New Kindle Fire HD Specs: 2GHz Snapdragon 800 Quad, 2560x1600 Display

[jpeyton]

http://bgr.com/2013/07/30/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-2-specs-exclusive/

The arms race continues. And coming from Amazon, you know the price is going to be extremely low (the current 8.9" KFHD is $269).

The 7" KFHD is getting a spec bump too, to 1920x1200 and the same Snapdragon 800 SoC.

They are aiming for a fall release to get a jump on holiday shoppers.

 

[Red Storm]

My sister has the 8" Fire HD, and I think the software is utter garbage. She's been asking me to sell it and get something else.

Not even 1600P and Snapdragon 800 is enough to make consider a Fire. Software matters.

 

[corkyg]

Sounds good to me. I have the Fire HD 8.9, and have no problems with selecting software I need to do what I need to do. Yesterday, I added my Sirius XM subscription to it - really works nicely. I also just added the Logitech Android Bluetooth keyboard - works great and has both backspace and delete.

 

[Midwayman]

I'm not sure the arms race matters that much with the kindle. Sure I'd love to have the extra cpu vs the 2012 model I have. However it does what its supposed to very well and the kindle OS makes it very difficult to use it like a high end tablet anyways.

 

[pantsaregood]

Is there something preventing you from rooting it?

 

[Red Storm]

Is there something preventing you from rooting it?

The existence of other tablets that don't require root to unlock usefulness.

 

[Midwayman]

Is there something preventing you from rooting it?

Nah, but the ROM community for the Fire HD is pretty poor. Not the tablet to get if putting a different ROM on it is your plan.

 

[Dumac]

The Kindle OS is pure crap. I ended up sticking pure jellybean on it to make it even usable. Why bother?

Not to mention the amazon appstore has a poor selection, is extremely shady and way inferior to google play store.

 

[Tom]

My sister has the 8" Fire HD, and I think the software is utter garbage. She's been asking me to sell it and get something else.

Not even 1600P and Snapdragon 800 is enough to make consider a Fire. Software matters.

It might not suit you or your sister but the software is actually pretty cool. Multiple user accounts with parental controls, Mazon Instant video, special features during movie and video playback as well as when reading.

It does need the Google play store though.

 

[gmaster456]

Using the Kindle OS like one would use a normal Android tablet is a chore. It's not good for anything other than reading or using the limited selection of apps. The Kindle OS is laggy, silk browser is a joke. To make it an acceptable tablet one would have to install an AOSP rom. Then, it's not actually half bad.

 

[gmaster456]

Nah, but the ROM community for the Fire HD is pretty poor. Not the tablet to get if putting a different ROM on it is your plan.

Pretty surprising given the price of the tablet. The community for the original fire is somewhat decent.

 

[Trombe]

I'll believe it when I see it. Two generations of middling guts and suddenly moving to an s800 doesn't add up. The high res panel is at least somewhat believable.

 

[lopri]

It's slightly an off-topic but I wonder what people think of $150 Nook HD+? I saw it at a local BB the other day and it's slowwwww but the screen was gorgeous. I've heard that you can hack it to run Jelly Bean, possibly speeding it up a bit.

On topic: Top-of-the-line components for new Kindles won't surprise me. Kindle is basically Amazon's delivery box and Amazon probably want to have devices with long life expectancies. So in that regard, Kindle's market position is rather akin to consoles' than PCs'.

 

[lopri]

My sister has the 8" Fire HD, and I think the software is utter garbage. She's been asking me to sell it and get something else.

Not even 1600P and Snapdragon 800 is enough to make consider a Fire. Software matters.

Kindle is slightly different, IMO. Though the tablet landscape has changed, I don't think Amazon will give up on their ecosystem. For those whose tablet is a reading/viewing device first and foremost, Kindle makes sense. I remember back then when e-ink Kindles were $300~$400 and Amazon sold boat load of those.

And they are a nice gift item. Kind of like iPads. I am still not comfortable with the idea of gifting Android tablets to average Janes. (Though the new Nexus 7 may change that)

 

[Red Storm]

Kindle is slightly different, IMO. Though the tablet landscape has changed, I don't think Amazon will give up on their ecosystem. For those whose tablet is a reading/viewing device first and foremost, Kindle makes sense. I remember back then when e-ink Kindles were $300~$400 and Amazon sold boat load of those.

And they are a nice gift item. Kind of like iPads. I am still not comfortable with the idea of gifting Android tablets to average Janes. (Though the new Nexus 7 may change that)

For reading you go e-ink device, be it a Kindle or whatever.

After having to go over the whole "cloud/device" thing numerous times with my family, I honestly think a Nexus tablet would be easier to learn to use.

 

[Midwayman]

Pretty surprising given the price of the tablet. The community for the original fire is somewhat decent.

