The Amazon Kindle Fire 2, the nice upgrade over the original Kindle, is about actually we expected it to be. Even though it lacks a couple of key items including a protective carrying case and a removable memory, its slicker design, increased internal memory, improved performance, built-in speakers and the new feature Text-to-Speech audio reading can compensate the drawbacks.
Design and styling
Amazon launches its new version of tablet in the form of Kindle Fire 2 with some advantageous changes from the previous forms. Even though it has the same designs as before, Kindle Fire HD 2 tablet is an exact facsimile to its predecessor in all aspects such as construction and selection of materials. You may not find much in the design front, but you can easily grasp the device with one hand that you can with the Kindle Fire HD. The Kindle Fire HD 2, which possesses a weight of 400g, has the dimensions of 189x120x11.5mm (7.44x 4.72×0.45 inches). If you analyse its body meticulously from head-to-toe, you will feel that a power button, two speakers, micro USB port and 3.5mm headset jack at its sides gives the device a clean appearance. But, Amazon Kindle Fire 2 does not possess a microHDMI port or expandable memory, even though it is not too surprising at all.
As with most of the tablets, Amazon Kindle Fire HD has a glossy black bezel front that surrounds its touch screen. A soft-touch material, which is more comfortable than a metal-backed tablet, coats the back of the Kindle Fire HD.
Display
The 7 inch display with resolution of 1024×600 is effective for most purposes such as surfing the web and reading a book, though you can see higher resolutions on other 7-inch displays. The IPS LCD display of the device with pixel density of 170ppi can provide enough details for the users that ensure comfortable view of fine text. You may like its neutral color production, but some distortion at different angles that makes the outdoor usage challenging may disappoint you, as it has a tendency to appear washed out. It also has multi-touch screen.
Like some other electronic paper products, the Kindle Fire 2 uses “e-ink” technology that can make the letters and words on the screen look more print like in their appearance. It is sure that you will be genuinely impressed by the screen at the first sight itself. Kindle Fire 2 HD tablet does not possess backlight as with most of these types of digital readers. According to Amazon, the reason for avoiding backlight is that it creates eyestrain to the users. So, you can read the text in the Kindle Fire HD2 in the dark only with the help of some sort of light source. The users can use 16 different shades of gray instead of 4 that can add more details to images. The ability to adjust the font size to six different levels will certainly make the visually challenged readers happy.
Keyboard
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 2 is a slightly longer than the original and the reason for this elongation is that the new version has devoted a bit more space to the keyboard. The more simplified and streamlined look of the QWERTY keyboard with some additional spaces between the keys, which are circular, and the space bar that is longer and better placed makes the people easier to handle it. Moreover, it has a more prominently displayed home button on the side of the tablet, right in the middle above the “next page” button, while it was tiny and buried at the button of the keyboard in the previous version.
System Specs
Processor
While, the hardware and outside of Kindle Fire HD 2 is unchanged, it has an upgraded processor with a 1.2 GHz dual-core TI OMAP4430 ARM Cortex-49 CPU with 1GB of RAM. Even though it does not provide a buttery smooth action in execution as the Kindle Fire HD, it can display mostly responsive performance with almost all operations. The Kindle Fire HD 2, which has a built-in storage capacity of 5.5 GB, also has a choice of 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB of storage.
Connectivity
The connectivity options of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 2 include Wi-Fi of 802.22b,g,n, USB 2.0 micro USB and others such as OTA sync and computer sync.
Internet
There may be other tablets that provide better performances; however, Amazon Kindle Fire HD 2 tablet can provide an agreeable web browsing performance. The Silk browser that is based on the same Webkit can offer server-side optimizations for speeder page loads and handles all navigational tasks without much fluff. But, you may have to suffer some rendering delays if you scroll very quickly, though it is not a terrible matter.
Multimedia features
The Kindle Fire HD 2 lacks any type of cameras. But, it is an ideal option for those who don’t take fancy in shooting photos and videos with a tablet. The Kindle Fire 2 tablet, which has same exact music player from before, makes the users comfortable and pleasant by providing high audio quality with the help of its stereo speakers.Fortunately the device possesses preloaded “Personal Videos” app that enables the users to watch the movies than downloading a third party one.
Battery life
The Kindle Fire HD 2 tablet is able to provide a solid day on a single charge, if we have a normal usage that consists primarily of emailing and web surfing, even though it is rather average in this age and day.Amazon Kindle Fire HD 2 tablet of 7 inch and 1.2 GB dual-core CPU is available at £ 159 and the larger and sharper version with 8.9 inch display and a slightly faster 1.5 GHz dual core CPU has a decent value that starts at £229.
Advantages of Amazon Kindle Fire HD 2 tablet
Light weight
various reports say that the Amazon Kindle Fire 2 is light weight.
Impressive hardware specs
The 7-inch version of the Kindle Fire HD 2, possesses impressive specs including 2GB or RAM, 1920×1200 screen display, Wi-FI, around 2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, a front-facing camera and some storage options of 16, 32 and 64 GB. Impressive software specs: The operating system of Android 4.2.2 jelly Bean is the main advantage of Kindle Fire 2 and it is expected that the 4.2.3 will be available soon.
Affordable price
The price of the HD tablets that include $200 for 7 inch display and $270 for the 8.9 inch will probably match the usually prices.
Outward appearance
While the Kindle Fire tablets are usually of known for the rounded block, the new tablets of Kindle Fire 2 are more squared on the edges.
Drawbacks of Kindle Fire HD 2
It lacks expansion slot for adding more memory or accessing files and so files like Word documents and PDFs are not supported natively and have to be converted at 10 cents a pop by Amazon. Moreover, its battery is not removable and is sealed into the device. Amazon Kindle Fire 2 tablets have no protective carrying case. The content and hardware are still too expensive and the device lacks the support for free ePub public-domain books and the electronic library.
In short, Kindle Fire HD 2 tablet is clearly better than the original Kindle, if you are ready to forgive some minor drawbacks.