In some ways, the idea of the first Kindle Fire was more impressive than the product itself. It was a $US200 tablet that actually worked. That alone was mind-blowing. But after Google’s Nexus 7 bombshell — and the potential iPad Mini looming — Amazon has to do more than cut costs this time. The Fire HD has to shine.
It’s beautiful. The physical body of the Kindle Fire HD is thoughtful, understated, and comfortable. It could almost pass for a tiny iPad 2 from the front, just with a camera on one side, if it weren’t for the soft-touch paint on the back, and the dual rear speakers.
The Fire HD feels like a boutique Frankenstein at times. The sum of its parts is sublime — it’s got top notch build quality, ergonomics, sound, a stellar ecosystem, and a screen to die for. But it’s hard to shake the sense that the nervous system connecting one premium component to the next is still an imperfect home-brew that’s not fully cooked.
Like the original Fire, the Fire HD runs on a custom software platform built on Android. This one’s built on 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich instead of the old 2.3 Gingerbread build — sadly, Jelly Bean and Project Butter, the reason Android got so silky smooth in 4.1, won’t be making an appearance. All of which is to say it’s not as fast as it could have been, but this version is much smoother than the touchy-then-laggy-then-touchy-again original.
The screen in particular is wonderful, and holding the 7-inch tablet in portrait is actually comfortable (unlike the first Fire or the Nexus 7, whose narrow bezels and ill-conceived vertical weight distribution add up to nothing good). The soft-touch painted back panel, along with the wider bezel and lightweight design, make the Fire HD pleasant to hold. That’s a huge plus for readers, who are obviously a large percentage of Amazon’s audience.
And naturally, there’s the price. This thing starts at $US200 for a 16GB model. As a value proposition, it’s hard to argue with top notch hardware at a total cut-rate price. You could spend the same on a Nexus 7, but you’ll have to trade the Fire HD’s screen, speakers, and extra storage for a more robust UI and the full Android app ecosystem.
The software still has a long way to go before it’s on the same level as iOS or Android. The OS-level lag everyone saw in the hands-on demos after the announcement is not nearly as bad in a normal use environment. But there’s still more lag launching large files like HD movies, magazines, or comics than there is on an iPad or Nexus 7. It gets especially bad once you start loading up multiple apps rapidly.
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