Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in review (2013)

Amazon has released an updated version of this tablet: read our Amazon Kindle Fire 8.9in review (2014) here.

The Amazon Kindle Fire started life as a smaller cheaper alternative to the iPad, but with the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in, it’s grown into much more than that. This is now a fully fledged rival, packing in the latest hardware, a high-DPI display and a design that’s different to Apple’s, yet arguably just as appealing.

In terms of looks, the 8.9in HDX is very similar to the smaller Kindle Fire HDX. The rear is mostly matte, soft-touch, black plastic, with wide angled borders that slope towards the edges, and a glossy plastic strip along the top, framing the speaker grilles and camera lens. It’s extremely well made and remarkably light.

We were blown away by how light the iPad Air was when we first picked it up, but this tablet weighs even less, at 369g. Admittedly, the screen is smaller, but 0.8in isn’t much to sacrifice for a 21% weight saving.

As with the 7in HDX, we don’t like the positioning of the volume and power buttons, which are on the rear, close to the left and right edge. It’s a poor design decision, and we found ourselves feeling around blindly every time we wanted to switch the tablet off, or adjust the volume.

Still, there’s plenty about the HDX to compensate for this, and in terms of hardware it’s at least the match of the iPad Air. The screen is a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution IPS unit, boasting a ridiculously high pixel density of 339ppi. It has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU and Adreno 330 graphics as found in its little brother, where the iPad’s CPU is a dual-core 1.4GHz unit. There’s an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with an LED flash and a front-facing, 1.3-megapixel shooter for video calls, and as with the smaller HDX, no microSD slot for storage expansion.

In many respects, it’s a specifications list that sees the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in leap ahead of the iPad Air. The really exciting part, though, is that the Kindle is £70 cheaper for the base 16GB Wi-Fi model, and the price gap grows even greater as you move up the range.

Display, performance and battery life

The question is, how does all this powerful hardware perform? The display is excellent. Measured with our X-Rite colorimeter, it yielded a maximum brightness of 470cd/m[sup]2[/sup] and a contrast ratio of 1,244:1 – both better figures than the iPad Air.

Movies, games, books and websites (at least those optimised for high-DPI displays) all look great. One small complaint is that there’s a small amount of backlight bleed in the bottom-left corner, but this is only obvious in dim conditions.

The quad-core CPU delivers, too, in terms of general responsiveness, gaming and benchmarks. Amazon’s proprietary Android-based OS feels as slick on this device as iOS 7 does on the Air. Demanding games fly by: Asphalt 8: Airborne is playable, with only the odd hitch in frame rate when the action really heats up, as is Despicable Me: Minion Rush. In benchmarks, it lags behind the iPad Air, but is almost twice as fast as the Nexus 10.

Battery life is superb. In flight mode, with a low-resolution video looping continuously, the HDX lasted 16hrs 3mins – the HDX 8.9in has the beating of the iPad Air here, and any other pure tablet we’ve seen since the iPad 2.

Audio from the rear-facing speakers is as loud, full-bodied and clear as we’ve heard from a tablet this size. However, the rear-facing 8-megapixel camera is less impressive, capturing soft and frequently out-of-focus photographs. It’s okay for the occasional snapshot, but nothing more. The 1080p video quality is better, but focus hunts back and forth a lot.

Software

The HDX 8.9in’s Achilles heel, as with its little brother, is the Amazon Fire OS. We don’t have any beef with its usability, and if you’re already persuaded by the Amazon way of doing things, you’ll love it. When the tablet turns up, it’s registered to your account out of the box, and all it takes to access the ebooks and MP3s you’ve already bought is to flick over to the appropriate sections and download or stream them.

Buying more content is just as easy, and there are other features we like: the new Mayday feature – which allows you to set up a tech-support video call directly from the HDX 8.9in’s pull-down menu –will be a boon for novices, and the second screen and Miracast support for viewing movies on your TV is equally welcome.

However, we can’t help but hanker after the flexibility of pure Android, as seen on the Nexus 10 and 7 tablets. It allows you to access the full riches of Google Play, which has a much broader selection of apps than the Amazon Appstore, plus Google’s excellent selection of core apps, including Maps and Google Now. We also prefer the way the stock Android OS works – it feels more grown up.

Verdict

For all that, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9in is a device that anyone in the market for a larger tablet should consider. The display is fantastic, it’s amazingly light, the performance and battery life are simply superb, and we certainly can’t fault its all-round usability.

If you don’t mind the Amazon lock-in, it’s a fabulous tablet – with much better hardware than on anything we’ve seen from an Android tablet so far, and a tempting price. But we’d advise waiting to see what the second-generation Nexus 10 brings before taking the plunge.

What next? Read our review of the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7in, which is for sale during the week of Black Friday for £99.

Detail
Warranty	1 yr return to base
Physical
Dimensions	230 x 7.7 x 158mm (WDH)
Weight	369g
Display
Primary keyboard	On-screen
Screen size	8.9in
Resolution screen horizontal	2,560
Resolution screen vertical	1,600
Display type	Multitouch, capacitive
Panel technology	IPS
Core specifications
CPU frequency, MHz	2.2GHz
Integrated memory	16/32/64GB
RAM capacity	2.00GB
Camera
Camera megapixel rating	8.0mp
Focus type	Autofocus
Built-in flash?	yes
Built-in flash type	LED
Front-facing camera?	yes
Video capture?	yes
Other
WiFi standard	802.11abgn
Integrated GPS	no
Upstream USB ports	0
HDMI output?	no
Video/TV output?	no
Software
Mobile operating system	Kindle Fire OS