Amazon unveiled a brand-new line-up of Fire tablets
The online retail giant revamped its gadget line-up, adding six new devices – three Fire tablets and three Kindle e-readers. It also introduced the upgraded, latest version of the Fire OS, called Sangria, created on the basis of Android KitKat. All devices feature new, exciting features, better performance, and most of all, they stay true to the main idea behind Amazon’s gadgets – affordability.
The company has decided to revamp the Kindle Paperwhite, its best-selling Kindle, doubling the storage. It sells for $119 and also comes with a sharper screen resolution. The base model Kindle, available for $79 is now with a 20% faster processor, twice the storage (up to 4GB) and with a touch interface. And the third model reader is the most exciting and the most advanced one – Kindle Voyage, the 7th generation of Kindle, which according to Amazon, is the brightest and the thinnest e-reader to date. Measuring 7.6 mm, the Voyage weighs less than 6.4 ounces. It comes with the Paperwhite display, but with 300 pixels per inch and has higher resolution, higher contrast and higher brightness, boosted by the automated function for adjusting the display, depending on the surrounding light. The electronic booklet also has an on-board storage of 4GB, new technology for turning pages, called PagePress, and free 3G. And all this is available for $199, with a release date scheduled for October 21.
Fire HD 6
Along with the new e-readers, Amazon unveiled a trio of Fire tablets – a new Fire HD, a refreshed Fire HDX, and a Fire tablet for kids. The new-generation Fire HD is available in two sizes – 6” for $99 and 7” for $139, as well as in five colours – black, white, cobalt, magenta, and citron. It features a brighter, more vivid high-definition display with more than 1 million pixels, fast quad-core processor, running at 1.5 GHz for better performance, and content ecosystem of over 33 million movies, songs, TV shows, books, apps and games, with of course, free unlimited cloud storage. It also comes with front and rear-facing cameras and Dolby Digital Audio. As before, Amazon offers two configurations – 8GB and 16GB, while the battery life is up to 8 hours. The official release date is October 2.
Fire HDX 8.9
The larger tablet, Fire HDX 8.9”, is now larger on the inside – a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 8084 chip, Adreno 420 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The powerful processor comes with a 70% faster graphics engine, a great news for all gamers. The amazing 8.9”display has a pixel density of 339 ppi, Dynamic Light Control, and incredible colours. Surprisingly, Amazon says it achieved a lighter design, 20% lighter than the iPad Air. The Fire HDX also comes with Dolby Atmos and the latest Dolby Audio, as well as a front HD camera and an 8MP rear-facing camera. The tablet operates with the all-new Fire OS 4 Sangria and has all features, Amazon introduced recently, including Firefly, the Mayday button, ASAP, Family Library, and so on. It sells for $379, while the 4GB version goes for $479, both available for pre-order now.
Fire HD Kids Edition
Finally, Amazon introduces a tablet for kids and offers it with an unbelievable 2-year worry-free guarantee, no question asked. It also has one year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, providing access to 5,000 books, movies, TV shows, games and apps – all children’s content. The tablet has basically the same specs as the Fire HD, with the exception of the kid-friendly case, available in three fun colours – green, blue and pink. It sells for $149 (for the 6” tablet), while the 7” version is $189 and is available from October 21.
