Just hours after we reported, Amazon has gone ahead and unveiled its new line-up of Kindle Fire tablets. The company has improved the design, interface, processing power, and even the price points of the Kindle tablets.
The company has introduced two new Kindle Fire HDX tablets — one with a 7-inch screen and the other with an 8.9-inch screen. Both the tablets are smaller and lighter than their predecessor, and sport an all-new black boring design.
Both the tablets sport the same internals, which includes a beefy Snapdragon 800 clocked at 2.2GHz, Adreno 330 GPU, and 2GB of RAM. The 7-inch model has a Full HD (1920*1080) screen resolution, while the 8.9-inch model sports a 2560*1600 resolution.
The screens also sport a sensor based contrast adjustment technology, which will automatically brighten the dark sports on the screen under bright settings. The tablets even have an impressive battery life of up to 11 hours, which can be extended to 17 hours if you are just reading.
On the software side, the HDX tablets are running a new version of Fire OS, 3.0, which is forked from Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The general browsing experience, all the core apps including Calendar, Email, and the document editing apps have been greatly improved to provide a much better user experience. There is also a new ‘Reading mode’ in Fire OS 3.0, which automatically turns off all the other parts of the OS and device when the user is simply reading books on the device.
The most unique feature of the HDX tablet, however, is the inclusion of Mayday. Tap the Mayday button from the Settings menu, and within 15 seconds an actual human being will appear on the screen and help solve your problem. The service is available 24 hours, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year for free.
If the above specs and features were not enough for you, the price points of the tablet will definitely seal the deal. The 7-inch Fire HDX will cost $229, while the 8.9-inch model will come in at $379. The Wi-Fi variant of the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will start shipping from October 18th, while the LTE option will be available from November 14th. The Wi-Fi 8.9-inch Fire HDX will ship from November 7th, while the LTE variant will land on December 10th.
That’s not all though! Amazon also unveiled an updated Kindle Fire HD tablet with a reduced price point of $139. Even with its lower price point, the tablet includes a higher resolution screen (1280*800), and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor inside a sleeker, lighter and thinner body. The tablet is already up for pre-order and will ship sometime soon.
