Kindle Fire HDX

[Shackanaw]

I'm a heavy user of firefox, even on android. So i'd prefer to be able to use firefox, and not Silk.

Hmm, I suppose this is why Firefox for Android has an option to notify you about updates. I was thinking it was odd to include such an option when the Play Store can automatically update for me anyway, but perhaps this allows them to keep you up to date, even if you sideload.

 

[Joe1987]

I like the hardware and the design, I hate the Amazon app store, the apps aren't updated like in Google's, and Google apps are missing as well, IMHO, Google apps are some of the best.

It does look like a good tablet to recommend to a non techie friend or family member, but not for me. I'd rather have (and do have) a traditional Kindle and a pure Android or iOS tablet.

 

[Ravynmagi]

True, but sideloading is a PIA, OTA is soo much easier for us lazy folks

It's a hassle, but I wouldn't call it a pain in the ass. With ES Explorer and Dropbox it's not too bad. With ES Explorer just backup the APK on your Android phone with Google Play to Dropbox. Then install from Dropbox on the Kindle Fire.

 

[Midwayman]

Just install one mobile market by sideloading. Then you can DL and keep your non-amazon apps up to date easy.

 

[cronos]

Just a heads up, I received an email from Amazon late last night containing:

We'd like to thank you for being a great Amazon customer with a special Kindle deal: Save $60 on any Kindle E-reader or Kindle Fire tablet. Offer valid through October 31, 2013.

I've been looking to replace my wife's Nook Simple Touch for about a week now (and was thinking hard about the Nook HD/HD+ as shown in my posts in the related thread about it). She said she wanted 'a color tablet for mostly reading, with the ability to play some games and maybe a little listening to music and watching movies'. The Kindle Fire sounds perfect for that, as not having Play Store would not be a big deal for her. Just last night we went to BestBuy so she could test how the tablets handle and she liked the HDX 7 (but thought the 9 is too big for what she needs it for) and not too crazy about the Nooks.

With some odd ~$30 credit in my Amazon account that I've been waiting patiently to spend on the right thing and in addition to that a bunch of Discover cashback I could use as well, this just became a no-brainer for me.

Anyway, this is very likely a targeted e-mail promo from Amazon, so keep an eye out for it if you've been looking to get a Kindle. It's titled: Exclusively for <your name>: $60 Off Any Kindle or Kindle Fire.

Edit: I just searched around and apparently the amount of $ off varies from $20/$40/$60, so I guess I got lucky!

 

[darkswordsman17]

Just a heads up, I received an email from Amazon late last night containing:



I've been looking to replace my wife's Nook Simple Touch for about a week now (and was thinking hard about the Nook HD/HD+ as shown in my posts in the related thread about it). She said she wanted 'a color tablet for mostly reading, with the ability to play some games and maybe a little listening to music and watching movies'. The Kindle Fire sounds perfect for that, as not having Play Store would not be a big deal for her. Just last night we went to BestBuy so she could test how the tablets handle and she liked the HDX 7 (but thought the 9 is too big for what she needs it for) and not too crazy about the Nooks.

With some odd ~$30 credit in my Amazon account that I've been waiting patiently to spend on the right thing and in addition to that a bunch of Discover cashback I could use as well, this just became a no-brainer for me.

Anyway, this is very likely a targeted e-mail promo from Amazon, so keep an eye out for it if you've been looking to get a Kindle. It's titled: Exclusively for <your name>: $60 Off Any Kindle or Kindle Fire.

Edit: I just searched around and apparently the amount of $ off varies from $20/$40/$60, so I guess I got lucky!

Nice.

These really are nice tablets. I think Amazon finally made them compelling enough as with current spec hardware they nullified performance issues and side loading apps makes the lack of the play store less of an issue (still a hassle and yes still a negative, but if you must have a certain app it seems that you do have opportunity and with the way Google is changing Android, if Amazon keeps the underlying bits up then I think it becomes even less of an issue, but only time will tell on that).

I just wish Amazon could offer a version with a wacom digitizer for say an extra $50-100, I wouldn't even have minded if it required a thicker chassis.

 

[dlock13]

I was only about to get $20 off! You did get very lucky, cronos!

 

[Ravynmagi]

Well I'm disappointed now. I didn't get any coupon from Amazon and I buy a lot of crap from them. /pout

 

[lopri]

I am really intrigued by the 8.9" one and looking forward to seeing one in person. Both the 7" version and the 8.9" version can be nice alternatives to Nexus 7/10 with app side-loading.

 

[phexac]

My company gave me Kindle Fire HD 8.9 this summer as a nice gesture for reading some materials they will assign. While I certainly appreciate the gesture, Kindle fire is a terrible tablet. The main issue the horrid Amazon software. It's extremely limited in the apps that you can use and is awkward to use. Additionally, having every-day tablet use feel like a constant Amazon shopping experience is annoying. To top it off, weak hardware makes a lot of tasks feel sluggish and choppy, further detracting from the experience.

