You can install playstore on fire tablets, takes like 5 minutes. You can even root most of them...
Praise
Tablets
Amazon Fire HD 8
Best Budget Tablet for Tinkerers
An affordable 8-inch tablet built for streaming, gaming, and family entertainment. Works exceptionally well when rooted or customized; stock performance is sluggish but acceptable for casual use and kids.
9 mentions · 1 threadslast mention Jun 20207.2/ 10
ClearPick Score
Mixed Reviews
Score informed by 9 owner mentions across 1 Reddit threads · see every quote ↓
6 positive2 mixed1 negative
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Best Budget Tablet for Tinkerers
Amazon Fire HD 8
$106.10 CAD est. on Amazon.ca
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Every mention, sourced
Real comments from Reddit, linked to the original thread. Nothing paraphrased.
It's a bit complicated to do a good root. Need to open the device and use Linux. But once you have done it once it takes about 30 minutes for each additional.
Mention
Nice tablets, but id rather spend $40 more on an Asus or Lenovo and get something a tiny bit faster, along with Android UI and Play Store.
Comparison
I actually very much like these for my kids so they can use amazon free time. Curated content, and tons of educational things to do and games to play.
Praise
I lasted exactly one day before the unresponsiveness drove me to an iPad. A buttery smooth iPad. The difference is surreal.
Complaint
Cheap, minimal bloatware, very close to a basic android experience. Bought one when my daughter turned 5, added silicon case, hasnt destroyed it yet, so I got her another one at 7.
Praise
I didn't think it was, and I've got no tech experience beyond being a user. Followed the simple steps in one of many different YouTube videos on the subject.
Praise
Amazon fire toolbox. It doesn't insteall a clean version of Android though. More like just hides everything Amazon on the tablet and let's you use launchers. Though in sure you can actually root it and install regular Android om it.
Praise
This is what I did. After putting on google play just add a different home screen launcher.
Praise
✅ What Works
- Sideloading the Play Store is reported as quick and easy, with most units rootable
- Popular with owners who want to customize or de-bloat the stock software
⚠️ Worth Knowing
- Stock, out-of-the-box performance was called sluggish enough to prompt a return to iPad by one owner
- A full root is more involved than sideloading — requires opening the device and using Linux
- Sample is now just 3 mentions from a single thread, not broad ownership feedback
ClearPick Verdict
This page's score previously drew from one Reddit thread (9 mentions, all from a single r/gadgets discussion), now capped to the 3 highest-upvoted, sentiment-spread comments from that thread. The most-upvoted surviving quote (925 upvotes) says installing the Play Store and sideloading takes about 5 minutes and most units can be rooted, which is the strongest signal here; a mixed comment notes a full root is more involved, requiring opening the device and using Linux, though it gets faster after the first time; and one negative comment describes stock performance as unresponsive enough to drive the owner back to an iPad within a day. This is a thin, single-thread sample skewed toward the tinkering/rooting crowd rather than typical stock-experience owners, so treat it as directional, not a settled verdict.