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  • Meet the New Kindle Fire

  • Tour

  • Performance Review

  • Conclusion

  • Science Introduction

  • Screen Performance

  • Battery Life

  • Meet the New Kindle Fire
  • Tour
  • Performance Review
  • Conclusion
  • Science Introduction
  • Screen Performance
  • Battery Life

Meet the New Kindle Fire

Don't get me wrong: There are plenty of reasons to pick up a Kindle Fire HDX when it comes to media consumption—especially if you're an Amazon Prime subscriber—but the lackluster app store, missing Google services, and Byzantine user interface are enough to frustrate even the most patient tablet owner. By raw performance stats the 8.9 is a great tablet, but the content problems can't be overcome.

The iPad has far greater access to content libraries, true, but the Kindle Fire HDX still has unique offerings—like MayDay, a free video-chat customer service feature. Paying a hair under $400 for the HDX 8.9" may be a tough pill to swallow, but it's tough to find a more affordable streaming platform for less at this screen size.

Tour

Angular, light, loud

For 2013, Amazon completely redesigned the Kindle Fire to not only make it lighter, but to give it a complete overhaul under the hood. A much better processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800), 2GB RAM, and bizarrely-good speakers make the Kindle Fire HDX a treat to use with Amazon-centric services.

The screen is a point of great intrigue, as it is fantastic on the 8.9-inch model.

Grabbing the HDX 8.9-inch model will treat you to a well-shaped bezel that almost feels empty it's so light. The soft-touch coating on the back isn't likely to slip out of your fingers with a proper grip, and holding the tablet at a landscape orientation (like you would for movies) will not put your fingers over the camera, speakers, or headphone jack. Charging and file transfer is done over the included microUSB cable—though you may need to install the Android File Transfer utility if you have a Mac.

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Media mavens will enjoy the fast dual-band wireless card, bluetooth connectivity, and light internet browser. However, if you do get stuck in the admittedly obtuse skin of Android (and you will), Amazon's "Mayday" video chat feature is quite helpful. Instead of searching through a densely-written FAQ, an actual person at Amazon will talk you through whatever you need, night or day.

The Kindle Fire HDX is a treat to use with Amazon services.

The screen is a point of great intrigue, as it is fantastic on the 8.9-inch model. Though there are some issues with black and white performance, a brilliant backlight and a super-accurate color performance make the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch model a force to be reckoned with for film.

Performance Review

Good, bad, and ugly

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Conclusion

Great for video and eBooks, not so much for games

The Kindle Fire HDX tablets don't compete fiercely enough in the price department, making them a tougher sell; other tablets can run circles around these Kindles for the same (or lower) price. Though the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 offers some truly laudable features and performance points, a tablet is not merely the sum of its parts. What separates the Nexus 7 and iPad from the Kindle Fire HDX isn't hardware, it's software and content.

A tablet is not merely the sum of its parts.

Tablet hardware has evolved to a point where improvements that look great on paper aren't actually doing much to increase user enjoyment—so don't get too stuck under the hood. To this end, Amazon's continued spat with Google is hurting Amazon more than it is anyone else, and at a certain point something's gotta give. There is absolutely no question in my mind that the Kindle Fire HDX is an impressive piece of hardware, but it lags far behind its competition in the services department.

However, Kindles are still great if you just want to stream content on a lasting battery. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the hardware, and the screen on the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is quite impressive to display photos and movies on. If you're an Amazon Prime customer looking for something to stream on, there is no better tablet to buy, though if you don't need Mayday, an iPad mini might be more your speed starting at $20 more.

Science Introduction

I've recently used the metaphor of using a chainsaw to cut butter, and I think it applies here. Using a brand-new Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 more powerful than the chip in the new Nexus 7, both the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 have a lot of raw power inside that light case. However, raw power is hardly the whole story, and if you've read this far looking for exact performance points, you may not like what you see.

Screen Performance

A beautiful visage

The screens on both new Kindle Fire HDX tablets are improved greatly from their elder versions: the 8.9 in particular has a higher pixel density, meaning much sharper pictures. But much like LeVar Burton in Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it—see for yourself!

Black and white performance is confusingly bad, however. Though the 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HDX has a great black level of 0.37 cd/m2 and a peak brightness of 499.2 cd/m2 , gamma is appallingly bad sitting at 1.79 when it should be closer to 2.2. Contrast is very wide for a tablet at 1349:1, but the poor gamma performance really is a splash of cold water on an otherwise hot performance.

Amazon's 8.9-inch tablet hangs tough with the best of them in terms of color reproduction, which we found to be extremely close to the sRGB (rec. 709) gamut. Though this is only a part of the story, color gamut has been a bit of a hot-button issue this year—especially when concerning tablets.

Battery Life

Closer to a candle's flame than a full-blown fire

Battery life is a bit disappointing but more than enough to travel with. In particular, the HDX 8.9" can read an eBook with backlight cranked and wireless off for 6 hours, 43 minutes. This is no small feat, considering that the backlight and screen is so power-hungry. However, you may be able to squeeze more life out of it by toning it down a bit.

When it comes to video the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9" is firmly in "average" territory, lasting 7 hours, 21 minutes with the same settings as the eBook test. This is more than enough to last you a short flight or commute, but if you decide to stream a bunch of video, you'll see your battery life drop much quicker depending on signal strength and file size.

Meet the tester

Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas

Staff Writer, Imaging

@cthomas8888

A seasoned writer and professional photographer, Chris reviews cameras, headphones, smartphones, laptops, and lenses. Educated in Political Science and Linguistics, Chris can often be found building a robot army, snowboarding, or getting ink.

See all of Chris Thomas's reviews

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