Editors' note (September 25, 2013): The product reviewed here has been discontinued; however, there are plenty of new Kindle Fire options, including a redesigned Fire HD.
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7in
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The original Kindle Fire felt like a rushed, but mostly successful attempt to deliver a gateway to Amazon video, music, and book content. The Kindle Fire HD improves on the original in nearly every way and, thanks to some key refinements, proves to be a much better delivery system for that media.
Amazon Prime members looking to sate their ceaseless hunger for movies, TV shows, music, and books need look no further. With the huge media catalog available, you'll surely get your fix here.
However, if the idea of the full Android OS, GPS, NFC, and complete access to the Google Play store whet your appetite at all, the Nexus 7 is watching you from afar, all sexy and seductive like.
It's not a question of which is better. It's more a question of which is better for you. Keep reading to find out.
Design
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD ($199 for 16GB and $249 for 32GB) has one of the widest bodies of any recently released 7-inch tablet, including the Nexus 7. The top and bottom bezel (when held in landscape mode) feel needlessly long, and as a result, the Fire HD just isn't as comfortable to hold in one hand as Google's tablet. It's also slightly heavier than the Nexus 7.
| Amazon Prime video streaming battery life (in hours) | |
|---|---|
| Amazon Kindle Fire | 6.8 |
| Amazon Kindle Fire (2012) | 5.9 |
| Amazon Kindle Fire HD | 6.6 |
So what about the Fire HD vs. the iPad?
When discussing a tablet purchase, the elephant in the room is alwaysthe iPad. With a much larger screen (9.7 inches versus 7 inches), anda bevy of additional features -- a back camera, unmatched app support,enterprise options, and an excellent graphics processor -- it's notmuch of a contest. Make no mistake: the iPad is still the best tabletyou can buy.
Further helping the iPad is the fact that the Fire HD's excellentmedia options -- Kindle ebooks, Amazon CloudPlayer music, and Amazonvideo -- are all available on the iPad as well, thanks to excellentAmazon apps. (Apple's app rules just make the purchasing ofthat Amazon content less transparent.
But with a $500 entry-level price ($400 for the older iPad 2), theiPad is two and a half times the price of the 7-inch Fire HD. Socomparing the Kindle Fire HD to the iPad is not unlike comparing aHonda Civic to a BMW. Each serves the same basic function, but theyare targeted at two different market subsets. The tablet world is bigenough to support both, but if you're not looking to go the "price isno object" route -- or if you're a Prime member and want to almostexclusively consume media -- the Kindle Fire HD may your device. (Ofcourse, the still-rumored iPad Mini may yet materialize soon, whilethe 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is due in November. Both of them willfurther muddy the waters when it comes to choosing a mid-size,mid-priced tablet.)
Conclusion
The Kindle Fire HD is the Kindle Fire as it should have been. Though it has access to apps from the Android Market, this is really an Amazon tablet as opposed to an Android one.
The question of whether it's better than the Nexus 7 is, well, the wrong question to ask. A better question is, which is better for you?
The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD serve different purposes and the advantages of one do not diminish the value of the other. They can coexist and still prosper.
The Nexus 7's complete Google Play access, fully implemented Jelly Bean version of the Android OS, NFC support, and comfortable feel make it the ultimate 7-inch Android tablet. Those looking for the complete Android experience will want to check there first.
For Amazon Prime members, or simply those looking for the best and cheapest way to consume movies, TV shows, music, books, and magazines, the Kindle Fire HD is tops. It has the best 7-inch tablet screen. It refines what the original Fire started and improves on it in nearly every aspect while keeping that same great $199 price, while bumping the storage to 16GB (the 32GB model costs $249). Simply put, it's a media-consuming powerhouse of the highest order.