Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) Tablet Review
For the original German review, see here.
You should know what you get when you buy a tablet from Amazon’s Fire-series: In the past, the technology has been quite sophisticated and sometimes even innovative, but the preloaded software is very focused on the Amazon universe and wants – very much like Apple – bind the customer to one retailer. This means you lose flexibility, but you can get a small discount on the hardware price via ads during standby.
The new Fire HDX 8.9 is the latest iteration of the top model from Amazon’s tablet series. The predecessor impressed us with its high-resolution display in particular. However, the main focus of the new model is the chassis. Let us see whether this is enough to compete with the Apple iPad Mini 3, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A or the LG G Pad. Other rivals are the Google Nexus 9 or the Nvidia Shield.
Case
A new feature of the case is the rubberized back with a glossy plastic stripe on the upper edge, which accommodates the stereo speakers. The camera module with LED flash is slightly protruding, and the entire edge area is slightly angled. The front of the new Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 looks very similar to other tablets: Black with a comparatively wide frame around the display and rounded corners.
The edges of the back are stretched around the display, but the gap is not always very even. The haptics are good, but we are not really satisfied with the stability since pressure from the front and the back is visible on the display. It is also possible to twist the device and you can hear slight creaking noises in the process.
Connectivity
There are various versions of the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 and the high-end configuration retail price is about 600 Euros (~$676). All devices share the same SoC, display resolution and battery capacity; they only differ in terms of storage capacity and LTE functionality. The Wi-Fi model is available with 16, 32 or 64 GB, while the LTE version is only available with 32 and 64 GB (starting price of 544 Euros/~$612). You will get a discount of 15 Euros (~$17) if you can live with ads on the lock screen.
Software
Shortly after we turned the device on, we were notified of an update of the system software, therefore we performed the review with Fire OS 4.5.4. This is based on Google’s Android 4.4.3, but the user interface differs quite significantly from Google’s operating system. You also get a row with apps at the bottom that are defined as favorites, but above it is an app overview that reminiscent of Apple’s cover flow, and you can go through the apps by swiping to the left or the right. At the top is a menu bar, where you can find the integrated search, for instance, which searches the device as well as the Internet and the shop. You can also open a complete overview with the installed apps or directly access several sub-categories like music or videos, but this will launch the corresponding Amazon service.
Similar to Android, a swipe from the top of the screen will open a list with notifications and quick settings, and at the bottom or the side, respectively (depending on the orientation), are buttons for "Back", "Home Screen" and "Search".
The preloaded apps include all Amazon services like "Prime Instant Video" or the wish list, but there are actually some new ideas as well: You can use "Firefly" to identify media contents and products via camera and microphone. The software also works for web sites and phone numbers: The data is processed in the cloud and then compared with Amazon’s product database. You can then buy the corresponding products or get more information. The identification of physical products via camera did not work that well, the barcode scanner on the other hand was more handy, just like the music recognition via microphone.
Mayday can be used by Amazon employees to access the device and give you a tour through the features or help if there are any problems.
Communication & GPS
The fourth generation of the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 is also available with LTE support, but our model is Wi-Fi only. On the other hand, you get support for all the current standards including the very fast 802.11ac. The signal quality is decent: We still had 3/4 of the signal at a distance of 10 meters (~33 ft) from the router and through three walls. The loading times of the websites were not affected at this distance.
A GPS module is integrated, but the apps in our review had major problems establishing a connection with the satellites or even recognize the module. It was not possible to get a reliable location with any app.
June 22, 2015 update: GPS services available on 4G model. WiFi-only model does not have dedicated GPS functionality.
Cameras & Multimedia
At the back is an 8 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash. The camera takes really decent pictures for a tablet and is not really affected by darker surroundings. However, brighter surfaces do tend to outshine. Videos can be recorded in 1080p and the quality is decent. With its 0.9 MP lens, the front camera is only suitable for video calls, but you cannot take high-quality selfies.
Accessories
Optional accessories include an origami cover with an unusual folding concept for a rather expensive price of 55 Euros (~$62) or even 70 Euros (~$80) for a leather one. A headset is available for 25 Euros (~$28).
Warranty
The standard warranty period is just 12 months, but can be extended to 36 months for 85 Euros (~$96).
