Amazon Kindle Fire HD (7", Wi-Fi) Review

The Amazon Kindle Fire HD ($199/16GB; $249/32GB) isn't a tablet. It's more like a shop window onto the world's biggest content department store. The new 7-inch model from the super-retailer offers up a well-designed interface that provides an easy way to consume Amazon's huge library of content and services and to buy, buy, buy. That makes the Kindle Fire HD (KFHD) highly entertaining, and potentially the best purchase for tablet shoppers who value ease of use over all else. But in an increasingly competitive 7-inch tablet market, it stops just short of earning our Editors' Choice award. That honor remains with the Google Nexus 7.

Physical Design and Battery Life
The Kindle Fire HD feels more solid, well-built, and premium than the original Kindle Fire, which some people thought was made from leftover BlackBerry PlayBook parts. At 7.6 by 5.4 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 13.9 ounces, it's slightly bigger, but slimmer and lighter than last year's model. The corners are more rounded, and the back is softly tapered with a grippy feel. It's constructed mostly of a matte plastic material, with a shiny black strip along the back housing two powerful, dual-driver, room-filling stereo speakers. The Power button is now recessed into the right side panel, as opposed to the original Fire's unfortunate bottom-mounted button, and there's a hardware volume rocker next to it.