 Hey, this is Josh with The Verge and we're taking a look at the new Kindle Fire HD, the 7-inch version. Looking at the design of this, obviously the Fire HD 7 has a 7-inch display. It's a 1280 by 800 screen. It's one of the nicest screens I've seen, maybe the nicest next to the new iPad display. It's got pretty decent pixel density and the colors are just really vibrant. The blacks are really deep. And Amazon went on about the reflectiveness here, about how they've sort of treated this to be anti-glare, but it still feels fairly heavy on glare to me. So it's not like a big improvement in that department. It's got a camera right here underneath the bezel for Skype conversations, which is an app that works quite well on here actually. The bezel's a little bit bigger. Clearly they want to give you some purchase for your thumbs. And it's got, you know, generally a nice design. It feels very much like an iPad or a touchpad. I mean, it's got like the rounded corners. And you go around back, soft touch material on the back. There's a thin strip of plastic right here, which houses dual driver speakers. The website describes these as room-filling sound, but the website is high and drunk because they just sound like kind of tinny laptop speakers. But they do sound loud and they are in stereo and they don't distort. So when you're holding this device in landscape like this, you actually do get a pretty good stereo field, but it's not like stereo that you might get out of an actual stereo. One other thing worth really pointing out on the hardware is the placement of the power button, the power sleep button and the volume rockers. The power button is sometimes nearly impossible to locate when you're using the device. It's completely embedded in the side of the device and you can barely feel where it's located, which makes it kind of a pain in the ass to use. And the volume rocker suffers from the same problem. Inside it's got a 1.2 gigahertz dual core TI OMAP CPU. It's got power VR graphics, a gig of RAM. This version has 16 gigs of storage. They make a 32 gig as well. It has Bluetooth, no GPS chip, no NFC if you're worried about that sort of thing. It's relatively bare bones. It does have a light sensor, an accelerometer and a gyroscope. In general performance was really good. Game performance was, I would say excellent. I was playing dead space on it, which is one of my tablet go-tos and I thought performance was very good. As has been pretty well documented, this is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but Amazon has stripped away pretty much all of the defining features of that version of Android. It's really in some ways works to its advantage because it streamlines a lot of stuff and I think in other ways it creates confusion about how to navigate and consistency issues in terms of the navigation of the device. Additionally, Amazon software, the layer they've added to Android is not that smooth and can be kind of sluggish and laggy and a little bit buggy. So the experience is simplified, but in that simplified experience, it's not always perfect. For instance, in places like the keyboard, I think that whatever Amazon is doing has been a detriment to the functionality of the keyboard, not an improvement. It feels sluggish, presses on it seem to take longer and it's just not a comfortable typing experience. Here you can see the lock screen, which currently has ads on it. In fact, there are ads all over the device. There's a way that you can opt out. Apparently for $15, I have clearly not opted out. And as you can see, you're treated to a variety of different advertisements when you lock and unlock the device. So this is the basic home screen. And I get the feeling that Amazon kind of wants you to hold it in landscape instead of portrait, though there's certainly a lot of stuff you do on this in portrait, for instance, book reading. Here's portrait mode. Now something interesting about portrait mode, you'll notice that down here in the corner is an ad. And as you scroll through your content, this could be your apps or books or anything else you have on the device, it'll suggest other things that customers have bought and that it wants you to buy down below here. Now when you opt out, this little ad goes away and the lock screen ads go away, but these stay. So it's kind of constantly recommending things for you to buy, which some people may not feel super psyched about. This is a comic I was reading. This is of course purchased through Amazon. And you can see that there's navigation that appears and disappears, which I actually find a little annoying because it makes getting around that much more difficult. They put the home button on the left side here, the back button in the middle, which doesn't make any sense to me, and they've got this little favorites button which you can arrange with your own apps. It's not exactly multitasking, but it can kind of stand in for multitasking, but it doesn't show you what you've recently used. Recently used apps are shown here on the home screen. It can be apps, it can be music you've listened to, it can be web pages you've visited, books you've read, movies you've been watching. So one of the really notable pieces of the puzzle here is Amazon's ecosystem. It is just fantastic. It is really one of the only ecosystems, maybe the only at this point, that can take on what Apple is doing. And it actually goes beyond what Apple offers and in some way bests it, particularly with the Prime offerings. You get a bundle of great content that you don't have to pay for. You've got a flat fee. You pay your subscription price once a year and you get access to tremendous stuff. And that's something that not even Apple or Microsoft can offer at this point. So it is a really compelling reason to take a look at this device, especially if you feel like that's going to be the focus of your use. One of the nice things that Amazon is doing is WhisperSync, which they're now kind of bringing to every service that they offer. For movies, what it means is that you're able to start watching something on the device or elsewhere and then pick it up when you pick up your tablet or when you move to your living room. And it's a pretty