My Thoughts On My New Kindle Fire HDX 8.9

For the past year and a half, I've been a very happy user of the original version of the Kindle Fire 7" tablet. This tablet was useful for so many reasons... it housed my complete magazine library, it also housed my complete book library, it provided a beautiful and easy way to show photos, it held all my maps and travel guides in one place at my fingertips, it allowed me to browse the internet quickly and easily, and my old, trusty Kindle Fire allowed me to watch movies, listen to music, play videos, etc. All in all, this trusty, first-generation old dog served its purpose and it served well.

So, if my original Kindle served its purpose and served well, why did I feel the need to upgrade?  Only two reasons...  size of the screen and storage capacity. As you will see as you read more of what I have written below, there are many valid reasons to have upgraded but the two aforementioned reasons were my justification for upgrading.

As I age and as my health deteriorates (both naturally with age and due to my illness), my eyesight has been making the 7" screen very difficult to read without constantly zooming in... zooming out... swipe to a new page... zoom in... etc. I simply could not easily read this relatively small screen. The resolution was nice, in fact, the resolution of this original 7" Kindle Fire was even better than my trusty 11" netbook. The 7" size of the screen simply had become too small for me to view comfortably so I wanted to upgrade to a larger sized tablet.

Another complaint I had about my original 7” Kindle Fire was that I only had 8gb's of space to store my apps and files whether they be photos, books, magazines, documents or videos. This was a severe limitation even when used with an Amazon Cloud account like I do. I decided that I needed to upgrade to at least 32gb's of storage space and the newest generation of Kindle Fires offered this option at an affordable price.

As my tablet needs changed and evolved, I did a lot of research on what was available. At the top of my list were the newest Kindle HDX tablets so when Amazon offered a great deal on their Kindle Fire tablets for Mother's Day, I simply could not refuse their offer. As a result of this Mother's Day sale, upgrading to the newest shining star of the Kindle Fire family was very affordable... even for me on a very limited disability budget! Needless to say, I immediately ordered the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9” tablet and had it in my hands within two days (thank you Amazon Prime shipping!).

Now, let me share some of my thoughts on my new Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 inch tablet. My thoughts and feelings about this new flagship model are almost all good but there are a few little issues I have pointed out in this informal 'review' of sorts.

Packaging and First Impressions: As always is the case with Amazon's Kindle e-readers and tablets, the packaging for my tablet was very secure and very nice. The tablet arrived in a nice box and was packaged carefully for safe traveling during shipping.

The Kindle comes packaged nicely and safely.

As I pulled this larger Kindle out of its box, the first thing I noticed was how light it felt (Sheila immediately expressed the same when she picked it up for the first time). It also was thinner than I had anticipated. My one small complaint here is about ergonomics due to the larger size but thinner size and lighter weight. This Kindle model is smooth and fairly large so handling it is a bit awkward for one-handed use. There are no textures to aid a soft grip. Two-handed use, however, is no problem whatsoever. (Note: I've remedied this ergonomics problem by adding a rubberized slimline case. More on this case in another blog post.)

Startup was quick! Compared to my original 7" Kindle Fire which requires a few minutes to boot-up, this new HDX 8.9" Kindle Fire started up very, very quickly. If I had to guess how quickly, I would say that it initially booted-up within 10 seconds. (After adding a slew of my own apps and files to the Kindle, boot-up still only takes about 20 seconds.)  Startup from standby mode occurs virtually immediately.

Navigating from app to app, screen to screen, was snappy and fluid. It is very obvious that Amazon listened to their Kindle users and provided a very capable and fast processing engine in this new generation of Kindle Fire tablets. My Fire HDX 8.9” tablet sports a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor with 2 gb's of RAM which is powerful enough, in my opinion, for any media on the internet today.

Amazon's "Mayday" Button: For those who are inexperienced in mobile devices or maybe just a little inexperienced in Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX tablets, Amazon provides an invaluable feature service with every HDX tablet... their "Mayday" button.

