Kindle Fire HDX

[cronos]

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).

Just so you know that with the Kindle Fire you won't get the flexibility of other Android tablets. The Fire OS ecosystem is locked almost as tight as iOS. You will get Android, but it's not going to be flexible (you probably won't get root/custom ROM for a while).

 

[Ravynmagi]

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).

Amazon removed the customizability and flexibility of Android with Fire OS. It's got a locked boot loader that will take time to get around. It'll probably be rootable in time, but I don't expect much in the way of custom ROMs.

If you don't love Amazon's content (I do though) and can be happy with Fire OS, then I would probably go with a Nexus 7 2013 or the LG G Pad 8.3 if you want something larger and still cheap.

 

[randomhkkid]

I managed to get the discount on my HDX (Even though I bought it a week ago) by asking Customer service nicely. Just FYI for people who may be in the same situation as me. $259 for 64gb HDX

 

[vi edit]

Taking a chance on the 7" 32 gig HDX for my daughter. We're prime subscribers so the Kindle Free Time and ability to download movies to it is a plus. I also feel less concerned about handing her a $230 kindle to use than a $600 Retina Ipad. :/

 

[Chrono]

I love Amazon. I've been a prime member for 3 years now I believe. I had a fire, fire hd, and do not doubt that with the new fire hdx, it'll be an even better tablet. I want to bite the bullet and don't mind paying $379 for the 8.9" HDX, but I kinda want more space so I can dump movies in it (stupid lack of SDCard). Another 16GB costs an additional $50. Ugh.
Why not just make 32GB the default size?

 

[Chrono]

Just so you know that with the Kindle Fire you won't get the flexibility of other Android tablets. The Fire OS ecosystem is locked almost as tight as iOS. You will get Android, but it's not going to be flexible (you probably won't get root/custom ROM for a while).

I honestly don't mind. I find that it's more of a treat when it finally gets a custom rom and work done on it. When I had a fire HD and the play store was able to be installed on it initially, it was great but it seemed not all apps/games worked on it. But I found that the Amazon App store had majority of the apps I used already.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I love Amazon. I've been a prime member for 3 years now I believe. I had a fire, fire hd, and do not doubt that with the new fire hdx, it'll be an even better tablet. I want to bite the bullet and don't mind paying $379 for the 8.9" HDX, but I kinda want more space so I can dump movies in it (stupid lack of SDCard). Another 16GB costs an additional $50. Ugh.
Why not just make 32GB the default size?

That is kinda where I am. I want a HDX 8.9, but $430 for the 32GB model seems a bit steep for a subsidized and advertising driven device.

 

[vi edit]

Another 16GB costs an additional $50. Ugh.

Could be worse. Could be Apple and that upgrade costs you $100. I'm not thrilled with it costing $100 more for a cellular radio. Does *that* really cost $100 more?

 

[Chrono]

Could be worse. Could be Apple and that upgrade costs you $100. I'm not thrilled with it costing $100 more for a cellular radio. Does *that* really cost $100 more?

Cellular radio is an additional $130. Which is pretty insane. The nexus 7 32GB LTE costs $350, which is $70 bucks more but more forgiving than the crazy $130 that apple slaps on.

 

[Chrono]

That is kinda where I am. I want a HDX 8.9, but $430 for the 32GB model seems a bit steep for a subsidized and advertising driven device.

I do like the offers they give at times. Saved me a few bucks here and there. But you are right. Should be priced lower than this.

 

[Bogey9906]

That is kinda where I am. I want a HDX 8.9, but $430 for the 32GB model seems a bit steep for a subsidized and advertising driven device.

I was able to get the FAA 15% discount last night via chat on a HDX 8.9 64GB Wi-fi model. That brought the price down to $407 which seems like a good deal to me (much better than the $699 for a 64GB iPad Air!). I'm sure there will be other deals upcoming on the HDX.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I was able to get the FAA 15% discount last night via chat on a HDX 8.9 64GB Wi-fi model. That brought the price down to $407 which seems like a good deal to me (much better than the $699 for a 64GB iPad Air!). I'm sure there will be other deals upcoming on the HDX.

For me it's a debate between a Fire HDX 8.9 32GB at $430 and an iPad Mini 32GB at $500.

