Storage and pricing
Both tablets are available with two storage options. In a slight dig at Asus, Amazon claims "8GB is not enough storage for HD content". As well as offering double the internal storage for the same price, Amazon also offers cloud backup.
The entry-level Kindle Fire HD comes with 16GB of internal storage, and this is priced at 159. For the same price, Google offers 8GB of internal storage. Meanwhile, a 32GB Kindle Fire HD costs 199, the same price as 16GB Nexus 7.
Battery life
Both the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 aim to provide all-day battery. The Fire HD comes with a touted 11 hours of mixed usage with the Wi-Fi turned off, and the Nexus is not too far behind with between 9-10 hours.
We will soon be putting the devices head-to-head in our light use and intensive battery tests to see which comes out on top.
Early indications
On paper, the Kindle Fire HD appears to be the stronger device. It will feature double the internal storage for the same price as the Nexus 7 and also leads the way when it comes to directly purchasing movies/TV shows and songs from the default marketplace.
However, the Nexus 7 will retain more functionality as it has the full Android OS and there are more than 10x the number of apps at this time.
As paper specifications don't tell the full story, we reserve judgment on which device is better until we carry out real-world testing. But, at this stage, it doesn't look like there is much to separate them.
