Today was the day that Amazon were pegged to announce the latest and greatest from their Kindle line. Something that they’ve been doing every year for a quite a few now, however what we were most looking forward to was what would be happening to the Kindle Fire line. Amazon have certainly delivered with a whole new line of Kindle Fire tablets that span both price ranges as well specs. From a cheap tablet for the casual user to larger and speedier models for those looking to get a little extra out of their tablets.
The Kindle Fire HD Family
A trio of tablets has been announced this time around and whilst they are indeed a set of three – under the hood they are more similar than one might think – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, this keeps the cost down of the tablets and ensures cross-compatibility between models. All the new Fire tablets from Amazon will be packing the following specs inside:-
- A TI OMAP 4470 – which is pegged to outperform the Tegra 3
- Dual-band WiFi with a pair of antennae and MIMO Support
- Stereo Speakers
- HD Front-facing camera with a custom Skype application
- HDMI Out
- HD IPS Displays
- Laminated Touch Sensors – said to decrease glare by 25%
- Bluetooth
- 16 to 32GB of Memory
Of course, whilst the new tablets are built of the same cloth, let’s go and take a look at what makes each model different.
The Kindle Fire HD – 7-inch Model
Much like it’s predecessor the 7″ model of this year’s Kindle Fire is focussing on bringing the best of Amazon down to a small form factor at an affordable price range. This model of the Fire HD will be packing a 7″ IPS display with an HD resolution of 1280×800 giving the tablet a ppi of 315. Making for an extremely readable screen and the laminated screen is going to make reading and watching videos a pleasure. The 7 inch model features all the above specs and can only be had with 16GB of storage which is double the original Fire’s storage as well as double the base model Nexus 7’s storage. Overall it’s a solid package and it really is a good deal at a steal price of $199. You can pre-order the tablet right now and it should be shipping November 20th.
The Kindle Fire HD – 8.9-inch Model
It’s not everyday you see Amazon make an 8.9-inch tablet in fact, it’s not everyday that you see anybody make a tablet this size – sure, Samsung tried it but it was ridiculously priced and it never really took off. I’m sure Amazon are hoping their model to be more successful and with all the specs they’ve packed into the device it should make a compelling product. The real selling point here however, is this model’s screen. It’s an HD IPS at an impressive 1920×1200 resolution, giving this model a ppi of 254 and whilst this isn’t as high as it’s little brother it’s the most pixels you’ll see on an Android tablet of that size. As well as this, the 8.9-incher of the family will bring you 16GB storage and you can pre-order it now and see it ship November 20th. All this is yours for $299, which for an extra hundred bucks is certainly a steal. Perhaps for the screen alone the 8.9-inch model is the one to go for.
Kindle Fire HD – 4G
That’s right, I said 4G and we’re talking true LTE here. Essentially, this is the same as the model above however, you get 32GB as standard and of course, 4G. Amazon has done their best to make pricing the real killer when it comes to this new line of tablets and with this addition to the line it looks like they’ve hit the nail on the head. With the 4G version of the new Fire you’ll be getting 250MB of cellular data per month as well as access to 20GB on Amazon’s Cloud Drive as well – this will cost you just $50 a month. Pretty competitive in this current market, right? The tablet itself however, costs $499 but, what you must remember here is that this is for an unsubsidised device.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jrgO8Zseh6E