldn't get a Geekbench run to complete on the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro, but previous tests on the standard Fire HD 8 gave me a single-core score of 178 and a multi-core score of 851. Improved on Fire 7 or previous Fire HD 8 versions, but not great by Android tablet standards. For example, the Nokia T10 8-inch tablet can reach 305 and 1243 in the same tests.
Battery life
10-13 hours of battery life
About 5 hours to reach full charge
Amazon promises up to 13 hours of battery life, and even with the screen running at 100% brightness, I've found that video streaming consumes about 8% in an hour, so 12 hours or so doesn't seem unreasonable, with more if you can reduce the brightness.
Gaming will hit the CPU and GPU harder, so get ready for more intense drops, but otherwise this shouldn't be one of the tablets that need to be recharged every day.