Amazon has introduced two devices to its Kindle Fire tablet range, with the online retailer touting enhanced performance, battery life and on-screen customer support.
The Kindle Fire HDX tablets will be available in two varieties - a 7in edition (1920 x 1200) or 8.9in (2560 x 1600) model. Amazon claims these displays are "beyond HD" and provide 100 per cent sRGB colour accuracy.
In Germany and the UK devices will also have built-in 4G connectivity via a Vodafone SIM. Users can sign up to a promotional bundle for 25. This includes 5GB of data for three months, 20GB of Amazon Cloud storage and 5 credit for the Amazon Appstore.
Customers can then choose whether they want to continue using this and sign up to a data plan with the network.
Specifications
The Kindle Fires are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.2GHz. This triples the performance and offers 4x the graphics capabilities over the previous generation, Amazon said.
Users can make conference calls via Skype using the front-facing HD camera. The 8-megapixel wide-aperture camera on the back of the 8.9in Fire HDX will also be able to record video in 1080p HD.
Operating system
Amazon has upgraded the operating system to Fire OS 3.0, which it has named "Mojito". Built on a foundation of Android, this retains the heavy layer of Amazon customisation over the top.
The Fire 3.0 OS introduces a raft of features including Quick Switch, which allows users to swipe between multiple content without needing to navigate to the home screen.
Amazon has introduced a 1-Tap Archive option to help free up space on tablets. The Kindle Fire automatically identifies items that are not used regularly and offers you the option to move them to cloud storage with a tap.
Accessibility features are improved too. Screen Reader (with text-to-speech voice), Explore by Touch, and Screen Magnifier aim to make the tablets easier to use for those with visual impairments.
Meanwhile, Amazon is also aiming to provide unique customer support via its Mayday' button in Quick Settings. If you're struggling to get something working on the tablet, tapping this will bring up an Amazon expert who can show you what to do. Amazon is aiming for a 15 seconds reponse time and will be offering this service 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year at no charge.
Battery life is improved too, with Amazon touting 11 hours of mixed usage or 17 hours of reading time.
Pricing and release date
