最近，我们拿到了Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7，这是一款您猜对了，亚马逊(Amazon)制造的平板电脑。该公司是在线零售领域的巨头，也是最著名的电子书阅读器制造商(reader manufacturer)。然而，一段时间以来，他们还生产其他移动设备，如平板电脑、智能手机或电视棒。Kindle Fire HDX 7是第三代Kindle Fire平板电脑，它承诺提供出色的硬件和改进的操作系统(operating system)，轻巧、优雅且易于使用。这是我们第一次接触亚马逊(Amazon)移动设备，所以你可以想象我们对它有多么好奇。从这篇评论中找出亚马逊 Kindle Fire HDX 7(Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7)的所有优点和缺点：
亚马逊 Kindle Fire HDX 7(Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7)拆箱
Kindle Fire HDX 7采用黑色优质纸板箱(quality cardboard box)。在其正面，您可以看到平板电脑的图片、平板电脑的名称及其主要硬件规格。盒子的背面以多种语言突出显示了平板电脑的一些特征。
然后，当您打开包装盒时，您会看到Kindle Fire HDX 7本身。
在平板电脑下方，您可以获得快速入门指南(start guide)和保修单(warranty leaflet)。隐藏在平板电脑顶部的还有一根USB 数据线(USB cable)。不幸的是，我们收到的Kindle Fire HDX 7没有(Kindle Fire HDX 7)充电器(power charger)，但这可能因您所在的位置而异。
当涉及到包裹和你在里面找到的东西时，差不多就是这样。
硬件规格
亚马逊Kindle Fire HDX 7(Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7)提供 7英寸 IPS LCD 显示屏(IPS LCD display)，在 323 ppi 像素密度下具有 1920 (ppi pixel density)x 1200像素的高分辨率。亚马逊(Amazon)承诺该显示屏提供完美的色彩准确度(color accuracy)和出色的亮度水平。
为其供电的处理器是功能强大的四核Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU，运行频率为 2.2 GHz。它配备了 2GB 的RAM 内存(RAM memory)和一个快速的Adreno 330 视频芯片(video chip)。在存储空间(storage space)方面，您可以获得具有 16、32 或 64GB 内部存储的Fire HDX 7 。遗憾的是，您不能添加 microSD 卡来扩展存储空间(storage space)。
平板电脑的尺寸为 186 x 128 x 9 毫米（高 x 宽 x 厚(Height x Width x Thickness)）或 7.32 x 5.04 x 0.35 英寸，总重 303 克或 10.69 盎司。电池容量为 4550 mAh，看起来不是很多，但亚马逊(Amazon)承诺它可以让你长达 11 小时的混合使用。
我们拿到的Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7上安装的操作系统是(operating system)Fire OS 4.5.4 “ Sangria ”。它本质上是一种定制风格(custom flavor)的Android 操作系统(Android operating)，由亚马逊(Amazon)为他们自己的设备定制。
Kindle Fire HDX 7有一个前置720p(facing 720p) 高清摄像头(HD camera)，但没有后置摄像头。前置摄像头非常适合在Skype或任何其他类似应用程序中进行视频通话。在连接性和端口(connectivity and ports)方面，您将获得一个能够使用 802.11 a/b/g 和 n 协议的双频WiFi 适配器、一个(WiFi adapter)蓝牙芯片(Bluetooth chip)、一个microUSB 2.0端口和一个标准的 3.5 毫米音频插孔。不幸的是，网络芯片(network chip)不支持 802.11ac，因此您将无法连接到 5GHz 无线网络。
如果您居住在美国(United) ，亚马逊(Amazon)的Kindle Fire HDX 7在其连接选项方面以两种变体出售。(States)您可以获得我们获得的基本型号(base model)，或者您可以获得适用于 AT&T 和Verizon的 4G 型号。基本款(base model)只能通过Wifi上网(Wifi)，(Internet)没有GPS芯片(GPS chip)，4G款包括A-GPS。
您可以在亚马逊(Amazon)官方页面上找到完整的规格列表： Kindle Fire HDX 7" - 技术细节(Kindle Fire HDX 7" - Technical details)。
使用亚马逊 Kindle Fire HDX 7
谈到它的设计和制造质量，我们对Kindle Fire HDX 7非常满意。在它的正面，你得到的只是屏幕：没有标志，没有按钮，没有……什么都没有。虽然有些人可能会觉得这太生硬了，但我们喜欢在做事时考虑到简约的哲学。
