Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Pro Reviews

Great hardware for the money, and a great range of content to buy, but Amazon’s take on Android still feels comparatively inflexible

Should you choose the Kindle Fire HD or the Kindle Fire HD 8.9? There are three key factors: price, screen size and weight. The 7in Kindle Fire HD costs £159 for a 16GB device, and £199 for 32GB. Move up to 8.9in and the prices are £229 and £259. For that extra cash you get a bigger screen that has better resolution - so if watching HD movies is your thing it may be worth the outlay. But if you are a bookworm, the 7in device will offer a better, lighter reading experience. And save you some pennies.

Amazon upgrades its Android-based tablet with a bigger, better screen

There’s a lot to like about the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. As a tablet it looks good, both in terms of that display and the simple design. The build is good quality too and the speakers offer really impressive performance, as does the dual Wi-Fi antenna. As for the experience, it’s also easy enough to use, with content being at the forefront. If you’re a fan of Kindle, or of Amazon, then the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 might be just the tablet for you. It does just about everything you could want and is competitively priced. However, if you’re an experienced Android user, then you might find yourself better served by a straight Android tablet. Amazon has done a good job of enabling its ecosystem to support other devices, so much of what you find on the Kindle Fire 8.9 you can get elsewhere: Kindle for Android, Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon MP3. All these apps bring the Kindle to any Android device.

Which Kindle Fire HD you should buy is dependent on a single question. Which do you do more, read or watch movies? If you're a reader, the 7-inch model's smaller size and one-hand usability makes it the better device. If you're a cinephile (I fall into this category, at least when it comes to how I use a tablet), the HD 8.9 is a better buy thanks to its bigger, higher-res screen. I watched a lot of movies on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, and it's a pretty fantastic experience. To be clear, though, both devices are good at both things, and they're incredibly similar overall — it's just a matter of tipping the balance slightly one way or the other. Neither tablet, though, is as good as the iPad, iPad mini, or Nexus 7. It's the apps: Android's ecosystem is already a giant leap behind iOS's, and Amazon's is like a knockoff Android store. If you get most of your content through Amazon (and that's totally possible), the Kindle Fire HD is the best way to get it – the Prime Video experience is better on this device than any other I've tested, and if you make use of the HDMI port the tablet becomes a great Amazonian set-top box for your TV as well. But for the content omnivore, or a person who wants a good email experience or a better browser or a more powerful suite of apps, Apple and Google's tablets are a better bet.

As the third iteration of Amazon’s Kindle Fire series, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 offers no surprises. Everything we praised about the HD 7 has made its way here, including the (very) bright display, strong build quality for the price, easy-to-use Amazon apps and acceptable speakers. The battery life has taken a small hit from the larger display size and denser pixel count, but it is good nonetheless and should be able to last for a standard full day of use. The major improvement in this model is the addition of the 1080p display which makes onscreen text and images exceptionally clear, though actual performance is tangibly no better than it was on the HD 7. In addition, the new resolution is also showing limitations of the Amazon home screen. The carousel is not aging well and is leaving even more empty space that could have otherwise been used for additional icons or tabs. It shows a lost opportunity for Amazon to fully exploit the resolution gain and provide better usability for the end-user.

For a brand spanking new tablet, much like its smaller sized sibling, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is graced with an inviting $300 starting price point (up to $600 for the highest model; the 64GB version). If you can somehow tolerate the Amazon centered experience of this tablet, then you’ll surely find plenty of value with it – even more when it impresses with its high-resolution display. However, one must not forget about the myriad of competition out there, such as other newcomers like the Nexus 10 or iPad mini. To be perfectly honest, we’d spend the extra money to pick up the $400 Nexus 10, seeing that it’s packing the more impressive hardware and full Android experience. At the same time, we can’t forget about some of the other aging Android tablets out there, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, which can be picked up for close, or even less than the price of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. Overall, it’s nice that Amazon is providing consumers with choice, but simply at stake is the size difference – and that’s all! When all of the Kindle Fire HD tablets are offering the same software experience, the only decision you’ll need to make is what size you prefer. Is this hot-hot? Well, it’s not burning per se, but rather, it sizzles most with its heavy Amazon services integration and its good value.

If you’re deeply invested in the Amazon universe for content, this device is the best content delivery system you’re going to be able to buy today. It’s the biggest tablet Amazon makes at the moment and gives you access to all of your Amazon-held content in high definition, top to bottom. It’s not an Android tablet (as far as the Google Play store is concerned), it’s not an iPad, and it’s not a Windows device. It’s a unique tablet that’s deeply engrained in the Android environment. The price of this device in its wi-fi configuration – that being the one we’re looking at here in this review – is $299 USD, and for that price there’s no competition unless you want a smaller display and a different content environment. For Amazon users, there’s nothing else – unless of course you consider the smaller version: see our Kindle Fire HD 7 full review as well.

It's not that the 8.9-inch Fire HD isn't a bargain. It is. But at $300, you're halfway from a $200 7-inch tablet to the $400 Jellybean 4.2 Nexus 10. And if you're looking for a full sized tablet that can multitask and run any Androidy thing you want, that's probably a better deal for you. It's not quite cheap enough to take a flier on, and not quite good enough to win on merits. But! If you're specifically looking for something to read comic books or magazines, and that's more or less it, then holy crap, this is an amazing deal and you should get one immediately. All three of you.

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 was made for Amazon’s new Fire interface. Compared with the 7-inch version, navigation is snappier and the higher-resolution screen better displays menu options. Amazon’s content offerings are vast, especially if you’re a Prime member, and its 4G LTE speeds are incredibly fast. Starting at $299, it’s one of the best tablet values available. The Kindle Fire line is still the strongest media consumption tablet line going, and this latest version is the best one yet.