The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is
primarily a device for spending money and consuming content, and for this it’s
very good. This is not a tablet for people who want to get some work done
AMAZON wants you to buy things, and the
Kindle Fire HD isn’t afraid of letting you know that. In fact, as soon as you
turn on the device, you’ll be confronted with an advert in glorious HD. Sign in
and get through to the home screen, and there are more ads; underneath the
carousel of things you already have, is another showing products that other
people have bought. You should definitely buy them too. Go on.
Amazon
Kindle Fire HD
It’s not like Amazon has conned anyone
though. When Jeff Bezos stood on stage and announced the latest Kindle line-up,
he made it perfectly clear that the Fire is a service and not a gadget. Sure,
you can browse the web and check emails, but that’s not the Kindle Fire HD’s
raison d’etre.
It’s
not like Amazon has conned anyone though. When Jeff Bezos stood on stage and
announced the latest Kindle line-up, he made it perfectly clear that the Fire
is a service and not a gadget
Content consumption portal
This is not the device if you want to get
some work done, chat with friends and make life easier using innovative apps.
The Kindle Fire HD is there for books, games, movies and music. Books, games,
movies and music you have bought from Amazon, at that.
Amazon’s Appstore is a huge bonus. Thanks
to it being tied to Amazon’s own purchasing system, it’s easier for you to buy
games/albums/ whatever from a trusted source, and then be able to access those
purchases from a staggering amount of other connected devices thanks to the
cloud. This is where the Kindle Fire HD has something of a dichotomy. The basic
device offers 16GB storage (no SD card expansion), but with an overriding
message of BUY BUY BUY, something has to give.
Now, Amazon has offered one way around that
problem by letting users store all their content on the cloud, and then stream
those files or download them to the tablet. However, for a device that is
supposed to be portable, and only comes in Wi-Fi flavor, that cloud access
isn’t necessarily going to get a great deal of use.
It’s not going to be a deal breaker for
most people, but is definitely something worth considering if you’re leaning
towards the Fire HD and like to have a decent library of movies and music at
your fingertips at all times.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that a
mains charger isn’t included in the box, so be sure to order one of those lest
you wind up waiting to use your new toy as it trickle charges from a computer.
It’s
not going to be a deal breaker for most people, but is definitely something
worth considering if you’re leaning towards the Fire HD and like to have a
decent library of movies and music at your fingertips at all times
Perfect form
With streaming and downloading being such a
major part of the attraction, the dual antenna, dual band Wi-Fi makes a real
difference and as long as your Wi-Fi connection is solid, it’s very unlikely
you’ll ever encounter lags or stutters. For a multimedia device, the Fire HD’s
form factor is perfect. If it was any smaller, lengthy films would be less
enjoyable and the impressive speakers wouldn’t deliver the same kind of
performance.
Any larger, however, and reading books
would become an exercise in absurdity. Have you ever tried to get comfortable
and read a novel on a tablet nearing 10 inches? Nobody curls up on the sofa
with the Guinness Book of Records. At 395g it’s about the right weight for
reading, with a decent-sized bezel around the screen for thumbs.
The gadget feels solid, with a comfortable
rubbery back that makes it easy to hold, and has a thin glossy plastic band
across the back, housing the speakers. Amazon has also listened to consumers
and added physical volume buttons - an improvement on the previous Kindle Fire.
Another bonus to buying a Fire HD includes automatically being signed up for
Amazon Prime for one month, offering free next-day delivery on physical
purchases and an eBook rental service. Unlike other free trials, this is one
you’ll probably want to hang on to - free next-day delivery is particularly
helpful, although don’t forget you’ll have to pay after the trial.
For a tablet aimed at being a one-stop shop
for watching, reading and playing, the Kindle Fire HD is quite unhelpful when
trying to use file formats it doesn’t like. Although a great deal of the video
files on your hard drives will be in .avi, you’ll need to download an app such as
VLC to actually play them.
Once you have them playing, the 1280x800 HD
display will make them look fantastic. Games too, get a new lease of life.
Large, graphically intense games (The Dark Knight Rises, Contract Killer) look
brilliant, and the 1.2 GHz dual-core processor twinned with the Imagination
PowerVR 3D graphics core keeps everything fast and smooth.
The lack of customization will be a problem
for some. You can change the homepage to an extent, but the basic layout will
always be the same. If you’re used to stock Android and like to make devices
work around you and your needs, the inability to tailor will be challenging. As
will the
Kindle’s incessant desire to funnel you
through to its stores - no matter where you are, the ability to spend more is
only a tap away. It’s a double edged sword: very handy in some respects, but at
times the grasping is massively irritating.
While entertainment is well-represented,
many apps that you may have come to rely on are not. There is no Chrome, no
Firefox; your one choice of browser is the homemade program Silk. As browsers
go, it’s perfectly serviceable, but the lack of choice is frustrating. So too
is the lack of YouTube, Dropbox, Gmail and other things you would expect.
While
entertainment is well-represented, many apps that you may have come to rely on
are not
Verdict
Ultimately, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a
device for spending money and consuming content - a $226 + personalized shop
window - but it’s damn good at what it is trying to do. The discovery and
download journey is elegant, and the delivery of that content absolutely
flawless.
If you’re after something to use for
watching, reading and listening while commuting or just for messing about with before
going to sleep, it’s hard to think of a better device. Just be sure that that’s
all you want before laying down the cash.
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The Amazon
Kindle Fire HD specs
·
Price: $239
·
Size: 193x137x10.3mm
·
Weight: 395g
·
Display: 7-inch LCD
·
Resolution: 1280x800 pixels
·
Front camera: 1.3 megapixels
·
Processor: 1.2GHz dual-core
·
RAM: 1GB
·
Storage: 16GB
·
Internet: Wi-Fi
·
GPS: No
·
Browser: Silk
·
Email: Yes
·
Music player: Yes
·
Video player: Yes
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