7 FOR ALL MANKIND WOMEN'S BERMUDA DENIM SHORT

Built-in Feature Come With Product

1. Exclusive 7″ HDX display with high pixel density and perfect color accuracy (100% sRGB, 323 ppi / 1920 x 1200)
2. All-new Amazon Underground, a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games and even in-app items are actually free – including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs and more
3. Enjoy more than 33 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, Android apps and games
4. Ultrafast 2.2 GHz quad-core processor for quick app launches and fluid graphics
5. Free, live video support 24×7, 365 days a year with Mayday
6. Front-facing 720p HD camera
7. 2 GB of RAM, with 16, 32, or 64 GB storage and free unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content
8. Stay connected with fast web browsing, and email and calendar support including Gmail and Outlook

KINDLE FIRE HDX 7″, HDX DISPLAY, WI-FI, 16 GB – INCLUDES SPECIAL OFFERS (PREVIOUS GENERATION – 3RD)

You might be currently in doubt whether to buy right away or not. Do not be in a hurry, understand and know in advance more information about what you will use frequently later. Mistakes will make you regret it later.

What They Say About ‘KINDLE FIRE HDX 7″, HDX DISPLAY, WI-FI, 16 GB – INCLUDES SPECIAL OFFERS (PREVIOUS GENERATION – 3RD)’

This is the middle model of the three models that Amazon is shipping this year: the Kindle Fire HD, the Kindle Fire HDX (this tablet), and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″. This is the successor for last year’s Kindle Fire HD but with an updated operating system and new features, a redesigned shell (with the power and volume control buttons more readily accessible), an absolutely amazing display, superb sound, an included power adapter, and the new Mayday feature.

Update: Some users are reporting a bluish glow around the edges of the screen for the HDX. If you search on YouTube for HDX Blue Haze, you can find a video showing the issue. Amazon has updated their “Learn More” link with the following info:

“To achieve the perfect color accuracy on Kindle Fire HDX 7″ at the lowest possible battery consumption and device weight, we used blue, not white, LEDs. Blue LEDs allow for a much more accurate and rich representation of color and result in an up to 20% improvement in power efficiency.”

“As a result of using these blue LEDs, you may notice a very narrow, faint blue tint around the edge of the device when looking at items with a white background, such as books or web pages. All displays have some level of light emission around the edges, and the light on the Kindle Fire HDX 7″ is blue due to the technology used to render perfect color accuracy.”

If this is something that you think would bother you, I’d recommend taking a look at the YouTube video or taking a look at the HDX at a local Best Buy or office superstore. I’ve also uploaded a user image here of my HDX with a book loaded so that you can see the blue glow (http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B00DOPNO4M/).

The Amazon tablets are primarily content consumption devices, best suited for connecting to the Amazon ecosystem, including videos, music, books, apps, and so on. With the free Prime trial subscription, you can check out the Prime Instant Video options and watch movies and shows at no charge for 30 days. For videos, music, and books, the Amazon selection is at or near the top of the list; for apps, much less so. 90% of the top 100 apps are available on Amazon.com, as well as 100,000 others, but that’s only a small fraction of what is available with Google or Apple.

It’s not quite as bad as it sounds because, while the competition has ten times as many apps, most of those apps are, um … how shall I put this … less than stellar (look up Sturgeon’s Law). If there are specific apps you need or want, you definitely should double-check before purchasing to make sure that they are available. The apps that will likely never become available on the Kindle Fire ecosystem are those apps that require Google services (i.e., anything that uses Google location services). One ameloriating factor is that it is possible to side-load most of the apps from the Google Play store onto an Amazon tablet and a web search on side-loading apps onto Kindle Fire will show dozens of websites with detailed instructions. If the app you are sideloading requires a Google service to work, though, it will not run on the Fire, even if you manage to successfully install it.

Like the other Kindle Fire tablets, as well as the Apple iPad and the Google Nexus, the Kindle tablet line doesn’t have a micro-SD slot, so the assumption is that you’re consuming content from the cloud. This is fine when you’re using your tablet with wifi; not so good when you’re traveling and want to load up your tablet with content for the trip. If the latter is something you expect to do regularly, you might want to consider the 32GB or 64GB versions, or pay the additional price for the 4G version, which is available on the 7″ tablet for the first time. Also, if all of your content is on iTunes or on Google Play, you would have to side-load everything onto the tablet. As is true of Apple and Google tablets, there’s no way to automatically connect to the cloud storage of the competition.

