Amazon's new Kindle Fire HDX tablets: the full story

Amazon's new Kindle Fire HDX tablets: the full story

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 Amazon is rolling out the brand-new Kindle FIre HDX with upgraded everything tonight, but last year's Kindle Fire HD isn't going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, the company announced that it is updating the tablet and cutting its price down to $139 — a very aggressive price point for a still-competitive tablet.

It also comes pre-loaded with the new Fire OS 3.0 software based on Android and includes improvements to X-Ray and other Kindle features. The Fire HD does not have the new Mayday live help feature coming with the Fire HDX, but it does give users the option to view their apps in a grid instead of just in the traditional Kindle carousel. Amazon claims that Fire OS 3.0 offers improved touch responsiveness compared to standard Android thanks to low-level improvements to touch latency.

You can place a pre-order for the new Kindle Fire HD today, with units expected to ship starting on October 2nd. Additionally, Amazon is offering a set of optional folding Origami covers for the tablet, which let users stand it up on a table or protect it the screen from damage.

Compared to the Kindle Fire HD, the new models feature a jump in display density (216 PPI to 323 PPI for the 7" and 254 to 339 PPI for the 9"), a switch from a dual-core TI OMAP Cortex-A9 (at 1.2/1.5GHz) to a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, and a bump from 1G to 2G of RAM. On the software side, Android has been upgraded from 4.0 to 4.2.2 and Amazon added a few new features to their applications.

Amazon also announced the third generation of its Fire OS (the forked version of Android that runs the Fire tablets), dubbed “Mojito.”

Amazon made the announcement with little fanfare. The company did not have a fancy launch event where CEO Jeff Bezos or any of his top lieutenants stood on stage to pose for cameras with the device. Amazon just quietly sent a press release overnight packed with information about the new Fire tablets.

The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX is likely the flagship of the series. Amazon has given both sizes of the HDX tablets a significant bump in hardware specifications. Both HDX tablets will runs a Snapdragon quad-core 2.2 GHz processor with 2 GB of RAM and twice the memory of last year’s Kindle Fire HD tablets. Amazon has packed a Adreno 330 graphics processor into the HDX tablets for better image rendering that will help the tablets running higher powered games.

The screens on the 7-inch and 8.9-inch Fire HDX tablets also got a spec upgrade. The 7-inch version ships with 1920x1200 pixel dimensions, good for 323 pixels per square inch (ppi). The 8.9-inch Fire HDX runs a screen at 2560x1600 (339 ppi).

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch will also come with an 8-megapixel rear facing camera.

Amazon also has several new software and content features for the Kindle Fire HDX tablets. Foremost among them is the ability to download Amazon Prime Instant Video movies and television straight to the tablets for offline viewing. Previously, Prime Instant Video was only available for streaming through Kindle Fire tablets. 

Amazon also released what it calls a “Mayday Button” for users that need instant tech support for their Fire tablets. The Amazon Kindle Fire expert will appear on your tablet within 15 seconds of pushing the Mayday Button to guide you through whatever tech problems you may be having with you device. 

The new Fire HDX tablets also have a new feature Amazon calls “Second Screen” which has the ability to stream content from your Kindle Fire to a television set. Second Screen will work with the PlayStation 3 and Samsung Smart TVs or any Miracast-enabled accessories. 

Amazon has also improved its “X-Ray” features that allow users to look up aspects of their content from within books, video and now music.

Amazon has also updated the enterprise-grade features on its Fire HDX tablets with new support for device encryption, Kerberos Intranet, secure Wi-Fi connections and VPN integration

 

All three of the new Kindle Fire tablets are available for preorder today and will ship on October 18th. The Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch will sell for $229 (with a 4G LTE version for $329). The 8.9-inch Fire HDX will sell for $379 ($479 with 4G LTE).