Late last night a shipping notice turned up in my inbox for the 7″ Kindle Fire HDX. The device is scheduled to show up Monday the 14th. I was surprised to see a shipping notice so soon because when I placed the pre-order it said the estimated delivery date would be between Thursday, October 24 and Saturday, October 26.
It looks like Amazon has started shipping the Kindle Fire HDX a couple of weeks early :). I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because Amazon often ships Kindle pre-orders ahead of schedule. In fact I’ve grown so accustomed to it that I found it a little strange when my Kindle Paperwhite 2 arrived the exact day that they originally said it would.
Unfortunately I’m not at all prepared for this early arrival. I’m working on wrapping up the Kobo Aura review this weekend, with the Kindle Paperwhite 2 on deck, and now the Kindle Fire HDX is going to be here in a couple of days? I’m probably the only person that ordered one that’s not psyched about the early shipment :).
Also I’m just all that impressed with what Amazon is offering this year and am very skeptical about the entire Kindle Fire HDX line. I think the increase in price up to $229 for the base model with ads is a mistake, which matches the price of the new Nexus 7 without ads. And then there’s the fact that the Nexus 7 has a whole lot more going for it than the Kindle Fire HDX, which includes GPS, NFC support, a rear camera, wireless charging, and tons of software upgrades.
Amazon is really going to have to impress me with the Kindle Fire HDX because I’m just not seeing a reason to buy it over the Google Nexus line on paper. Same goes for the 8.9″ Kindle Fire HDX at $379. I just don’t see how it’s a better tablet and value than the Nexus 10 from last year, which is down to $345 at the moment.
But that’s what reviews are good for, and I’ll get one posted before the end of the month. If your Kindle Fire HDX shows up early feel free to share your early opinions below. Do you think it stands a chance against the Nexus tablets and iPad?
I don’t see the appeal of the new Fires, either. If I was going to buy a new tablet, I would get the 2013 Nexus 7. But I’ve bought 4 Nook HDs (3 7″ and 1 plus) since summer, and they are awesome. So much better than my 2012 Fire HD, which I rooted this month.
I don’t see how the Kindle Fires can be so popular when they are not open to the full android app market. You really can’t view anything or do anything worthwhile unless you pay for Amazon Prime. I know they are hoping to compete with Nexus and iPad but how they expect to do that without an app market the size of Google’s or Apple’s is beyond me. At least B&N had the good sense to open theirs to the full Google app market.
Yes, they are ahead I’d get mine on Monday. 🙂
Nexus looks to be a very good tablet, but KF HDX has it’s Pros. and I decided to go with it. Most of reviews I’ve seen as well as benchmarks clearly show, that HDX bats Nexus in performance. It’s faster, more responsive, rans any type of hard game smoothly and has better screen – thus giving better reading experience. Mostly I read using my Kindle reader, but sometimes I still need to use tablet as well… for EPUBS, for some other type of texts with graphs etc. therefore that was important for me to see how reviewers prefer Kindle tablet over Nexus here. That was more important for me, than rare camera, which I do not really gonna to use having smartphone with extremely better camera.
As an Amazon client, I do value their ecosistem of course no Google Play is bad, but don’t forget, KF are always open for sideloading. 🙂
Nexus is a very good tablet, but it’s sales are below expectations with a weaker start as some researchers say and I’d be very surprised if it’d be able to beat KF.
You bring up some good points but my counter argument would be that benchmark tests don’t really mean much anymore. In this respect it’s like comparing the speed difference of a Ferrari with a Lamborghini. When it comes down to actual usability of the tablet the difference is likely so little as to be totally unnoticeable. And you mention video games. That’s a problem with the Fire because you have to rely mostly on what Amazon provides in the Amazon appstore, which is a lot less than Google Play offers. And what’s worse is that Amazon often makes games exclusive to a specific Kindle Fire. So you have to buy the Kindle Fire edition, which won’t work with any other tablets after you buy the game, not even other Kindle Fire models usually. I made the mistake of buying several high end games for the original Kindle Fire, and then none of them would play on the Kindle Fire HD when I got it. It’s a bunch a crap. Now I don’t buy apps from Amazon anymore. If I want a game I’ll buy it from Google Play so that I can use it on other devices too. And sideloading apps is an option with the Kindle, as you mention, but you can’t sideload purchased apps from Google, just free apps, so that’s still a major limitation.
Sure, U’R right. You do not really feel this speed difference. But psychologically always good, when you know your processor or screen resolution are on top. 🙂 But with no practical use, I agree. 🙂
Yes, everything regarding markets are major limitation. Amazon tries to call up more developers and I hope, they’d improve that. But Bezos always loves to go his own way. The same with Kindle readers. No EPUB and for lots of people that’s a terrible thing but still – you see Kindle beats all other readers.
This guy simply knows, how to make you buy from his shop. A friend of mine had a marvelous experience with Amazon service, when they exchange his Kindle even not asking to send defected one back (after he explained, that he lives outside US and postage is not as cheap, etc.. etc…). Their service is simply amazing.
Of course, that’s not a reason for everyone, but myself I stick with Amazon for both Kindles reader and tablet upgrading from older models to newer models, but not jumping to Nexus or Galaxy.
Well, of course, if I’d be able to root it, I do. 🙂 Like that was with previous models. But even without for me it should be a great tablet… I am sure. Would have chance to test soon as they already shipped it.
Fyi, if you can sideload apps, then you should be able to sideload google play. Works on most android devices, like my korean mp3 player running android 2.3. You just sideload the app, set it up, and then you can install any google apps the hardware/software supports.
You think that Amazon would allow it to be that easy? Not going to happen. It will have to be rooted first.
Yes! It works. Even without root 🙂
Google Play is compatible with HDX and can be sideloaded. XDA guys already have done that. 🙂
Easy and no root required. Do not know if with next update Amazon would try to block that, but with previous KF was the same. ROM update was killing root, but GPlay, once loaded stays alive. And KF stays registered with GPlay.
Hope, with HDX be the same and ROM update would not remove GPlay.
Awesome! Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll have go over to XDA and try it out and report back.
The comments at XDA say Google Play doesn’t work, so what’s the deal? All I’m seeing is that some Google Apps can be sideloaded, and it’s been like that since the original Kindle Fire so I don’t see why that’s surprising. Most Google apps are limited and don’t work 100% right without official Google Play support or root anyway.
The appeal of the HDX 8.9 for me, as a photographer, is the image quality. It is the only tablet on the market that isn’t an Apple that can display 100% of the sRGB color gammut. Apart from that, most Google Play apps can be sideloaded. I’ll probably root to get proper access to the Google market, but as it stands, I’m impressed with the image quality of the 8.9 HDX compared to the half dozen or so other tablets I’ve viewed.
Oops, meant gamut.