但是， Kindle Fire HDX 7(Kindle Fire HDX 7)的背面就不是这样了。背板看起来像一个带有棱角的 3D 梯形，由黑色哑光 - 柔软触感塑料制成，手感非常好，可以很容易地将平板电脑握在手中。Kindle Fire HDX 7背面的中心区域以亚马逊(Amazon)的标志为主。
这款平板电脑背面的顶部（如果您以横向模式查看）也是您找到扬声器的地方，位于黑色光滑(landscape mode)塑料边缘(plastic rim)的两端。将扬声器放在设备顶部是一件非常好的事情，因为它可以防止您在使用平板电脑时不小心用手挡住声音。
亚马逊(Amazon)方面一个有趣的设计选择(design choice)是电源按钮(power button)和音量(volume rocker)键也被放置在Kindle Fire HDX 7的背面。起初，我们觉得这个定位有点奇怪，但过了一会儿，你就习惯了，甚至喜欢上了。例如，在看电影时调高或调低音量感觉非常自然且容易。
回到Kindle Fire HDX 7的正面，屏幕确实令人印象深刻。全高清(Full HD)，1920 x 1200像素分辨率，屏幕使用IPS LCD 显示屏(IPS LCD display)，可提供宽视角、良好的色彩还原(color reproduction)、出色的对比度和非常高的亮度水平。Kindle Fire HDX 7是一款出色的平板电脑，即使在明亮的光线条件下（例如在户外时）也能观看电影、阅读书籍或报纸，或者只是浏览互联网。(Internet)从这个角度来看，这是一款比我们过去测试过的大多数平板电脑要好得多的平板电脑。
Kindle Fire HDX 7也有一套不错的扬声器。音频质量非常好，即使扬声器不是很大声，它们也不会扭曲任何声音。但是，如果您想享受其完整的音频功率(audio power)，您应该使用一副好的耳机。
我们评测过的Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7平板电脑的最大缺点是可用的存储空间(storage space)。我们有一个不太强大的模型，只有 16GB 的内部存储空间(storage space)。其中，只有 10.79GB 可供用户使用，其余的由操作系统(operating system)和与其捆绑的默认应用程序使用。(default apps)正如我们之前提到的，平板电脑不包含任何SD 插槽(SD slot)，因此您也无法通过添加SD 卡来扩展(SD card)存储空间(storage space)。如果您考虑平板电脑本身提供全高清屏幕和硬件的事实(Full HD screen and hardware)为了匹配它，很明显你会想用它来观看 1080p 分辨率的媒体文件。这样的高清文件往往非常大：我们所说的每个文件都超过几GB(GBs)。只有 10GB 的可用空间意味着除了要安装的基本应用程序之外，您可能只能在平板电脑的内部空间中存储一两部电影。因此，如果您打算购买Kindle Fire HDX 7，我们强烈建议您选择 32GB 甚至 64GB 变体之一。
Kindle Fire HDX 7提供前置摄像头，但没有后置摄像头。该相机能够以 720p 拍摄照片和拍摄视频，很明显它是为视频通话而设计的。如果您想自拍，我们不建议您这样做，除非您会对外观嘈杂且颜色有些暗淡的照片感到满意。
就性能而言，亚马逊(Amazon)的Kindle Fire HDX 7简直就是震撼。强大的四核 2.2 GHz CPU与 2GB 的RAM 内存(RAM memory)和快速的Adreno 330 视频芯片(video chip)相结合，势不可挡。一切运行顺利：平板电脑本身立即启动，应用程序立即加载(apps load)，观看全高清视频(Full HD videos)是一种无口吃的体验，浏览网页是一种真正的乐趣，多任务处理(pleasure and multi-tasking)在这款平板电脑上感觉很自然。没有任何滞后。我们对Kindle Fire HDX 7(Kindle Fire HDX 7)提供的性能非常满意。
在电池续航方面(battery life)，Kindle Fire HDX 7在正常使用情况下持续一天没有任何问题。(problem lasting)如果您是轻量级用户，您甚至可以每隔几天左右充电一次。但是，在看电影或玩游戏等密集处理任务中，我们设法只使用了 4 到 5 个小时，这仍然足以让您观看整部电影，查看电子邮件并在互联网(Internet)上浏览几页。给平板电脑充电。
我们最喜欢亚马逊 Kindle Fire HDX 7 平板电脑的地方在于其强大的硬件和漂亮的显示屏。无论您要求它做什么，这款平板电脑都能快速响应。然而，有两件事会让我们更喜欢这款平板电脑：后置摄像头和仅限 WiFi 型号的 GPS 传感器。(What we loved mostly about Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet is the strong hardware it packs and the beautiful display. The tablet is fast and responsive no matter what you ask it to do. However, there are two things that would have made us like the tablet even more: a rear camera and a GPS sensor on the WiFi only model.)