With just a quick swipe downward from the top edge of the screen and a light tap on the "Mayday" button, you have an Amazon customer service representative at your beck and call, 24 hours a day. Live video of this representative will popup on your screen and will guide you through whatever problems or questions you may have about your new device. The representative also has the ability to actually circle the menu items on your screen, real-time, to guide you through the steps to accomplish your confusing task.

This service is free... yes, free... on all HDX tablets! Stellar service Amazon!

Battery Life: I have read quite a few complaints online about the battery life of this powerful, high resolution tablet but my experience differs immensely. When I compare this new Kindle Fire HDX to my original, first-generation Kindle Fire (non-HD), the battery life is absolutely amazing by comparison! Different uses will dictate how much power the Kindle eats up but, overall, I cannot complain about battery life in the least. This newest generation of Kindle Fire far exceeds the original Fire tablet and even exceeds my six-cell netbook! 

The Amazon Experience: While it is true that Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets have always been rather generic and lacking customization options, Amazon's newest generation of Kindles, the HDX line, sport a much nicer home page, slicker graphics and a really clean interface based upon the Android 4.2.2 operating system. Gone are the goofy looking shelves which previously housed apps and books and now we have a more standard Android app lineup. Amazon still insists on keeping their annoying 'carousel' but a quick scroll downward brings you to all your apps in typical Android style.

When I activated my new Kindle, all my apps from my previous Kindle were waiting for me in the Amazon Cloud. This made upgrading to a new Kindle Fire very easy when it came to installing my preferred apps... Amazon had all of my apps waiting for me in their Cloud. Also in my Cloud account were all of my books, music, photos and documents. Getting all of these things to my new Kindle was easy. Best of all, I didn't have to pay for all of these things again. For instance, if I had chosen to buy a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 instead (which I was contemplating), I would have had to start from scratch with a clean slate which would mean buying all new apps from the Google Play store and uploading all my personal files again. Amazon made this upgrade very easy for me by storing all my data in my Amazon Cloud account.

Another thing about the “Amazon experience” has to do with the fact that Amazon is in the business selling products and they are very adept in their business. Their Kindle tablets are basically a point-of-sale tool for them to easily and fluidly sell their products to their customers.

We live in a mostly rural area where finding the products we want and need can be frustratingly difficult and downright impossible at times so we tend to buy a lot of products through Amazon. In fact, we buy so much through Amazon each year that our Amazon Prime membership which provides free two-day shipping is well worth the $100/year cost. Included in this annual Prime membership is free two-day shipping on all Prime products, a lending library of books, free Prime Video (which is comparable to Netflix) and a few other related perks.

Shopping in Amazon's store is exceptionally easy with a Kindle Fire tablet yet it is also as safe as shopping anywhere. That being said, shopping at any online store using a Kindle tablet is safe and easy through the use of the browser and/or dedicated apps.

Online shopping is here and it is here to stay. Any retailer who does not have an online presence and an online retail store in today's world must have a deep desire to fail. It is sheer ignorance for any retailer to refuse to build their business to include the online marketplace. Amazon already has a strong foothold here and the Kindle Fire tablets are great tools for all customers to have at their disposal for shopping within Amazon as well as shopping all avenues on the internet.

The New HDX Screen Resolution: These new HDX models are exceptional when it comes to screen resolution, clarity and responsiveness. The screen on my 8.9 inch model has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. The brightness, contrast, tonal quality and consistently even output, edge to edge, of this crystal clear screen add to the exceptional overall screen resolution.

This higher resolution makes reading books and magazines a delight! Even small fonts and words are easily read at this amazing resolution. 

One of my hobbies is photography and I admit that I am an exceptionally picky photographer with higher-than-average standards. This newest generation of Kindle Fires renders photos stunningly and beautifully. I actually prefer showing my photos on my Kindle Fire HDX rather than on my desktop computer with its 27” ISP Pro-grade monitor! Of course, high quality prints hanging on a wall are still my favorite way of displaying photography and art but this new Kindle Fire is no slouch and allows me to show my photos and art to anyone, anywhere.

Apps: Amazon boasts over 100,000 apps and games as of this writing. I can tell you from my own experiences with the original Kindle Fire that the current app lineup for this new HDX line of tablets is much more robust today than ever before for any other Kindle tablet.

