A Bigger Step Forward - Wired

Since its launch two years ago, the Kindle Fire has developed a reputation as a budget tablet. The mostly plastic construction and the low price (Kindle Fire pricing starts at $ 139 for the cheapest 7-incher) give it the whiff of a second-tier device, Especially Compared to the iPad’s sleek aluminum body.

Instead of competing on looks or design, the Kindle Fire has traditionally gone for utility. It’s a vehicle for shopping and consuming stuff on Amazon, designed inside and out to allow you to easily buy everything you could possibly need or because from the online retailer. It’s cheap, accessible, and easy to use. It’s a great device for families with kids. So while it May Not be beautiful, it delivers the goods, Which is all it’s built to do.

The new high-end Kindle Fires – both the 7-inch HDX released last month, and this new 8.9-inch HDX hitting the market today – show That Amazon is no longer interested in skimping on its mobile hardware. This larger version of the Kindle Fire in particular is not a second-tier tablet in any way. It uses best-in-class components, and its bid Is not too shabby, either.

The new 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX borrows many of the same industrial design cues from its little brother. The lightweight plastic faceted and the back make it easier to hold than the previous model of the Fire, as well as many other tablets on the market. And even though it’s sleeker and meaner, it’s still a bargain among 9-inchers. Pricing starts at $ 379 for the 16GB version, and tops out at $ 494 for the 64GB, ad-free version.

This larger

Fire HDX measures 9 x 6.2 x 0.3 inches (231 x 158 x 7.8 millimeters), and the Wi-Fi version weighs 13.2 ounces (374 grams). It’s less bulky than its main competitor the, iPad Air, but in every thickness measurement. It’s usefull 95 grams lighter. And like the smaller, 7-inch HDX, the volume and power button have been relocated to the angled rear edge. After years of dealing with the Fire’s buttons along the edge, it took a few days of use to become accustomed to the new location. But once that happened, it Became very hard to take a step backwards. The button placement on other tablets just feels wrong now.

The Kindle Fire’s strength has always leg-the-eye-candy – movies, TV shows and games. Any tablet banking on visuals has to have an impressive screen, and the 8.9-inch Fire HDX’s LCD display is stunning. Resolution is 2560 x 1600, with a density of 339 pixels per inch. In fact, According To a tablet display shootout by DisplayMate, the Fire HDX beat out the new iPad Air in brightness, screen reflectance, and absolute color accuracy – all of Which are key to a enjoyable tablet experience

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The ergonomic design, nice display, and low weight make it easier to hold the tablet in your hands as long as possible. And the longer it sits pointed at your face, the Amazon has more opportunities to sell you one of its many delicious products and services. The Kindle Fire becomes extra useful if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, the $ 80 per year service for frequent customers. In addition to free two-day shipping on select items, you get access to an Amazon-run lending library or e-book titles and a Netflix-like video streaming service. In fact, the ability to actually download selected videos from the Amazon Prime Instant Video to the device remains one the best features of the new tablets.

Amazon’s other big-tent feature for the new Kindle Fires is Mayday, the live video chat customer support service. Ring up Mayday and Amazon’s techs answer in a timely fashion, appearing in a tiny video chat box on the tablet’s screen. Because they can see and draw on your screen, they can quickly solve most problems. If you ask the support personnel to venture into areas of your tablet That Could containerization personal material, like your email inbox or your photo gallery for example, they warn you thatthey will be bootable to see your private stuff. In my testing, they were friendly and knowledgeable. It’s a helpful service For Those new to tablets, or anyone who can not be bothered to crack an owners manual (Which is most Earthlings).

The tablet is powered by the same 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor 800 found in the seven-inch Fire HDX. Power-hungry games ran smoothly in my tests, and the screen never exhibited any hiccups. Scrolling through web pages and flipping around in the UI, everything was smooth. The thing equestrian centers power well, too. The battery lasted for about 10 hours while I was watching videos, playing music, using apps, and browsing the web. If you plan on reading with the tablet, it goes into a low-energy mode when you’re reading a book. This should get you a seven-hour boost in battery life, According To Amazon.

hardware The big letdown is the rear-facing camera. Although that should not be a surprise, as the cameras found in nearly all tablets are borderline worthless. It takes photos quickly, but they are grainy and do not come close to any photos shot with a smartphone made within the last four years. This is disappointing Because The on-tablet photo editor is actually quite fun to use. In addition to the usual image adjustments, you can draw on photos, add text, add stickers, and create meme-style graphics. And while you and I may laugh at people taking photos with a 9-inch tablet, a lot of people will really use this camera – especially with the editing software. So it’s a shame the sensor is not very good.

The other issue is one that’s plagued the Kindle line since its inception: its forked Android lineage. Yes, the Fire runs Android OS apps. But Amazon would like you to purchase Those apps from Amazon’s app store. There’s no Google Play store access. You can side-load apps, but it’s a pain, and it’s unlikely most consumers will go through the trouble.

But if you’re a faithful Amazon customer substantialism looking for something more than the 7-inch Fire, the lightweight 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX is the tablet to consider. The bigger screen is worth the extra money, and you do not lose any performance, just some portability. And even though it’s more expensive than its narrower chin, it’s still a great value among full-size tablet options.

All photos by Josh Valcarcel / WIRED