On Thursday, Amazon began shipping the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX. On paper, and in person, the thing is impressive. It’s as thin as an iPad Air, and unlike its predecessors (and its 7-inch sibling), it comes with two cameras, one on the front and one on the back. Anytime you save money on electronics, there’s a chance you’re losing features, but even at $379 — $120 less than Apple’s newest flagship tablet — the big HDX has a lot going for it.
The screen is key: Though diagonally it measures nearly an inch smaller than the iPad Air’s, its “widescreen” aspect ratio means that it’s longer and thinner, which is good for movies. In fact, movies on the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX are the same exact size as movies on the $499 9.7-inch iPad Air, so if you mainly watch movies, there’s no size advantage for the bigger, costlier iPad. Movies look terrific on both, with smooth action and uniform brightness and color at any reasonable viewing angle.
hat’s not to say that the HDX has better battery life. In fact, in the most brutal testing, watching high-definition action movies streamed over Wi-Fi, neither Kindle Fire HDX could outlast its Apple-made competitor, which tended to best it by at least an hour. If you consume a lot of media on tablets, you won’t hate the battery life on either HDX, but you won’t brag about it either.
The main feature that’s unique to the larger Kindle Fire HDX is the back-facing camera. (The $229 7-inch just has a front-facing cam for video chat.) Since it's an 8-megapixel camera, you might think it takes better pictures than the iPad Air’s 5-megapixel camera. In truth, it’s a trade-off: I see better sharpness and lower noise on the HDX camera, but see better color reproduction from the iPad, not to mention hints of sly software magic that cover up the fact that the iPad image is lower in resolution.
The strangest Kindle Fire HDX disappointment for me is the Origami case (sold separately for $50 to $65). Amazon made a big deal out of this at launch, and it is neat how it folds into a sturdy stand. But using it doubles the thickness of the tablet, and makes it a lot heavier, too. And while the case has a fun gimmick — push the tablet up with your thumbs to expose the camera, and photo app launches — it’s just makes the whole package even more awkward. Besides, when you slide the tablet back down, the screen doesn't return to your previous app.
Another issue I had was ergonomics. The power and volume buttons are on the back on both the 7-inch and 8.9-inch HDX, and that makes for some real awkwardness, especially when I’m in vertical mode — basically anytime I’m reading. Maybe I need to train myself to close the cover instead of pushing a power button, but I’m the kind of guy who pushes “Door Close” in elevators, so until I mellow out, Amazon should make its buttons more intuitively accessible.
Source : NBC News.com
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