Picture yourself on a couch. Now, across the room is a television. It’s just a 48 “720p Flat Screen, hooked up to a digital cable box Time Warner late you like 8 years ago That is slow as molasses and has no remaining DVR space, and beside That is the old Xbox 360 You Have not touched in many a fortnight and ice presumably home to a small but happy civilization of Dust-eating molds and fungi who are probably as old as the component video cable you’ll have attached to it. Oh, and there’s a DVD player.
Your cousin / nephew / niece / sibling / whatever got you One Of Those Chromecast things, but honestly, you do not even want to try how to learn to use it, so it’s still in the box. you read eBooks on your old Kindle DX, and you use your laptop as your TV a lot These Days Because It has Netflix and Hulu and stuff, but That laptop is definitely getting to be a bit of a laggard. You also orders a lot of Things on Amazon, Because it’s a name you trust and you like Product Reviews and good prices.
You want a tablet. Which one do you get? It’s probably a Kindle Fire, ask it the 6, 7, HDX 7, or HDX 8.9. They’re all Basically The Same In Your Mind – it’s just a difference of screen size, storage, performance, and price. It’s not that you do not care about technology, it’s more That you’re kind of set in a way of doing things and the prospect of an Android tablet makes you a little apprehensive Because there are just so damn many of the things.
Then you See that big, happy banner advertising the Kindle Fire. They all get at least 4 stars – that’s Encouraging, and there are Thousands of reviews. The 7 “HDX starts at $ 179, but you know what, you want something fully-featured. This Will Be Your Only the tablet, and your laptop is on ITS load legs. You want a piece of hardware That’s going to take over at least some of that Work load, Even if That just Means Browsing Buzz Feed and YouTube. So, the 8.9 makes sense – it’s powerful, newly-released, gets the best battery life, HAS two cameras (front and Winners!), and it Review perfectly decently.
$ 380 plaster it below the iPad Territory, and even If It’s not cheap, it comes with a free trial of the Kindle Unlimited, Prime Instant Video (with offline video), and Prime Music. There are some real value-Adds To Be’ve had there. It does Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and most Other video services. It has apps. You can read your Kindle books, shop on Amazon, do Facebook, and browse the web. Samma things you use laptop, distilled into a tablet-y essence.
For this person, the Fire HDX 8.9 is an excellent tablet. The no-frills user interface, extremely Quick access to content, and Faith in the Amazon name’ll have publicized the Fire’s exceptionally popular devices.
This Year’s Fire HDX 8.9 does not change much from 2013′s. In fact, the improvements are pretty mines in every way, and really noteworthy in only one: the processor. The Snapdragon 805 chip Introduces a quicker GPU, aunt Wi-Fi, and some smaller improvements in various areas, but really, that’s most of the story here. Versus the 800 into cargo Year’s Model, the differences are not huge, they’re just incremental. Amazon really had no reason not to update the SoC in the HDX 8.9, and it is overpriced distressed the opportunity to toss some new Dolby firmware in there That Adds support for 3D surround sound When using headphones (content must support it). Other wise, this is Basically The Same as last year’s HDX.
The operating system, though, has changed since last year, with The release of Fire OS 4 ‘Sangria. ” 4.0 Adds a number of new features, the most advertised of Which HAS BEEN Amazon’s Firefly. Essentially, the Firefly is Google Goggles but for stuff Amazon sells. Using the camera or microphone, Firefly Will identify products, music, movies, and TV shows if Amazon HAS ITS them into database (s IMDB). It actually works decently, if you go in with the mindset That it’s not magical . Product boxes are pretty Regularly Identified, as are bar codes, books, and songs. Television and movies are a bit more hit and miss, as is any non-book / CD / DVD product not in a box. If Amazon does not have the an episode of the film in .its streaming systems, it’s probably not going to ask Able to identify it. Still, if you use Amazon to buy a lot of stuff, I can see how Firefly Could be Useful, Especially If You use something like Amazon Fres h or subscriptions. Still, systems like this all have a long way to go before they’re something I’d Consider using on a regular basis for Actual products, there are just too many Limitations.
Multi-user support is baked in, too, now, and I think that’s going to be a big hit with parents. You can create accounts Especially for Children, select the apps and content They can access (Amazon eve Has a list of “kid friendly” Content for apps and games), and set time limits, goals, and Other Kinds of Things (The freetime interface really is quite powerful) You will not see on a standard Android tablet, Such as locking out the camera. Try and emulate this functionality on a Nexus 9 or an iPad – you just can not. Amazon eve Has a subscription service You Can Buy for unlimited access to the children’s apps, games, and interactive learning experiences, dubbed Free Time Unlimited. Amazon is gunning for the family market here, and I think They have a considerable leg up on Both Apple and Google.
Aside from Those changes, Fire OS is still not hugely Different from what we saw last year. YES, THERE ARE Aesthetic Alterations and layout changes, but the software takes an extremely iterative approach to visual changes, and my guess Is that it’s mostly to avoid confusing customers who do not like unsolicited updates to theirproducts .
