Amazon has upgraded the Kindle Fire in several ways, turning it from a merely affordable tablet to an affordable and very well-equipped tablet. We compared Amazon and Google's $199 Android tablets to see which is the better choice
The Kindle Fire HD has been given a complete overhaul over the original Kindle Fire. Its IPS LCD touch screen is a higher resolution 1280 by 800 pixels compared to its predecessor's 1,048 by 600 pixels, and it boasts a new single-layer touch sensor/LCD screen design that Amazon claims reduces glare. It now features Bluetooth and a front-facing camera, neither of which was found on the Kindle Fire. It also boasts some new networking tricks, with dual Wi-Fi antennas and MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi in 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands.
The Nexus 7 has similar specs - NFC, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi but it only has 8GB of storage compared to the Kindle Fire HD's 16GB (the $249 Nexus 7 has 16GB of storage), and there's no HDMI output on the Nexus 7. It's also slightly smaller and lighter than the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch tablet. The Nexus 7 also has dedicated GPS, and can find its location without access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. However, you need Wi-Fi to download the appropriate maps to the device to make that location data useful (but you can do this any time through Google Maps’ offline mode). The big difference between the two tablets isn't their hardware, but their software.
Both are Android-based, but while the Nexus 7 offers a pure Android 4.1 interface with no additional skinning, branding, or control beyond Google's own operating system, the Kindle Fire HD renders Android almost unrecognizeable to provide a highly curated experience that centers around Amazon's content services. Android phones often use different skins based on the manufacturer, but they're recognizeable as Android, with the same general app layout and interface design. The Kindle Fire completely redesigns the interface to focus on your Amazon purchases and to offer integrated access to Amazon's own Android Appstore, book store, music store, and video store. It's a matter of personal taste and need, and when the other aspects of the tablets are so similar, it's the most important thing to consider when shopping for a 7-inch Android tablet.
Google Nexus 7 Vs Amazon Kindle Fire:Video
