The Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (4G, 32GB) was easy to use for a wide variety of functions. It was easy to move from screen to screen using finger swipes. It was difficult to move app icons among screens. Amazon includes an enhanced user-interface. Home screens have useful custom widgets. The onscreen keyboard may be used in "gesture" mode to type by swiping to each letter.
The rear-facing camera performed well. Photos can be displayed full height without interference from the navigation bar. Turning from portrait to landscape while reading a book worked well. A voice-typing feature lets you dictate emails and text documents. There's no memory-card slot, so storage can't be expanded. You can sync and transfer files to and from a PC using USB.
The display quality was excellent overall. Colors were among the most realistic and natural-looking we've seen. The screen was among the brightest we've measured and readability in daylight was very good. Viewing angle was extremely wide in landscape orientation, making it easy to share viewing of photos or video with several people. Viewing angle was extremely wide in portrait orientation, making it easy to view by several people at one time.
Touch response was excellent. The capacitive touchscreen responds to a light finger touch, and allows multiple fingers to perform gesture actions. Moving objects and using finger gestures is easy and precise. Repositioning icons was not as easy as with most tablets. A special coating on the screen resists fingerprints and makes cleaning easier.
This tablet has a very good set of useful features that make it convenient and versatile to use - see the "About" section for more details. The Amazon app market is not as large as Apple's or Google's, so some popular apps may not be available. There is also access to a large media market through Amazon, for downloading movies, music and books.
There are a variety of sensors to provide positional and environmental info to apps and games. These include a global positioning system (GPS) receiver to locate the user geographically and allow the use of navigation apps, an accelerometer to give motion feedback to apps, a gyroscope to give rotational feedback to apps, a magnetic compass to give directional feedback, and an ambient light sensor to reduce the screen brightness to extend battery time.
This is among the most portable tablets in the 9- to 12-inch category. Its battery life of 15.3 hours lets you use it all day without recharging. It's very slim and compact for its screen size, and at 0.84 pounds, it's a very lightweight tablet for its size.
