Best 8-inch Tablets

Amazon’s tablet ecosystem presents a unique take on the entire premise of owning a tablet. Instead of paying a larger price upfront, Amazon locks you into its ecosystem and focuses on the very basics. 

 While this may seem like an ideal premise, it suits a select few individuals who are willing to take Amazon’s drawbacks into accord. For instance, as soon as you get the tablet, you’ll immediately be locked into Amazon applications. While the tablet does run Android, you won’t be able to access the Google Play Store or any Google-supported application out of the box, but stay assured, you can install Google Play Store on Amazon tablets.

Besides that, the Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus comes at a great price(~$159); you’ll be able to save $25 if you opt for an ad-supported version, which includes ads in the operating system itself. I found this quite annoying, especially because most advertisements used to pop up on the lock screen or while casually using the tablet, which led to me randomly tapping on them often.

 Besides that, the tablet is fine. It contains 3 GBs of RAM, and an 8-inch, 1280×800 display with large bezels around the side. The display leaves a lot to be desired, the colors are washed out especially compared to the iPad Mini 6. But, it’s also much cheaper than the iPad Mini 6, so it isn’t really a fair comparison.

 Now, the reason why this tablet still takes up a second is simple, it achieves everything there is to expect from an 8 inch tablet. You aren’t going to be using this for school or note-taking.

It can handle basic tasks like: reading, light games, web browsing, emails, social media, video calls, communication with alexa, online shopping, etc. 

Couple that with the fact that you also have wireless charging makes it a sweet deal. 

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is a great tablet for its size and price. Featuring USB-C connectivity, 10 hours of battery life, up to 4 GBs of RAM, and an 8.7-inch 1340×800 screen, it checks all the boxes.

But, moving outside the box, the tablet features a display that looks nice and bright, colors aren’t extremely washed out, and it seems to adhere to Samsung’s quality standards when it comes to producing displays of reasonable quality. Yes, it isn’t the sharpest display out there, coming at 179 ppi. But I wouldn’t really call it a poor display by any sense of the imagination.

In terms of performance, don’t expect it to tie up to the iPad Mini 6. But, it still performs fine in its own right. You can get away with a light and casual gaming. But, after a while, you are going to run into frame rate issues that’ll plague your entire gameplay session. So, I wouldn’t really recommend this tablet for that PUBG or Fortnite session. However, if it’s a long reading or movie-watching session you are after, then the A7 Lite should be able to net you 10 hours of battery life, which is great for a tablet in this form factor.

If you want a 8 inch tablet for light gaming content watching and that costs under $200, this is a solid option. 

This 8.4-inch tablet with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels(IPS screen), running Android 13 and the MediaTek G99 chipset, can handle almost anything. 

Whether you are a gamer or a content enthusiast, this tablet has your needs covered. It has 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, and you can even extend it to 5125GB with a micro SD card. The iPlay 50 Mini Pro could handle games as: Fortnite, Alian Isolation, Half-Life 2, etc.

It lasts 8-9 hours, which gives you almost all day to play games or watch content. Another thing that sets it apart from other tablets is the fast charging. It has 18W PD Fast.

Overall, a compact, powerful, and versatile 8 inch tablet.

The Amazon Fire 8 and Fire 8 Plus share the exact same specifications except for a few key differences. They are as follows:

• Charging: The Amazon Fire 8 features slower charging at 5 hours for a total charge while the Fire HD 8 Plus clocks out at 3 hours.
• Wireless Charging: The Fire 8 does not feature wireless charging while the Fire HD 8 Plus does.
• Cameras: The Fire HD 8 Plus features a 5 MP camera while the Fire HD has a 2 MP camera.
• RAM: The Fire HD 8 Plus has an extra gigabyte of RAM coming in at 3 GB while the Fire HD 8 has 2 GBs of RAM.

So, besides all the differences I have just listed, there’s really no difference between the two tablets. Now, this begs the question, what should I pick up from these tablets? For most, I recommend opting for the Amazon Fire 8. 

 Why? Well, the differences between the two tablets aren’t really worth spending more money over. For instance, the extra RAM allows you to multitask and makes the device a bit faster. The CPU is the same. If you are going to be experiencing lag on one tablet, you are bound to have it on the other, too.

 If there was a change in the front cameras, I’d be happy to recommend the Fire 8 Plus to everyone. But, since it’s the rear camera that gets bumped up, there’s no major advantage to having a better rear shooter either.

 Lastly, while the charging does make a difference, it still isn’t worth paying extra over, especially on a tablet that’s meant to be budget-oriented anyways. And, wireless charging really is a gimmick when it comes to tablets as you will seldom need to use it. Plus, I’d rather use my tablet plugged in a cable rather than wait for it to slowly wireless charge.

 So, yes, while the Fire 8 Plus is arguably better in a few ways than the Fire 8, that’s why it’s ranked second. But, if you don’t care for the differences, I suggest opting for the ad-free version of the Fire 8 instead to save a few extra dollars. 

The Lenovo Tab M8 (Gen 4) doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. And, at this price point, I’d be scared if they attempted to do so. But, here’s the deal, I really like this tablet for what it’s worth. It has a decent 8” 800×1280 LCD display with a 5100 mAh battery and 10W fast charging.

 It runs on MediaTek A22 chipset. The tablet just doesn’t really push out as many frames when gaming or provide the butter-smooth performance you’d want from a tablet. But it really isn’t very expensive either(it costs less than $100). So, that’s a drawback you have to make.

It’s a good device for anyone seeking an affordable and compact tablet for entertainment, browsing, and staying connected

Released in 2020, Samsung A 8.4 got a lot of things right. Firstly, it comes with a 1920×1200 resolution screen tuning it up to 270 ppi. This means that you’ll be able to actually view 1080p video, unlike most of the entries in this list.

 And, if you are just going to be watching YouTube and want a cheap tablet, no need to look further; you’ve got the winner: buy this one. But, if you decide to do anything more with your tablet, we would like to recommend something more powerful. This is because this tablet can run only Android 11. It’s no longer supported. 

You can still get the apps, but you can’t get the latest app versions that are created for Android 13 or newer.

 So, performance is abhorrent, to say the least. The tablet can be super laggy when performing heavy tasks. But it handles well things like light gaming, social media, web, etc. 

The cameras are actually pretty good, though, since it comes in at 5 megapixels and actually leads it to be quite nice for video calls.

Overall, it’s a good tablet, very cheap, it’s 8.4-inches big, but the biggest problem is that is no longer supported, if that doesn’t bother you it’s a solid choice, with decent build.