Something new this year is the ability to download Prime Instant Videos. I verified that I can download Prime Instant Videos to my Kindle Fire HDX. However, that option is not available for all movies and TV shows. It looks like they had to get the permission of the studios and not all of them said yes. So, for example, I was able to download “Casablanca” but not able to download “The Avengers” even though both are part of the Prime Instant Video collection and both are available for free streaming.

Update: Adding a bit from a reply in the comments: Amazon is clearly looking at the Enterprise market with this launch, at least based on the details they provide. They’ve added full accessibility support (required in order to get government contracts), will be bringing support for VPN and business printing, have a better email client with tighter integration to Exchange, and are including OfficeSuite for productivity. There are other productivity tools available in their app store, as well, although both Google and Apple, particularly the latter, have more options. When VPN support arrives, I’ll definitely be taking a look, as it would be nice to not have to lug my laptop home every night.

So how does this Kindle Fire HDX differ from the previous generation Kindle Fire HD?

Display: 1920×1200 (323 ppi) vs 1280×800 (216 ppi). It’s more than that, though, as the colors are richer, brighter, with better contrast. This display has been judged by many reviewers as the best in its class and I would have to agree. Amazon has also added technology to automatically adjust the contrast and brightness when viewing the tablet in bright sunlight. While there is definitely a noticeable improvement, this isn’t what you need for reading on the beach. For that, you’ll need an eInk reader like the Kindle Paperwhite.

Sound: As far as I can tell, the sound is about the same. This was already one of the best-sounding tablets on the market, with Dolby stereo output and enough power to actually make it possible to listen to music or video without requiring headphones.

Size and Weight: Noticeably lighter (10.7 oz vs. 13.9 oz) and noticeably smaller (7.3″ x 5.0″ x 0.35″ vs. 7.6″ x 5.4″ x 0.4″). This is a comfortable tablet to hold one-handed, even for long periods of time.

Processor: It’s a *lot* faster (2.2GHz quad-core, top-of-the-line CPU, compared to 1.2GHz dual-core). This tablet is amazingly fast and smooth, with the fastest processor in its class. Every game I’ve tried on it has run smoothly, with no hesitations, slowdowns, or glitches. Scrolling through content is amazingly smooth and fast now, without the hesitations and occasional slowdowns of the previous generations.

Build: A redesigned shell with power and volume control buttons that are easy to find! This is a solid build but the back of the shell is something of a fingerprint magnet. Since most of us will be buying a case to put the tablet in, that may not be an issue.

Camera: If there is a difference between last year’s camera and this year’s, I’m not able to see it. It’s a high-def camera suitable for video-conferencing or Skype. Like last year’s model, there is no rear camera. If this is important to you, you’ll need the 8.9″ version.

HDMI Output: This is the one area where last year’s model wins. Amazon has removed the HDMI out connector from its tablet line (but see the description above for details on how Amazon is providing a software solution for sharing your tablet screen on your television). No other tablet that I’m aware of has this functionality so if this is something you need, you should be able to purchase one of last year’s models fairly cheaply.

Battery Life: The same, at 11 hours. However, Amazon has added a special “reading mode” to the device, which they claim will extend the battery life to as much as 17 hours. I did not test this. For my own personal use, the battery life is adequate.

Price: It’s more expensive ($229 vs. $199) but this year they include a power adapter, which was a $20 extra last year, so the actual difference in price is $10. For what you’re getting, that price increase is definitely justified.

It has an updated OS and updated feature software (including the free unlimited Mayday customer support feature). The software updates include the ability to download some Prime Instant Videos to your device and watch them offline, enhanced accessibility, enhanced enterprise controls and features (so now it’s better suited for office work), enhanced email client, enhanced parental controls, improved X-Ray features (now including lyrics for music, as well as additional information for both books and movies), integration with GoodReads (coming soon), and the like.

Where I noticed the biggest difference was the home screen. The default view is still the carousel but if you swipe upward, you’ll see a more traditional icon view. The “Recommended for you” display on the home screen is now smaller and much less obtrusive (and it can be turned off in the settings). Amazon has also added multi-tasking of a sort, where swiping up from the bottom of the screen while you’re in an app shows you the 20 most-recently-used items from your home screen, so you can quickly switch from one app to another without returning to the home screen.

