Amazon unveils Two New Kindle Fire HD tabs

[Xen]

Amazon introduced Kindle Fire—combining 15 years of innovation into a fully-integrated, end-to-end service for customers. Kindle Fire quickly became the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon.com, earning over 10,000 5-star customer reviews, remaining the #1 best-selling product across the millions of items available on Amazon since its introduction, and capturing 22% of U.S. tablet sales in just nine months. Today, Amazon is excited to announce that it’s taking on the high-end with Kindle Fire HD—the next generation of Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire HD family—the most-advanced tablets:

• Ultra-fast 4G LTE wireless, powered by the latest generation 4G chipset, support for all 10 4G bands, and Amazon’s breakthrough 4G LTE data package—customers save hundreds of dollars in the first year compared to other 4G tablets.
• Stunning custom HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter and custom laminated touch sensor for 25% less glare with rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle.
• Fastest Wi-Fi of any tablet—dual antenna, dual-band, and MIMO—40% faster downloads and streaming compared to the next fastest tablet.
• High-performance processor and graphics engine for snappy and smooth performance.
• Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio—the standard in high-end audio—available for the first time on a tablet.
• Kindle Fire HD starts with 16 GB of local storage, enough to accommodate the larger file sizes of HD content.
• Exceptional battery life—7” Kindle Fire HD gets 11 hours of battery life.
• Front-facing HD camera with custom Skype application for video calling from anywhere in the world.
• New Amazon-exclusive features like X-Ray for Movies, X-Ray for Textbooks, Immersion Reading, Whispersync for Voice, Whispersync for Games, and Kindle FreeTime.
• World’s best content ecosystem—over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines.
• Best cross-platform interoperability, with Amazon apps available on the largest number of devices and platforms so customers can access content anytime, anywhere.
• Amazon’s top-rated, world-class customer service.

 

[Xen]

Amazon's Kindle Fire HD family: The highs and lows you need to know

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD comes with a 1920x1200 1080p HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter, and featuring a 1280x800 720p display. 254 pixels per inch that Amazon says are "indistinguishable to the human eye" -- in other words: it's a retina display.

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is powered by the latest generation dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4 4470 processor with an on-board Imagination SGX544 graphics engine that's capable of over 12 billion floating point operations per second -- or 50 percent more than Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor.

The processor in the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD is a dual-core OMAP4 4460 1.2GHz part. Less power, but this is offset by the smaller screen.

The Kindle Fire HD feature a dual antenna design for better reception, dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi and MIMO (Multiple In/Multiple Out) that offers higher bandwidth and longer range.

The Kindle Fire HD also comes in a 4G LTE version for those wanting high-speed data access when out and about. In order to cram an LTE modem into the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon had to come up with custom hardware only 2.2 millimeters thick.

LTE data packages aren't usually cheap, but Amazon has this sorted. Kindle Fire HD owners will be able to purchase a 12-month data plan offering 250MB per month, 20GB of Amazon Cloud storage, and a $10 credit in the Amazon Appstore for a one-time cost of $49.99. If this isn't enough, customers will be able to choose to upgrade to 3 GB or 5 GB data plans from AT&T directly from the tablet.

The Kindle Fire HD also redefines storage, adding 64GB to the normal 16GB and 32GB offerings for the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD comes with either 16GB or 32GB. Plenty of local storage, backed up by Amazon's cloud storage.

All this technology hasn't compromised battery life either, with the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD rated to be able to deliver over 11 hours of battery life. However, it is worth noting that Amazon hasn't yet released the battery specs for the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, so there may be a nasty surprise there waiting for owners.

The Kindle Fire HD tablets also support Bluetooth and HDMI for connectivity, and have a front-facing HD camera for keeping in touch with others.

Prices for the tablets are as follows:

zdnet