I had an old Fire 6 tablet that my daughter was using. Somehow the screen got cracked. I think it was left in a bag or something. No one was using it when it broke.

My son has the Fire 7 Kids edition some family members got him for Christmas in 2019. And my daughter has some Amazon gift cards she wants to use on the Fire 8. It was on sale for $60 the other day, but is now back to regular price at $90. I saw the Fire 7 for $50, so I thought that might be a way for her not to blow all her gift card if there wasn't a huge diff.

Screen is an inch smaller, which she seems to think is a deal breaker. Other stats show a 1.3GHz quad core processor on the 7, and a 2.0GHz on the 8. 1 GB RAM on the 7, 2GB on the 8. Basically, are those 3 things worth the $40 more, or would the average user notice a difference? I'm guessing most of the use will be streaming from Disney or Netflix, and some games/apps that the kids play on together online. If she wants to spend it all and get the 8 I'll let her, but it doesn't seem like the differences are worth twice as much. I told her to keep an eye on it to see if it goes on sale again, but she's wanting to go ahead and order it.

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Posted by Ace Midnight

Between sanity and madness

Member since Dec 2006

89480 posts

Posted on 1/21/21 at 2:30 pm to TU Rob

I don't have a lot of experience with any of the 7s, but my research led me to conclude that the 7 to 8 is quite a big step up. I have bought several 8s for others. Frankly, the 7 isn't much bigger than a hefty phablet (TWSS). For a phone, it would be overkill. For a tablet (even if the processor was the same), that real estate is more valuable than on a phone IMHO. The fact the 8 has a larger screen, double the Ram and almost double the processor, the decision is almost a no-brainer - except:

I always buy Amazon/Kindle devices on sale, which predictably run several times a year around the various holidays. Obviously that makes the analysis even more 1-sided than at full price.

I'm not sure if they run a short sale for President's Day/V-day or if Easter is the next big sale cycle, but if it was my money (and it has been in the past), I would wait until the next sale, but be ready to pull the trigger quickly.

This post was edited on 1/21/21 at 2:32 pm

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Posted by TU Rob

Birmingham

Member since Nov 2008

12729 posts

Posted on 1/21/21 at 4:05 pm to Ace Midnight

Thanks. She had a $100 Amazon gift card, and about $70 is left. If the 8 is worth the price I'll just pay the difference for her. I had the original Fire Tablet, and later got the 6, mainly for reading. Wanted something thin and light. Now that phone screens have almost caught up, I rarely used the thing. I definitely don't have a larger iPhone, just the XR, but it is plenty big.

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Posted by Tiger_n_Texas

Member since Aug 2014

973 posts

Posted on 1/21/21 at 6:14 pm to TU Rob

Check the USB port on them. The microUSB ports on the kindles tend to shite the bed. I went with the 8 plus for my kids since they use usb-c as well as wireless charging. My oldest had a fire 10 but the screen cracked just taking the case on and off (case has to be removed for Osmo apps). Also think about storage capacity since it isn't expandable.

Just a thought.

Edit: Also look into the trade-in program. You wont get much for the broken tablet BUT sometimes you can get a hefty coupon for the new kindle.

This post was edited on 1/21/21 at 6:17 pm

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