Amazon Launches Kindle Fire HDX Tablets

New submitter casab1anca writes "In classic Amazon fashion, without much fanfare, a bunch of new tablets just popped up on their homepage today. The new range, dubbed HDX, is available in the usual 8.9" and 7" versions, with improved hardware and software, but perhaps equally interesting is the revamped 7" Fire HD from last year, which goes for just $139 now." Compared to the Kindle Fire HD, the new models feature a jump in display density (216 PPI to 323 PPI for the 7" and 254 to 339 PPI for the 9"), a switch from a dual-core TI OMAP Cortex-A9 (at 1.2/1.5GHz) to a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, and a bump from 1G to 2G of RAM. On the software side, Android has been upgraded from 4.0 to 4.2.2 and Amazon added a few new features to their applications. Businessweek has an interview with Jeff Bezos running today too (starting a bit down the first page).

Comments

Screen resolution

[ardmhacha]

"Exclusive 8.9" HDX display (2560x1600)"

Dear Laptops

Please increase your screen resolution to something usable.

Thanks

Re:Google Play Store

[Archangel Michael]

You can. You just can't do it without sideloading the Play Store App. It does require gaining "root", in order to sideload the play store APP.

This alone should cause the"average" user to balk at Kindle anything. If you look at any other Android Tablet, and find one that uses Play Store, then you can add the Kindle App to it, and it becomes essentially the same thing (all other spec being the same).

Re:bootloader still locked?

[coinreturn]

And it's priced accordingly. Amazon is willing to accept meager profit on hardware under the assumption you will buy software from them. It's like the wireless providers subsidizing phone prices, except the contract never ends.

Is it still just Amazon content consumption?

[water-and-sewer]

I have a Nexus 7 and like it, so after a year of playing with an Android tablet, I figured I knew what all tablets were like. Then a friend let me try his Kindle and I was bewildered how locked down and confusing it was.

It was great for downloading books and movies from Amazon but from no where else, and I wasn't overly impressed by its other features. It was also freaking HEAVY.

I concluded it was simply a window/screen through which you send your money to Amazon, and not good for much else. Give me a stock Android tablet any day. On my Nexus I've got a Nook app, but I've also got several other ebook readers (Aldiko is great). And I guess I could put a Kindle app on it if I wanted.

Amazon has a great book store and lots of other media too. But if the new Kindle is just a better version of their last Kindle, they can keep it - give me stock Android and a choice of apps any day of the week over a device that's been locked down to be a simple content consumption (hate that word) device.