Input Devices & Handling
Amazon does not use Google’s standard keyboard, but provides its own version. The lettering on the keys is rather small, and the whole keyboard leaves a strangely crowded impression. You can also use voice recognition or swipe inputs. Obviously it is possible to use other keyboards from the App Store.
The touchscreen works precisely up into the peripheral areas, and the physical control elements for standby and the volume at the back are quite practical. They are also quite easy to use in portrait mode and easy to find with the fingers. It is unfortunate that the control elements for "Back", "Home Screen" and "Search" are integrated as software buttons since there would have been enough space for touch buttons in the wide display frame.
Display
A high display resolution of 2560x1600 pixels is perfect for multimedia contents and results in quite an impressive ppi value of 339. Apple's iPad Mini 3 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab A cannot keep up with an average brightness of 446 cd/m², and at 96%, the brightness distribution is very even.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 96 %
Center on Battery: 446 cd/m²
Contrast: 1062:1 (Black: 0.42 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 2.65 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.87
ΔE Greyscale 2.82 | 0.5-98 Ø5.1
Gamma: 2.06
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 Adreno 420, 805 APQ8084, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Apple iPad Mini 3 PowerVR G6430, A7, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 Adreno 306, 410 APQ8016, 16 GB eMMC Flash | LG G Pad 10.1 V700 Adreno 305, 400 APQ8026, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Google Nexus 9 GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU), K1 (Denver), 32 GB eMMC Flash | NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU), K1, 16 GB iNAND Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | -20% | -25% | -50% | -26% | -23% | |
| Brightness middle | 446 | 357 -20% | 394 -12% | 360 -19% | 430 -4% | 455 2% |
| Brightness | 446 | 344 -23% | 392 -12% | 331 -26% | 411 -8% | 469 5% |
| Brightness Distribution | 96 | 86 -10% | 80 -17% | 84 -12% | 92 -4% | 92 -4% |
| Black Level * | 0.42 | 0.61 -45% | 0.51 -21% | 0.82 -95% | 0.77 -83% | 0.68 -62% |
| Contrast | 1062 | 585 -45% | 773 -27% | 439 -59% | 558 -47% | 669 -37% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.65 | 3.35 -26% | 3.59 -35% | 5.56 -110% | 3.17 -20% | 3.88 -46% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.82 | 2.09 26% | 4.25 -51% | 3.59 -27% | 3.29 -17% | 3.38 -20% |
| Gamma | 2.06 107% | 2.4 92% | 2.56 86% | 2.02 109% | 2.39 92% | 2.74 80% |
| CCT | 6652 98% | 6851 95% | 7148 91% | 6483 100% | 6746 96% | 6537 99% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 55 | 62 |
* ... smaller is better
The Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 also beats its rivals in terms of the contrast and can easily take the lead with 1062:1. This is also a result of the good black value of 0.42 cd/m², so black surfaces are quite deep and dark.
The detailed analysis with the software CalMAN and a spectrophotometer show that the tablet manages very accurate colors and does not suffer from a blue cast. You can only see minimum deviations compared to the reference values of the sRGB color space.
Obviously, the high brightness makes outdoor use possible, but the glossy surface is certainly not perfect and direct sunlight will tire the eyes very quickly.
Thanks to the IPS technology, pictures can be seen undistorted and even from very wide viewing angles. Overall, Amazon uses an excellent display.
Performance
The Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (2014) is equipped with a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 APQ8084 SoC that uses four cores clocking at 2.7 GHz. It is still a 32-bit processor, but this should not really have an impact on the performance, which is clearly ahead of similarly priced rivals like the Samsung Galaxy Tab A or the LG G Pad 10.1. Only the iPad Mini 3 has an even faster processor. Thanks to the Adreno 420 GPU, the 3D performance of the Fire HDX 8.9 is very good. Amazon’s own Silk browser leaves quite a good impression when browsing the web or using modern web technologies. On the other hand, the 16 GB internal storage of our review unit is rather average in terms of transfer rates.
| AnTuTu v5 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 | |
| LG G Pad 10.1 V700 | |
| Google Nexus 6 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W | |
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Score (sort by value) | |
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 | |
| LG G Pad 10.1 V700 | |
| Google Nexus 6 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Graphics Score (sort by value) | |
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 | |
| LG G Pad 10.1 V700 | |
| Google Nexus 6 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Physics (sort by value) | |
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 | |
| LG G Pad 10.1 V700 | |
| Google Nexus 6 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 | |
| LG G Pad 10.1 V700 | |
| Google Nexus 6 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total (sort by value) | |
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 | |
| Apple iPad Mini 3 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 | |
| LG G Pad 10.1 V700 | |
| Google Nexus 6 | |
| Google Nexus 9 | |
| NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W | |
* ... smaller is better
Games
The tablet does not have any problems with modern 3D games like "Real Racing 3", and 2D games like "Angry Birds: Epic" run smoothly. The controls via the touchscreen and movement sensor are reliable.
