Amazon has announced two new tablets in the form of the Kindle Fire HD6 and Kindle Fire HD7. Here's what you need to know about the new Kindle Fire HD's release date, price and specs. Also see: The best tablets of 2014.
The online retail giant has recently brought the Fire TV and Fire Phone to the UK and continues its onslaught of new products with these Kindle Fire HD tablets alongside a new Fire HDX and two new Kindle eReaders. The Fire HD6 and Fire HD7 replace last year's Kindle Fire HD and provide competition for the Tesco Hudl.
"Fire HD is powerful and fits in your pocket, for under £100," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. "The new Fire HD features a stunning HD display, quad-core processor, Dolby Digital audio, front and rear-facing cameras, excellent reliability and Amazon's massive content ecosystem—all supported by Amazon customer service."
New Amazon Kindle Fire HD6 and HD7: Release date and price UK
The new Kindle Fire HD tablets are available for pre-order from today and will be released on 2 October (coloured models on 16 October). Pricing starts at £79 for the 6in model and £119 for the 7in model but see below for full pricing details (add £10 to remove special offers and sponsored screensavers).
Fire HD6 8GB: £79
Fire HD6 8GB: £99
Fire HD7 8GB: £119
Fire HD7 16GB: £139
New Amazon Kindle Fire HD6 and HD7: Specs and new features
As well as coming in a range of colours - black, white, cobalt, magenta, and citron – the new Kindle Fire HD6 and Fire HD7 come with a number of upgrades. The main one is a better processor which Amazon claims is two times faster than the previous Fire HD but the tablet also has dual-cameras now.
The tablets come with Amazon's new Fire OS 4 'Sangria' which includes unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content and photos taken on the device. A new feature called ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) learns what movies and shows you like and gets them ready for you to watch to avoid buffering.
Second Screen headphone integration lets you watch Amazon Instant Video on the big-screen and listen to the sound privately by plugging headphones into the Fire HD. You can also cast or fling content to your TV if you have the Fire TV, PlayStation 3/4 or a Samsung TV.
Other new features includes profiles for up to two adults and four children and Family Library (which will launch later this year) allowing customers to link two Amazon account to share content. Lastly is increased power efficiency including Touch Boost to automatically increase the performance of the CPU. FirePower with SmartSuspend learns when to turn off wireless connectivity and maximise standby battery life – similar to Sony's Stamina mode.
Also available for the Fire HD are new accessories, including a new protective cover and a number of adapters for connecting the tablet to a TV or monitor. They include HDMI, VGA and USB.
Screen Size: 6in
OS: Fire OS 4 'Sangria'
Resolution: 1280 x 800 (252 ppi)
Processor: Quad-Core up to 1.5 GHz
Battery Life: 8.5 hours mixed use, 10 hours when reading
Audio: Dolby audio, Mono speaker, Built-in microphone
Wi-Fi: Single band Wi-Fi
Cameras: VGA front-facing camera, 2 Mp rear-facing camera
Storage: 8 or 16GB
Dimensions: 169 x 103 x 10.7 mm
Weight: 290 grams
Customer Support: Email, web, and phone
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