cool, I have to say, it's pretty cool and it shows how big their ecosystem really is because you can do this on Roku, on your Xbox, on other devices like smartphones. So it really is kind of a system spanning ecosystem that they're showing off. And it works nicely. It works well. You know, they've been doing the same thing for books where you can sync your books across devices. They brought it to movies. The other thing that they've brought is X-Ray. Right now, it's basically just Cast List from IMDb. They're also doing this in books. It shows you character mentions. And if you click on the characters, you get a bio about that character and some other information. So right now, X-Ray isn't that useful, but I think it's foreseeable that in the future, Amazon will expand what X-Ray actually does, whether it's related content or even perhaps being able to purchase things that you see in a movie or items that are mentioned in a book. The idea of dissecting what the content is and what's inside of it seems pretty powerful. But right now, it's, I'd say, a little bit of a sideshow. One thing that's interesting about the App Store is that there are a lot of games here, not very much productivity software. The stuff that is available, I wouldn't say, is necessarily the cream of the crop. You know, I think Amazon wants to push the App Store really hard. But in comparison to what is offered for something like the Nexus 7, it's a much smaller selection. And I would say that the quality of the selection is not nearly as good. So in all, the Fire is actually a really excellent tablet for $200. And it's mostly excellent because of the Amazon connections. The offerings in terms of content are fantastic. I mean, they really show the breadth and depth of Amazon's ecosystem. And they are really valuable, as far as I'm concerned. The problem is, as a tablet that does anything other than consume Amazon's content or can be used to shop for Amazon's stuff, it sort of falls flat. The app selection isn't as good as something like the Nexus 7. The user interface, in my opinion, isn't as good as something like the Nexus 7 or the iPad, which is, of course, in a different price class. But this is a question about whether you want a device that is for lean back, casual experiences, or a device that can do more than just those casual experiences. So if you're a user that's looking for a more full-featured experience, a more full-tablet experience, something like what the iPad can provide, I would say you want to look at the Nexus 7. There's just a lot more you can do with it. It just seems a lot more capable to me. If, however, you just want something to take with you on trips, to watch content, to read books, to check out magazines, there is really no better choice in the price range. For $199, you get a pretty incredible package. And when it's coupled with Prime, it really is an excellent choice for the casual tablet user.
 Hey, this is Josh with The Verge and we're taking a look at the new Kindle Fire HD, the
 7-inch version.
 Looking at the design of this, obviously the Fire HD 7 has a 7-inch display.
 It's a 1280 by 800 screen.
 It's one of the nicest screens I've seen, maybe the nicest next to the new iPad display.
 It's got pretty decent pixel density and the colors are just really vibrant.
 The blacks are really deep.
 And Amazon went on about the reflectiveness here, about how they've sort of treated this
 to be anti-glare, but it still feels fairly heavy on glare to me.
 So it's not like a big improvement in that department.
 It's got a camera right here underneath the bezel for Skype conversations, which is an
 app that works quite well on here actually.
 The bezel's a little bit bigger.
 Clearly they want to give you some purchase for your thumbs.
 And it's got, you know, generally a nice design.
 It feels very much like an iPad or a touchpad.
 I mean, it's got like the rounded corners.
 And you go around back, soft touch material on the back.
 There's a thin strip of plastic right here, which houses dual driver speakers.
 The website describes these as room-filling sound, but the website is high and drunk because
 they just sound like kind of tinny laptop speakers.
 But they do sound loud and they are in stereo and they don't distort.
 So when you're holding this device in landscape like this, you actually do get a pretty good
 stereo field, but it's not like stereo that you might get out of an actual stereo.
 One other thing worth really pointing out on the hardware is the placement of the power
 button, the power sleep button and the volume rockers.
 The power button is sometimes nearly impossible to locate when you're using the device.
 It's completely embedded in the side of the device and you can barely feel where it's
 located, which makes it kind of a pain in the ass to use.
 And the volume rocker suffers from the same problem.
 Inside it's got a 1.2 gigahertz dual core TI OMAP CPU.
 It's got power VR graphics, a gig of RAM.
 This version has 16 gigs of storage.
 They make a 32 gig as well.
 It has Bluetooth, no GPS chip, no NFC if you're worried about that sort of thing.
 It's relatively bare bones.
 It does have a light sensor, an accelerometer and a gyroscope.
 In general performance was really good.
 Game performance was, I would say excellent.
 I was playing dead space on it, which is one of my tablet go-tos and I thought performance
 was very good.
 As has been pretty well documented, this is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but
 Amazon has stripped away pretty much all of the defining features of that version of Android.
 It's really in some ways works to its advantage because it streamlines a lot of stuff and
 I think in other ways it creates confusion about how to navigate and consistency issues
 in terms of the navigation of the device.
 Additionally, Amazon software, the layer they've added to Android is not that smooth and can
 be kind of sluggish and laggy and a little bit buggy.
 So the experience is simplified, but in that simplified experience, it's not always perfect.
 For instance, in places like the keyboard, I think that whatever Amazon is doing has
 been a detriment to the functionality of the keyboard, not an improvement.
