The new Amazon tablets are out, and the Kindle Fire has never looked better. When we thought Amazon and their upstart Kindle Fire was finally put to rest by Google’s Nexus 7, they launched a counter offensive that not only sought to out price the Nexus 7, but also sought outperform the Google product.
Amazon launched a flurry of tablets during the press event. First is the revived Kindle Fire with better RAM, processor, and battery, making it viable option despite the Nexus 7. It was also priced competitively low, at only $159 apiece. That is not bad, considering the original Kindle Fire was still very attractive to customers even when the Nexus 7 was already out.
If the revamped Kindle Fire was not enough to beat Google’s Nexus 7 on the spot, they have a new device at the $199 price point – the Kindle Fire HD. It is everything the Kindle Fire once was, with a high definition display, a 5GHz band Wi-Fi capability, and better sound Dolby Digital Plus. It also beats the Nexus 7 in the memory category, starting at 16 GB at $199 and 32 GB at $249. The Nexus 7 16 GB version starts at $249. Amazon really rules in price right now.
It uses a customized secure Amazon Android ICS version. There is no word on getting Jelly Bean, but it wouldn’t matter, as Amazon routinely cuts out anything Google from the OS, so the Google-centric changes in Jelly Bean would not even make it to the device. Amazon even makes sure the default search engine searches Amazon’s site first, especially for purchasable items and multimedia content.
At this point, everything Amazon did was more than expected. They managed to dish out a competitive product while keeping the price lower than the Google Nexus 7. What we didn’t expect, is Amazon attacking the Apple iPad.
Using the 3rd Generation iPad as a benchmark, Amazon shows how they beat Apple in competitive pricing with their Kindle Fire HD 8.9, but first, let’s look at what the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has to offer.
The larger Kindle Fire HD tablet has a Retina class display, going at 254 ppi, compared to the iPad with a 264 ppi. Both devices have highly dense displays that make sure you won’t see the pixels when you look at the screen.
The Kindle Fire HD also sports a dual band Wi-Fi antenna, which in theory makes browsing the internet much faster than both the Nexus 7 and the iPad 3. Usage of this technology will still depend on your Wi-Fi router, but it is still an awesome addition to the product specifications.
Speaking of specifications, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 also uses a dual core processor similar to the old version, but with a better integrated GPU. This allows higher graphical performance necessary for the Retina quality displays. The processor is clocked at a whopping 1.8 GHz. Much like the iPad, the Kindle Fire HD also has a 4G LTE version, aptly named the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 4G LTE.
Now back to the pricing, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 starts at $299 for the 16 GB version, while the iPad is priced at $499. It is even lower than the 2nd Generation iPad, which is currently priced at $399 for the 16 GB model.
Going higher in memory, the Wi-Fi only Kindle is priced at $399 for the 32 GB version while the 4G LTE version is priced at $499 for 32 GB. The new iPad is priced at $599 for Wi-Fi, and $729 for the 4G version.
The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 4G LTE also has a 64 GB option, priced at $599. The iPad has 64 GB on both the Wi-Fi and 4G options, but are priced at a hefty sum of $699 and $829 respectively.
As you can see, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, which was presented in a way that truly screams “aimed at the iPad”, is priced very competitively. Google tried to beat Amazon in price, and Amazon just beat them back to the ground taking Apple along for the ride.
This has yet to take into consideration the added Kindle specific features that are not present in other Android versions, most notably, the high integration with the Amazon AppStore, the X-Ray for books and movies, and the advanced built in parental controls.
There are certainly a lot of factors to consider when buying your tablet. If price is all you are worried about, then the Kindle lineup has you covered while providing features and specifications that are able to go toe to toe with all the other tablets in the market. Will a Kindle be your next device?
Image sources: theverge.com, 9to5google.com