After about 5 months, I am selling it and will buy either a Nexus 7 or the new iPad. I know that people often say that they would not use so and so even if they had it for free and often do not actually mean it. Well I DO mean it. This tablet is junk and I do not want it even though I got it for free, and I AM getting rid of it. Luckily between Nexus 7 and the iPad I can find a tablet that does not gimp the operating system for the sake of turning it into a sales pitch.

While the new HDX may bring some upgrades, all the same problems are guaranteed to persist. I checked it out in the store. Sam gimped OS, same used car salesman in your face interface that tries to sell you stuff while limiting usability, and same underpowered hardware that makes even basic tasks sluggish and choppy. I don't know who willingly buys these tablets, but I certainly won't be one of them.

We also spoke with our company HR. Thanks to our feedback, they will be giving out iPad minis instead of Kindles in the future.

 

[imported_brandon]

My company gave me Kindle Fire HD 8.9 this summer as a nice gesture for reading some materials they will assign. While I certainly appreciate the gesture, Kindle fire is a terrible tablet. The main issue the horrid Amazon software. It's extremely limited in the apps that you can use and is awkward to use. Additionally, having every-day tablet use feel like a constant Amazon shopping experience is annoying. To top it off, weak hardware makes a lot of tasks feel sluggish and choppy, further detracting from the experience.

After about 5 months, I am selling it and will buy either a Nexus 7 or the new iPad. I know that people often say that they would not use so and so even if they had it for free and often do not actually mean it. Well I DO mean it. This tablet is junk and I do not want it even though I got it for free, and I AM getting rid of it. Luckily between Nexus 7 and the iPad I can find a tablet that does not gimp the operating system for the sake of turning it into a sales pitch.

While the new HDX may bring some upgrades, all the same problems are guaranteed to persist. I checked it out in the store. Sam gimped OS, same used car salesman in your face interface that tries to sell you stuff while limiting usability, and same underpowered hardware that makes even basic tasks sluggish and choppy. I don't know who willingly buys these tablets, but I certainly won't be one of them.

We also spoke with our company HR. Thanks to our feedback, they will be giving out iPad minis instead of Kindles in the future.

It may not be an ideal option for you, but why couldn't you have just waited until Cyanogenmod, or a custom ROM comes out for it? As I said, it's far from ideal to have to wait for something to be usable, but other than the software, it's a fine tablet.

 

[ControlD]

While the new HDX may bring some upgrades, all the same problems are guaranteed to persist. I checked it out in the store. Sam gimped OS, same used car salesman in your face interface that tries to sell you stuff while limiting usability, and same underpowered hardware that makes even basic tasks sluggish and choppy. I don't know who willingly buys these tablets, but I certainly won't be one of them.

I can understand your interface complaints, but the hardware in the new HDX tablets is anything but sluggish or underpowered.

 

[cronos]

Alright, my (wife's) Kindle Fire HDX 7" arrived yesterday and I got to play around with it a little bit last night.

As someone mentioned above, if you dislike the native UI (which after a few hours I actually found to be an acquired taste), you can very easily install a third party market (1mobile in my case) and then install your favorite launcher. I installed Nova launcher from 1mobile and just like that there's the standard android home screen I'm familiar with. Home screen, dock, app drawer, everything is there. A little bonus is that right in the middle bottom of the screen there is this tiny tab that when you pull it up shows the original carousel that's the main feature of the native UI. So yeah, you don't even lose that handy shortcut (it's basically a pretty 'recent apps' list) using a different launcher.

The only issue I'm experiencing with using a third party launcher is that I couldn't find a way to set the wallpaper, and no matter what I set it to from Nova setting it stays the default black screen. I haven't really looked into this though, so maybe there's a way to go around this restriction.

Everything is fast and super smooth with this tablet, which is to be expected considering its specs.

One important discovery for me: I was a non-believer of the 7-8" tablets. I thought they're useless. I've had a 5" phone since 2010 so to me a tablet should be at least 9-10" or I won't bother as everything else is not that much bigger than my phone. Now that I actually tested one, I found that it's the perfect size for personal movie viewing.

This tablet seems to be exactly what my wife wanted. If I were to get a tablet for myself though, I'd still rather get either the Galaxy Note because of the digitizer, or a Surface Pro/something similar.

 

[Ravynmagi]

So you can install launchers without rooting on the Kindle Fire HDX? With the Fire HD, we had to root the tablet, then copy the launcher APK to the System folder and install it from there, otherwise it would usually crash when launching it. So it would be really cool if rooting is no longer required.

I also remember the wallpaper problem after an update this year to the Fire HD. Might want to look on the Fire HD forums at XDA to see if they ever solved that, it might work on the HDX too then. Had something to do with a Kindle service.

 

[cronos]

So you can install launchers without rooting on the Kindle Fire HDX? With the Fire HD, we had to root the tablet, then copy the launcher APK to the System folder and install it from there, otherwise it would usually crash when launching it. So it would be really cool if rooting is no longer required.

Yup. I did it right away like five minutes after it's out of the box. 1. Allow sideloading, 2. Install 1mobile market, 3. Install Nova Launcher.

And right away after Nova is installed and run, when I hit 'home' I was shown the standard android option to choose between 'Kindle' or 'Nova' and whether it is for 'just once' or 'always'.