Emissions
Temperature
You can already feel a slight heat at the lower part (landscape mode) while idling. At a maximum of 35.5 °C (~ 96 °F), it is clearly perceptible, but not yet inconvenient. The upper part of the back around the camera gets particularly very warm under load: according to our measurement device, it reaches up to 43.3 °C (~110 °F), which is quite high while all the comparison devices are cooler. The power adaptor also gets very warm under maximum load with up to 51.5 °C (~125 °F).
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 39.2 °C / 103 F, compared to the average of 33.7 °C / 93 F, ranging from 20.7 to 53.2 °C for the class Tablet.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 43.3 °C / 110 F, compared to the average of 33.2 °C / 92 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.1 °C / 86 F, compared to the device average of 30 °C / 86 F.
Speakers
The speaker quality was already praised in the review of the predecessor, and the two speakers at the back create a really good sound. The positioning is also good. The speakers are sitting at the slightly angled side, so the sound is hardly muffled when the tablet is lying on its back. Bass is limited, but you can actually feel the vibrations of the chassis. Otherwise, there are slight distortions of the high tones at the maximum volume – overall, a very good sound for a tablet.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The idle power consumption is normal for the performance of the SoC: Up to 4.3 watts is pulled from the battery. The consumption can be as high as 11.1 watts under load, which is much higher than the iPad Mini 3 or the Galaxy Tab A.
| Off / Standby |   0 / 0.1 Watt |
| Idle |  0.7 / 3.9 / 4.3 Watt |
| Load |
8.2 / 11.1 Watt |
    
| |
Key:
min: ,
med: ,
max: Voltcraft VC 870 | |
Battery Runtime
The 22.5 Wh battery (4500 mAh) is much smaller compared to the rivals: The LG G Pad, which is slightly larger, even has a gigantic 8000 mAh battery. It is therefore not really surprising that the battery runtimes of the Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 cannot quite keep up. At least the Apple iPad Mini 3 is beaten, especially since the new version of the WLAN test results in shorter battery runtimes (iPad tested with the old version). Almost 10 hours browsing are pretty practical and based on our experiences the standby runtime was very good.
| Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014 Adreno 420, 805 APQ8084, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Apple iPad Mini 3 PowerVR G6430, A7, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 SM-T555 Adreno 306, 410 APQ8016, 16 GB eMMC Flash | LG G Pad 10.1 V700 Adreno 305, 400 APQ8026, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Google Nexus 9 GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU), K1 (Denver), 32 GB eMMC Flash | NVIDIA Shield Tablet P1761W GeForce ULP K1 (Tegra K1 Kepler GPU), K1, 16 GB iNAND Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | -3% | 43% | 106% | 4% | -41% | |
| WiFi v1.3 | 584 | 862 48% | ||||
| Load | 216 | 210 -3% | 297 38% | 444 106% | 224 4% | 128 -41% |
| H.264 | 612 | 777 | 597 | 442 | ||
| WiFi | 533 | 771 | 574 | 347 |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
Once again, the fourth generation of the Fire HX 8.9 is a good multimedia tablet and control center for the Amazon services, which are pretty comprehensive by now. It offers the combination of high performance, great display and good speakers that are important for media playback.
The GPS module did not really work in our model and services like Firefly cannot always live up to the promises. However, the most important reason against a purchase is the software, which is mainly focused on the services as well as offers from Amazon, and the handling is not always as comfortable as a standard Android tablet. The app selection is also limited, and you have to accept that Amazon collects a lot of data via its own apps.
We deduct one point from the rating for the restrictive software that also results in a limited app selection.
If you already use Amazon for shopping and also use the streaming services of the online retailer, then the Fire HDX 8.9 is a very good platform for media playback. However, you will have to live with the software restrictions if you want to do more with your tablet.
Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 inch 2014
- 06/10/2015 v4 (old)
Florian Wimmer
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