When the first generation of Kindle Fires was released, the number of apps available was less than impressive. If anything, this latest generation of Kindle Fires may have too many apps available!

Why would I say there may be too many apps? Of course, I am joking but whenever I go searching for some sort of app, it now takes me longer than I would like because I need to scroll through a lot of apps before choosing the one best suited to my own needs. This, however, in the big scheme of things is a good problem!

Browser: The Kindle Fire HDX comes with the Kindle OS 3 operating system which is based upon Android 4.2.2. This operating system comes with the Silk browser. This is a nice-looking, effective and fast browser but comes with one complaint... no support for Flash. Supposedly, Flash is a thing of the past and is going by the wayside but, unfortunately, there are far too many reasons to still need Flash capability today when surfing the internet. Have no fear, there is a viable solution for Kindle Fire users.

I downloaded the Dolphin Browser (available in the Amazon app store) because this browser does indeed support Flash. After downloading this new browser, I then followed some online instructions by using this browser to download a Flash player. I now can play Flash while surfing the internet using my Dolphin Browser. This browser has some other cool advantages too which I will cover in another blog post about my favorite Kindle Fire apps.

eBook Reader and Magazines: If books and magazines are important to you, the tablet which should interest you the most should be a Kindle Fire HDX! These tablets were built for reading books, magazines and documents. Until you read a book or two on a Kindle Fire, you may never understand all the advantages a Kindle Fire has in this realm. Until you read a magazine on a Kindle Fire, you will have no clue how much more vibrant and stunning your magazines could look. Turning pages (swiping) on a Kindle Fire is effortless and zooming in to view a page more closely is only a tap away. Bookmarking and highlighting is easy. Reading books and magazines on a Kindle Fire tablet is far easier than reading the real thing!

Camera: The new Kindle Fire HDX comes with a front facing camera which is best suited for use with Skype as well as a rear-facing camera for shooting snapshots. The ability to have reliable access to Skype for video-chatting is invaluable and I love the fact that this Kindle Fire does this so well. We do use Skype enough in our household that this is a great benefit. I just wish more people weren't so skittish about communication in this way!

Being a photographer, I feel using a tablet as a camera (the rear-facing camera) is absurd and goofy but, if you have the tablet in hand and no camera sitting next to you, I suppose the tablet is better than nothing. I often have a camera at my side so, for me, the rear-facing camera will probably never get used other than to "give it a go" on occasion.

Parental Control: Although, not an issue for me since my tablet is for my use only, these HDX Fire tablets come with a good set of parental controls. These controls can lock a child within a certain app or game, control time limits, and block online purchases among other controls. Additionally, Sheila tells me that different users can be set up with parental controls.  For instance, you can set up a custom set of apps for each individual child.

Games: Personally, I could not care less about electronic games but, for those who are interested in games, the Kindle Fire has the processing power necessary to run any of the big name games available on just about any other tablet/mobile device.

Conclusion: The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9” tablet is a joy to use. It is fast. It is fluid. The resolution is superb. Photos look stunningly beautiful. After reading a book and a magazine on a Kindle Fire HDX, you will not ever want to read a traditional book or magazine ever again. Plus, you can carry a whole library of books and magazines in your tiny, lightweight Kindle Fire!

You can Skype with ease. You can watch movies in crystal clear clarity. You can listen to music. You can even watch your favorite television shows. You can surf the internet fluidly and quickly. You can safely shop online. You can utilize hundreds of thousands of apps to enhance your life and make your life easier to organize.

Amazon offers this Kindle Fire HDX in two sizes... 7 inch and 8.9 inch. The 7 inch was too small for my eyesight and fat fingers. Other manufacturers make various 10 inch tablet models... they were all too big.  Tablets in the 8-8.9 inch range seem to be a really nice compromise for those of us getting older with some vision issues! 

I highly recommend the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9” tablet and I am exceptionally happy I bought one for myself. I love this tablet so much that I have absolutely no reason to look at Samsung's very impressive offerings. The rest of the tablets out there are not even worth mentioning here. Get yourself a new Kindle Fire HDX in your preferred size!

See my review of the Poetic GraphGrip Case here.