Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 review

The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 has eschewed the Kindle Fire’s budget roots in favour of all-out performance and a range-topping display with a large 2,560×1,600 resolution, but otherwise the 8.9in HDX continues the company’s original approach to Google’s mobile operating system. The Kindle Fire HDX has a custom interface and you can only use Amazon’s app store to download apps.

The first Kindle fire never felt like a premium device, but that certainly isn’t true of the HDX. Amazon has completely redesigned the tablet with a thinner unibody construction made from magnesium alloy, soft-touch rear panel for increased grip, contoured edges that fit in your hands more comfortably and significantly thinner screen bezels. The HDX weighs a very light 374g and is barely 8mm thick, so it feels surprisingly compact given its 8.9in display.

SCREEN TEST

The screen is unquestionably the biggest attraction of the Kindle Fire HDX. The 2,560×1,600 resolution is practically unmatched for its size, and the HDX beats Google’s Nexus 7 and even the iPad Air with a huge 339 pixels per inch (ppi) pixel density. That makes it impossible to see individual pixels, even with your nose pressed to the screen. Images and text look incredibly sharp.

Colour accuracy is superb, with video and still images looking almost lifelike when screen brightness is set to the maximum level. We measured peak brightness at 533.7cd/m2, so you’ll be able to use the HDX in the sunshine without having to squint. Viewing angles are excellent too thanks to the IPS panel, although light reflections can be an issue because of the glossy finish. Amazon says the HDX covers 100 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut, but we measured a slightly lower 92 per cent. Even so, this is a fantastic result for a tablet.

The rear-firing speakers are impressively loud, making the HDX a fantastic device for watching films or catching up on TV. There’s not a lot of bass, though, and the high end can sound harsh depending on your preferred musical genre.

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA

The HDX 8.9 has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera that’s paired with an LED FLASH for improved low-light photography, which is a rarity in a tablet. It’s capable of impressively detailed images when there’s a good amount of light, with very little noise and superb colour accuracy. Even in low light, the flash helps considerably, making the HDX one of the better tablet cameras we’ve tested. There’s also a front-facing webcam for video chats.

FIREOS

FireOS, Amazon’s unique custom version of Android, is very different to the stock version of Google’s operating system. It replaces the default launcher with one that heavily integrates the Amazon ecosystem. Shortcuts to the Kindle eBook store, Amazon video rental marketplace and Music store appear at the top of the screen, and huge shortcuts to your most recently viewed apps and content appear in the centre. This constantly changing carousel is great for flipping quickly between books and magazines, but it’s a little confusing if you’re used to the standard app drawer.

If you do get confused, the new Mayday button can give you a helping hand. It connects you directly to an Amazon technical support advisor over the internet, and you can see the person you’re talking to on the screen as they explain how to perform a particular task. They can’t see you, just the content on your device’s screen. We didn’t have to wait long for our calls to be answered, and Amazon aims to answer all calls within 15 seconds. If you’re familiar with tablets then Mayday is a feature that won’t see a lot of use, but it could be a welcome inclusion for anyone struggling to use their device.

Mayday provides practically instant technical support from a real human being, who can provide onscreen

All your Amazon content is automatically synchronised to the device when you first set it up. This includes any Kindle eBooks, Newsstand magazines, purchased MP3s and even digital versions of the physical CDs you’ve bought through Amazon, as long as they are part of the Cloud Player service. This is great if you’ve been a regular user of Amazon, but your device will be rather empty if you haven’t.

Unfortunately Amazon’s insistence on carving its own Android niche has left the Kindle isolated in terms of app support for Google’s services. There’s no dedicated YouTube or Maps app, no Chrome web browser and no Play Music for your cloud-saved MP3s. It’s possible to side-load Android APK files onto the device directly so that you can access your most commonly used apps even if they aren’t available in the Amazon store. As most of Google’s own apps rely on repositories that simply aren’t installed on Kindle devices, you won’t be able to use certain apps without them crashing constantly.

We’re not sold on FireOS, the interface can be frustrating and the range of apps is limited

Even the built-in Silk web browser defaults to Microsoft’s Bing search engine rather than Google, but you can switch to a different default search provider. Silk doesn’t support synchronisation so, unlike Google Chrome, it can’t share usernames, passwords or browser tabs with other devices, and Silk isn’t as smooth as Chrome when browsing media-heavy pages.

BROWSING AND HARDWARE

It can be incredibly quick in certain cases, though. The HDX completed the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark in a rapid 702.7ms, which puts it on par with Tegra 4-powered tablets from other manufacturers. That’s largely thanks to the HDX’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. This runs each of its four cores at 2.2GHz and is paired with 2GB of RAM, which makes FireOS feel snappy and responsive. Apps load quickly and show no signs of lag or stutter, even when using the new Quick Switch multitasking menu to flip between several demanding games.

The HDX’s Adreno 330 graphics processor is well-suited to playing games on the high resolution screen, and the HDX scored 12,661 in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test. That score’s lower than we’ve seen from Tegra 4-based tablets, but the HDX is powerful enough to play demanding titles such as Real Racing 3 smoothly.

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 lasted nine hours and eight minutes in our video rundown test, which is average considering the screen size. The slightly smaller LG G Pad 8.3 lasted eight hours and 26 minutes, but the 8in Asus MemoPad 8 lasted 13 hours and 31 minutes. Even so, you should be able to use the HDX for a full day without having to recharge it, as long as you keep the brightness to a reasonable level.

VERSIONS
There’s no microSD card slot to add extra storage capacity, so you’re limited to storage capacity built into the HDX. You can choose between 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, with Wi-Fi only or an integrated 4G LTE modem for internet access on the move.

Unless you opt to pay £10 extra to disable “special offers”, adverts will appear on the lock screen whenever you wake the tablet from sleep mode. If you don’t pay £10 at the time of purchase you can always pay it at a later date to disable the adverts by calling Amazon customer services or using the Mayday service.

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is the best tablet Amazon has made. It’s powerful, has a gorgeous screen and it takes great photos. However, it’s so radically different from Android and so divorced from Google’s apps that you’ll have to be a big fan of Amazon’s services and products to get the most from it.

If you just want a great Android tablet, you should buy the LG G Pad 8.3 instead.