The time has finally come. After rumors, pre-release revelations and an exclusive video preview during the NFL kickoff game, Amazon has finally launched the new Kindle devices, including a pair of Fire tablets.
The international online store is both sticking to what works (and is familiar to its customer base), as well as experimenting with a new design.
Thus, there are two new Kindle Fire tablets up for sale, called Kindle Fire HD and measuring 7 inches and 8.9 inches, respectively.
Both have IPS LCDs, microUSB 2.0, 802.11abgn Wi-Fi, micro-HDMI outputs, Dolby Audio and Bluetooth Stereo (AD2P) support, 10-point multi-touch support and Amazon's custom Android OS version. The rest of the specs are different though.
The 8.9-inch newcomer (1920 x 1200 pixels) relies on the Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 dual-core central processor, with two ARM Cortex-A9 cores (no clock speed given, but probably not the maximum 1.8 GHz). Said chip is backed by a PowerVR SGX 540 graphics adapter.
The RAM amount isn't specified, unfortunately. Still, we suppose it is at least decent, otherwise the device wouldn't be able to run 1080p video.
Moving on, the Kindle Fire HD is equipped with up to 64 GB of storage and 4G/LTE broadband support.
The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD has only 16 GB and 32 GB storage capacities, and its CPU is a bit weaker (OMAP 4460). What's more, the resolution of the LCD is of 1,280 x 800 pixels, while the top video playback quality is 720p.
“Kindle Fire HD is not only the most-advanced hardware, it’s also a service. When combined with our enormous content ecosystem, unmatched cross-platform interoperability and standard-setting customer service, we hope people will agree that Kindle Fire HD is the best high-end tablet anywhere, at any price,” said Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon.
The 7-inch device is priced at $199 / 199 Euro and lasts for up to 11 hours on battery, while the 8.9-incher ships for $299 to $499 / 299 to 499 Euro (depending on storage) and hasn't had its battery life announced yet.
"We are taking on the most popular price point for a tablet, $499, but doubling the storage and incredibly, adding ultra-fast 4G LTE wireless,” Bezos said.