Kindle is obviously cheaper, but not by much. And the iPad Mini is really nice. I really want to get both. But I just bought a Nexus 5 too and the Nexus 7 2013 not that long ago. My wallet now screams and goes running under the couch whenever it sees me.

 

[vi edit]

Kindle is obviously cheaper, but not by much. And the iPad Mini is really nice. I really want to get both. But I just bought a Nexus 5 too and the Nexus 7 2013 not that long ago. My wallet now screams and goes running under the couch whenever it sees me.

I would have gone mini but was sold with the Freetime function for my kids. Apple still has yet to get a really good password setup for a "kids mode" or seperate profiles. The ability to do offline caching of Prime movies was also nice.

 

[Chrono]

I was able to get the FAA 15% discount last night via chat on a HDX 8.9 64GB Wi-fi model. That brought the price down to $407 which seems like a good deal to me (much better than the $699 for a 64GB iPad Air!). I'm sure there will be other deals upcoming on the HDX.

What a bummer. I tried chatting with the service rep and they didn't giive.

 

[Chrono]

For me it's a debate between a Fire HDX 8.9 32GB at $430 and an iPad Mini 32GB at $500.

Kindle is obviously cheaper, but not by much. And the iPad Mini is really nice. I really want to get both. But I just bought a Nexus 5 too and the Nexus 7 2013 not that long ago. My wallet now screams and goes running under the couch whenever it sees me.

I just saw you have a bunch of new devices in your sig... How the hell do you choose what to use between all those devices?

I currently have the iPad Air, Note 2, iPhone 5s, Lumia 521, Nvidia Shield, and my Asus UX31A touchscreen ultrabook. Unless I make an effort I find myself neglecting the hell out of either the Shield/Tablet/Ultrabook. Switching phones is easier though because it depends on what I feel like using for the day. First World Problems ugh.

 

[poofyhairguy]

For me it's a debate between a Fire HDX 8.9 32GB at $430 and an iPad Mini 32GB at $500.

That one is easy. A $70 Apple tax is reasonable for a better screen, a better SoC, a better OS with a better app catalog, a longer product life, and not having Amazon track all your browsing habits.

 

[Bogey9906]

What a bummer. I tried chatting with the service rep and they didn't giive.

I guess I got lucky because of all of the diapers and wipes I've ordered from Amazon over the last few years (for my kids, not me!).

 

[cronos]

That one is easy. A $70 Apple tax is reasonable for a better screen, a better SoC, a better OS with a better app catalog, a longer product life, and not having Amazon track all your browsing habits.

Don't forget it's also cheaper 8.9" vs. more expensive 7.9". It's a personal preference but an inch can make a huge difference (at least that's what she said )

Also, Apple may have tax vs. Amazon no tax (depending on where you are).

 

[randomhkkid]

I don't know if this is common knowledge but its a pretty awesome codename (As exposed by CPU-Z)

 

[vi edit]

Well, my HDX is going back to Amazon. When reading books, and especially in the web browser white backgrounds get a dark blue "haze" on the outside edges of the screen. If text goes to the edge of the screen it's very disruptive to reading.

So I'm returning it because it's defective, but not replacing because of additional problems I just can't overcome.

1) Amazon store is lacking apps. I'm a huge fantasy football junkie and there's no ESPN fantasy football app.

2) The "OS" is frustrating to use. It's just one ADHD explosion of icons. You can't create folders to organize. Amazon tries to force you into "online" content and you have to really dig in to get to the "offline" stuff.

3) Kindle Freetime for kids just has too many issues. The HDX allows you to offline cache prime content. But that stuff isn't available to Kindle Freetime. If I download my own movies to the device you can't add them either (that I can tell). Plus with the iPad we have, you can affix cover art to video files and it shows on the iPad. With the Kindle it's just a preview of whatever the first frame is. Plus it doesn't show the file name.

With the books you download they are basically scans of a book and the text is so small you can barely read it. No way I could give most of the "books" on there to my learning to read 6 year old and expect her to try and see the text.

Overall I'm just really disappointed with the device and had very high hopes for it to be a great household tablet for travel and the kids. It's fast, very nice size/weight, and the screen looks great for movies. It's just a letdown when it comes to basic navigation and use.

