Gadgetory

it's no secret that amazon has their own line of Android tablets and we wanted to take a look at the latest one in their offerings hey it's Josh regard management authority what's going on everybody and this is the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX whereas plenty of us might remember the Kindles of old that were originally for just reading ebooks the Kindle Fire series was Amazon's foray into the full-featured tablet space so what we're looking at here is a seven-inch slate with a rather unique and quite rigid form the screen is surrounded by a pretty sizable bezel that might not be the most attractive but does have a very important function when doing just about any kind of content consumption being able to rest a thumb easily on the side definitely helps the sides actually have a bit of a slant to them that you'll notice most when plugging in the microUSB charger or headphones in the jack on the opposite side around the back you'll see how this slanting motif continues the entire tablet somewhat rises up like the bottom of a pyramid and meets the soft touch backing with the Amazon logo on it the slants upward on the sides are what house the buttons and they are actually easy to find by just feeling for them the top slants is the only part that is not made up of a soft touch plastic and houses the dual speakers just by looking at the back you can see that this tablet is generally supposed to be used in landscape mode making it easy to press the various buttons and of course to help media consumption I find the soft touch plastic a great move on Amazon's part as it isn't all that slippery and definitely gives the tablet a nice look when using the HDX in landscape mode with two hands the buttons are easy to find and if you're used to reading in portrait mode the tablet is still easily gripa belen one hand all in all it's a simple pretty elegant and definitely functional form factor that you'll get in the Kindle Fire HDX an IPS screen Grace's the Kindle Fire HDX and is a great performer at 7 inches this display is capable of 1920 by 1200 resolution at 323 PPI it is really no surprise that the premium offering by Amazon is packing this kind of display because much of what you'll be doing on the screen is watching and reading media and in that regard this screen really does all of it justice high brightness is typical of IPS screens and the HDX is capable of viewing even in daylight reading Kindle books on the HDX as easy as it can be with the good pixel density keeping text looking crisp and sharp all videos you might watch from your Prime subscription really pop through nicely as colors are vibrant and the contrast is high fire up some HD content and it won't be hard to see all of the details all in all Amazon did well to put a very high quality display on the HDX and it provides a very enjoyable experience but it wasn't just in the screen that Amazon looked to really excel as the Kindle Fire HDX also comes with the current fastest processing package available the Snapdragon 800 clocked in at 2.2 gigahertz and the audrina 330 power the pretty simplistic but very smooth fire OS and makes the HDX a handy little gaming device if Amazon tablets weren't quite on your radar before you'll be pleasantly surprised at the kind of power this one is packing while smooth transitions are mostly a software feature there is still no denying that you're able to blaze through pretty much anything in the fire OS for a device that is very dependent on the cloud the Kindle Fire HDX doesn't come with too many extra bells and whistles 16 32 or 64 gigabytes of on-board storage are available but not expandable 64 gigabytes is probably the ideal here because HD versions of movies you may buy on Amazon take up a ton of space there is no rear facing camera but the front-facing 1.3 megapixel shooter helps for maybe just the occasional selfie and for some video chatting while there are versions of the HDX that can work on mobile carriers this version has Wi-Fi atop Bluetooth and GPS functionality so that leaves the speakers and the battery first off the battery is a pretty large 45 50 milli amp hour unit that provides a very good deal of longevity Amazon claims 11 hours of usage and in my testing it feels just about right going from 50 percent to 20 percent took me about three hours of mostly video viewing which falls pretty much in line and finally the dual speakers at the top of the Kindle Fires back provide an experience backed by dolby enhancements having those enhancements can drain battery life faster so that's going to be your call to turn him on I have to say that I was actually really surprised at the sound quality coming out of this 7-inch tablet the binge-watching I mentioned earlier was done without headphones as a matter of fact I had to leave the volume below half level because they are quite loud but what was most impressive is how much dimension the was to the sound ambient noises in the videos or let's say audience laughter really does sound separated from the main subjects in the video and the two speakers handle left and right channels beautifully headphones and Bluetooth speakers will still work as they should but if you don't have any of these things on hand the HDX can definitely still stand on its own all right we get into the crux of this review which is the software in Amazon's fire OS if you came to this review thinking Amazon and Android didn't immediately feel like they fit together there is