Amazon 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD VS Apple New iPad

With the faster and taller iPhone 5’s release today, Apple ensures its dominant space in technology again. Either smartphone or tablet, it is difficult to replace the Apple for both Google and Amazon. Amazon just wants to maintain more space on the tablet market and it announced the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD aiming to overthrow the Google Nexus 7 as the best budget tablet (price range: $199 – $249), and the 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HD aiming to be a high-end device with the considerably price starting at just $299, lower than other tablets featuring the same kind of specs. And Apple’s iPad Mini is not unveiled and is anticipated to arise on Oct.

Apparently, Kindle Fire HD 8.9 inch will give heavy pressure on iPad with high-resolution display (1920 x 1200)and MIMO (multi-input/output) functionality, which Amazon claims will give the Kindle Fire HD 40 percent faster Wi-Fi than the iPad. But what exactly are better, Kindle Fire HD 8.9 inch or the New iPad?So let’s just compare them.

Display

The 8.9-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD has an 8.9-inch display (DUH!) that works at a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution (the same resolution used by the ASUS Transformer Prime Infinity) and a PPI(Pixel Per Inch) of 254.While the new iPad is at 9.7 inches with LED-backlit IPS TFT display uses a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution, the highest resolution you’ll encounter on any tablet currently announced , and a PPI density of 264, also currently a valid record in the tablet market.

You maybe think that the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is not better than the New iPad from this aspect, but actually with the PPI of 254, the display on the 8.9 inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD is almost as sharp as that of the Apple iPad 3, although it is 0.8 inches smaller.

Besides, one advantage that the 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HD has over the new iPad is the first’s anti-glare technology which you can creat a display that’s easy to view, even in overhead light.

Hardware

Amazon announced the 8.9-inch Kindle HD uses Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 chips and the chip is faster than the Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC with a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor.Apple has used the new A5X chip, currently the fastest chip on the market when it comes to both CPU and GPU tests, inside the third-generation iPad with a 1.0Ghz dual-core processor. The performance offered by the CPU inside the Amazon Kindle Fire will be comparable, but the latter will not be able to compete against the iPad’s more powerful GPU.On to the amount of RAM memory, the latest version of Apple’s iPad carries 1GB of RAM, while the 8.9-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD is presumably using the same amount of RAM.

The Wi-Fi 8.9-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD, features a HD front-facing camera for Skype calls, comes in 16GB or 32GB models, Amazon is throwing in 20GB of cloud storage space for your own stuff, and unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content. The new iPad, which has a 5MP rear facing camera capable of 1080p videos and a VGA camera for video chatting comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions and offers up to 5GB of iCloud storage no matter whether they’re cellular-enabled or Wi-Fi-only versions.

The LTE version of the Amazon Kindle Fire HD (8.9 inches) will only work with AT&T while The LTE-enabled version of the new Apple iPad can work with both Verizon and AT&T.

OS and Ecosystem
 
The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is powered by a forked version of Android 4.0 be able to get new apps from the Amazon Appstore. Basically you can do with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is to access Amazon’s Appstore or buy books, music and magazines or rent movies. Google’s products are virtually non-existent on all the new Amazon Kindle tablets.The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is also well integrated with Amazon's services, so Amazon Prime users will get access to thousands of free streaming videos and Prime users will also get the Kindle Lending Program, which grants free access to eBooks. Your content will be stored and accessible from the Amazon Cloud. Amazon's content ecosystem is roughly equivalent with what you can find in iTunes, although Apple may have a slight edge.

Apple’s new iPad uses iOS 5, an OS that offers over 550,000 apps inside the App Store. As far as the quality of the available apps goes, the wide diversity of quality, tablet-optimized apps offered by the iPad may be unrivaled even by fully-fledged Android tablets. Apple also has a stronger ecosystem than Amazon when it comes to tablets. It definitely has the advantage when it comes to apps and I'd give it a slight edge in terms of movies, TV shows and music choices. The New iPad ecosystem extends beyond software though, as you can find all sorts of neat covers and accessories specifically designed for the Apple tablet.

Price

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 will be significantly cheaper than the new iPad. You can also pick up a Kindle Fire HD 8.9 with 32GB for $369 and the $499 version gets you 32GB and 4G LTE connectivity ($50 a month for 250MB of data). And the new iPad costs $499 with 16GB. A 32GB version costs $599, a 64GB model costs $699 and versions with integrated 4G LTE modems cost $629, $729 and $829 for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions.

The Apple new iPad has been available since March this year, while the Amazon Kindle Fire HD will be released on November 20.

Verdict

All in all, the 8.9-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD is nearly as powerful as the iPad though iPad is in reality better than it. But if you just want to look a high-end entertain tablet, I think it will be a better choice than iPad, after all, not everyone can afford the iPad.

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is currently the tablet that offers the best bang for buck ratio around. And if you have interest in it, just wait for its coming.


Related articles: 

• Kindle Fire vs New iPad 
• Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire