NEW YORK – When Amazon unveiled the Kindle Fire HD tablet last year, the company’s hype machine burst into overdrive. “The best tablet at any price,” Amazon proclaimed.

Kindle Fire HD was and is a very good tablet, a viable option against strong competition from Google, Apple and others, and an excellent value, especially now at ZAR 139. But the best at any price? Sorry, can not go there.

Amazon wisely cooled things down with the introduction of the brand-new Kindle Fire tablets HDX. That’s so even as the HDX raises the bar with more robust specs and new features, most prominently a live tech-support innovation called Mayday.

As with the Fire HD, HDX models come in 8.9-inch and 7 -inch screen sizes (the latters being the one I reviewed). They boast outstanding stereo speakers and a scrolling carousel-type interface That intermingles icons for movies, apps, books and other content. Android is buried underneath.

These tablets providesprofessional a smooth passageway to Amazon’s vast digital treasure trove of eBooks, movies, music and other content, especially for customers who prefer Amazon’s ecosystem to say Google’s or Apple’s. And as before you can tap into the flicks and TV shows made available to subscribers of Amazon’s $ 79-a-year Prime service.

Here are three new or expanded features That Amazon hopes will fire up not rest in its new tablet line, while dousing the competition:

PRIME ONLINE VIEWING

You used to have to stream the Prime content, but with the latest HD and HDX models you now have the choice to download works of thou sands of movies and TV shows as well. That’s a big plus for anyone stuck on an airplane for hours without Wi-Fi.

The Prime Instant Video download feature is one of the key ways Amazon hopes to make its tablet stand out against rivals, especially since Amazon makes its content available (through free apps) to Competitors. It’s funny That way in tech: how companies are partners and rivals at the sametime.

AN EVEN MORE DETAILED X-RAY

Amazon is overpriced expanding the X-Ray Features That wereavailable on prior models. With the X-Ray When an actor wanders into a movie scene you can pull up biographical data on him or her (Supplied by Amazon-owned IMDb) as you’re watching. New this time around is trivia. For example, I learned while streaming Flashdance That Kevin Costner was runner-up for the role given to Michael Nouri. Also new: the X-Ray identifies any music playing in a scene. You