Amazon today announced few major improvements in their Fire HD line of tablets along with a new budget variant of the same. The tablets, which come in 8- and 10.1-inch will see many new modifications which have been designed to make your experience with them wonderful.
The upgrades include faster processor clock speeds, a better UI from FireOS, a more appealing and rugged build quality, a microSD card slot and much more. The newer cheaper variant will be available at 7-inch, if that’s what you want.
The new Fire HDs come in with processors which are said to be more powerful than the previous generation tablets and with better displays. Also, the new UI of Amazon’s FireOS, which is based on stock Android, will be more personalized now. You will get different pages with newer content that matters to you like an Amazon shopping page, a page dedicated to your media etc, on your fingertips. The goal, according to Amazon, is to offer a one-swipe look at your content.
The two new tablets also come in with a microSD card slot which will allow you to expand your storage to way higher than the tablets’ built-in memory. Other new features include access to Amazon Underground, a service that allows you to download popular apps for free complete with DLC and a new service that will pre-download interesting content before you get onto a flight to keep you out of boredom there.
Another cool feature that debuted during the new FireOS “Bellini” launch and has been made public with these new tablets is called Word Runner. This feature, devised for speed readers, reveals one word at a time of a book, allowing you to skim through long works without any distractions.
The tablets will be available in black, magenta, blue, and tangerine and they don’t just look good, these tablets are tough. These rugged pieces of hardware showed just a few scuffs when subjected to Amazon’s tumble test (a test that spins the Fires in a heavy metal barrel in order to test their strength during a fall.). The iPad, in comparison, cracked after just a dozen rotations.
The new Fire HDs will cost you $149.99 for 8-inch and $229.99 for 10.1-inch and are available for pre-order starting today. Shipping begins in just a couple of weeks.
If $150 is not what you want to spend or you are looking for a tablet that is disposable, Amazon has just the thing for you. The company is also offering a cheaper $49 Fire which comes in with many of the features of its bigger brothers like the microSD card slot but with a smaller, 7-inch diplay. CEO Jeff Bezos calls it a “premium product at non-premium prices.”
The Fire can easily compete with most of the low-end tablets out in the market today. It has got a great chipset too, which will keep your media experience from lowering. Amazon is also selling this new tablet in a $250 six-pack.
