Of all the iPad rivals over the last few
years, we’d suspect Amazon’s Kindle Fire series has given Apple the
most reason for concern. Sure, Asus and Google have done well with the
Nexus 7, while Samsung’s tablets have sold in decent numbers, but the
Kindle Fire has sold – albeit seasonally – in big numbers, and Amazon’s
combination of strong services and extremely aggressive pricing is
pretty compelling. It remains to be seen whether Samsung or Google know
how to sell content as well as technology, but Amazon definitely does.
The problem with the 7in Kindle Fires has been that they would not be most people’s first choice of tablet. They’re compact, well-designed and well-built, and the Fire HD has an excellent screen, but there are compromises you have to make when taking the Kindle Fire route, and the presence of the Nexus 7 at a similar price point means stiff competition, even without the added pressure from the more expensive iPad mini.
With the introduction of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 into the UK, however, Amazon has its most compelling tablet yet. You get a very solid, well-specified tablet with an excellent 8.9in HD screen at a price that undercuts the Nexus 10 and iPad mini. There are still compromises, but for under £250 they might well be worth making.
As with previous Kindle Fires, there’s nothing about the Fire HD 8.9 that screams cheap. It’s a bit of a no-frills design with a simple all-glass, black-framed front and a rubberised black back cover, punctuated by a metallic bar inlay with stereo speaker grills on either side. However, it’s still good-looking and extremely solid, with not an inch of give anywhere in the construction.
The screen is undoubtedly the star of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 show. With a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution spread over an 8.9in screen it has a pixel density of 254ppi. That’s not enough to put it ahead of the Google Nexus 10, at 300ppi, or the current Retina iPad at 264ppi, but at this level we’re really splitting hairs. It’s beautifully crisp, text looks razor-sharp and the IPS technology means great viewing angles and brilliant colour. Meanwhile, by laminating the touch sensor and the screen into a single layer of glass, Amazon has done a great job of reducing glare, optimising the screen’s levels of contrast.
The Fire HD 8.9 uses a 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 dual-core processor incorporating a PowerVR SGX544 graphics core along with 1GB of RAM. In use, it helps the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 feel pretty slick, smoothly animating the UI’s high-resolution cover images and keeping everything flowing smoothly.
Software is going to be either one of the Fire HD’s key strengths or one of its key weaknesses, depending on what you’re planning to do. As you might know, Amazon takes Google’s Android OS and comprehensively retools it with an all-new UI based on content carousels. The focus is very much on Amazon’s own MP3 and Kindle digital services, along with video from its subsidiary, LoveFiLM, and while you can download further apps from Amazon’s own store, this doesn’t reflect the full range of software available on vanilla Android devices.
The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 isn’t everyone’s perfect tablet. Larger screens still lend themselves better to productivity and business applications, and there are better choices for gaming. However, if you mostly want to consume content and you’re happy for that content to come from Amazon, then there isn’t really a tablet to touch it at this price. The screen and sound are superior to anything else you’ll find for under £250, and the user experience is very good – less technically adept users might even prefer it.
The problem with the 7in Kindle Fires has been that they would not be most people’s first choice of tablet. They’re compact, well-designed and well-built, and the Fire HD has an excellent screen, but there are compromises you have to make when taking the Kindle Fire route, and the presence of the Nexus 7 at a similar price point means stiff competition, even without the added pressure from the more expensive iPad mini.
With the introduction of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 into the UK, however, Amazon has its most compelling tablet yet. You get a very solid, well-specified tablet with an excellent 8.9in HD screen at a price that undercuts the Nexus 10 and iPad mini. There are still compromises, but for under £250 they might well be worth making.
As with previous Kindle Fires, there’s nothing about the Fire HD 8.9 that screams cheap. It’s a bit of a no-frills design with a simple all-glass, black-framed front and a rubberised black back cover, punctuated by a metallic bar inlay with stereo speaker grills on either side. However, it’s still good-looking and extremely solid, with not an inch of give anywhere in the construction.
The screen is undoubtedly the star of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 show. With a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution spread over an 8.9in screen it has a pixel density of 254ppi. That’s not enough to put it ahead of the Google Nexus 10, at 300ppi, or the current Retina iPad at 264ppi, but at this level we’re really splitting hairs. It’s beautifully crisp, text looks razor-sharp and the IPS technology means great viewing angles and brilliant colour. Meanwhile, by laminating the touch sensor and the screen into a single layer of glass, Amazon has done a great job of reducing glare, optimising the screen’s levels of contrast.
The Fire HD 8.9 uses a 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 dual-core processor incorporating a PowerVR SGX544 graphics core along with 1GB of RAM. In use, it helps the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 feel pretty slick, smoothly animating the UI’s high-resolution cover images and keeping everything flowing smoothly.
Software is going to be either one of the Fire HD’s key strengths or one of its key weaknesses, depending on what you’re planning to do. As you might know, Amazon takes Google’s Android OS and comprehensively retools it with an all-new UI based on content carousels. The focus is very much on Amazon’s own MP3 and Kindle digital services, along with video from its subsidiary, LoveFiLM, and while you can download further apps from Amazon’s own store, this doesn’t reflect the full range of software available on vanilla Android devices.
The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 isn’t everyone’s perfect tablet. Larger screens still lend themselves better to productivity and business applications, and there are better choices for gaming. However, if you mostly want to consume content and you’re happy for that content to come from Amazon, then there isn’t really a tablet to touch it at this price. The screen and sound are superior to anything else you’ll find for under £250, and the user experience is very good – less technically adept users might even prefer it.
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