Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (2013)

usability, performance, screen, portability, price

reliability, GPS navigation

90% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

Great screen, Excellent performance, Loud and clear speakers, Mayday and Freetime apps clever and innovative, Very thin and light, Good battery life

Fire OS too restrictive, Poor app store, Occasionally glitchy apps, Extra storage is pricey

Good design Great screen Strong video and music performances

No access to Google Play Amazon ecosystem is heavy-handed

There’s a lot to love about the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. In terms of performance, it’s up there with the best of them, with a great screen, a good way with music and movies and a strong battery life. But its locked-in ecosystem isn’t going to be for...

8.9 inch HD display ; Fast performance ; Parental controls ; Dual speakers

Fire OS ; Amazon app store ; Limited storage ; Firefly is buggy

An accessible, competitively-priced window into Amazon's world for the whole family, the Fire HDX 8.9 has a class-leading display and excellent speakers. Sadly the performance, the choice of apps, and the quality of what's there let it down.

Mayday live assist ; Great display ; Good battery life ; Excellent design

Heavy on Amazon services ; Lack of Android apps ; Poor camera ; Browser doesn't support Flash

A great tablet for all things Amazon, but not much else

Super-sharp screen ; 4G support ; Slim and very light

No Google Play

As a media and all-round entertainment machine, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a solid rival for the iPad Air 2. However, there is a caveat, and that’s the tablet’s deep roots in Amazon’s ecosystem.

The Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 is the first tablet with Dolby Atmos audio-enhancing technology and Amazon's item-identifying Firefly function. Its user-friendly operating system includes Mayday instant customer service, extensive parental controls and the...

Amazon's curated app store has far fewer apps and games than Google and iOS app stores. The heavily modified OS leaves little room for customization and there's no microSD card slot.

Impressive Amazon features and an outstanding display make the the Fire HDX 8.9 one of the best and most affordable media consumption tablets.

Slick, portable design

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The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a performance monster that speeds through Web sites and UI navigation at a frantic pace. Its screen is impressively sharp and its body amazingly light for a larger tablet. The Mayday feature gives personal and...

The remote video viewing feature won't be ready at launch, and ad-free versions still cost an extra $15. The 16GB of space runs out quickly when storing HD movies, and there's no built-in storage expansion. Lack of Google Play access means many apps...

With everything that was great about the HDX 7 and more, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 isn't just a great value, it sets the standard for a media consumption tablet.

Light ; Family-friendly ; Easy access to media services

Not the best app store ; Interface could be slicker ; Can be beaten for value and quality

A neatly rounded entertainment option but there's better value and higher quality to be found either side of the HDX 8.9.

The Amazon Fire HDX 8.9" tablet measures 22.5x15.5x.5cm where the last figure is thickness at the edges, it is slightly thicker once you are 1.5cm in, and it weights 372 grams. As with a lot of tablets it comes naked and to fully protect the screen you...