I got my first Amazon Fire tablet something like seven years ago. Even though it is pretty darned old, I still use it from time to time. Why not more often? Because I’ve gotten a new tablet since then that I use most of the time. Today we’ll look at a tablet that packs a lot of punch without breaking the bank. Yes, there will be a link to Amazon that earns me a few pennies. No, I didn’t get a tablet for free.

First we probably need to decide why there is a need for a tablet. Your needs and mine may not be the same, though I think most of you can come up with at least a few reasons. While I love the feel and smell of real books, almost all of my book reading is now via Kindle. That is probably the tablet feature I use the most.

My tablet is older and doesn’t have the storage I’d want to watch videos, but my fiancée has a newer version with lots of memory. When we were preparing for a long trip away from connections, we loaded up her tablet with some shows downloaded from Amazon Prime. The small screen connected to a Bluetooth speaker gave us a reasonable way to enjoy some shows at sea.

Maybe you want a way to browse the Web, check your social media accounts or even make video calls with your friends and family. The tablet gives you a bigger screen than even the biggest phones while still being more portable than a laptop or even a full-size tablet.

For all the scenarios above, the Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus Tablet is a great solution. It does not have the really high-end specs (see list in image below), but it packs enough to cover all of the uses I’ve described so far. Since it doesn’t have the big specs, it also doesn’t have the big price. This makes it a perfect buy to have available.

There is one accessory that I’d highly recommend you get with the tablet and that is a microSD card to add more storage space. You can add as much as 1 TB of space with a microSD card. To me the sweet spot is probably 128 MB or 256 MB depending on how much media you may want to store.

If you want an easier way to charge the tablet, Amazon does pair the Fire HD 8 Plus tablet with a wireless charging stand. Not only can this keep it charged, it also gives you an easy way to have it in the perfect position to use hands-free.