There are 3 roms for the 8.9" HD, two of them only a couple weeks old. All in an alpha state at best. And now its due to be replace in a month or two. Luckily if you root it you can get play and install whatever launcher you like.

Its kinda sad. When I bought it I saw how the original fire was okay, but it didn't transfer over this time.

 

[smitbret]

Nice specs. Too bad it's still missing the one spec that would keep me from buying it, Google Play.

 

[Bateluer]

The existence of other tablets that don't require root to unlock usefulness.

Nah, but the ROM community for the Fire HD is pretty poor. Not the tablet to get if putting a different ROM on it is your plan.

Because of the existence of decent, open Android tablets, all the good ROM cookers bought those devices.

Pretty surprising given the price of the tablet. The community for the original fire is somewhat decent.

The original Fire was wide open, easily unlockable and rootable, plus when it was released, there was basically no competition for it. Today, Amazon has to content with the Nexus 7s, plus Samsungs G-Tab&Note line up, not to mention devices from Asus, Acer, Lenovo, etc. All of which offer more than the Kindles, in the case of the N7, cost less.

 

[lothar]

The Kindle OS is pure crap. I ended up sticking pure jellybean on it to make it even usable. Why bother?

Not to mention the amazon appstore has a poor selection, is extremely shady and way inferior to google play store.

How is the Amazon appstore extremely shady?

 

[Gooberlx2]

It's slightly an off-topic but I wonder what people think of $150 Nook HD+? I saw it at a local BB the other day and it's slowwwww but the screen was gorgeous. I've heard that you can hack it to run Jelly Bean, possibly speeding it up a bit.

Yeah, it speeds up a bit but it's not all that substantial, IMO. Really seemed to kill the battery faster from what I could tell. Working on restoring stock for my wife right now.

I bought ours just over a month or so ago, and really wish I'd waited. Wife was in the hospital for two weeks with West Nile though, so she really needed something to combat the boredom, and the Nook HD+ seemed like the right value at the time. I mean it's mostly fine, just slow for certain things.

 

[Tom]

It's slightly an off-topic but I wonder what people think of $150 Nook HD+? I saw it at a local BB the other day and it's slowwwww but the screen was gorgeous. I've heard that you can hack it to run Jelly Bean, possibly speeding it up a bit.

On topic: Top-of-the-line components for new Kindles won't surprise me. Kindle is basically Amazon's delivery box and Amazon probably want to have devices with long life expectancies. So in that regard, Kindle's market position is rather akin to consoles' than PCs'.

The Nook HD+ isn't slowwwww with 5 w's. What do you mean specifically ?

We have one and it plays games and movies just fine, and they look amazing. Chrome works smoothly. It has fast wifi. It also has most of the Google apps as well as the Play store. And a microsd slot. And can output hdmi with an adapter.

For $100-150 its a fantastic large screen tablet. We just got the new Nexus 7 and its fantastic too, but even though the screen is great the Nook HD+ size makes it very impressive for movies, videos, games.

 

[dlock13]

I agree with Red Storm. Amazon's version of Android is horrible at best and terrible at worst. If all you ever want to use is Amazon, good for you. Get that tablet. If you want to use other services or Google features or anything, have fun with either waiting a millennium for the dev to submit the app to the Amazon Appstore or using any browser on there to access a web version of something.

The hardware can be the best in the world, but with a locked bootloader, probably much harder to root, and stuck only in the Amazon world, I see no point in ever getting that tablet.

It sucks because I don't foresee Amazon ever bringing their instant streaming over to Google Play and that's one thing that I yearn for on there!

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The Nook HD+ isn't slowwwww with 5 w's. What do you mean specifically ?

We have one and it plays games and movies just fine, and they look amazing. Chrome works smoothly. It has fast wifi. It also has most of the Google apps as well as the Play store. And a microsd slot. And can output hdmi with an adapter.

For $100-150 its a fantastic large screen tablet. We just got the new Nexus 7 and its fantastic too, but even though the screen is great the Nook HD+ size makes it very impressive for movies, videos, games.

It's running a high res screen off an archaic OMAP 4 with a bloated and ugly skin thrown into the mix, there is no way performance is anything other than dreadful. Even running stock android at a lower resolution OMAP 4 isn't what I would call speedy.

 

[lopri]

The Nook HD+ I saw was a demo unit and who knows how much abuse it had taken from passer-bys. Apps took more than a moment to launch and transitions were very stuttery.

But I did really like the screen. (including its odd-ball ratio) There is no tablet with that size of screen for that price, so I got curious.

Anyways. As I read the BGR article it says there will be 3 models of Kindle, so what is the 3rd one?

 

[Red Storm]

Anyways. As I read the BGR article it says there will be 3 models of Kindle, so what is the 3rd one?

I'm guessing the third one is the LTE model?