Amazon’s Kindle range has now expanded beyond simple e-book readers and entered the territory of full tablets. The latest Kindle Fire models show that Amazon is keen to take on rivals such as Apple in this competitive area of the market.
The original Kindle range became a popular choice for travellers since it allowed them to take their entire library of books with them on holiday without relying on any physical copies.
Now the Kindle Fire HD has arrived, almost a year after the introduction of the first Kindle Fire, allowing UK customers to experience what the device has to offer at first hand.
The Kindle Fire HD comes in two models: a seven-inch edition and a larger 8.9-inch iteration. Both screens support high-definition resolutions for quality movie playback and a fast TI OMAP 4470 processor gives them the power to run apps, games and a wide variety of media files without any problems.
Since these are Kindle products you can still read all of your e-books, but the use of full-colour touchscreen displays means that they are suitable for much more than the written word. In fact, magazines, comics and other publications are really brought to life on this device.
You can browse the web, stream video and take advantage of the improved Wi-Fi connectivity which is helping to make the Kindle Fire HD range a popular new travel accessory.
It runs on the Android operating system but Amazon has added its own user interface to make sure that you can easily access new content. It is also taking the sensible step of keeping the price of the Kindle Fire HD very low, with the base model available at just £129.
Justin Young of Tech website Gimmitech said, “The Kindle Fire range provides a compelling alternative to the iPad and the Google Nexus 7 which should give travellers a new way to stay entertained while on the move”.