Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7' : Review

Saturday 18 May 2013
The Amazon kindle Fire HD was launched last year as a sequel to the original Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire was large and bulky with no challenging specs not even a camera. However this new addition to the kindle range has a all new design, operating system and some pretty impressive specs. Will this 7' Tablet stand out from the rest and maybe even go on to challenge the iPad Mini? Lets see..

HARDWARE


Keeping with the idea of the kindle Fire, The Kindle Fire HD has a very minamalistic design (and thats to make it more affordable.) Small changes on this device like tapered edges and a more grip-able back makes the reading experience on this tablet that much more comfortable. The 7' screen has a higher resolution (hence the HD') and is wider and shorter than the original Fire.The screen is suppose to be fit with anti-glare technology but I find that the glare on this tablet is in fact the same as any other tablet.  With the Kindle Fire Hd amazon really wanted it to be used to consume all types of media (like video and audio) which is why amazon put two dolby stereo speakers on the back of this tablet. A nice feature that definitely stands out. Overall the design is a big leap from its  box-shaped predecessor yet it doesn't seem premium in-front of competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Tab II 7' and off course the iPad Mini.


CAMERA & BATTERY 

The Fire has a below average 1.3 MP front-facing camera. The camera is used exclusively on third-party applications like Skype for video calling. It is important to note that it doesn't have any amazon/kindle camera application for taking pictures (like PhotoBooth on the iPad mini) if you want to take pictures you need to install a third-party application. The 4400 mAh battery is pretty good and takes about 2 days to drain on mid-use (reading and average video consumption.)


OPERATING SYSTEM  

The kindle Fire HD runs a forked version of android , just like the Fire. The 'Kindle OS' has the bottom shortcut bar like android (with Home , settings and favorites) but thats the end of the android features. It has a homepage which has your recent apps/books/magazines/movies and TV shows in a carousel as well as a recommendations strip closer to the bottom (from the Amazon Store.) The actual reading experience on the kindle range is by far the best with features that are simply irreplaceable by Apple's iBooks and even Barnes and Noble's Nook. Amazon gives you total customization of your reading experience letting you customize font size, font and even page colour so that your reading experience is suited to the way you like to read. The thing I love about the kindle reading software is that if gives you your page number , your loc (location) in the book and the estimated time left until you finish your chapter and book (estimated through your reading speed) which gives you a feeling of how far you are in the book. The Kindle Fire also has a feature called X-Ray which gives you a break-down of all the characters and scenes and tells you where they appear in the book, it is a great way to summarize information about acharacter/ place when you have forgotten it. The new X-Ray also works with videos using IMDb. The Kindle Fire HD integrates a new software called Kindle Free-Time which is a feature that totally customizes your kindle for children which doesn't allow them to access your files. You can also customize the number of hours your children reads or watches movies. As well as the age restriction of the movies or books. 

STORE 

The amazon store is the heart of the Kindle Fire. With amazing Books titles , magazines , TV Shows and Movies. The Store also has a feature called Whispe



rSync that allows you to share the content bought on your kindle with any other android, iOS or Windows device. The Store doesn't have all of the apps available on traditional Android app stores like Google play however there is a good selection of apps.
The App store has books, movies and TV shows.

OTHER PICTURES





CONCLUSION  


The amazon Kindle fire HD 7' is a great tablet, its HD screen allows for better viewing of content from the Amazon Store. Games, Movies, books and magazines look crisper on than on the original kindle Fire. The Software on the Kindle Fire is minimalist but amazing at the same time. The camera isn't that amazing and doesn't add value to the tablet. Although the Fire HD is really good it doesn't have any exiting specs and features that make if different to the rest. I'd definitely recommend it to a regular book or magazine reader, but other than that the Fire HD isn't made for anything else other than entertainment. 











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