So one of my Nexus 7 tablets died after 4+ years of heavy daily use and on a whim I picked up a $49.99 Fire HD8 on sale - now $80(will go on sale again). Read further only if you are comfortable with a bit of "hacking"..... and are not an Apple-only guy.
I have been using the HD8 in the plane for 2 weeks and for the price, I am thrilled.
Some thoughts:
- This thing is not an Ipad pro, at 1/10 the cost it should not be
- The screen is not super bright, but on a ram mount it is visible by tilting every now and then and is visible
- 8" screen size is great in the cockpit
- The quad core processor is quick enough for G Pilot and lots of other things
- No internal GPS - I an hooked up to GDL39, so I don't care
- Wont run Foreflight, sorry...
- It has Amazon ads on it(there are ways to turn them off...)
- The battery life is very good
- Great wifi reception, but no LTE
- Cheap expandable memory with a Micro SD card
- It has a plastic case that feels kinda cheap
- Camera is bad(I dont care)
- It is great for media consumption outside the cockpit(dolby sound!)
- It also appears to be nearly indestructible
- No heat issues in the time I have used it
- It requires a few steps to enable the Google play store and instructions can be found easily on the web
I'm sure I missed a few things, but as a backup this is ideal - cheap and pretty capable. No crying if it breaks or gets stolen - we give it to the young cousins to play with without a second thought.
Just thought VAFinistas might want a cheap option from a cheap guy.....
FIRE HD8 Tablet
Linear Mode
