New Delhi: In a massive refresh of its tablet and e-reader product line, Amazon has launched the $79 Kindle and $199 Kindle Voyage, three models of the Fire HD, and a new flagship Fire HDX. These devices can be pre-ordered starting September 17 night, and they will ship sometime in October.
Here's a quick rundown on Amazon's new product line:
Kindle Fire HDX: The HDX is the flagship model of the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet line. Though from the outside it look like last year's model, under the hood it has a new engine, an overhauled WiFi transmission system, some audio tweaks, and an updated operating system.
The impressively slim 13.2-ounce HDX 8.9 is 20 percent lighter than the iPad Air and Amazon says its 2,560x1,600 (339 pixels per inch) display has 30 percent more pixels than the iPad Air's Retina display.
The device is powered by a new quad-core Snapdragon 805 processor running at 2.5 GHz, which the company says delivers 70 percent faster graphics performance, along with 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi.
Amazon says the HDX screen display includes a new feature called "dynamic light control." The feature changes the white point of the display based on the ambient light of the surroundings in order to make the page of a Kindle book more closely resemble a piece of paper.
The HDX 8.9's speakers are twice as loud as those on the iPad Air and it's now the first tablet with Dolby Atmos, which typically requires dozens of "surround" speakers in a theater.
The tablet runs Amazon's freshly minted Fire OS 4.0 "Sangria," a customized version of Android KitKat (Android 4.4) that includes Family Library, Firefly, and Amazon free cloud storage of photos feature (for shots taken with Fire devices).
Kindle Fire HD 6 and 7: Amazon also released two versions to redefine how consumers think of cheap Android tablets. The Kindle Fire HD is now available in both the new 6-inch ($99) and 7-inch ($139) models in five colors.
These tablets are powered by "quad-core" processors that run at 1.5GHz (they're made by MediaTek) with "3x the graphics performance of the Samsung Tab 4."
The tablets run the fourth version of Fire OS, which now comes with family profiles, content sharing between family members, "ASAP" pre-caching of video it expects you'll want to watch, and other enhancements on top of the Android KitKat base. Though not a great productive OS, the tablet is good in terms of consuming Amazon's content. Both tablets have front and rear-facing cameras.
Fire HD for kids: The Kindle Fire HD 6 and 7 each come in new "Kids Edition" options — $149 and $189, respectively. The tablets come with a year of FreeTime Unlimited all-you-can-eat kids content and a 2-year worry-free guarantee. Preorders start now, and the two tablets should be on sale in October.
The Kids Edition models feature identical hardware and software to the Amazon Kindle Fire HD. These tablets come with a quad-core MediaTek CPU, 8GB of storage, a 2-MP rear camera and VGA front camera, and sports a 1280 x 800-pixel display made of durable Gorilla Glass. It will offer up Dolby surround sound 5.1 audio and be powered by Fire OS 4 Sangria. The new OS feature the Family Library, which means two parents and four kids can share movies, books, games and apps, and each person can have their very own profile on the tablet.
The company claims the the $149 Fire HD 6-inch and $189 HD 7-inch are two times more reliable and rugged than the iPad mini and 20 times more reliable than other budget tablets. These slates can be wrapped in the company's $25 kid-friendly case.
Two Kindle e-readers: The $199 Kindle Voyage is the new high-end device in Amazon's dedicated e-reader line. Unlike the Fire tablets, Kindle e-readers feature E-Ink screens that are not backlit, meant to resemble real paper. The Voyage sports a front-lit 6-inch e-ink display, along with new “Pagepress” touch sensors in the bezel, to turn pages. It is less than 7.6 mm thick, and weighs in at under 6.4 ounces, making it a light and portable.
