We admired the Kindle Fire HDX. It's faux-Android captivated up in a account physique so admirable you'll apprentice to stop annoying and adulation the angled OS. Now its big brother, the HDX 8.9, is actuality with the aforementioned acidity of admirable in a all-inclusive package.
Kindle Fire HDX Review: Third Time's a Charmer Kindle Fire HDX Review: Third Time's a Charmer Kindle Fire HDX Review: Third Time's a Charmer
The Kindle Fire HDX is a big footfall advanced compared to its forebears. It's got a sleek… Apprehend added Read more
Update: In October 2014, Amazon appear a new adaptation of the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 with an adapted processor and a few added baby tweaks. The differences are attenuate abundant that our analysis of the 2013 adaptation (which originally ran on 11/06/13) still stands, so what follows is that antecedent analysis with acutely apparent additions area it matters. After all, it's not like you can get the old Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 anymore.
What Is ItA $380, 8.9-inch book grafted anon to Amazon's all-inclusive accumulating of books and movies. A admirable awning on (roughly) the aforementioned physique we admired so abundant on the Kindle Fire HDX. A monster cine machine. Ablaze as hell.
Who Is It ForPeople who are into watching movies, account comics and magazines and books, but who aswell wish to forward some email and attending at Twitter now and then. Folks who aren't agreeable with a button 7-inch awning and wish something a bit bigger. Anyone who wants a good, solid, living-room additional screen.
Design
The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is, at a glance, just a bigger adaptation of the 7-inch HDX. And that's great, because we adulation that thing. There are a brace of attenuate architecture differences account acquainted though. Area the HDX's angles were aciculate and its physique a bit thick, the HDX 8.9 is appreciably slimmer and the slanted rear angles ambit into the collapsed aback after the aforementioned affectionate of definition. The edges are bigger if they are bluff (i.e on the 7-inch) but this is accomplished too.
At about added than three abode of a batter (13.2 ounces), the HDX 8.9 is light. Absurdly light. Dumb light. It makes the already agile one-pound iPad Air feel like it's fabricated out of advance by comparison. Yes, the HDX 8.9 is abate and has a abate affectation than the iPad Air or added complete 10-inch tabs, which gives it a weight advantage, but it's calmly the a lot of decidedly ablaze book I've laid easily on.
Update: But I haven't laid easily on the iPad Air 2.
The Kindle Fire HDX 7's 1920x1200 323 PPI awning was terrific, but the 8.9's 2560x1600 339 PPI awning is better. Demonstrably bigger than annihilation added ample book out there. The audacity powering it are the aforementioned as on the HDX though; a quadcore 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 with a benefit Adreno 330 GPU to aback it up.
Update: Since 2013 the mural has afflicted a little bit. The iPad Air 2 has a analgesic new display, but aswell Samsung's Galaxy Tab S showed up to snag the "best in class" award. The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9's awning is still great, but the antagonism has developed up. At atomic the new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 rocks a Snapdragon 805, and is still abuse peppy.
Other than those mostly accessory differences, the architecture is about identical to the 7-inch HDX. That includes things we adulation (the aggressive adjustment of the absurd speakers) and things we like a little beneath (the weirdly recessed buttons). There's aswell an 8MP 1080p camera with an LED beam on the aback now, but I appetite attention in application tablets to yield pictures because it makes you attending stupid. Nice to accept the advantage though.
Using It
From a software standpoint, application the HDX 8.9 is functionally identical to using the HDX. The attenuate changes to Fire OS that fabricated the HDX way added of a "real" book are present and acceptable in the 8.9 version. As is Amazon's new "Mayday" video-chat alarm line.
What's a lot of hasty about the footfall up in admeasurement is just how little it changes the experience. Because the 8.9 is like, full-sized book big, you'd apprehend it to be harder to one-hand in mural mode, but acknowledgment to this thing's absurd (lack of) weight, it's in actuality about kinda-sorta reasonable! And arresting it in account approach for account on the go (dangerous but fun!) is an complete cinch. All the joy of a bigger screen, but after (much) added bulk.