 

[ControlD]

Well, my HDX is going back to Amazon. When reading books, and especially in the web browser white backgrounds get a dark blue "haze" on the outside edges of the screen. If text goes to the edge of the screen it's very disruptive to reading.

So I'm returning it because it's defective, but not replacing because of additional problems I just can't overcome.

1) Amazon store is lacking apps. I'm a huge fantasy football junkie and there's no ESPN fantasy football app.

2) The "OS" is frustrating to use. It's just one ADHD explosion of icons. You can't create folders to organize. Amazon tries to force you into "online" content and you have to really dig in to get to the "offline" stuff.

3) Kindle Freetime for kids just has too many issues. The HDX allows you to offline cache prime content. But that stuff isn't available to Kindle Freetime. If I download my own movies to the device you can't add them either (that I can tell). Plus with the iPad we have, you can affix cover art to video files and it shows on the iPad. With the Kindle it's just a preview of whatever the first frame is. Plus it doesn't show the file name.

With the books you download they are basically scans of a book and the text is so small you can barely read it. No way I could give most of the "books" on there to my learning to read 6 year old and expect her to try and see the text.

Overall I'm just really disappointed with the device and had very high hopes for it to be a great household tablet for travel and the kids. It's fast, very nice size/weight, and the screen looks great for movies. It's just a letdown when it comes to basic navigation and use.

I'm curious about the bolded part. You must not be talking about Kindle downloads but something else?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Well, my HDX is going back to Amazon. When reading books, and especially in the web browser white backgrounds get a dark blue "haze" on the outside edges of the screen. If text goes to the edge of the screen it's very disruptive to reading.

So I'm returning it because it's defective, but not replacing because of additional problems I just can't overcome.

1) Amazon store is lacking apps. I'm a huge fantasy football junkie and there's no ESPN fantasy football app.

2) The "OS" is frustrating to use. It's just one ADHD explosion of icons. You can't create folders to organize. Amazon tries to force you into "online" content and you have to really dig in to get to the "offline" stuff.

3) Kindle Freetime for kids just has too many issues. The HDX allows you to offline cache prime content. But that stuff isn't available to Kindle Freetime. If I download my own movies to the device you can't add them either (that I can tell). Plus with the iPad we have, you can affix cover art to video files and it shows on the iPad. With the Kindle it's just a preview of whatever the first frame is. Plus it doesn't show the file name.

With the books you download they are basically scans of a book and the text is so small you can barely read it. No way I could give most of the "books" on there to my learning to read 6 year old and expect her to try and see the text.

Overall I'm just really disappointed with the device and had very high hopes for it to be a great household tablet for travel and the kids. It's fast, very nice size/weight, and the screen looks great for movies. It's just a letdown when it comes to basic navigation and use.

The blue tint is a known and admitted design feature:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/22/amazon-kindle-fire-hdx-screen/

 

[vi edit]

Kindle Free time is an app specific to kids and one of the main reasons I bought it. The idea is that you create profiles for your kids and it's a password protected workspace for kids. There's access to a bunch of apps, books, videos, ect.

With the kids books it's like they literally scanned the pages from the book and slapped them in there as a flat image. The text on many of them on the 7" screen is so small that it's almost impossible to read without having the tab a couple inches from your face. As far as I can tell there is no way to zoom on these pages either.

Another nag I have to add after using an iPad for so long is how dependent I am on a physical home button. When I want to bail out of an app I just hit that. With the kindle you need to tap different areas of the screen for the home button to display and I know it's going to be a pain for my kids trying to switch apps.

 

[ControlD]

That's unfortunate about the kids books. Sounds like a lazy ebook conversion, and I doubt reading them on any device will be a great experience if they are truly scans. I try to look at reviews of the Kindle versions of books after getting a really bad ebook version of a home brewing book some time ago.

I agree with you on the home button. This is one area I feel Samsung has done right with Android devices. I wonder why more companies haven't followed along.

 

[vi edit]

The blue tint is a known and admitted design feature:

http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/22/a...re-hdx-screen/

I read half a dozen release reviews and dozens of reviews on Amazon's page and didn't really come across it. It wasn't until I got the device noticed it and googled it that I found out how widespread it is.

Feature my ass. No other modern display I've used has that level of light bleed or whatever you call it around the outside edge. They can disclaim all they want. It's going back to them.