Review Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 Tablet

The first Kindle Fire was built very tough, though it looked boxy with a boring design. The second Fire introduced more slanted and rounded corners for eye candy and a thinner profile at the cost of build quality. The newest iteration is the best of both worlds – a more stylish look and an even thinner profile than the second generation with a build quality closer (though not perfectly) to that of the first generation. The slants are now flatter with sharper edges for a more aggressive tone. Edges and corners don’t feel as thick, but they are still substantial with a slightly denser feel than the edges of the Nexus 7. Twisting of the tablet is again between that of the Fire and Fire HD – it’s possible and clearly visible, but not a cause for concern.

Perhaps the most agreeable change that is hands down better than the previous generations is the design. The plastic strip that bisects the backside of the Fire HD now makes up the top edge of the tablet and is overtly glossy that contrasts well with the matte rubber back and edges. Additionally, the rubberized surface adds a subjective quality that makes the tablet feel less like a cheap design and more of a mainstream device. Fingerprints and dirt will still accumulate more quickly than usual due to the surface type and can be difficult to wipe clean.

Pushing down the center of the backside will not result in a depression unlike the Fire HD, whereas the glass front will show small warping when pressed. From a visual and quality standpoint, the chassis is better made than the Kindle Fire HD and comparable to the new Nexus 7.

The HDX series uses Fire OS 3.0 (version 13.3.0.2 for this review), software that is derived directly from Android 4.2.2. This highly customized interface is essentially identical to previous models and focuses on the unique Carousel home screen with the familiar Android-like dropdown menu and settings. The UI is very simple and intuitive, but its multi-tasking abilities have been only marginally improved and its customization options are extremely limited compared to the competition. Switching between active apps is done by swiping from the edge of the right side of the screen if on landscape mode or the bottom edge if on portrait mode.

Otherwise, navigating and launching apps feel seamless and perfectly smooth at much higher frame rates than on the older models. Items on the Carousel and the bookmarked icons below it also appear larger to take up more screen real-estate and to reduce the dead space that was prevalent on the Kindle Fire HD.

One aspect of the home screen that has seen no improvement is the top row of categories where users are provided one-touch access to Amazon Books, Audiobooks, Videos, Music, Games, Newsstand (magazines) and Apps stores and other tablet features. The issue is that the sizes of the icons depend on the length of the words. For example, the “Newsstand” icon is much easier to tap with a finger than “Web” or “Apps” simply because it is a longer word and will result in less frequent accidental taps. It is a minor complaint and it is still a convenient feature, but there is no reason why the user cannot rearrange the order in which the categories are displayed or even enlarge them.

The lowest priced HDX model still carries noninvasive ads on the lock screen. A more distracting pop-up ad randomly appeared when we were in the Settings screen, though fortunately only once during our time with the tablet. When in portrait mode, scrolling through the Carousel will display some “suggested downloads” immediately below the focused icon. This is a tablet designed to sell you Amazon products, so users should expect to see special offers and digital items frequently and sometimes repetitively.

Amazon's Silk browser is as silky as ever with almost no lag or hitches. Inputs and scrolling feel smooth even when going through our huge page of reviews. Long pages like these, however, could have benefited from "Home" and "End" buttons to quickly move to the beginning or end of the page. Flash is not supported.

A new feature of the browser is Reading View, which essentially converts any webpage into an eBook and reopens the page in the Kindle's eBook app. The conversion is not perfect of course, especially for pages with numerous tables, icons, pictures and elements like our own review pages. However, text transfers very well and the eBook-style pages make it indubitably easier on the eyes for reading online text.

We encountered a small bug with the browser where it would refuse to load any pages at all despite having an active WLAN connection. This appears to happen at times when toggling Airplane mode on and off. The Amazon stores encounter the same issues as well. A cold boot of the tablet is the easiest solution.

We loaded a number of different video files to test for compatibility. .AVI, .MP4 and .MKV files up to 1080p play without problems, although .MKV files may experience audio issues. .MOV, .OGG and .M2TS files will not play with the very basic default video player. Any videos taken with the 1.2 MP front-facing camera will be saved as .MP4.

Touchscreen

We experienced no issues with the 10-finger capacitive touchscreen as it was able to recognize and respond to basic and multi-touch inputs swiftly. The onscreen keyboard supports standard Swype commands with word prediction, but there is no haptic feedback. There are plenty of additional options that weren't in previous versions, however, including keyboard splitting, emoticons and easy copy and pasting. There is keyboard support for the Japanese language as well.

While previous models have Power and Volume buttons on the edges, the HDX 7 has them on the backside in a similar manner to the HP x2 models. The change favors the landscape orientation because the larger buttons are easier to press with the back fingers while holding onto the tablet. The buttons are also slightly concave to reduce accidental presses and we generally find it to be an improvement over having smaller, narrower buttons on the edges.

We analyze color and grayscale reproduction of the HDX 7 with an X-Rite i1Basic Pro 2 spectrophotometer. With a grayscale delta of 8.52 units, the tablet is average with respect to other 7-inch models like the IdeaTab A1000, Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 and Memo Pad HD 7. Color temperature is on the warm side at almost 1000 units below the base 6500K with a slightly off balance blue. The new Google tablet is much closer to the gamma and CCT averages defined by the sRGB standard.

In general, colors on the HDX 7 become more accurate as they become more saturated. Red, blue, and magenta are represented better than cyan and yellow, both of which consistently show deltaE averages of more than 5 units. To most users, however, these slight inaccuracies can be overlooked and are largely unimportant for general use.

General performance outclasses every budget 7-inch tablet currently in the market. Linpack scores eclipse the Nexus 7 and rivals the Apple A7 - an SoC that is so far found only in tablets three times more expensive than the HDX. Compared to the Fire HD, the HDX is a significant hardware upgrade in every aspect.

The S800 SoC is still relatively new, so the only other major release to sport the same SoC as the HDX is the flagship LG G2 in our database at the time of review. Our scores on the Amazon tablet are similar to those of the G2 smartphone, which is one of the fastest Android phones currently available.