I guess it’s that time of the year – Google have just released their follow-up to the smashing success that was the Nexus 7 tablet, and if Boy Genius Report are to be believed, Amazon may soon be announcing their successor to the Kindle Fire HD, which in turn was the successor to Amazon’s original Android tablet – the first such device to actually be successful. Reportedly the device may launch as early as September, and Amazon are said to be aiming for the same price point as last year’s model, which sold for $214 in Australia.
The specs sound pretty incredible – like the new Nexus 7, the 7-inch tablet will have a 1920×1200 resolution display and 2 GB of RAM, but Amazon have upped the processing power to Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 800 system-on-a-chip, which is reported to be clocked at 2 GHz and contains 4 Krait 400 CPU cores and Adreno 330 graphics. In terms of memory configuration, the Kindle Fire HD is expected to come in 16, 32 and 64 GB flavours, which will please those who like to store a large amount of content on their device. The tablet will come with Android 4.2.2, but you’d hardly know it through Amazon’s super heavy UI customisations. As is the trend these days, Amazon have shaved a few millimetres of the device, making the device thinner and lighter with a bezel said to be about half an inch (~ 120mm) all around.
If you have a penchant for slightly larger screen sizes, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 will also be getting a refresh along the same lines as its 7-inch brother, with the biggest difference between the two models being the 2560×1600 resolution on the 8.9-inch model.
Now that Amazon have made their entire range of Kindle devices available in Australia, the new Kindle Fire HD might well be a tempting offer, maybe even more so than the Nexus 7. Given that Amazon haven’t announced anything about the new device, it may be many months before it’s even available in the US, let alone Australia. BGR’s credibility isn’t anything to write home about either, but for once their information actually does sound legit, so let’s all cross our fingers, shall we?
Would you wait for the new Kindle Fire HD, or are you gung-ho for the new Nexus 7?
Specs look great and very tempting (especially if the price is true). Is it possible to get these (based on the previous model) back to a stock Android experience?
IIRC, the original was pretty easy to root and CM was available. Considering how popular the new model will likely be, I’d imagine there’d be stock options available.