Fire HD

History

The first model was announced on September 6, 2012 and was available in two models, 7" and 8.9". The 7" model was released in United States on September 14, then France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom on October 25 and in Japan on December 18. The 8.9" model was released on November 20 in United States, in Japan on March 12, 2013 in Germany on March 13, and in India on June 27.

On September 25, 2013, the Fire HD second generation was released. The price of the Fire HD 7" was reduced to $139, the processor speed was upgraded to 1.5 GHz, upgraded from "Android based" OS to a compatible proprietary fork of Android named Fire OS 3, removed the front camera, used a new form factor and decreased the available storage options. In addition, the Fire HD's successor the Kindle Fire HDX was introduced.

On October 2, 2014, the Fire HD third generation was released, which is part of the Fire Tablet's fourth generation, with 6-inch and 7-inch touchscreen sizes. In addition, the Fire HD Kids Edition was released, which is the same device as the Fire HD 6 except it comes with a case and one-year subscription to Kindle Freetime apps. In addition, the name "Kindle" was officially removed from the tablets' name.

In September 2015, Amazon released a new range of Fire tablets with 7, 8, and 10 inch sizes. The 7 inch was simply called the Fire 7, while the 8 and 10" were called Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 respectively. The Fire 7 is unique as it is, thus far, the lowest priced Fire tablet at $50. In September 2016, Amazon announced the new Fire HD 8 with Alexa starting at $90.

Hardware

The Fire tablets feature multi-touch touchscreen LCD screens. The first generation 7" model contains a Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 processor, while the 8.9" model uses an OMAP 4470 processor. All three models feature Dolby audio and stereo speakers. The 7" model's speakers are dual-driver, while the 8.9" model's are single-driver. The device has two Wi-Fi antennas on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands which utilize MIMO to improve reception. The Fire HD also added Bluetooth connectivity allowing users to connect an array of wireless accessories including keyboards. The first generation models have an HDMI port, but this is missing from future generations.

In June 2016, Amazon released a version of the Fire HD 10 that has an aluminum exterior instead of plastic like the other Fire tablets, and is available at the same price as the plastic version.

Software

The 2012 models use software that introduced user profiles for sharing among family members and the ability to place absolute limits on total usage or usage of individual features, called FreeTime, and tracks the user's reading speed to predict when the user will finish a chapter or book. The OS is based on a version of Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich). This does not allow use of Google Play, limiting the number of apps accessible for the Fire HD. Fire HD software updates can be received OTA or from the support websites.

The Fire HD 7" second generation used Fire OS 3. Note that although this version is called the Fire HD 7", it is not the successor to the original Fire HD. This model is the successor to the Fire second generation. The Fire HD models second generation were updated to FireOS 4.1.1, based on Android 4.4.4, in Q3 2014.

The Fire HD 6" and 7" third generation uses Fire OS 4 "Sangria", which features profiles so each user on the tablet can have their own settings and apps.

The Fire HD 8" and 10" fifth generation uses Fire OS 5 "Bellini" and was released in late 2015. In September 2016, Amazon released virtual assistant Alexa for the sixth generation Fire tablets.

Models

*table above only includes data on "HD"-branded tablets