Amazon has been on a spree lately, with multiple discounts for its products. However, there are some hidden gems within existing products. For example, the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2018) has just been unlocked and rooted by an XDA Developers member.
This is a move that has been expected for a while and lets you use the device like a regular Android slate. This best seller from Amazon is pretty limited in function in the regular version, with the Amazon layer on top. No Google Play Services and it’s also stuck at Nougat. That’s now fixed by XDA dev Xyz. The product has an 8 inch screen, with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, 1.5 GB of RAM and a quad core 1.3 GHz CPU.
On top of Android Nougat there’s Fire OS 6. The product is priced at $79.99, so it’s very affordable, even with a measly 1.5 GB of RAM. Just so you know, messing about with rooting and unlocking may make you end up with a bricked device, so proceed with caution. You need to back up your data, as it will be erased.
You also need to install python3, PySerial, adb and fastboot. The guide only works for Linux, by the way and you need a microUSB cable to connect the tablet to the PC. Apparently you also need to open the tablet, with pry tools and a conductive piece of machinery like tweezers and a paper clip. Al the guide is here.