Amazon today unveiled the latest generation of its Fire HD tablet with a slimmer design, faster processor, and a new version of Fire OS 5 that packs features like On Deck, Activity Center, Mayday Screen Sharing, and more.
Both Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 feature a 7.7mm thin waistline that make it the thinnest tablet ever from the company. As their name suggests, they feature an 8-inch and 10-inch screen, respectively, with a 16:10 aspect ratio that provides more viewing area compared to other 4:3 aspect ratio tablets with a similar screen size.
Amazon also boasts that in “tumble tests,” the Fire HD was almost 2x more durable than the latest generation iPad Air. Under the hood, the tablets are powered by a faster quad-core 1.5GHz chip, and run on Fire OS 5 “Bellini” that features an updated user interface inspired from “the beautiful layouts of high-quality magazines.” Besides coming with Amazon Underground that offers more than $10,000 worth of apps and games for free, the tablets also feature On Deck that automatically downloads popular Prime TV shows and movies on the tablet so that you can watch them whenever you want to. The space occupied by these TV shows or movies is automatically clearly when needed. Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 also feature a microSD card slot that supports cards of up to 128GB.
Amazon has also upgraded the cameras on the tablets, as well. The 5MP rear camera is now capable of shooting videos in Full HD resolution, while the front-facing camera is capable of doing video calling in 720p resolution. To make video watching even better, Amazon has fitted two stereo speakers with Dolby Audio and 5.1 virtual surround support on the tablets.
Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 are available for pre-order through Amazon starting from today. The HD 8 will come in either 8 or 16GB storage options and in four colors: black, magenta, blue, and tangerine. The Fire HD 10 will be available in 16 and 32GB storage options and in two colors: black and white. Both tablets will start shipping from September 30, though the white Fire HD 10 will ship sometime in “the coming weeks.”
Amazon will also be offering protective covers for the tablets in six colors that can stand in both portrait and landscape orientations from $39.99. It will also be offering a protective Bluetooth keyboard case for the Fire HD 10 that offers three different stands and features full-sized keys. It is already available for pre-order for $99.99.
Lastly, Amazon also released a new Fire tablet that costs less than $50. The tablet features a 7-inch IPS display and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor. It also features a camera at the front and rear, a microSD card slot, and runs on the latest version of Fire OS: Bellini. The tablet will be available for $49.99 starting from September 30.