When it comes to awning quality, it's account bombastic that the HDX 8.9 has the best one out there. But while it's got the accomplished pixel body of any book so far [Update: No best true!], at a assertive point a retina awning is a retina screen; you're not traveling to notice that abundant of a aberration with the naked eye. That said, movies and TV are still absolutely absurd on the HDX 8.9, abnormally if you accept Amazon Prime at your disposal. It helps that the complete from the speakers is, as on the 7-inch HDX, some of the best we've anytime heard on a tablet.
Update: The new Kindle Fire 8.9 HDX ups its apostle bold even further, with the accession of Dolby Atmos sound. Appropriate off the bat the new HDX sounds great, but I couldn't apprehend what the Atmos was absolutely declared to add over the arrant complete of book speakers that were already aloft and aloft appealing abundant annihilation abroad out there. Basically the new HDX sounds freaking great, but any advance over the antecedent adaptation seems attenuate at best; it was already great.
Even with the bigger screen, the HDX 8.9 still zips alternating like a hero. The app carousel and all its swipey celebrity is still present and lovely. And if it comes to games, the 8.9 could handle Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, Temple Run, and aggregate abroad we threw at it just fine. The Snapdragon 800 in this accoutrement is not advised down by the balance pixels. Scrolling, gaming, annexation through your library, aggregate is a amusement on this bad boy. And you can do it for a while too. With our accepted Nyan Cat array test, we pushed the 8.9 to just beneath the 12 hours of advertised life. And like the 7-inch, the 8.9 aswell boasts battery-saving added low adeptness states, which agency that if you break in account mode, you can clasp some 18 hours of activity out of this thing.
Oh and that camera on the back? It takes nice photographs, if you assert on application your behemothic book as a camera. And the congenital camera app even has some accurate and impaired appearance to let you play with your brainless pictures. Here's a photo of my buzz as a badass charlatan baron who is acknowledgment than the both of us.
Thanks, Kindle!
Update: It's not included, but the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 now has an alternative Bluetooth keyboard, evidently so you can use the tab to get some plan done. Unfortunately, it sucks. Its short, short, short-thow keys are abreast absurd to blow blazon on, and while it's actual thin, it aswell feels actual fragile, like it adeptness breeze in half. It's like the abominable aboriginal adaptation of the Surface Blazon keyboard, after even the acquainted to accord it a little charm. It can magnetically attach to the aback of Amazon's folding Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 origami case, but that's not account much. You'd be abundant bigger off throwing a accepted Amazon Basics bluetooth keyboard in your bag.
SoftwareLike the 7-inch HDX afore it, the 8.9 comes with Amazon's cast new adaptation of angled Android, Fire OS 3.0. Historically the Kindle Fire UI has centered about a carousel. An album-flow of books, movies, apps, and whatever abroad you've got. It still does, but with Fire UI 3.0 you can bash up and get at a added acceptable app drawer.
Update: The new HDX comes hand-in-hand with a new adaptation of Amazon's Android fork, Fire OS. This version—Fire OS 4 aka "Sangria"—is congenital on Android 4.4 KitKat, and comes complete with attainable upgrades like bigger performance, multi-account abutment for ancestors tablets with a assembly of users, the Firefly app (from Amazon's Fire Phone), and chargeless absolute billow accumulator for photos. Aggregate we admired about Fire OS 3 (below) still holds true, but the new adaptation is absolutely better, if mostly in attenuate ways.
The one big accession comes in the anatomy of WPS Office (formerly accepted as Kingsoft Office). This offers some appealing basal babble processing and spreadsheet functionality that I've begin to be about on par with something like Google Docs. Nothing exciting, but because Fire OS is Google App-less, it's a all-important addition. On top of that, you've got some little tweaks like clandestine browsing in Amazon's Silk browser, and the "ASAP" tech begin in Fire TV that attempts to adumbrate the being you'll wish to beck and caches it for you.
Everything I said about Fire OS 3 still holds accurate though.
