Amazon Kindle Fire HDX touches down: 8.9″ and 7″ tablets with 2GHz CPU

Earlier today, Amazon announced two brand new Kindle Fires, plus revamps of the 7″ and 8.9″ models. There’s the Kindle Fire HDX in two sizes, and both have a 2Ghz Snapdragon 800 CPU. The best news of all is the insanely cheap Kindle Fire revamps, with the 7″ version starting at R1400 (US$139). The Kindle Fire was already one of the better 7″ tablets out there, and at this price, with a full HD display to boot, there’s no reason why the newer, lighter Kindle Fires shouldn’t sell like hotcakes.

Let’s begin with the PPI-packed HDX models.

Kindle Fire HDX 7″ and 8.9″

There are a lot of reasons to get excited about these tablets. First, the price because that’s what it all boils down to ultimately. The 7″ HDX starts at R2290 (US$229) and the 8″ model begins its journey at R3790 (US$379). The 7″ arrives 18 October, while the 8.9″ is ready 7 November.

It’s the display that drives up the price. The 8.9″ model has a 339PPI, 2560×1600 display. That’s “beyond HD”, says Amazon. It’s also very true. It also has 3x the power of the last tablet, a 2.2Ghz tablet with 2GB RAM and an Adreno 330 GPU. This thing is boss, yo. It’s also rather light, at only 374grams, and that’s going to help with user fatigue as there’s now an 18-hour battery life for reading, and 12-hours for “normal usage”.

With an 8MP rear camera and a revamped Fire OS 3.0, the HDX 8.9″ should sell faster than a half-price iPhone. It comes in a 16, 32 and 64GB version, with a WiFi or WiFi and 4G option.

The 7″ version is more of the same, with a 1920×1200 display running at 323PPI. Now, both new tablets have the updated “X-ray” feature, a software trick that pulls information for mostly any content the Kindle Fire is running. For example, X-ray will display lyrics for a song, or Fire can become a second screen, something very much in vogue these days.

Revamped Kindle Fire 7″ and 8.9″

Both the 7″ and 8.9″ revamped Kindle Fires are being touted as “HD tablets at an SD” price and that’s about as true as it ever gets. The 7″ version has a 216PP with a 1280×800 display and costs R1400 (US$139). It also now has a 1.5Ghz dual-core CPU. Battery life is still a healthy 10-hours and this combined with the new Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito” produces the best of Android and Kindle together, so says the company. It’s coming 2 October.

The R2699 (US$269) 8.9″ Kindle Fire has a 1920×1200 display running at 254PPI. It’s still the same Kindle Fire from last year. Our eyes are on the 7″ one though, at that price it’ll be foolish to miss out on it.