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Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7″ review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £199
inc VAT

Fast, well-built and great value, but some may find its OS a bit restrictive

Specifications

7 in 1,920×1,200 display, 303g, 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 2.00GB RAM, 16GB disk, Android 4.2 (Fire OS 3.0 Mojito)

http://www.amazon.co.uk

While the original Kindle Fire HD was pretty good value, it looked a little cheap and the hardware couldn’t cope with Amazon’s own interface. A year-on from that release and mobile technology has changed significantly, so Amazon’s back with its budget update, the Kindle Fire HDX 7″.

The first thing you notice about the new tablet is that it’s smaller than its predecessor. Where the Kindle Fire HD had a significant amount of bezel, with its screen looking small in the middle, the HDX has a much smaller bezel, making the 7in screen appear bigger. It’s not as slim as the Nexus 7, but it no longer feels so bulky.

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7

Amazon has also redesigned the case completely, with a nice soft-touch plastic back. It has angled edges to the back, which slope up to the side of the case. These not only make the Fire HDX more comfortable to hold, but also hold the power and volume buttons where they’re easy to reach while you’re holding the tablet in landscape mode. With Amazon cutting the weight by almost 100g, the 303g Kindle Fire HDX 7″ is now a lot more comfortable to hold, too.

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7

AMAZON KINDLE FIRE HDX 7 SCREEN

Although the same size screen is still in the Kindle Fire HDX 7″, Amazon has upped the resolution from 1,280×800 to 1,920×1,200 – the same resolution as used by the Google Nexus 7 (2013). This gives the screen a high pixel density of 323ppi. It’s an immediate and obvious difference, with the high pixel density ensuring that everything onscreen is super sharp.

Amazon has used a high-quality IPS panel, so viewing angles are excellent. Colours are rich and vibrant, while contrast was excellent. Our one minor complaint was that there’s a bit of backlight bleed around the side of the screen. This is only really noticeable on white backgrounds, with the edge having a faint-blue glow. It’s not enough to ruin enjoyment and most of the time you won’t even notice a problem.

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7

It’s great for watching video and the rear-firing speakers are surprisingly loud and detailed, letting you happily watch content without having to plug in a pair of headphones.

AMAZON KINDLE FIRE HDX 7 PERFORMANCE

Amazon has significantly upgraded the internals, with a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC and 2GB of RAM. This is a seriously fast chip, managing the Sunspider JavaScript test in just 560ms. This is one of the fastest scores that we’ve seen and puts the Kindle Fire HDX 7″ up there with top-of-the-range tablets from other manufacturers.

As well as decent performance in Android and web browsing, the Snapdragon 800 also has a dramatically improved graphics core. We ran the 3DMark Ice Storm benchmark, where the Standard and Extreme tests both maxed out, as the tablet was simply too powerful. Stepping up to the Unlimited test we saw a score of 16,398. This is one of the fastest scores that we’ve seen and shows that the Kindle Fire HDX 7″ can compete with the best of them.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
Processor clock speed 2.2GHz
Memory 2.00GB
Maximum memory 2GB
Size 186x128x9mm
Weight 303g
Pointing device touchscreen

Display

Viewable size 7 in
Native resolution 1,920×1,200
Graphics Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
Graphics/video ports N/A
Graphics Memory N/A

Storage

Total storage capacity 16GB
Optical drive type N/A

Ports and Expansion

Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports 0
Wireless networking support 802.11n (dual-band), 4G (optional)
PC Card slots 0
Supported memory cards none
Other ports Micro USB

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Android 4.2 (Fire OS 3.0 Mojito)
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included N/A
Optional extras N/A

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £199
Details www.amazon.co.uk
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk