Typically when we see a new version of Android come out, we see the developer community get that new version of Android running on some older, iconic, smartphones. For instance, the Motorola Droid, Nexus One and HTC HD2 always seem to get a ROM of the latest version of Android. And those all came out around 2009-2010. So they aren’t exactly new. Now there is one for the original Kindle Fire, which is a bit surprising. The original Kindle Fire was released around 2011, and features a TI OMAP 4430 SoC and 512MB of RAM. So definitely not a beast. Although back in that time, it was considered one. Once more, TI isn’t providing support for their processors anymore. So it’s pretty amazing to see the Kindle Fire running on Lollipop.
You can check out the thread on XDA Developers for the Kindle Fire’s Lollipop ROM, but there will be bugs and things broken, obviously. It is actually an unofficial CM12 build for the Kindle Fire. Here are some of the known issues; “Initial setup can be *very* slow. *BE PATIENT.* Google Play Movies needs DRM fixes, it won’t work. Current rotation settings starts the device in “Landscape”, this may change. Some of the transparency settings are disabled due to low RAM. Needs work. High battery drain while idle. 12%+ a day with wifi enabled.” So not too bad for an initial build, especially for a device that never ran “real” Android, in fact it always ran a forked version of Android.
Nonetheless, if you have an old Kindle Fire laying around, I’d suggest attempting to flash this ROM, it’ll likely breathe some new life into your tablet, as it has with other devices like the Nexus 5, and Nexus 7 and even the Nexus 10. So many of you are going to take the plunge? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.