 It feels sluggish, presses on it seem to take longer and it's just not a comfortable typing
 experience.
 Here you can see the lock screen, which currently has ads on it.
 In fact, there are ads all over the device.
 There's a way that you can opt out.
 Apparently for $15, I have clearly not opted out.
 And as you can see, you're treated to a variety of different advertisements when you lock
 and unlock the device.
 So this is the basic home screen.
 And I get the feeling that Amazon kind of wants you to hold it in landscape instead
 of portrait, though there's certainly a lot of stuff you do on this in portrait, for instance,
 book reading.
 Here's portrait mode.
 Now something interesting about portrait mode, you'll notice that down here in the corner
 is an ad.
 And as you scroll through your content, this could be your apps or books or anything else
 you have on the device, it'll suggest other things that customers have bought and that
 it wants you to buy down below here.
 Now when you opt out, this little ad goes away and the lock screen ads go away, but
 these stay.
 So it's kind of constantly recommending things for you to buy, which some people may not
 feel super psyched about.
 This is a comic I was reading.
 This is of course purchased through Amazon.
 And you can see that there's navigation that appears and disappears, which I actually find
 a little annoying because it makes getting around that much more difficult.
 They put the home button on the left side here, the back button in the middle, which
 doesn't make any sense to me, and they've got this little favorites button which you
 can arrange with your own apps.
 It's not exactly multitasking, but it can kind of stand in for multitasking, but it
 doesn't show you what you've recently used.
 Recently used apps are shown here on the home screen.
 It can be apps, it can be music you've listened to, it can be web pages you've visited, books
 you've read, movies you've been watching.
 So one of the really notable pieces of the puzzle here is Amazon's ecosystem.
 It is just fantastic.
 It is really one of the only ecosystems, maybe the only at this point, that can take on what
 Apple is doing.
 And it actually goes beyond what Apple offers and in some way bests it, particularly with
 the Prime offerings.
 You get a bundle of great content that you don't have to pay for.
 You've got a flat fee.
 You pay your subscription price once a year and you get access to tremendous stuff.
 And that's something that not even Apple or Microsoft can offer at this point.
 So it is a really compelling reason to take a look at this device, especially if you feel
 like that's going to be the focus of your use.
 One of the nice things that Amazon is doing is WhisperSync, which they're now kind of
 bringing to every service that they offer.
 For movies, what it means is that you're able to start watching something on the device
 or elsewhere and then pick it up when you pick up your tablet or when you move to your
 living room.
 And it's a pretty cool, I have to say, it's pretty cool and it shows how big their ecosystem
 really is because you can do this on Roku, on your Xbox, on other devices like smartphones.
 So it really is kind of a system spanning ecosystem that they're showing off.
 And it works nicely.
 It works well.
 You know, they've been doing the same thing for books where you can sync your books across
 devices.
 They brought it to movies.
 The other thing that they've brought is X-Ray.
 Right now, it's basically just Cast List from IMDb.
 They're also doing this in books.
 It shows you character mentions.
 And if you click on the characters, you get a bio about that character and some other
 information.
 So right now, X-Ray isn't that useful, but I think it's foreseeable that in the future,
 Amazon will expand what X-Ray actually does, whether it's related content or even perhaps
 being able to purchase things that you see in a movie or items that are mentioned in
 a book.
 The idea of dissecting what the content is and what's inside of it seems pretty powerful.
 But right now, it's, I'd say, a little bit of a sideshow.
 One thing that's interesting about the App Store is that there are a lot of games here,
 not very much productivity software.
 The stuff that is available, I wouldn't say, is necessarily the cream of the crop.
 You know, I think Amazon wants to push the App Store really hard.
 But in comparison to what is offered for something like the Nexus 7, it's a much smaller selection.
 And I would say that the quality of the selection is not nearly as good.
 So in all, the Fire is actually a really excellent tablet for $200.
 And it's mostly excellent because of the Amazon connections.
 The offerings in terms of content are fantastic.
 I mean, they really show the breadth and depth of Amazon's ecosystem.
 And they are really valuable, as far as I'm concerned.
 The problem is, as a tablet that does anything other than consume Amazon's content or can
 be used to shop for Amazon's stuff, it sort of falls flat.
 The app selection isn't as good as something like the Nexus 7.
 The user interface, in my opinion, isn't as good as something like the Nexus 7 or the
 iPad, which is, of course, in a different price class.
 But this is a question about whether you want a device that is for lean back, casual experiences,
 or a device that can do more than just those casual experiences.
 So if you're a user that's looking for a more full-featured experience, a more full-tablet
 experience, something like what the iPad can provide, I would say you want to look at the
 Nexus 7.
 There's just a lot more you can do with it.
 It just seems a lot more capable to me.
 If, however, you just want something to take with you on trips, to watch content, to read
 books, to check out magazines, there is really no better choice in the price range.
 For $199, you get a pretty incredible package.
 And when it's coupled with Prime, it really is an excellent choice for the casual tablet
 user.