Here's a GIF from our 7-inch HDX review that is still actual indicative:
Previously, the Kindle Fire UI had array of askance beneath a abundant amount of apps. Not in a processing adeptness way (though sometimes aswell that), but organizationally. It's been like a backpack as adjoin to a desktop; the added you put in the harder it is to get something out.
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But with this new app drawer option, apps get much, abundant easier to admission on a whim. Afore your apps drawer was attainable mainly by borer "Apps" on the top award of categories, area it lived on according basement with things like "Audiobooks" and "Newsstand." Now, apps are accepting a committed abode to flash appropriate on the home screen, area they belong.
And, like a developed OS, Fire 3.0 has multitasking that lets you about-face not alone amid apps, but aswell books! It's content-level, so assorted books don't all get shoved beneath the aforementioned "books" app, which is smart. This isn't absolutely as game-changing as the app drawer thing, but still, it's a footfall appear activity added like a developed tablet.
Fire UI still has some deficiencies of its own, though. Notifications from any and all apps accrue as a simple amount in the top notification bar, with no array of added advisory pop-up. You'll just see a "1" or a "2" or whatever, and accept no abstraction what they are until you cull down. It's minor, but annoying. And not something you wish in your capital book if you are a Busy Person with Lots of Things to Attend To. Appearance like threaded email accept fabricated it to Fire UI 3.0, but in a way that makes them assume like they are a additional priority. A lot of acceptable because they are.
Also just like on the 7-inch HDX, Mayday—the new Kindle Fire video babble abutment line—works absolutely as advertised. Just like endure time, I clicked the button and aural maybe 5 abnormal I was talking to a admirable fellow, who—after acknowledging my email for aegis reasons—began to draw on my awning for me and move his avatar around. It was affectionate of magical. But even admitting Mayday doesn't actuate your camera, there's something about it that's unnerving. They can't see you, but you'll still feel watched.
Kindle Fire HDX: Amazon's Tablet, All Growed Up At Last Kindle Fire HDX: Amazon's Tablet, All Growed Up At Last Kindle Fire HDX: Amazon's Tablet, All Growed UThe new Kindle Fires are here. And they're appealing abuse impressive. The Kindle Fire HDX, in 7-… Apprehend added Read more
The arrow was him. The pixellation was me; it just seemed polite.
This time around, with the Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch already out in the wild, Mayday is apparently beneath added accent than it was the endure time we activated it. Still, my acquaintance was—again—nothing but pleasant, and hopefully castigation will be too (if you anytime accept to use it in the aboriginal place).
And that's the thing; Mayday isn't all-important for apparatus freaks, or even anyone who's community in modern-day blow UI. But it's nice to apperceive that the luddites in your activity accept anyone abroad to call, anyone added acceptable and evidently added accessible than you are.
Xray for music is accession acceptable accession on the software side, if not an absolutely acute one. You apparently don't need to be able to browse through the absolute lyrics of a song, ablution aback and alternating in the audio by beat the words, but it abiding is fun. And clashing Xray for movies, which is a admired antecedent of trivia, and Xray for books, which can be a life-saver for difficult literature, Xray for music is just array of a toy. Nice if you bethink that it's there, but you'll about forget.
LikeMovie and TV-watching on the HDX 8.9 is a alive as it is on the 7-inch. Amid the admirable awning (if it's arena high-quality content, e.g. Prime or annihilation hi-res and native) and the booming sound, you'll acquisition yourself apprehensive why you bother with a TV. Abnormally now that the awning is even prettier and beyond than the 7-inch.
The all-embracing scrolling, swiping, selecting, and browsing acquaintance on the HDX 8.9 is just as absurd as it was on the abate version. Of advance allotment of that is acknowledgment to the 2.2 GHz processor new 2.7 GHz Processor but Fire UI's new Jellybean 4.2.2 KitKat 4.4 skeleton aswell helps. Clashing 2.0, Fire UI 3.0 is post-Project Butter, Google's big action to accomplish banal Android fast, smooth, and again more fast, and more smooth. It shows. Fire UI is by its actual attributes abundant on swipes and bounces, and they all feel good. That constant adeptness to do being calmly and after stutters translates to the apple of apps too; the Kindle Fire HDX can run just about annihilation app you can bandy at it and run it well.
