Rumors about Amazon launching a new set of Kindle tablets were spreading since July, but it took the company a couple of months to reveal them officially. Just yesterday, the A to Z vendor announced that not one, but three new slates will join the already renowned line-up: the Kindle Fire HD and its more evolved siblings, the 8.9-inch wide model and the 4G LTE capable bigger brother. Besides surprising most customers with quality devices, the retailer made sure that the asking price was quite a bargain.
So we set ourselves today to answer one of the heavy burdened questions: Which one is worth buying? Should you purchase the classic Kindle Fire, the new HD version or the more advanced, LTE-friendly companion? What differentiates all of these tablets and of course, which one would win in a Kindle Fire vs. HD vs. LTE quality and price match? Scroll down to find out.
Differences between Kindle Fire versions
The Kindle Fire family was born in September 2011 and after a year of decimating the competition and eating the sale numbers of the iPad, although it didn’t fit in exactly the same category, Amazon will soon launch three new models on the market. Besides their technical differences, each model has features which may draw buyers closely and the fact that the vendor wishes to make profit when these tablets are used, instead of when they are purchased, will surely spark interest.
Features of the Kindle Fire family
Any Kindle Fire devices offers a great media-consuming experience, whether we speak about surfing the web, reading eBooks or keeping in touch with the world. For instance, the original Kindle Fire is thin, light and built using a sturdy, durable body. It offers access to over 22 million movies, TV shows, audiobooks and popular apps. It has integrated support for most social networks and comes with free unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon-related content.
Speaking about Amazon’s gifts, the Kindle Fire is offered access to a special Prime program, which lets users stream an unlimited quantity of movies, for an annual fee. Moreover, the Prime program includes a Lending Library feature, which offers more than 180,000 books to be borrowed, with no due date.
Kindle Fire tablets – perfectly suitable for content consumption
Moreover, the original Kindle Fire enjoys the company of features such as Whispersync for Movies, Voice, Books, Games, which basically means that the user can continue his experience right from the point he left it last time, with ease. The device offers an immersive reading experience, as well as an advanced method of searching through books and movies and to find out spicy details about the characters, called X-Ray.
On the other hand, the Kindle Fire HD comes with an advanced set of Dolby speakers for virtual surround sound, a dual-antenna with two bands which can outpace the iPad 3 at Wi-Fi downloads with 40%, free Skype video calls using the front-facing camera, a wide range of exclusive special offers and all of the above. Also, it has free access to Kindle’s FreeTime program for kids, which is a personalized parenting application that lets users set daily screen limits and access only to appropriate content.
Those who purchase a Kindle Fire HD, whether is the 7-inch model or the bigger 8.9-inc brother, will have access to a Student program, which offers a 50% discount on the Amazon Prime contract and 60% off when purchasing a textbook. The device also has an auto-wake and sleep function, when pairing the Fire HD with one Amazon made case. Last but not least, the LTE-friendly Kindle Fire comes with a brilliant LTE contract for one year, which allows 250 MB of traffic monthly, 20 GB of additional Cloud Drive storage and a $10 Appstore credit for just $50, besides everything else detailed above.
Design and Body
There is no major difference between the Kindle Fire design, and the design of the rest of the family, besides size, of course. Amazon has kept the same black candy-bar look across all models and only tweaked the length and width of the slates, while slightly varying the thickness. Actually, the thinnest member is the 4G capable Kindle Fire HD with a 0.35-inch thickness, which is 0.05 inch thinner than the regular Kindle Fire HD and 0.10 inch thinner than the classic Fire.
The newest generation also received a more curved design of the back-plate, with angular-shaped margins, while the front-facing side holds more space between the end of the display and the end of the slate.
Technical specifications comparison
The Verdict
It all comes down to the user. For $159 the original Kindle Fire may be seen by some as the perfect device. It’s ideal for movie watching, reading books, staying connected and even playing most games. It supports a wide range of apps and for that price, it may be seen as the winner. But for $40 extra you can purchase the Fire HD, with a slightly bigger display, a much faster processor, double the storage space and a more stylish approach.
The Kindle Fire HD, the 16GB version, is truly the winner for me. It offers the best of experiences and although Amazon offers a bigger, 8.9-inch wide screen and a faster processor for $100 extra, that’s a bit too expensive for my taste. I consider the plain HD to be the ideal slate for an avid media consumer, and the best choice from Amazon. As for those who want a bit more from a tablet, like power-hungry application, a blazing fast processor and instant download speeds over Wi-Fi and cellular network as well, the LTE model is the one to pick. How about you?
P.S: The 7 inch versions will ship starting since September 14th, and other versions since Nov 20th, but pre-orders are accepted right now on Amazon.
[poll id=”6″]