I promised it just a couple of hours ago, and here it is: the spanking new Amazon Kindle Fire HD doing battle with the few-months-old Google Nexus 7. The latter built by Asus, of course. I always feel guilty for not mentioning them.
Around a month ago, I pitted the original year-old Amazon Kindle Fire against the Google Nexus 7, and the former took a bit of a beating. Ultimately I concluded that the Google Nexus 7 ‘won’ in every conceivable way, ‘cept for price. How does the shiny new Amazon Kindle Fire HD change things?
Interestingly, this is very much a fair fight. We’re talking about two relatively new devices, both 7in, and priced identically in the UK (£159 or £199 depending on storage).
In the interest of fairness, let’s go with the same categories as last time. Mostly. We’ll see. Let’s dance!
Display
Amazon Kindle Fire HD: 7in IPS LCD, 800 x 1280, 216 PPI, Corning Glass
Google Nexus 7: 7in IPS LCD, 800 x 1280, 216 PPI, Corning Glass
Very similar displays, however the Amazon Kindle Fire HD has laminated the touch sensor and LCD together to form a single layer of glass, which supposedly reduces glare. Interesting.
Camera
Amazon Kindle Fire HD: 1.3MP front camera, no rear camera
Google Nexus 7: 1.2MP front camera, no rear camera
A whopping 0.1MP victory for the Amazon Kindle Fire HD! Of course, it’s not all about megapixels, so maybe we’ll call this one a draw for now.
Processor
Amazon Kindle Fire HD: dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4460
Google Nexus 7: quad-core 1.3GHz Tegra 3
It’s not the number of cores, it’s what you do with them that counts. Indeed, Jeff Bezos claims the Amazon Kindle Fire HD’s dual-core 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4460 processor can perform 50% more floating point operations per second than a Tegra 3. Hey, show me a consumer who doesn’t want to know about floating point operations.
Memory
Amazon Kindle Fire HD: 16 or 32GB internal storage, 1GB of RAM, no microSD slot
Google Nexus 7: 8 or 16GB internal storage, 1GB of RAM, no microSD slot
This is one area where the Amazon Kindle Fire HD wins, and wins emphatically. Consumers are faced with the choice of a 16GB Kindle Fire HD or 8GB Google Nexus 7 for £159, while £199 gets you a 32GB Kindle Fire HD or 16GB Google Nexus 7. No contest.
Apps
Amazon Kindle Fire HD: Amazon Appstore for Android
Google Nexus 7: Google Play
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is of course “restricted” (if that’s the right word) to apps on the Amazon Appstore for Android. Yesterday it was revealed that the Amazon Appstore for Android has reached 50,000+ apps, with 30,000+ specifically listed as compatible with the Amazon Kindle Fire.
Of course, that’s just a fraction of the – what? – 600,000+ on Google Play.
Oddly, Amazon continually manages to make the Kindle Fire’s focus on Amazon-flavoured content sound like a good thing. Cheeky devils.
Availability
Amazon Kindle Fire HD: various markets
Google Nexus 7: various markets
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD marks the brand’s first foray outside the US. It’s only available in select markets, but – let’s face it – all we really care about is the fact that it’s coming to the UK.
Other stuff
The big thing with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is the advertising. Any time you wake your device, you’ll be greeted with some beautiful advert action. Bah. Is that really a big deal? You decide.
The Google Nexus 7 is still available with £15 of Google Play credit, and a handful of free digital content – including Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD, meanwhile, comes with a one-month free trial to LOVEFiLM.
Conclusion
If you’re not fussed about the advertising or the restricted Amazon Appstore for Android, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD looks like a pretty good bet.
!
