The Amazon Kindle Fire HD

In the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon took its popular e-book reader and tried to turn it into a media tablet. It was meant to compete with the iPad Mini and the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 Android devices. It was certainly cheap enough to compete with the latter and the choice of two screen sizes, 7-inch and 8.9-inch, meant there was a suitable option for virtually everyone who might be interested in parting with their hard-earned money for one.

The screen is something that Amazon has really been hyping, claiming it’s better than all its rivals’ screens. It certainly has the numbers to back this claim with the larger of the two models proving the choice of the pair: it packs an impressive 254 pixels per inch. Whether you’re reading an eBook, as is traditional for this family of devices, or browsing the Internet, you’ll appreciate the extra pop these pixels bring.

In terms of price, you should expect to pay around £160 for the 7″ screen and £230 for the 8.9″ screen. Unless you need the smaller version for some reason or the £70 difference is a deal breaker for you, then we’d go with the larger of the two devices. Not only does it have the best display, but it packs a bit more punch with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. The 7″ version only offers 1.2GHz dual-core. The difference isn’t huge, but there are considerably more powerful devices and, at least over time, you will start to find applications that may have problems.

One criticism we would have of the Kindle Fire HD, from our own perspective, is that its user interface (UI) looks too basic. Think Xbox 360 dashboard instead of a laptop screen. Where the Nexus and iPad will give you a laptop-like experience, you should expect to be focused almost exclusively on content when you fire up the Kindle Fire HD. This may not be a bad thing for everyone, of course.

Internet access is pretty awesome on the devices. Apparently, Amazon’s servers will handle most of the work you do, which means that when you log into the Silk web browser, you’ll enjoy faster browsing. It’s not lightning fast, but it’s certainly not slow either and you should find the browser layout comfortable whether you’re a regular user of Internet Explorer, Chrome or Firefox on your laptop or PC.

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD really excels at its media presentation, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’re seriously considering buying one. You won’t find access to a better library of content to begin with, and the content you already own or have rented is quick and easy to access. It’s immediately obvious that this is where the manufacturers’ hearts really are and if you’re looking for a good quality, affordable media tablet, then this is it.