I needed to buy a new tablet as my kids are constantly fighting for my iPhone and iPad. After much research I decided to buy the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7″, HDX Display, Wi-Fi, 16 GB for £99.99
Included in the Box – Kindle Fire 7″ HDX tablet, USB 2.0 cable, 9W PowerFast charger, and Quick Start Guide
Kindle Fire HDX is ready to use right out of the box—no setup, no software to install, no computer required to download content. The version I bought is Wi-Fi only. There is a Wi-Fi and 4G version for £219
Technical specs:
- Exclusive 7″ HDX display (1920×1200), high pixel density (323 ppi) and perfect colour accuracy (100% sRGB) for vivid, lifelike images that go beyond standard HD. Dynamic Image Contrast, reduced glare, and advanced polarizing filter
- 16GB (10.9GB available to user) of internal storage, plus Free, unlimited Cloud storage for all of your Amazon content
- The fastest processor on a 7″ tablet – powerful 2.2GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM for fast, fluid gaming, video and multi-tasking
- Front-Facing HD Camera perfect for Skype HD video calls and taking photos to share via Facebook or e-mail
- External volume controls, front-facing 720p HD camera, built-in dual microphone, built-in Bluetooth with support for A2DP compatible stereo headphones, headsets, and speakers
Features I love:
- Live Support with Mayday – Simply tap the Mayday button to be connected for free to an Amazon expert who can guide you through any feature by drawing on your screen, walking you through how to do something yourself, or doing it for you—whatever works best. Mayday is available 24×7, 365 days a year, and it’s free. Throughout the process, you will be able to see your Amazon Tech advisor live on your screen, but they won’t see you. 15 seconds or less is the Mayday response time goal.
- Take Kindle Fire HDX wherever you go – The 7” screen makes it small enough to fit in a handbag and weighing just 303 grams, it’s light enough to hold comfortably in just one hand.
- The web browser is Amazon Silk which is a cloud-optimised web browser, exclusive to Kindle Fire. The latest version is faster and packed with new features. Reading View removes all unnecessary images and other website clutter for a clean, easy-to-read version of the site. A left panel menu makes the browser easier to navigate. And Silk’s redesigned content pages—Most Visited, Bookmarks, Trending Now and others—make it easier to find and access web content.
- The Best HD Games – Kindle Fire is built for gaming, with tilt, turn and multi-touch controls. Enjoy best-selling HD games such as FIFA 14, Angry Birds Star Wars 2, Minecraft – Pocket Edition and Plants Vs Zombies.
- Books and magazines in stunning colour: With Kindle Unlimited, you can read as much as you want, choosing from over 650,000 titles and thousands of audiobooks for £7.99 a month. You can try Kindle Unlimited free for 30 days.
- Read-to-Me: with Text-to-Speech, Kindle Fire can read English-language content out loud to you, when available from the publisher.
- Whispersync for Books – uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync your library, last page read, bookmarks, notes and highlights across all your devices. This is great as I could start where I left off on my Iphone or Ipad.
- Vibrant HD Magazines – You can browse over 600 magazines in brilliant HD, with beautifully detailed illustrations and glossy full-colour layouts. Browse the selection of available magazines and newspapers in the Amazon Appstore.
- Huge Music Selection – Music you buy from Amazon is saved to the Cloud for free, and you can play or download it at anytime. Available for UK customers only.
You will need to download apps through the Amazon Appstore. Amazon currently offers 100,000 apps through their own store.
With every Kindle Fire tablet, you get free, unlimited Cloud storage for all of your Amazon content, so you can rest easy knowing that you’ll never lose the content you love. I was able to save photos on my iPhone to the cloud and then view them on the Kindle Fire. Don’t worry about losing your photos or not having access to your important files on the go.
As an Amazon Prime member I enjoy unlimited streaming of thousands of popular films and TV shows. One of my favourite features is:
Mirror Your Screen – Turn your television into your tablet monitor. With Kindle Fire HDX tablets and a certified Miracast-enabled accessory or TV, you can wirelessly mirror your tablet screen, including for viewing films, TV shows and photos.
Now unto the kids stuff:
Fire for kids unlimited – This is a monthly subscription that offers unlimited access to thousands of kid-friendly books, videos, educational apps and games. Great for kids aged 3-10
Pricing per month is as follows:
For prime members – £1.99 for 1 child and £4.99 for up to 4 children
Non prime members – £3.99 for 1 child and £7.99 for up to 4 children
I signed up for the 30 day trial. This is a great service so I will continue the monthly subscription for 1 child.
To set up you can create up to four individual child profiles, customise each child’s access to content from the parent’s library, and decide which Fire for Kids titles will be viewable in each profile. It’s like giving each kid their very own, personalised tablet. Kids can’t exit Fire for Kids mode without a password. Please bear in mind that each profile you set up takes up storage space.
Perfect for Parents – While in Fire for Kids mode, kids do not have access to social media, the Internet or e-mail.
As there are no ads and in-app purchases there are no surprises and no extra charges. This gives me peace of mind.
My favourite feature is Time limits. It is incredibly hard to tear my son from the iPad. With the Kindle Fire I can set daily limits or restrict certain categories – such as games and video – while leaving unlimited time for reading.
Learn First – With Learn First I can block access to games and cartoons until after educational goals have been met. Using Bed Time I can control when Fire for Kids shuts down for the day.
My final thoughts
I am very pleased with my purchase and I think this is one of the most impressive tablets on the market.
One huge negative is I don’t particularly like the adverts screen saver on it. I also have to point out that to get the most out of the features and benefits of the Kindle Fire HDX, it is better to be an Amazon Prime member.
You can sign up for a 30-day Prime free trial here
After your free trial, Amazon Prime is £79/year.
You can cancel anytime
P.S I wasn’t paid to do this review, these are my own personal views.
