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Kindle Fire HD - Most Advanced 7" Tablet

7/20/2013 9:23:24 AM

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is primarily a device for spending money and consuming content, and for this it’s very good. This is not a tablet for people who want to get some work done

AMAZON wants you to buy things, and the Kindle Fire HD isn’t afraid of letting you know that. In fact, as soon as you turn on the device, you’ll be confronted with an advert in glorious HD. Sign in and get through to the home screen, and there are more ads; underneath the carousel of things you already have, is another showing products that other people have bought. You should definitely buy them too. Go on.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD

It’s not like Amazon has conned anyone though. When Jeff Bezos stood on stage and announced the latest Kindle line-up, he made it perfectly clear that the Fire is a service and not a gadget. Sure, you can browse the web and check emails, but that’s not the Kindle Fire HD’s raison d’etre.

It’s not like Amazon has conned anyone though. When Jeff Bezos stood on stage and announced the latest Kindle line-up, he made it perfectly clear that the Fire is a service and not a gadget

Content consumption portal

This is not the device if you want to get some work done, chat with friends and make life easier using innovative apps. The Kindle Fire HD is there for books, games, movies and music. Books, games, movies and music you have bought from Amazon, at that.

Amazon’s Appstore is a huge bonus. Thanks to it being tied to Amazon’s own purchasing system, it’s easier for you to buy games/albums/ whatever from a trusted source, and then be able to access those purchases from a staggering amount of other connected devices thanks to the cloud. This is where the Kindle Fire HD has something of a dichotomy. The basic device offers 16GB storage (no SD card expansion), but with an overriding message of BUY BUY BUY, something has to give.

Now, Amazon has offered one way around that problem by letting users store all their content on the cloud, and then stream those files or download them to the tablet. However, for a device that is supposed to be portable, and only comes in Wi-Fi flavor, that cloud access isn’t necessarily going to get a great deal of use.

It’s not going to be a deal breaker for most people, but is definitely something worth considering if you’re leaning towards the Fire HD and like to have a decent library of movies and music at your fingertips at all times.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that a mains charger isn’t included in the box, so be sure to order one of those lest you wind up waiting to use your new toy as it trickle charges from a computer.

It’s not going to be a deal breaker for most people, but is definitely something worth considering if you’re leaning towards the Fire HD and like to have a decent library of movies and music at your fingertips at all times

Perfect form

With streaming and downloading being such a major part of the attraction, the dual antenna, dual band Wi-Fi makes a real difference and as long as your Wi-Fi connection is solid, it’s very unlikely you’ll ever encounter lags or stutters. For a multimedia device, the Fire HD’s form factor is perfect. If it was any smaller, lengthy films would be less enjoyable and the impressive speakers wouldn’t deliver the same kind of performance.

Any larger, however, and reading books would become an exercise in absurdity. Have you ever tried to get comfortable and read a novel on a tablet nearing 10 inches? Nobody curls up on the sofa with the Guinness Book of Records. At 395g it’s about the right weight for reading, with a decent-sized bezel around the screen for thumbs.

The gadget feels solid, with a comfortable rubbery back that makes it easy to hold, and has a thin glossy plastic band across the back, housing the speakers. Amazon has also listened to consumers and added physical volume buttons - an improvement on the previous Kindle Fire. Another bonus to buying a Fire HD includes automatically being signed up for Amazon Prime for one month, offering free next-day delivery on physical purchases and an eBook rental service. Unlike other free trials, this is one you’ll probably want to hang on to - free next-day delivery is particularly helpful, although don’t forget you’ll have to pay after the trial.

For a tablet aimed at being a one-stop shop for watching, reading and playing, the Kindle Fire HD is quite unhelpful when trying to use file formats it doesn’t like. Although a great deal of the video files on your hard drives will be in .avi, you’ll need to download an app such as VLC to actually play them.

Once you have them playing, the 1280x800 HD display will make them look fantastic. Games too, get a new lease of life. Large, graphically intense games (The Dark Knight Rises, Contract Killer) look brilliant, and the 1.2 GHz dual-core processor twinned with the Imagination PowerVR 3D graphics core keeps everything fast and smooth.

The lack of customization will be a problem for some. You can change the homepage to an extent, but the basic layout will always be the same. If you’re used to stock Android and like to make devices work around you and your needs, the inability to tailor will be challenging. As will the

Kindle’s incessant desire to funnel you through to its stores - no matter where you are, the ability to spend more is only a tap away. It’s a double edged sword: very handy in some respects, but at times the grasping is massively irritating.

While entertainment is well-represented, many apps that you may have come to rely on are not. There is no Chrome, no Firefox; your one choice of browser is the homemade program Silk. As browsers go, it’s perfectly serviceable, but the lack of choice is frustrating. So too is the lack of YouTube, Dropbox, Gmail and other things you would expect.

While entertainment is well-represented, many apps that you may have come to rely on are not

Verdict

Ultimately, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a device for spending money and consuming content - a $226 + personalized shop window - but it’s damn good at what it is trying to do. The discovery and download journey is elegant, and the delivery of that content absolutely flawless.

If you’re after something to use for watching, reading and listening while commuting or just for messing about with before going to sleep, it’s hard to think of a better device. Just be sure that that’s all you want before laying down the cash.

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD specs

·         Price: $239

·         Size: 193x137x10.3mm

·         Weight: 395g

·         Display: 7-inch LCD

·         Resolution: 1280x800 pixels

·         Front camera: 1.3 megapixels

·         Processor: 1.2GHz dual-core

·         RAM: 1GB

·         Storage: 16GB

·         Internet: Wi-Fi

·         GPS: No

·         Browser: Silk

·         Email: Yes

·         Music player: Yes

·         Video player: Yes

 

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