Amazon Kindle Fire HDX coming to the UK next month

Amazon has confirmed that its refreshed Kindle Fire range will be coming to the UK next month, introducing the Kindle Fire HDX to the range for the first time and upgrading the Kindle Fire HD with faster internals.

Following a US reveal last month, the Kindle Fire HDX will launch in both 7in and 8.9in varieties with prices starting from £199. The smaller 7in model has a 1,920×1,080 resolution display, whereas the larger 8.9in model has a 2,560×1,600 screen that is poised to take on Apple’s iPad in terms of display clarity. Amazon promises that both models cover 100% of the sRGB colour space too.

Both tablets are powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, paired with 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 330 GPU. It’s the first time we’ve seen the Snapdragon 800 in a tablet, which was already one of the fastest smartphone chips around when we saw it in Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3.

A new Mayday feature will put HDX owners directly in touch with an Amazon expert, who will be able to guide you through any feature by drawing on the screen, showing you how to do a particular task or doing it for you if you prefer. Kindle FreeTime, meanwhile, should appeal to parents with young children – it lets you create limited profiles with access to certain apps and even shut off the tablet once a daily time limit has been reached.

Amazon has also refreshed the Kindle Fire HD, reducing the price to £119 for the basic 8GB model if you opt in to the company’s lock screen adverts, or £129 without. It gains a 1,280×800 resolution display, dual-core 1.5GHz processor and a longer 10 hour battery life, as well as the latest 3.0 edition of Amazon’s Android-based Fire OS.

The original Kindle Fire has effectively been retired with the introduction of the new models, and is no longer listed for sale through the Amazon website.

The 7in Kindle Fire HDX will start from £199 for a 16GB model when it goes on sale on the 13th of November, with prices jumping to £229 and £259 respectively for the 32GB and 64GB versions. You’ll have to add £10 on to each price if you don’t want lock screen adverts.

The 8.9in model will start from £329 for 16GB of internal storage, rising to £369 and £409 for 32GB and 64GB respectively. Again, it will cost an extra £10 if you don’t want any adverts.

Vodafone has signed up as the exclusive network provider for the 4G models, but you’ll have to wait if you want to pick one up – it will be the end of November for the 7in model and mid-December for the 8.9.