There is also a left panel available on most screens (but not the home screen) and in some of the apps, with navigation links and settings to make it easier to navigate and control your tablet or to navigate within the app. If you tap the center of your display and then swipe left while you’re reading a book, for example, you’ll see a panel that shows you the table of contents, the About the Author link, the Sync to Furthest Page Read link, and so on.

The Kindle FreeTime option and the parental controls are still among the best in the business. If you want a tablet for a child and want to control what they can access, how long they can use the tablet at any given time, and the like, Amazon has you covered.

You can now also schedule “Quiet Time” on the tablet, where notification sounds and pop-up notifications are disabled, either on a temporary basis by simply pushing a button or on a scheduled basis. Frankly, I doubt I’ll ever use this feature but if you’re the type who likes to read or watch video until you fall asleep, it’s kind of nice to be able to disable all sounds so that you don’t get rudely awakened when, e.g., someone plays a new word in your Words with Friends game.

Mayday: This is a huge gamble by Amazon and it will be interesting to see whether it pays off. This isn’t a feature for a techie like me and I didn’t use it (although I was sorely tempted). From the commercials, it’s pretty amazing, particularly that you can get a live chat in a matter of a minute or less (Amazon’s goal is something like 15 seconds, I believe, although I can’t help wondering what will happen on Christmas Day!). If you’re thinking of getting a tablet for a technophobe, the addition of this feature may make the Kindle Fire HDX your best choice.

How does this tablet rank against the competition? There are really only two other tablets in its class currently: the Google Nexus 7 and the just-announced Apple iPad Mini with Retina Display.

Display: All three devices have retina displays, with the 7″ HDX and the Nexus at 1920×1200 (323 ppi) and the 8″ iPad Mini at 2048×1536 (326 ppi). All three displays are stunning. Amazon claims that it has enhanced the ability to read the display in bright sunlight, something that’s a problem for all such devices. While this wouldn’t be my first choice to read by the pool (I’d pick the Paperwhite), I can testify that it is easier to view the display in bright sunlight than its predecessors.

It’s worth noting that the aspect ratio of the HDX and Nexus is 16:10 while the aspect ratio of the iPad Mini is 4:3. Where this matters is watching video. If you’re watching an old television show, a 4:3 aspect ratio is fine. If you’re watching a high-def movie, the 4:3 aspect ratio is going to leave large black bars on your screen and the video will be much more compressed than it would be on the HDX and Nexus. Apple chose to maintain backward compatibility with prior devices rather than moving up.

Sound: The HDX has Dolby Digital Surround Sound; the Nexus has Frauenhofer Surround Sound; the iPad Mini has stereo sound. The iPad Mini also makes the same mistake that Amazon made in its first-generation tablet: putting both speakers on the same side (in this case, at the bottom of the tablet). If you’re watching a video, you’ll have the tablet turned sideways and the sound will all come from the same side. The HDX, in contrast, has the speakers placed perfectly for video watching.

Networking: The HDX and the iPad Mini both have dual band, dual antenna (MIMO) Wi-Fi. The Nexus is dual band but not dual antenna. All things being equal, I would expect the Nexus to lag a bit behind the others in networking performance, particularly in areas where the connection is spotty.

Size and Weight:
HDX: 7.3″ x 5.0″ x 0.35″ and 10.7 oz.
Nexus: 7.9″ x 4.5″ x 0.34″ and 10.24 oz.
iPad Mini: 7.87″ x 5.3″ x 0.29″ and 11.68 oz.

There’s really nothing to choose from here. All three are small, thin, and light. The iPad Mini is the heaviest but it also has a slightly larger screen.

Processor:
HDX: 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB memory
Nexus: 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB memory
iPad Mini: 64-bit dual-core A7, 1GB memory

The HDX and iPad come out ahead of the Nexus on processing power while the HDX and Nexus come out ahead of the iPad Mini on memory. The A7 is only a dual-core processor but according to some tech sites that have run benchmarks, it definitely holds its own against the quad-core Snapdragon. These are all pretty powerful tablets.

Cameras: Both the Nexus and the iPad Mini have 1.2 MP front and 5MP rear cameras. The HDX only has a front-facing camera. If you expect to take pictures with your tablet, the HDX isn’t for you.

