Kindle Fire HD 8.9 VS iPad 4. Amazon strikes with impressive value for money

Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has arrived in Spain coinciding with a global price cut that has put the tablet with a starting price of $ 269 in the United States and 269 euros in Europe. When it came out at the time, we were pleasantly surprised by its capabilities and its good price. As a tablet of a company that fully manages the content, it reminds us of Apple tablets and given its large format it could be a good alternative to iPad with Retina Display which is much more expensive. Here is a comparison of the two tablets.

Integrated

The Cupertino tablet has already classic shapes but with a very fine finish with its aluminum back. The look of the Amazon is more modern, although the materials are worse. On the contrary, in terms of weight and thickness, we will find in the second a lighter and thinner device as well as smaller, a little more portable.

Screen

The iPad screen is superior in resolution, however, in definition the thing is quite even. Your eye will not notice the difference in this regard. Yes, you may notice a certain difference in the intensity of colors and luminosity, but tastes come in quite a bit here.

Performance: processor and OS

The processor of the iPad 4 is a bit more powerful. In numbers they are equal: same ARMv7 architecture, same type of Cuts A9 cores in CPU and same power and same GPU. However, the Cupertino operating system gets more out of the hardware. Both are closed systems, although the one in Seattle is based on Android and the latter focuses much more on content than operability. In this sense we have a machine a little more versatile on the iPad.

Storage

The internal storage options of the Californian tablet are more varied and larger. We can choose up to four and two of them exceed the 32 GB limit of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. Neither of them has an extension by SD card, however, in the latter we can use the 20 GB of free Cloud, something that we do not have in Apple's. In addition, you have to remember the expense of choosing models with more iPad storage.

Connectivity

The WiFi with dual antenna of the one in Seattle is better than that of its rival, the bad thing is that it has Spain They have not brought the version with LTE. The latter is found on iPad. However, the ease of exporting the image to Amazon's is greater thanks to the microHDMI, at Apple we will have to buy expensive adapter cables.

Battery

Rarely can we say that a battery lasts longer than that of the iOS tablet, but in this case we have a good competitor with one more hour of autonomy. In any case, 10 and 11 hours are very good and they give us more than enough.

Cameras and sound

At Amazon they thought that the rear camera would only make the product more expensive and that it would rarely be used with mobile phones, so they dispensed with it. However, its front camera is excellent and gives an outstanding video call quality, better than that of the iPad.

In sound too win thanks to Dolby technology, ideal for enjoying movies.

Price and conclusions

The difference in price between these two tablets is inversely proportional to the difference in quality. We have two great devices, being the slightly more versatile and capable iPad. However, the price difference is such that In value for money the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 wins by a landslide. In addition, it has some aspects such as connectivity or sound in which it is superior. A device that gives us high-end tablet features for less than 300 euros is a gift. In iPad at least we have to prepare 499 euros and we will have a model with storage problems.

Tablet	iPad 4	Kindle Fire HD 8.9
Size	241,2 x 185,7 x 9,4 mm	240 x 164 x 8,8 mm
Screen	9.7-inch multi-touch LED IPS, Retina	8,9 inch HD LCD, IPS panel
Decision	2048 x 1536 (264 ppi)	1920 x 1200 (254 ppi)
Thickness	9,4 mm	8,8 mm
Weight :	652 or 662 grams	575 grams
Operating system	iOS 6	Modified Android (based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich)
Processor	A6XCPU: dual core @1, 5 GHzGPU: PowerVR SGX544 Quad-core	OMAP 4470CPU: Dual Core @ 1,5 GHzGPU: PowerVR SGX554
RAM	1 GB	1GB
Conference proceedings	16GB / 32GB / 64GB / 128	16 GB / 32 GB
Extension	—–	Cloud (20GB)
Connectivity	WiFi 802.11 b / g / n at 2,4 and 5 GHz, LTE, Bluetooth	WiFi Dual band, dual antenna (MIMO), Bluetooth
Ports	Lightning, 3.5 mm Jack	USB 2.0, microHDMI, 3.5 Jack,
Sound	Rear speakers	2 Speaker, Dolby Audio Dual
Camera	Front Facetime HD 2 MPX (720p) / Rear iSight 5 MPX (1080p video)	Front HD
Embedded	GPS, accelerometer, light sensor, gyro, compass	GPS, G-Sensor, Gyroscope, Light Sensor, E-compass
Battery	10 hours	11 hours
Price	WiFi: 499 euros (16 GB) / 599 euros (32 GB) / 699 euros (64 GB) WiFi + LTE: 629 euros (16 GB) / 729 euros (32 GB) / 829 euros (64 GB)	Wi-Fi: €269 (16GB) / €299 (64GB)