Amazon's new affordable high-end tablet is now out in the UK for £159. Read on for our first impressions of the Kindle Fire HD ahead of a full product review coming soon.
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is an interesting tablet on several levels. First of all, you get a decent set of specs for the price, as the 16 GB model sells for just £159. Second, the OS has been specially geared up for multimedia, with easy access to free and paid-for content of all kinds. Amazon clearly knows its tablet's strengths and it knows how to get the best out of them.
The Kindle Fire HD has a 7" IPS screen (IPS = wide viewing angles) and 1280 x 800 pixels. It runs on a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 16 GB of RAM. The tablet has a micro USB port, a micro HDMI out, a 3.5 mm headphones jack, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. There's also an "HD" webcam on the tablet's front face.
This tablet runs on Android 4.0 but Google's OS has been totally transformed with a custom interface. The Kindle Fire HD is available with 16 GB of memory for £159 or with 32 GB of memory for £199.
We got a hands-on with the Fire HD after Amazon's presentation event last week. We'll be receiving our own model to test in due course.
The first thing we noticed about the Kindle Fire HD is that it's really nice to handle and touch. The product finish is convincing and the rubbery finish on the rear is both subtly stylish and effective for grip.
Here's a video of the Kindle Fire HD in action:
In the main interface you can flick between your latest apps using handy big icons. It's a smooth and seamless experience. A bar of options just above offers access to the various hubs within the tablet: music, video, books, web, etc.
The App Shop is stocked with loads of apps from the Google Play Store, which isn't accessible directly here. Plus, apps, books and all the user's multimedia content is available in the cloud, for easy access on different devices. Anyone with another Amazon Kindle device can therefore access all their content libraries as soon as they enter their Amazon user details on the Fire HD.
Synchronisation is pretty advanced here too, as bookmarks and favourites are also backed up to the cloud. You can even pick up a book you were reading on your Kindle e-reader exactly where you left off on your Fire HD.
Stay tuned for our full review of the Kindle Fire HD, coming soon.
> Touchscreen Tablet Reviews
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is an interesting tablet on several levels. First of all, you get a decent set of specs for the price, as the 16 GB model sells for just £159. Second, the OS has been specially geared up for multimedia, with easy access to free and paid-for content of all kinds. Amazon clearly knows its tablet's strengths and it knows how to get the best out of them.
The Kindle Fire HD has a 7" IPS screen (IPS = wide viewing angles) and 1280 x 800 pixels. It runs on a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 16 GB of RAM. The tablet has a micro USB port, a micro HDMI out, a 3.5 mm headphones jack, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. There's also an "HD" webcam on the tablet's front face.
This tablet runs on Android 4.0 but Google's OS has been totally transformed with a custom interface. The Kindle Fire HD is available with 16 GB of memory for £159 or with 32 GB of memory for £199.
We got a hands-on with the Fire HD after Amazon's presentation event last week. We'll be receiving our own model to test in due course.
The first thing we noticed about the Kindle Fire HD is that it's really nice to handle and touch. The product finish is convincing and the rubbery finish on the rear is both subtly stylish and effective for grip.
Here's a video of the Kindle Fire HD in action:
The App Shop is stocked with loads of apps from the Google Play Store, which isn't accessible directly here. Plus, apps, books and all the user's multimedia content is available in the cloud, for easy access on different devices. Anyone with another Amazon Kindle device can therefore access all their content libraries as soon as they enter their Amazon user details on the Fire HD.
Synchronisation is pretty advanced here too, as bookmarks and favourites are also backed up to the cloud. You can even pick up a book you were reading on your Kindle e-reader exactly where you left off on your Fire HD.
Stay tuned for our full review of the Kindle Fire HD, coming soon.
> Touchscreen Tablet Reviews
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