Battery Life: HDX = 11 hours (17 hours when reading); Nexus = 9 hours; iPad Mini = 10 hours. Amazon wins this one, particularly if you will be spending a lot of time reading.

Expansion: None of them have a microSD slot; they all assume that you’ll be using their respective cloud systems.

Parental Controls: All of them have the basic parental controls that allow you to limit your child’s access to content, purchases, the web, and so on. Amazon goes farther, though, with the Kindle Free Time and Kindle Free Time Unlimited options, the latter of which is an inexpensive subscription to a curated library of content. If you are buying a first tablet for a child, I’d choose the Kindle Fire HD. At only $139, it is significantly cheaper and it has all of the options that the HDX has.

Enterprise: As soon as Amazon releases its update, it will add VPN and network printing support. I believe all of the tablets have basic enterprise capabilities, including that support and various office apps. For real productivity, though, personally I’d go with a laptop, not a tablet.

Support: Amazon wins this category, hands down, with the new Mayday system. Apple comes in second, with Apple and Amazon usually taking top marks in any customer support survey. This is an area where Google does not shine.

Price: The HDX and Nexus win this one, hands down. Both are priced at $229 vs. $399 for the new iPad Mini. Neither Google nor Amazon makes much, if any, money on their tablets; they’re counting on you to purchase content from their respective stores.

From my own perspective, there is no single clear winner, as each tablet has strengths and weaknesses. If you already have Amazon Prime, the HDX is a no-brainer, with the access to the Prime Instant Video and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. If you’re primarily buying a tablet to read with, Amazon wins there, as well, with the 17-hour battery life while reading and the best display for reading outdoors. If you want apps, Apple and Google both have far more choices. If you want to watch movies, I’d pick either the HDX or the Nexus, as Apple’s aspect ratio and its lagging sound put it at the back of the pack. If price is a factor, then you should pick either the HDX or the Nexus.

If you’re heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem, i.e., you already own an iPhone or iPad and all of your content is on iTunes, the HDX really isn’t the tablet for you. Similarly, if you love browsing Google Play for apps to play on your Samsung Galaxy phone, you’re likely to be disappointed in the section available on Amazon (although, as I note above, most of the Google Play apps can be sideloaded onto the tablet). If you love your Google Now or Siri, neither of which will ever be available on Amazon, this isn’t the tablet for you.

The bottom line: This tablet is primarily intended as a viewport into Amazon content and Amazon services. If you have Amazon Prime and you have Amazon eBooks in your collection, this tablet is a no-brainer. The price is low, particularly for what you get, and it’s a small, light, high-quality, high-powered, tablet with a stunning display and superb sound. This really is one of the top tablets in its class.

Note: As others have noted, the tablet will update its software when you first turn it on and connect to wifi. Unlike some others, I had no trouble with this operation, no glitches or crashes. It took several minutes but the process ran smoothly, as did the tablet when everything was done.

Update:
Now that I have a Kindle Fire HD and a Kindle Fire HDX tablet, I’m in a little better position to talk about which one I’d recommend:

You should get the Kindle Fire HDX if:
– You’re a techie who wants the latest and greatest, the best display, the fastest processor.
– You need a camera for Skype or other video app.
– You play graphics-intensive games (e.g., racing games).
– The size and weight matter to you, even in such small increments as this.
– You think you will need the Mayday technical support.

You should get the Kindle Fire HD if:
– Price is a factor. $90 cheaper is not an insignificant amount. This really is an excellent value for the money.
– You want an inexpensive tablet for a child (and, for this case, the lack of a camera might well be a plus)
– All you want is a basic tablet for reading books, playing music, watching the occasional video, playing Words with Friends, and the like. While the screen on the HD isn’t as stunning as is it on the HDX, this is still a true HD screen and it is very good.

I check back pretty regularly, so if you have a question, please feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Extremely wonderful tablet, it definitely gets the job done adaptes very well with everyday usage, good speed, nice display, and one I would definitely recommend to everyone!

