Amazon's Fire HD 8 could be the cheap tablet we've been waiting for

Amazon has announced a refresh of the Fire HD 8 with a vastly cheaper price and new innards, and it may be the first tablet from the retail giant that's worth picking up.

The Fire HD 8 features an 8-inch display with a pixel resolution of 1280 x 800 equalling 189 pixels-per-inch. While it's all powered by a quad-core 1.3GHz processor and 1.5GB of RAM.

Amazon has doubled the storage from the last Fire HD 8 range to 16GB or 32GB – how much is available to use is unclear, but we'd expect around 11GB on the smallest option.

There's also microSD support for cards up to 200GB and a 4,750mAh battery. It features two cameras - one on the back, another on the front - but so far we're not sure on any spec for the shooters.

Start to burn

It runs the latest Fire OS 5 software, features Dolby Audio stereo speakers and you also get access to Amazon Underground, a separate store which only offers free apps and games that don't include in-app payments.

Design wise the tablet is the same as the previous Fire HD 8 with a rugged yet sleek feeling design - the plastic back doesn't scream premium to anyone though. Color wise you've got the choice of black, magenta, blue or tangerine.

Pre-orders for the new Fire HD 8 are open now with the 16GB version starting at $89.99 / £89.99.

That's more than half the price of an iPad Mini 2 - the cheapest iOS tablet you can buy right now - and a similar price to the EE Harrier tab, which you can only buy in the UK. Shipping will begin around the world on September 21.