Software
The 8.9 is running the similar user
interface with the 7inch model. This time, Ice Cream Sandwich is its foundation
and generally speaking, it provides a huge considerable enhancement compared to
the interface of the original Fire in terms of usability and speed – but it is
still very much the same. If you dislike the heavy-handed way of Amazon in
hiding all aspects of the built-in Android, you would feel unpleased here, but
at least it is not slow at all.
Kindle
Fire HD 8.9 display
All of the apps, movies, music, websites
and almost all of other things which you can access on the tablet are added
into the main content carousel in the last-in-first-out order. It is like
everything you read or play is pushed to the top of the waiting queue, and just
with one flick of your finger, you can easily go over all recently accessed
apps. If you are the type who usually just jumps between few apps, you will
always be able to find them on the top.
But you belong to the group including
people who tend to dig a little deeper, you can also do that. Movies, music,
books, apps and other content can be categorized by content, and in each
category you can check the available content of the device and all of the things
which patiently wait for you on the cloud.
Applications
on Kindle Fire HD 8.9
If you are looking for a book, a song or a
movie, the size of the selection is so impressed. The business partners of
Amazon ensure almost everything will be available for the digital consumption
under your fingertips. The prices offered by Amazon which are often among the
best in the business of course seem to be helpful too.
However, when talking about another
important aspect of owning a tablet, that wild and wonderful world of
applications, the choices are relatively limited. Amazon succeeded in
persuading giant developers like Rovio to provide them good products and top-ranked
applications. However, it is just a small proportion of the huge available
things in Google Play store in general. Yes, you can download APK if you are
well technical skilled to do so, but you will always be prevented from
accessing into many current good applications of Android – the most
considerably Google’s own Gmail and Maps.
And of course there is Silk browser,
Amazon’s cloud-accelerated HTML renderer that is considered to use the crowd
effect to accelerate the webpage rendering. In the original Kindle Fire, we
found many claims of acceleration that were overstated and the Kindle Fire HD 7
inch renders the webpage even much slower than Nexus 7. It still makes sense,
and while the 8.9 inch model is an improvement in terms of speed, it is still
slower than most of the competitive tablets, like Nexus 10.
Since September 2012, Amazon has added some
other changes for the operating system, including the expansion of X-Ray
function to textbooks, enabling you to look for the definition of terminologies
and index location for other complicated definitions – or looking for their
definition in Wikipedia. It combines with the X-ray for movies, which draws
IMDb information about any actor or actress in the current scene. There is,
moreover, FreeTime, which provides parents more control over what their children,
what they can and cannot do on the tablet – and how long can they use their
tablets.
Finally, we cannot discuss Kindle’s
software without mentioning the Special Offers. This is the standard problem on
all Kindle devices at this moment and it turns the clocked screen of the tablet
to an advertising banner for many things like books, video games and shaving
cream. In fact, our first experience when boosting up the Fire HD tablet was an
advertisement for Amazon.com credit card. That is all that you can call a first
bad impression.
While they are not often obnoxious, these
ads play the role of frequently reminding you that this device’s existence is
for advertising, and discouraged us for a while. Fortunately, you will never
see those advertising for good with no more than $15, so it totally up to you
to decide whether to keep or get rid of them.
The competition
Galaxy
Tab 2.10.1 – one of the huge competitors
With $299 or more, Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is
$100 cheaper than the cheapest tablet competitor Nexus 10. With $100 more, you
have a better-resolution display and the originally newest version of Android.
For some people, they deserve with the additional expenditure, but if you wish
to have mobile connection, your choice might be fairly easy.
Currently, you can purchase for a Galaxy
Tab 2.10.1 16GB with the similar price of $299, a tablet with weaker
performance and less pixel density, but a relatively uncompromised version of
Android,
Then, there’s Barnes and Noble Nook HD+, a
9inch tablet, 1080p and similarly burdened with a heavily customized version of
Android, but starting price is just $269 for 16GB version and $299 for 32 GB.
We have not had any chance to test that model entirely, but while we
experienced the reading and surfing website, it is great. The selection of
Barnes and Noble applications is still more limited than that of Amazon, as
well as selection of other content. For those who tend to work a lot on the
tablet, beside reading and surfing web, it is a really serious drawback.
Conclusion
At the price of $199, Kindle Fire HD 7
confronts directly with Nexus 7 and for knowledgeable users, it is such a
hard-to-sell product. However, with the acceptable size and price compared to
other larger tablet competitors, the $299 Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is difficultly
comparable. Therefore, the question is what is it capable of that the
predecessor is lack of? Of course the answer is better performance, larger
dimension and cellular connector – if you are willing to pay $200 more.
1080p
bright and beautiful screen
Generally speaking, we are somehow fond of
7inch tablets and therefore in these two models, we are still attracted by the
cellular 7 inch Kindle Fire HD. However, those who need more working space, or
cannot be offline at any time, may consider choosing the 8.9inch model.
Meanwhile, if you are a person who seriously desires to use tablet to access
the full power of Android OS, the decision is still easy: Choose another one.
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Info
·
Price: $299 - $599
Advantages
·
1080p bright and beautiful screen
·
Wonderful built quality
·
Huge content selections
·
Basically cheap data
Disadvantages
·
The OS sometimes stutters
·
No Google Play access
Verdict
·
Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is quite larger and faster
than the 7 inch version, but beside the LTE option, it does not bring much.
Amazon Kindle
Fire HD 8.9 technical specs
·
OS: Android 4.0
·
Dimension: 9.4x6.4x0.35 inches (240x164x8.8
mm)
·
Weight: 567g
·
Resolution: 1,920x1,200 pixels
·
Pixel density: 254 ppi
·
Technology: IPS LCD
·
Touchscreen: Capacitive, Multi-touch
·
System chip: TI OMAP4470
·
Processor: Dual core, 1500 MHz, ARM Cortex-A9
·
Graphics processor: PowerVR SGX544 @ 384MHz
·
System memory: 1024 MB RAM
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