To sum up what I will tell you about in the details below, for $229 you are getting a good deal on a tablet computer – especially if you compare it to the $199 for last year’s first-generation Fire HD and the $500 or more you can spend on a Wi-Fi version of the iPad. Overall, if you consider the price and the functionality I think this is a great tool / toy if you watch a lot of video or play a lot of games on your device: the video quality is outstanding and you can really tell a difference between this and the new HD Fire. If you are a first-time tablet buyer, where price vs. value is a key consideration, or if you are looking for an affordable tablet for the kids, I’d recommend the “regular” Kindle Fire HD that is only $139. If you’re comparing last year’s HD model to this version and it is operating fine, I’d say save your money and continue to get your money’s worth out of that one.

My review below compares a lot of the features of this version of the Fire HDX to the original Fire HD as well as this year’s model of the Fire HD, but also some of the features for a first-time user.

Consistent with my experience with setup of this year’s model of the Kindle Fire HD, setup took a long time: despite being a brand new product, the Fire HDX attempted to download and install several operating software updates. Software updates on a Kindle are usually in the background, and it was annoying watching the crashes and manual reboots. Consistent with the Fire HD, it crashed during setup, playing a song, watching a TV show, and reading a book. It took a little over an hour to get this thing up and running without consistent crashes but after the final software update it has worked as expected without further issues.

Screen Display / Video Playback:

This version of the Fire has the absolute best screen display of any Fire model to date. Looking at the technical specs Amazon made some major changes in the display / resolution, and the picture appears more crisp: I compared the viewing experience watching with my standard test of the Fire devices over the past couple of years – don’t laugh – the first episode of the Wonder Woman TV series from the 70’s. The display on this Fire was one heck of a lot better in terms of sharpness than last year’s model as well as this year’s model of the Fire HD. For you technical folks out there, the display is 1,920 x 1,200 with 50% more pixels per inch than the Fire HD.

Wi-Fi Connectivity:

The initial Wi-Fi setup took some time as it wouldn’t remember the password for my router after each software update / crash / reboot series. After the final operating software update I mentioned above, however, it was fairly easy to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.

My standard test for trying out new gadgets is to see how fast they run side-by-side with a known piece of equipment doing the same test at the best place of Wi-Fi in my house and the worst place where it drags. In this comparison, I had this HDX version of the Fire sitting next to last year’s and this year’s version of the HD Fire, as well as last year’s 8.9″ HD Fire, Motorola RAZR smartphone, my iPad 2 (yes, the Kindle guy uses an iPad for work), and the first-generation 7″ Fire (the model from two years ago) all just using a Wi-Fi connection vs. cellular connectivity.

My “normal” website test is to hit the mobile websites of FoxNews, CNN, my personalized Yahoo page, Google, and the Houston Chronicle. The ones that were usually slow on the other devices were faster on the HDX (Houston Chronicle and CNN), and for the other sites I couldn’t tell a difference in speed at the location closest to my router. When I went to the slowest / worst reception location of my house, the speed did have a noticeable difference in the other devices as this one was a little bit faster than all but last year’s model of the 7″ Kindle Fire HD; yes, it was also faster than this year’s model of the Fire HD but I attribute the increase in speed to the dual antennas on the HDX.

Sound / Music Playback:

The two speakers are located in the back of the Kindle Fire in two not-noticeable ports: one on the top and one on the bottom. My test of this feature was cranking up Van Halen’s Panama to maximum volume (I always want to see if it could really play the guitar licks), and I would alternate covering one speaker up over the other: you have true stereo sound with no degradation of the sound that makes you think you are about to blow the speaker. The Dolby speakers sound nice and you do get to hear the bass. However, I am still of the opinion the speakers aren’t going to do very well being placed in the back as I am in the front: I want to be able to hear whatever I am listening to without really having to crank it up and disturbing someone else in the room (that’s what happens when you start losing your hearing like I am). While the cover for this version has not shipped yet – why aren’t the covers released at the same time? – I imagine the sound quality might decrease with a cover in the back over the speakers. The X-ray feature is pretty neat as it displays the lyrics on the screen if you are so inclined; if you are not, it is as simple as the tap of an icon to make the lyric feature go away.

Email Setup:

Consistent with previous versions of the Fire, email setup was very easy for my main Gmail account, both with the software came with the Fire but my primary use of an existing app called Enhanced Email I purchased here in the Amazon app store. I did setup the email app that came with the program with no problem – it took about a minute to setup my main Google account – and I was able to send and receive emails as well as synch my online calendar via Google’s calendar and contacts. For those of you asking yourself why am I using the Enhanced Email program, the simple answer is like many of you I have more than one email account: you can quickly switch back and forth on the accounts with the tool. The lazy person in me appreciates that as I don’t like getting out of the lazy chair once I’m settled in!

New Tabs and Screen Layout:

In addition to the normal tabs Amazon has continued to make tweaks with the look and feel to the overall display such as more things to scroll through to find what you are looking for in an easier manner. Interestingly, and consistent with my experiences with this year’s model of the Fire HD, I purchased the one with special offers and the only ad I have seen so far is on the main screen saver vs. being overwhelmed with ads like last year’s model.

Reading Books:

Turning pages is pretty darn easy – just tap the side of the screen to go to the next page or back a page, or you can swipe your finger across the screen to do the same. Amazon did add the feature to see the book’s description for books on your device like they have with the e-Ink Kindle (always an annoyance with last year’s model), which is a plus as I can’t remember what each book in my digital to-be-read pile is about; getting to the book description, requires several taps on the screen to eventually get to where you want to be. If there is an easier way to do it, I can’t find it and maybe I should be one of the first guys, ever, to crack open the electronic user’s manual to figure it out (doubt it). For those of you who have wondered, you still can’t organize your books into categories unless you purchase a third-party app</a> here in the Amazon app store.

Bluetooth

There is a Bluetooth connection, and I did my usual test of this feature by taking it out to my car and having the Fire stream music through my car stereo. There were no delays or skips with the connection, and it paired up in about a minute. Just make sure you give it a device name so you can recognize it and be recognized.

Camera:

There is a camera on this model – it faces the front or toward the user / reader. Focusing and taking a picture is pretty easy, and Amazon will by default store your pictures in the Cloud – which counts against your storage allotment. I’d recommend turning that automatic storage feature off unless you are sure you want it, because if you go over the limit that will provide Amazon another opportunity to collect a monthly revenue stream from you.

Charger:

Unlike previous models of the Fire, this one DOES include a charger! If you’re scratching your head with that comment, in previous models you had to purchase a charger separately for $20 which always seemed kind of silly for Amazon to do.

“Mayday” button:

A new feature with this model, and not included on this year’s “regular” model of the Fire, is the introduction of the “Mayday” button. Basically, you can touch the button and a video screen will pop up and you can actually see – and talk to – a live customer service agent. I haven’t pressed the button yet to try it out, as I think I would feel pretty dumb: when they ask me how can they help, I don’t want to say “I just wanted to see if this works and just stopped by to say `hi’ for purposes of this review.”

What I Wish it Had: a case that was ready to go and shipped when the Fire was ready (why are we waiting). A case is very important in order to protect your investment. Also, I’m interested to see how they try to not hurt the speaker’s performance I mentioned above due to the speakers being in the back of the unit and hopefully not covered up with a case.

Overall, at $229 for the 16GB of memory model ($309 for 64 GB of memory) I think this is a good deal for someone who really uses the video / apps feature. Kids will love it as they can read books, play games, watch TV and movies, and a whole lot of other things. Adults should like it for the exact same reasons, but while I try to minimize the amount of work-related stuff I do at home with the business apps that are available here in the Amazon App store and other places around the Internet I can also work on Excel and Word-compatible files when I have to without having to fire up my work laptop or whatever the case may be. If you’ve never owned a tablet before, or are looking to upgrade from an earlier model Fire, I would recommend this one if video and apps are your thing – but make sure you purchase the higher memory one vs. the minimum 16 GB. If you’re comparing last year’s HD model to this version and it is operating fine, or looking for a tablet for your younger children, I’d say save your money and continue to get your money’s worth out of last year’s model or get this year’s model of the Kindle Fire HD at $139.

I bought a Kindle Fire HD from Best Buy for my son. Worked great for a while until one day the keyboard would not come up. Contacted Amazon, who apologized for the defective device and offered a reduced price HDX Fire to replace it. Sought to purchase a 2-year Warranty and instructed to wait until receiving new device. Upon receiving the new Kindle Fire HDX, that device had the SAME Keyboard Failure within HOURS and needed to be replace by yet a THIRD Kindle Fire HDX which arrived end of May. Recently, after about a month, my son opened his third (3rd) Kindle Fire HDX and yet again another Keyboard Failure! I have had three (3) separate Kindle Fires in my hands since mid-May. Contacted Customer Service and was disconnected four times in trying to resolve issue. Finally had to do factory reset to get keyboard to work. And after all of this, unable to upgrade to an extended warranty. I like the Kindle Fire initially (4-5 stars), but disappointed with long term reliability ((2-stars) hence, the desire for a longer term warranty)), and very disappointed with Amazon Customer Service (0-1 star). The lack of service made the device failure worse than it needed to be. Apple Users keep telling me to cross over from the dark side and on this day, I actually think that they are right.

Fool me once… Sadly I’ve been through 5 amazon kindle tablets and they all end up with the same problem. They stop charging. I feel foolish that every time that they come up with a new one I think that it will last longer only because I love the use of them when they are working. This one we’ve had for now less than a year and I cannot keep a charge to it. I’ve called amazon multiple times on the issue, tried different cord, holding the power button for 40 seconds, rebooting the whole thing, nothing has worked. Also when I called I was greeted by people with strong accents that had a hard time understanding me and me them (perhaps if I’d called earlier in the day I could of spoken to someone with less language barriers but sadly we were left feeling frustration on both ends with having troubles understanding one another.) It is very frustrating because we tried so hard to be careful with it and there is no visible problems that I can see. Basically it’s a great product until it just stops working, then it’s just a horrible frustration.

I am bummed by this new Kindle. It was defective. It wouldn’t stay connected to the internet. I talked with the kindle support and they helped we check it out but ultimately they told me to send it back and they sent me a new one 2 days later. Customer service gets a 10 in my book. The battery runs down to fast.

I received my replacement Kindle Fire. I really like the display and functionality but I don’t understand why I should have to turn it off several times a day and clear applications of previous content in order to keep it connected to the WiFi.

I couldn’t tolerate the inconvenience of restarting the device over and over. Customer service is excellent. I chose to send this back within my return period so I could get a refund of my purchase price. I really like Amazon and I appreciate shopping through them. I do not like to give negative comments. I am generally a satisfied customer.
Personally I feel this Kindle needs to be upgraded to work without these difficulties.
I purchased a Samsung Note 8 and it is performing perfectly. I got the Kindle app and am enjoying my books and a whole lot more. The difference is remarkable.

I have returned this item. My reasons are below:

I have the original Kindle Keyboard (best for reading) the original gen fire, a fire hd (32g) and I bought the HDX just for extra storage space. I only use the device for audiobook playback and reading books (though I prefer my keyboard kindle for that). Occasionally, using the micro-HMDI adaptor, I plug the HD into my TV monitor to watch Netflix or Prime.

When I received the HDX, I charged it and plugged it into my computer in order to drag and drop my kindle content, including hundreds of books and audiobooks. I have about 20g in audiobook files alone. With each prior incarnation of the Kindle Fire, this process was simply a breeze.

However, the HDX is totally incompatible with sideloading! Audible tech support informs that if you want your Audible content on the HDX, you have to RE-download each item.

If you have books that aren’t Amazon bought, but are mobi compatible, the HDX will load the text, but not the cover art, which makes it a pain in the ass JUST to find a book because they all look the same with their ugly generic covers. This problem can be fixed, but only if you’re willing to invest several hours in resizing each and every single book cover.

My previous kindle fires had NO problem whatsoever with this very simple feature of dragging-dropping content from one to another; from PC and back again. However, just to use the HDX for my usual purposes would require literally hundreds of hours in downloading, resizing, bandwidth, etc. and I just don’t have the time for that crap.

Moreover, the HDX has no HDMI port!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE?

Also, the HDX has only a selfie camera, instead of the front and rear cameras that came with the original Fire and Fire HD.

I really can’t believe anyone could consider this piece of junk an upgrade. It isn’t. Even the new gen HDs are inferior compared to the originals. (Can’t even get 32 gig HD anymore) I am VERY disappointed, as I expected the Kindle to get better with each generation, not worse; to have more and better features, not fewer and, to be easier and more convenient to set up and use than prior generations, not monumentally more time-consuming and difficult.

The lack of sideloading ability alone made my decision to return the HDX easy. I can’t even guess what made the designers remove these very vital conveniences but it’s a deal-killer for me.

My advice is: WAIT till yet another generations of Kindles comes out. Pass on this one. If you can get your hands on an old HD (from 2012) GRAB it, it’s 100% better than this “shiny new” HDX.

TLDR: underwhelmed and disappointed, I returned the HDX.

I bought this in November of 2014. It was a certified refurbished unit that was insanely cheap. It was like new when purchased and I could not tell it was a "used" product. While it does not get "heavy" use, it is used on a regular basis. I basically use this while my wife is watching TV. It’s speakers are very impressive for being so small. I do find myself holding it so that my hand will direct the sound to me though. So, while they do sound good, they are facing the wrong way. So, enter the Amazon headphones, made for the Kindle….they are very impressive. This model continues to get updates to the OS and I have had very few lock ups or freezes. (That said, I have had some, but not many.) The picture quality still amazes me. I have an iPad mini with retina, and the Kindle surpasses that. My personal belief is that the "black" is better on the Kindle than the iPad, and therefore, the Kindle wins. I have never used Mayday and so I can’t make any judgement on that service. The one thing that I have noticed is that the cached memory will sometimes kill this or just make it so slow it will seem unusable. Just clear the cache, power cycle and it is like new. It’s a good tablet. It does what it is supposed to do.

I like the snappy response and the sharp screen. It bears up very well. I have used this device for over a year now, and that’s really what you must do to be sure of any tablet. Quick and sharp and resilient, for its going on two years now and not another model in sight.

The Silk browser has a feature I wish was standard: you can close all the irritating tabs with a tap and a confirm. The keyboard allows the newfangled slide wordpainting method and it’s the best I’ve seen – will allow you to delete a missed guess with one backspace and offers more possibilities than I see anywhere else.

It bears up well, but you have to remember, the gadget is a couple years old with no refresh in sight. I have an IPad Air 2 and an iPhone 6 Plus and my Fire HDX sees its share of the action.

I think Amazon is leaving this particular market. The 7" tablet is ideal for me, as I can carry it almost as easily as my iPhone, but eventually there will be a Nexus or LG model to blow the doors off this category.

I’ll miss it – but not the apps which don’t quite exist in the Amazon version. Love the mail and Silk apps, but want a neutral IM platform other than Facebook’s version.

My first impression was "How beautiful!" – the color and clarity are amazing. I did not notice the blue haze other reviewers complain about, even though I looked for it. However… this tablet has many little annoyances. Often got a message saying "webpage not available" but I could hop onto my old iPod Touch and get that same webpage right away. I had the HDX for almost a month before returning it today, and pretty much every day had to power off and restart because the device froze on me. That only took a minute or so, and once back up, everything worked fine, but it is an annoyance. The app store even froze on me! And the app store is limited compared to Apple’s. After loading just a few apps, I checked available storage, and out of its 16 GB, less than 9 GB was still available. This made it clear that even if I wanted to keep the HDX, the 16 GB version would not be adequate for all the things I’d want to use a tablet for. There are other issues, but for me the biggest turned out to be that this is not a good substitute for a dedicated e-reader. It is too heavy to hold one-handed for a long period of time, and I could not figure out a way to lock it into portrait mode, so every time I moved the screen would flip in and out of landscape (this may just be because I did not look hard enough for a way to lock it). I could not arrange my books (or apps) into collections by genre. Unfortunately, I gave away my reliable old basic Kindle as soon as I got this, but I’d been wanting something with a screen I could read in a dark room anyway, so now I am going to get a Kindle Paperwhite, and hope I love it more than the HDX. Back to the blind date analogy… I got my iPod Touch almost 3 years ago, and although every now and then it also annoys me, it continues to thrill me every single day. Isn’t that the kind of blind date we all dream of? It is even a better (albeit tiny) e-reader than the HDX. I want a tablet that thrills me as much as my iPod does, so I will pay the higher price to get a shiny new iPad, and hope I didn’t let the better fish get away….

Conclussion

There is not much we can do to help you. All decisions are now in your hands. We hope that after reading the information about the product above, now your insight is broader. The more you know, the better the decisions you will make.

Have something to say about KINDLE FIRE HDX 7″, HDX DISPLAY, WI-FI, 16 GB – INCLUDES SPECIAL OFFERS (PREVIOUS GENERATION – 3RD)? Dont be hesitate, drop something in the comment.