Update: Like I mentioned above, the new HDX runs Fire OS 4, which about improves on aggregate we admired about 3. Aswell the new Snapdragon 805 agency the achievement is still cottony smooth, but bluntly there wasn't abundant allowance for improvement. This is just befitting it up there for accession year.
Like the 7-inch afore it, the 8.9 is one solid tablet. And goddamn is it light. Did we acknowledgment it's light. It's light.
No LikeOne of our capital beefs with the 7-inch HDX (which still persists in the 8.9 version) is the abridgement of Google apps. Admittedly that's not so abundant a flaw as it is a best we're not absolutely addicted of. But it's a best that comes with a lot of consequences. The Amazon App Store has bigger alternative than it acclimated too—most big players are there—but it's still cut off from the greater Android apple in some allusive ways. Apps you've already purchased through the Play Store (if any), do not alteration over to a Kindle Fire HDX. App updates pushed out over the Play Store accept to appear through Amazon afore a Kindle gets ahold of them.
It's apparently easiest not to anticipate of the Kindle Fire as an Android book at all; Fire OS is angled so strongly, it's an absolutely altered experience, with its own rules and, yes, its own apps. The actuality that it shares annihilation with Android at all is added just a benefit than an basic allotment of what the Fire UI aims to be.
On top of that, you don't get admission to added analgesic Google casework like Google Now, or Voice Search, and there's no account-syncing amid accessories like there is if you're beggared into authentic Google. It's the amount you pay for allotment Amazon.
Should You Buy ItProbably not, or at atomic not yet. At $380 (16GB, appropriate offers) the 8.9 is a steal adjoin the commensurable $500 iPad Air; the 8.9 is cheaper, lighter, has a bigger screen, and is about as big. But authority on. Hooooold on.
The 8.9 is not a bang douse adjoin the accessible $400 retina iPad mini, a book that will action about similarish awning quality, a about abate screen, exceptional hardware, and a way added able-bodied ecosystem for just $20 added than the commensurable HDX 8.9. For just $6 added than the commensurable HDX 8.9 if you pay the added $14 it costs to abolish appropriate offers. And the iPad mini is appropriate about the corner. You can authority your animation for the reviews, but from aggregate we apperceive so far, it's traveling to be the bigger accord by a fair margin.
The Kindle Fire HDX is a admirable device. It has a abundant screen, a acceptable processor; it's ablaze as a feather, it's a amusement to hold. This is a acceptable book and account its amount tag. But there are about absolutely better deals on the horizon.
Update: Not alone is the retina iPad Mini great, it's now cheaper because the iPad mini 3 came out (also the iPad mini 3 is a bad accord and you should not buy it). The added knife in the HDX 8.9's ancillary is that the Nexus 9, a 8.9-inch banal Android tablet is on the way too, complete with a $400 price-point and a keyboard case of its own. Front-facing speakers even!
Wait for the reviews, but I can't brainstorm this little Fire OS tablet, nice as it is, can angle up to the antagonism of a banal Android one at the same(ish) price. The Nexus 9 is about abiding to be the bigger bet if you like Android at all, or even if you just like Google services. Or even if you just like apps. If not, again the aboriginal retina iPad mini is your tablet. The new HDX 8.9 is nice, but it brings actual little new to the table and it's outclassed on all sides.
Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 Specs (Updated) Processor: 2.2 2.7 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 805
Display: 8.9-inch IPS LCD
Resolution: 2560x1600 (339 PPI)
Memory: 2GB
Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB
OS: Fire OS 3, based on Android 4.2.2 Fire OS 4, based on Android 4.4
Camera: 720p Front Cam, 8MP 1080p Rear Cam
Networking: WiFi (5GHz MIMO)
Weight: 13.2 ounces
Dimensions: 9.1" X 6.2" X 0.31"
Price: $380/$430/$480 + $100 for 4G LTE + $15 to abolish ads
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