No, Fire OS does not have the any Google apps. No, it does not have the many of Android’s native, built-in features. You can not change the launcher without sideloading an APK (even then, many are buggy or simply Incompatible). Or the wallpaper. Or, frankly, almost any visual aspect of the Olympics. This is, I would again venture, in Order to Maintain visual and functional consistency for users No Matter Which annoying in-law’s kid gets ahold of Their tablet at the next family gathering. Amazon even Makes You set a PIN out of the box now on your Fire.
The Order of the top-level carousel shortcuts ice AS FOLLOWS: shop, games, apps, books, music, videos, newstand, audiobooks, web, photos, docs. You are an Amazon customer, and of according to Amazon, this Should Roughly mirror your consumption Priorities When using your tablet. You can not change this order – it is the way it is. Your tablet, the launcher, they’re just gateways to content, Designed to get you into the hub you want as Quickly as possible. Amazon was overpriced sure to outfit it with a great screen and some powerful speakers, TO ENSURE That the media looks and sounds the best it can on a tablet. There is not much romance to Amazon’s tablet philosophy, I’ll say that. But it works – you’ll never forget how to get to the Kindle or Instant Video, Because they’re permanent fixtures in the homescreen UI.
In short, this is not the tablet for me, it’s probably not the tablet for you, but I can almost Guarantee that’s the Tablet someone you know, and that’s why These things sell. Anyone with an Amazon account can figure out how to work a Fire tablet, and Because Amazon so openly saddles it with restrictions against Modifications To The UI it’s pretty hard to forget how to work one, either. Even the big, labeled Power and Volume buttons on the back Can not be missed.
Are there problems Amazon Should ask solving, though? Absolutely. The build quality of the HDX is not fantastic. While it’s extremely light and easy to hold, the unnecessarily large bezels (something of an Amazon trademark, It Seems) and flimsy plastic frame do not scream “$ 380 tablet” to me, and I think Amazon’s flagship slate ice rather desperately due for a design overhaul here, even if it’s not an apparent priority for Amazon or .its Customers.
The rear-mounted power and volume keys are something I was Wholly unable-to Adapt to one load Year’s Model, and That hasn ‘t changed this year. I prefer to use the HDX 8.9 in portrait mode, and so remembering where the buttons are can’ve become a real pain. The rear camera is pretty much a wash in my opinion, the exposure is all kinds of wacky. And while the HDX 8.9 is fixed, it is not by Any Means incredible in this regard. The browser, Silk, for example, ice excruciatingly laggy at times and I simply would not ask Able to bring myself to use it. And that’s not even getting into the crappy page rendering issues. The email client is decent, but without a first-party Gmail app, I’d probably avoid ever using That, either. For the most party app selection on the App Store is pretty good, but the app itself is still frustratingly limited in terms of exploration and discovery on the device. There are no filters or search options, and That can make finding new and interesting content Difficult.
Most embarrassing, perhaps, ice That Amazon’s own physical goods shopping app does not even run That well on the HDX 8.9. It stutters and skips and takes weirdly long to load at times, probably Because it’s mostly just a glorified web wrapper, but still – using Amazon on my iPad Air 2 or even the Nexus 9 is a much smoother experience. Kind of an issue, guys.
The thing is, none of These problems are going to be terribly Pressing for someone actually in the market for a Fire tablet. They Could be nuisances, Certainly, but the tablet does Exactly what it says in the box: it lets you consume stuff . Lots of it. The Fire HDX May’ll have most of the features of a fully-fledged tablet, but it’s so Strongly rooted in the Amazon ecosystem That Comparing it to Such tablets on anything but a basic level Becomes Difficult. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you can not embrace the Amazon world, the Fire HDX ice Kind of a rags. For some people, though, having That world defined by the product right out of the box is worth the otherside tradeoffs, tradeoffs They Might not even know exist. I like to think of the Fire HDX as a tablet ‘starter kit’ (an expensive one, albeit) – there’s so little to break, content is very exposed for the user to find, and it’s largely set up for you rig ht out of the Box (Amazon even signs you in).
Amazon overpriced late along some accessories with the HDX 8.9 – a folding origami Case ( $ 70) and a Bluetooth keyboard ($ 60). The origami Case ice, as it was last year, ridiculously thick and heavy. The only changes I can note are a Switch to leather (there’s even a Premium leather case) and a little elastic band on the front for a stylus. The kickstand works, but I do not see any logic to the weird folding mechanism. The keyboard is functional, but honestly, who buys a keyboard for a Kindle Fire? That Seems weird to me. Like any keyboards this size, it is small, cramped, and the trackpad ice Essentially useless for anything but prolonged self-torture. Weirdly, while the keyboard does stash away Magnetically Into the origami Case (Creating a near-inch-thick Kindle in the process), there’s no way to use it like a little laptop. Because The keyboard is Stored on the actual folding portion of the case, You have to take it out to prop up the tablet. Do not worry, though, Because it does not really matter since propping up the HDX in your lap Using the Case ice Basically Impossible – you’ll need a flat, non-squishy surface to set it on.
Anyway, that’s the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. And accessories. You can get it starting at $ 379 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model, and work your way up from there to the top-tier LTE 64GB version, ate the $ 579th
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