actually good reason for this this is because fire OS is quite literally a version foreign beyond what we might be used to from let's say a stock experience like on the Nexus 7 Amazon took the very bare essentials and stripped Google services and motifs away replacing them with a carousel home screen that lists your most recent apps below them is a grid of your installed applications and then up top or portals for various Amazon content actually there isn't too much after that the darker motif permeates the menus and notification drop-down and ultimately the simplistic style lends itself to a very snappy minimalistic user interface what you see is essentially what you get but it isn't all that bad and no this version of Android does not come with Google specific services like maps or even Gmail which may be a turn-off for anyone that relies on them I certainly missed my google play music the Amazon versions of calendar and email work well even if they're not really full-featured and if you really need to access Google services the web-based versions work well enough especially YouTube the Amazon Appstore ecosystem is actually quite robust providing a good selection of applications that you'd find in the Play Store Facebook feedly and Evernote were all there so I was happy but anything that was missing however could still be side-loaded sideloading apps is completely supported by the Kindle Fire and most applications you install should work fine on this tablet it's when you get into the portals that the Kindle Fire really opens up they're really everything you may have purchased or could want is listed making content buying downloading and streaming really easy it's clear that you should be a prime subscriber to get the most out of your Kindle Fire and you get a free month with your purchase with Prime you have a slew of content available immediately for free so enjoying content is as easy as finding your show or movie paying the rental or owning price if necessary and pressing play the same goes for everything from books to magazines to music one pretty awesome enhancement in video watching is the X ray feature which gives you a bar on the left side that lists all actors fun facts and trivia about the scene you are currently on I'm sure that film buffs will definitely get a kick out of that free time is perfect for parents who want to limit their kids time on their device it was a little weird that I had to fabricate a child but once setup and gave my non-existent daughter only one and a half hours on apps Facebook and unlimited time reading you can set any and all content on the Kindle to be used in a free time profile the minimalistic version of which will come up when you activate it any attempt to change the settings or exit free time requires a password that I have to set up it is worth mentioning that all children's content on Amazon can be accessed for $2.99 per child consisting of a lot of hand-picked content by Amazon that would make it easier for parents to find such things rather than sifted through a full Prime subscription after that is the very unique and honestly pretty crazy new feature of the Mayday button this can be called the revolution in customer service as all you have to do to get your questions answered is roll down the notification shade and hit the Mayday button what I'm pleased to report is that it works just about as well as the commercial show while the internet connection might make your experience very I got connected to a gentleman in the 15-second promised wait time the video and audio quality coming from the customer service rep was very good and it was not hard at all to get whatever information I wanted the rep is able to see your content on your screen the entire time draw on it to illustrate your points and take control of the screen if need be it's a wonderful way for anyone who needs help to get help so if you know anyone who is technologically challenged even on the pretty easy to use Kindle Fire admittedly Mayday is still definitely there to help and it works pretty damn well all right so what do you have to pay to get one of the fastest tablets around that most good speakers battery life in a pretty incredible customer service feature well this 7-inch condition of the HDX starts at two hundred and twenty nine dollars for the 16 gigabyte model Wi-Fi only and without special offers included special offers is Amazon's advertising system that turns your idle Kindle Fire into an ad space it costs an extra fifteen dollars to have a version without the special offers but to be honest it isn't actually all that intrusive and so there you have it a somewhat surprisingly great offering from Amazon whose highly customized and stripped-down version of Android is backed up by what can be considered a top executed Hardware package it might be a sore spot for Google reliant users that much of their Android applications are not included but with a little extra effort much of what you miss could still be installed well you do get in the Kindle Fire HDX is a smooth capable and easy to use hub connecting you to the immense Amazon network it just might be one of the best ways to enjoy TV movies and books available in the Android space and if you run into trouble a simple press of the button can save you from it as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the Kindle Fire HDX if you liked it don't forget to drop us a like down below and 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