Today was a big day of major announcements for Amazon. One of the biggest announcements is undoubtedly the new Kindle Fire HD.
What’s the Kindle Fire HD all about? This time around, Amazon has decided to massively expand the Fire family with a basic offering starting at just $169 and then there’s the HD models. These models price at $199 for a 7-incher, $299 for an 8.9-incher and $499 for a 8.9-incher with 4G LTE built-in.
Here’s the full the specs for the Kindle Fire HD:
8.9-inch IPS touchscreen display with 1920 x 1200 resolution OR 7-inch IPS
- TI OMAP 4470 processor
- HDMI out
- HD Front-facing cam with customized Skype app
- 16GB memory
- Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/5GHz and MIMO support
- Bluetooth
- Fire OS – the same Android-based UI we know and love
- Whisperync for Voice – syncs audiobooks with reading
- Whispersync for Games– save game progress and continue progress from the last saved session on multiple devices
- X-Ray for movies – find out details about movie characters/actors while playing a movie
- X-Ray for ebooks– offers book-related details taken from the web
- Exchange support and improved email
- Facebook integration
- Kindle FreeTime with multiple profiles, for kids
The big question is pretty simple: does Amazon have what it takes to truly compete against the Nexus 7, iPad Mini and the iPad?
Kindle Fire HD – Can It Compete?
When it comes to specs, the Kindle Fire HD line is actually aggressively stacked up against the competition. The new TI OMAP 4470 is allegedly more powerful than the Tegra 3 used in most Android tablets. The Tegra 3 is pretty close to being on par with the iPad 3rd gen- so yah, the hardware here is solid.
Does that mean the Kindle Fire HD is going to be a massive hit? It’s a bit more complicated than that. Great hardware is only part of the equation. The software in the Kindle Fire is good, but it also is somewhat limited thanks to the absence of Google Play’s Android app store. While iOS and Google Play compatible Android devices all have over half-a-million apps to pull from, Amazon’s store is limited to about 50,000.
The Kindle Fire HD is a good looking tablet, that much is clear, but it’s not for everyone. If you want a huge selection of apps, a Google Play-compatible Android tablet or an iPad is going to be the best bet.
What do you think? Interested in the new Kindle Fire HD line or not?
Via: Amazon