I also remember the wallpaper problem after an update this year to the Fire HD. Might want to look on the Fire HD forums at XDA to see if they ever solved that, it might work on the HDX too then. Had something to do with a Kindle service.

I'll definitely look this up later. Like I said above though, I'm feeling quite okay with the native UI of the Fire OS 3.0. It's actually pretty efficient when you have learned where things are located (links to books/apps/movies/music at the top, carousel for recent apps/books/movies/music, pull up for home screen which you have full control of), so I may not need to use a different launcher anyway.

 

[phexac]

I would much rather just buy a tablet where I don't need to root and jump through hoops just to get normal functionality and try to get access to normal app store.

And, whether it be subpar hardware or poorly optimized software or both, but the interface definitely stutters in a lot of scenarios and does not provide the type of smooth experience that you get on an iPad or Nexus 7.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I would much rather just buy a tablet where I don't need to root and jump through hoops just to get normal functionality and try to get access to normal app store.

And, whether it be subpar hardware or poorly optimized software or both, but the interface definitely stutters in a lot of scenarios and does not provide the type of smooth experience that you get on an iPad or Nexus 7.

The Fire tablets are 100% about Amazon content. So if you are not an Amazon Prime subscriber and user of Amazon content, then the Fire HDX doesn't make any sense. If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, then the Fire tablets are pretty nice at bringing all of Amazon's content together, adding some extra features to their content not found on other platforms, and making it easier to find new content.

Your last paragraph confuses me. The Fire HDX is high end hardware and has great performance and reviewers say it's very smooth. This isn't like previous generations where Amazon went cheap with the processor. This time the Fire HDX has one of the best availables SoCs, the Snapdragon 800. And it seems like Amazon has done a good job optimizing their fork of Android.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Well apparently I'm not getting that up to $60 off coupon from Amazon. Have to admit to being a little butthurt now. Was kinda excited about the Fire HDX 8.9, now this has me a little deflated. Because I don't get why only some customers got this offer and others didn't. I'm a Prime subscriber, owner of several Kindle devices, frequent Amazon shopper.

I know I'm being a little petty. But I admit I'm a bit annoyed at this snubbing. Not really sure I want to buy the Fire HDX now.

I apologize for the Internet whine. But I needed to get that off my chest.

 

[Denithor]

Why, oh why does Amazon have to stick with that stupid freaking wide bezel all the way around?!? I like the HDX 7 but it's just too damn big to comfortably 1-hand. I have an original Fire that is really in need of replacement, looks like it is going to have to be the Nexus 7 although I would prefer the Fire software.

Most unhappy here.

 

[randomhkkid]

I'm in the UK and I managed to sell my 32gb Nexus 7 2012 for £110 ($180). My new 64gb 7" Kindle HDX arrives from the US in a couple days. Personally I chose the Nexus because I'm hopeful that the software "issues" will be fixed by custom roms and kernels, and because I prefer the Kindle hardware.

 

[cronos]

Amazon has a promo today, thanking FAA for letting us use electronic devices while take-off and landing 15% off all Kindles. That means it's $195 for the base Kindle Fire HDX 7".

Edit: Apparently I was wrong. It's not for all Kindles, just the three listed.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Amazon has a promo today, thanking FAA for letting us use electronic devices while take-off and landing 15% off all Kindles. That means it's $195 for the base Kindle Fire HDX 7".

Edit: Apparently I was wrong. It's not for all Kindles, just the three listed.

That picture with the ad is misleading though. Shows an e-ink Kindle, a smaller Kindle tablet, and a bigger Kindle tablet. But the promo code doesn't work on either of the 8.9 inch models (not that anyone should buy the old 8.9 inch anyway). Hmph!

 

[cronos]

That picture with the ad is misleading though. Shows an e-ink Kindle, a smaller Kindle tablet, and a bigger Kindle tablet. But the promo code doesn't work on either of the 8.9 inch models (not that anyone should buy the old 8.9 inch anyway). Hmph!

Yeah the picture is definitely misleading because of the different sizes. The two color tablets are supposed to represent Fire HD 7 and Fire HDX 7. A lot of people are also confused that this doesn't work for Kindle Paperwhite, which apparently Amazon considers a different product line than the regular 'Kindle'.

The popup that comes out when you actually clicked on the link is somewhat clearer.

 

[ControlD]

That picture with the ad is misleading though. Shows an e-ink Kindle, a smaller Kindle tablet, and a bigger Kindle tablet. But the promo code doesn't work on either of the 8.9 inch models (not that anyone should buy the old 8.9 inch anyway). Hmph!

I was a little disappointed in that as well. I have the 8.9" tablet on my short list right now, and 15% off might have put me over the edge. Still, I am planning on waiting for some reviews and real world opinions before making a decision. At $379 the HDX and refurbished iPad 4 are at the exact same price which makes for a tough decision.

 

[Chrono]

I'm sad. It doesn't apply against the 8.9" HDX . I bought an iPad Air and although it's really nice aesthetically etc... I don't see it as that big of a deal. I prefer the android ecosystem more and the flexibility I get with the OS(Roms etc).