jester121 Posted June 26, 2017 Share Posted June 26, 2017 Following up on the new Amazon Fire 8" HD tablet (2017 edition) -- We picked one up and ran it on my squad in yesterday's match. In my opinion, this is now the leading contender for clubs wanting to buy Practiscore-capable hardware. Notes: With bright, clear blue skies and intense sunshine, the screen remained readable. No shades, no shields, we just turned to use our body or head to "shade" the screen from direct sun. I'd say it was as good as the iPad minis I've used at other matches in terms of readability. Screen did not interfere with polarized glasses, unlike some other cheap tablets I've tried. No reaction to drops of water on the screen, unlike Nooks (as expected). For a 7 stage club match with 10 shooters on the squad, battery life went from 100% to 54%, so certainly adequate for most any match, probably without external batteries. That's with "auto brightness" turned on, and it had the screen cranked all the way up most of the day. There is a battery optimization mode that might extend this, but probably only in shade. I had it set to power off after 1 minute of inactivity. And now that I think of it, I forgot to shut off wifi so it was hunting for signal all day (we don't have access points down range.) The numeric keypad isn't excellent, but it's quite adequate for entering times. Scoring taps are very responsive and no one had problems with entering scores. Screen fonts can be set to Larger and Largest (or something like that) for people who have a hard time with small text on tablet screens. It has a "restricted" kids mode so you can put a PIN# or passcode and block access to nearly all the settings and non-essential apps where mischief might be afoot. I like this a lot. We saved the $ and we'll live with the ads on the sleep screen -- no biggie, just swipe and go. Eventually someone will probably figure out a root... or not. Tied very closely to Amazon, including Amazon's app store instead of Google Play, but no big deal. We'll just create a club Amazon account that's not used for anything. Super cheap case options are a bit limited, but they're trickling out to the market now. The Amazon "official" case is $30... pass. I think we have a winner. We'll probably order a fleet of these for the Wisconsin Section match in September, and see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hermans Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 jester121, thanks for the excellent review, this is very good information for clubs wanting to get the right hardware the first time around, and at a very good price as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mosher Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 We use these for a little over a year now for our level 2 events. We put them in 2 gallon Ziploc bags during downpours and the touch screen works fine through the bag. Also, you can drop and break the screen and it doesn't affect performance. We were concerned about battery life during level 2, all day events. It was cheaper to buy fire 7's as backups instead of external batteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester121 Posted June 27, 2017 Author Share Posted June 27, 2017 1 hour ago, mosher said: We use these for a little over a year now for our level 2 events. We put them in 2 gallon Ziploc bags during downpours and the touch screen works fine through the bag. This is specifically pertaining to the model that was just released in the past 30 days by Amazon -- they have new versions coming out every year or so, as technology improves. The screen and battery are supposedly improved quite a bit this year. 1 hour ago, mosher said: We were concerned about battery life during level 2, all day events. It was cheaper to buy fire 7's as backups instead of external batteries. $10 or $20 for a 10-20Ah power pack would solve that, though $50 for a worst-case scenario backup device might be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashDodson Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 We have been happy with ours so far as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hitman Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 We just tested them for replacing our nooks and this is the way we will go when the nooks die, at least for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester121 Posted July 11, 2017 Author Share Posted July 11, 2017 This 2017 edition of the Fire 8" HD is on sale today only for Prime Day, for $50. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_3174990_245647810_pe_img1_reftag/?ASIN=B01J94SWWU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BJinPass Posted July 11, 2017 Share Posted July 11, 2017 Or buy three and get them for $40 each. You just can't beat that deal if you need to equip a club with more modern tablets. The Nook served its purpose, now upgrade to a real tablet. Our club has used several versions and they work great. The latest model is great for the money. And if one get destroyed, its no great loss. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_3174990_245647810_pe_img1_reftag/?ASIN=B01J94SWWU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phong Nguyen Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Dang.. so cheap.. no brainer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamge Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 Downside: Not available in Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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