Amazon Fire Tablet or cheap Android tablet?

Man of Honour
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My mum is ill and is soon going to be in and out of hospital. I'd like to get her a tablet for Spotify and Netflix while in there. Would an Amazon Fire Tablet be better than a cheap Android tablet? Thanks.
 
Soldato
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In a cowfield, London, UK
Sorry to hear about your mother. Can't help with the tablet decision as I've switched sides for that as of late.

Just wanted to state that if you do buy a cheap android tablet, ensure that it is Widevine L1 drm compliant in order to watch HD content or your mother will be limited to SD 480p viewing. The DRM Info app on the Google store is capable of telling you what your current device supports.

My old Pixel C in its last days wasn't for some odd reason despite the hardware being more than capable.
 
Soldato
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You can install the Google Play Store on the Amazon Fire tablets (which I have done on mine) which effectively turns it into a full Android tablet for free. It is very easy to do and only takes 5 minutes.
 
Man of Honour
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Thanks all. I've gone for a Fire HD8 at £59.99 which seems a great price. I suspect I'll get it back within the next six months :( so not a lot of point spending large amounts on it and it's less likely to get stolen in hospital than an ipad or high end Samsung.
 
Man of Honour
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Very impressed with the Amazon Fire HD8 for the discounted price. It's perfect for what she needs, especially with the Google Play store installed. Thanks all.
 
Soldato
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We've got a Fire HD8 and good god it's slow.

To be fair, it works just fine for reading ebooks and watching the odd video and streaming music. Sure it isn't going to beat a better Android tablet but it is significantly cheaper than most Android tablets, and if you install the Google Play store on it you get all of the benefits of an Android tablet for much less money.
 
Man of Honour
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We've got a Fire HD8 and good god it's slow.
It's not the fastest thing in the world. But for £59 including delivery it's more than adequate and amazing value. It's not as fast as my kids iPad Pro's or even my phone. But it's not terrible by any means.
 
Associate
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I would go with the amazon tablet, It's the best cheapest device on the market and if you do have amazon prime then you can watch all of your movies and whatnot. I have on and I really like it. Well built and well made and it does what you want to do. I got the last year model and so it's not slow! it's fast!
 
Soldato
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I've got a 2017 Fire HD8... It gets so slow it's borderline unusable at times. Have to clear the cache on a regular basis. Works slightly better without the Google Play Store stuff, but it's basically useless without it anyway.

Pay a bit more for something better.
 
Caporegime
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Which model yeah though? They vary - the 2015 HD8 is now pretty slow (it was underpowered at the time), but the others since should be fine - my son has a 2016 HD8 and my parents have a 2018 one. What is slow about it?

I've got the 7th Gen HD8 and it really is abysmally slow. Everything lags, even after a fresh reset.
 
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