Published in AI

Amazon announces new Fire HD tablets

by on17 September 2015


Mediatek scores a big win

Amazon has just unveiled three new tablets as a part of its new Fire series, including the Fire HD, the Fire and the Fire Kids Edition tablets.

The high-end offering is the new Fire HD tablet that will be available in 8-inch and 10.1-inch versions. Both versions will have the same 1280x800 resolution panel, which adds up to 189ppi of pixel density on the Fire HD 8 and 149ppi on the Fire HD 10.

The new Fire HD is powered by Mediatek's MT8135 SoC launched back in 2013. Based on a big.LITTLE design, the MT8135 SoC features two Cortex-A15 and two Cortex-A7 CPU cores paired up with PowerVR G6200 GPU. The CPU part of the MT8135 in the new Fire HD tablets is clocked at 1.5GHz.

The new Fire HD 10 measures at 262x159x7.7mm and weighs 432g, while the new Fire HD 8 has 214x128x7.7mm dimensions and weighs 311g. According to Amazon, the new Fire HD series features a new thin and light body that is up to two times more durable than iPad Air 2. Although the iPad Air 2 is thinner at 6.1mm, it does weigh a bit more at 437g.

The rest of the specifications for both the new Fire HD 10 and the Fire HD 8 include stereo speakers with Dobly Atmos and built-in mic, 8 or 16GB of internal storage space expandable via microSD card slot and free unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content, 720p front-facing camera and 5-megapixel rear camera and dual-band 802.11ac WiFi. The battery life on both devices is rated at up to 8 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching video, and listening to music, according to Amazon.com.

The new Fire HD tablets are based on the new Fire OS 5 Bellini, which is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The Fire HD 8 will be available in Black, Magenta, Blue and Tangerine color choices, while the Fire HD 10 will stick to standard Black and White models. Both are avialable immediately at Amazon.com with a price starting at US $149.99 for the Fire HD 8 tablet and US $229.99 for the Fire HD 10 tablet.

amazon fireHD10 1

amazon fireHD8 1

Last modified on 17 September 2015
Rate this item
(5 votes)

Read more about: