Amazon Kindle Fire HDX review (7-inch)

Software and performance

A fork in the road

Five years ago, Amazon and Google were partners. Amazon?s music service came pre-loaded on the T-Mobile G1, the first Android phone ever, and the plan was simple: marry Amazon?s unparalleled wealth of content with Google?s software design, and together take over the world.

In hindsight, it might have worked. Amazon?s library of music, movies, TV shows, books, and everything you could ever want to buy is bigger and more accessible than ever, and Android has evolved into a truly great operating system. But Google and Amazon have become competitors, each after a slice of the huge tablet market ? so Google?s worked to turn the Play Store into a force to be reckoned with, and Amazon?s taken the core of Android and forked it into an alternate version that tries to do just as much.

Fire OS is more subdued than Android, and much more media-focused

Fire OS 3.0, codenamed "Mojito," is Amazon?s latest software effort. It?s not the flexible, versatile, platform Android has become, and still feels very much media-centric. The top navigation is just a list of ways to give Amazon your money: Shop, Games, Videos, Audiobooks, Newsstand, and more.?The homescreen is still a reverse-chronological carousel of every book, app, and movie you?ve opened or purchased since the beginning of time. Mojito does offer a new grid view of your apps, which makes life easier ? before, if you didn?t open Hulu for a week, it wound up buried in the carousel behind all the other things Amazon really thinks you should be buying and watching instead.

The dark white-and-gray-on-gray aesthetic is much more subdued than the bright, vibrant colors of Android, and the swipeable multitasking menu is more akin to iOS, but from the notification pulldown to the settings menus Fire OS won?t feel unfamiliar to most users.

Version 3.0 comes with a lot of non-obvious improvements, particularly for business users ? with new security features and IT-friendly maintenance tools, the HDX is the most enterprise-friendly Kindle ever. The Silk browser has been subtly improved, though it remains cluttered and clunky next to Chrome or Safari.

Much more obvious is the new, overhauled email app, which finally supports conversations, labeling, and archiving of emails. It?s not as good as the standard Gmail app, with a little more interface chrome and a few unnecessarily hidden features, but it?s one of the better stock email apps I?ve used. The calendar and document-editing suite feel brand new too ? the Kindle Fire has never been for getting things done, but it?s surprisingly productive now. The improvements go a long way toward turning the HDX into something other than a 7-inch combination of television and ebook reader.

But make no mistake: it?s still mostly a 7-inch combination of television and ebook reader. A remarkable one, at that, with a swath of content that continues to amaze me. The reading experience is as versatile as ever, with plenty of fonts, background colors, and margin widths to tweak to your liking. (Having a gorgeous, high-res screen makes for great reading, too.) And if you?re a Prime member, the HDX comes with the largest movie library you?ve ever imagined, all available for streaming and, for the first time, downloading. You can download any movie or show and watch it offline, which is a frequent flyer?s dream ? I spend $20 or so every time I fly just buying movies and shows to watch on the plane, and I?m pretty sure the HDX will pay for itself by the time I finish watching The West Wing on cross-country flights. With loud, high-quality speakers and its terrific display, the HDX makes a great mini TV too.

Giving you things to read and watch has never been a problem for Amazon. Nor is rationing it, which it does through the great FreeTime app that lets you decide what your kids can do on the HDX, and for how long. What the company?s working on now is information about all that content, which is where X-Ray comes in. X-Ray could always tell you with a tap which characters are present in the chapter you?re reading right now, but now it also shows lyrics for whatever song you?re listening to, trivia about actors and characters in movies, and so much more.

It?s largely powered by IMDb, and is insanely powerful ? I found myself scrubbing through movies by selecting songs and seeing where they played, then doing my own weird personal karaoke with the lyrics. X-Ray is the best bet-settler ever, an awesome trivia tool, and a really cool way for Amazon to collate and supplement the content it already offers. Oh, and you liked that song in that episode of Under The Dome? Here, buy it on Amazon.

Buying things is not only easy but fast, because the HDX is by far the fastest and most powerful Kindle Fire model ever. Amazon?s always been obsessed with its tablets? spec sheets, and here there?s good reason. The HDX has a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, along with 2GB of RAM and a new Adreno 330 GPU that Amazon says is four times as powerful as the last model. It?s likely due to some combination of refined software and powerful hardware, but the HDX screams: the carousel is smoother than ever as you swipe through it, apps open and resume almost instantly, and even games as complex as Asphalt 8 play flawlessly. It?s one of the most capable, functional tablets I?ve used. It has great battery life, too, taking nearly two days full of streaming, game-playing, and reading before giving up; most people will probably only need to charge it every four or five days.

That?s why it?s such a shame that the functionality of the HDX is so severely limited. Because it doesn?t run Google-blessed Android, but instead a fork of Android 4.2, the HDX doesn?t have Google?s Play Store. Instead it has the Amazon Appstore, which is just like Play only much, much worse. It?s just a small set of Android apps that often appear to be outdated and unoptimized for 7-inch screens. There?s no Netflix, no Candy Crush, few to-do list apps or big-name games. If it had the Play Store, the HDX would become an incredibly attractive tablet even next to the Nexus 7 or the iPad mini, but without it it just feels crippled.

Mayday

S.O.S.

The weirdest thing about the Kindle Fire HDX is that Amazon hopes you?ll never have to use its best feature.?It?s called Mayday, and it?s the most remarkable customer service tool I?ve ever seen. You tap the "Help" button on the device, then hit "Connect," and you?re automatically transferred to Amazon?s customer support line. But it?s not a robotic phone tree, and there?s no hold music. You get a real live human being on the other end, usually within 15 seconds. (It typically took about 10 seconds for me to get through, though it once took about a minute ? of course, I?m using the device before it ships, so things could change quickly.)

That person ? I spoke with Oliver, and Laura, and two or three other Southern-sounding people whose names I didn?t catch ? pops up in a small square window on your screen. You can see them, but they can?t see you. They can, however, control your entire tablet. Once I?d verified my name, email, and billing address, my cheery representatives could download apps, delete files, and change settings. Typically they?d draw diagrams on the screen to show me how to fix things myself, but if I asked they?d happily just do it. It worked quickly and easily as long as I had a good Wi-Fi connection, and every time I was blown away by how easy and useful it was. I didn?t have to explain my icon layout or convince them that yes, my tablet is on ? we could just jump right in.

As long as Amazon can figure out how to make Mayday scale, it'll be spectacular

There are certainly issues with Mayday, both in terms of privacy and scaling. I have no idea how Amazon will serve millions of people at a time, especially because I started using the service for every minor question rather than even attempt to figure it out myself. I also started asking the Mayday crew for recommendations for movies to watch, or games to play, and they?re only too happy to lead me to the store to oblige.

There?s also something viscerally terrifying about Amazon?s ability to see into my tablet at any given time, even if there are some safeguards ? you have to initiate the connection yourself, and there is a way to disable the feature permanently. As long as Amazon can keep up with demand, this is almost certainly going to be the most customer-friendly customer service system ever created. It?s a Genius Bar in my living room, and I don?t even have to put on pants.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/2/4792658/amazon-kindle-fire-hdx-review-7-inch

jared leto Tony Snell shabazz muhammad Ben McLemore Spain vs Italy Shane Larkin Shannon Guess Richardson