Fire OS 4.5.4 和捆绑的应用程序
我们评测的Kindle Fire HDX 7使用了(Kindle Fire HDX 7)亚马逊(Amazon)的Fire OS 4.5.4，这是一个从Android衍生出来的(Android)操作系统(operating system)。然而，最初的Android经历了如此多的自定义，以至于它不再可识别。
Fire OS提供了一个尽可能简单的用户界面。(user interface)这是一件好事，我们必须承认我们喜欢它。但是，亚马逊(Amazon)也剥夺了原始Android的所有自定义选项。即使您愿意，您也无法自定义您的设备。你被亚马逊(Amazon)想要给你的东西所困扰，仅此而已。
Fire OS使用的界面由Amazon为Amazon用户创建。它通过亚马逊应用商店(Amazon Appstore)、亚马逊即时视频(Amazon Instant Video)、亚马逊书店(Amazon Bookstore)等推广可用的内容。主屏幕上(home screen)有一个带有您最近访问的应用程序（或其他内容）的轮播，以及固定在其下方的您最喜欢的应用程序的网格。
在界面顶部，您有一个工具栏，提供搜索、商店、游戏、应用程序、书籍、音乐、视频、报亭、有声读物、网络、照片(Search, Shop, Games, Apps, Books, Music, Videos, Newsstand, Audiobooks, Web, Photos)和文档(Docs)的链接。此外，与Android(Android)类似，如果您从屏幕顶部滑动，您可以访问一些快速设置和通知。
当谈到与Kindle Fire HDX 7捆绑的应用程序时，亚马逊(Amazon)遵循同样的极简主义理念(minimalist philosophy)，并没有预装很多应用程序。默认情况下，您会获得以下应用程序：
Calculator - a simple calculator app.
Calendar - a calendar & agenda app.
Camera - lets you take photos or capture videos with the front facing camera. Interestingly enough, it also offers plenty of editing options for the photos you take.
Clock - a minimalistic clock & alarm app.
Contacts - lists all your contacts.
Email - an email app that works well and looks quite nice.
FreeTime - 实际上是一个“父控件”功能。您可以使用此应用程序为您的孩子创建个人资料。然后，您可以选择他们将能够在您的Kindle Fire HDX 7平板电脑上使用的内容。
Goodreads on Kindle - lets you connect with the Goodreads community, follow friends and see what they are reading. You can also share and rate books you read on your Kindle Fire HDX 7.
Help - offers help and guides for your Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet. You can also use this app in order to contact Amazon for support.
Instant Video - gives you access to Amazon's Instant Video services. You can buy and watch tons of movies and TV shows.
地图(Maps)-类似于Google 地图的(Google Maps)地图查看器(map viewer)。但是，我们发现此应用程序相当无用，因为它仅在您在线时才有效。我们评测的Kindle Fire HDX 7没有 4G 连接，也没有GPS传感器，所以我们真的不能使用地图(Maps)，除非我们有可用的无线连接(wireless connection)。
My Music - lets you browse and play your music.
My Videos - lets you you browse and play videos.
Shop Amazon - takes you to the Amazon website, where you can search for and buy almost anything you can think of.
Silk Browser - 是亚马逊(Amazon)的浏览器应用程序(browser app)。我们最喜欢这款网络浏览器：它运行良好且速度非常快，这可能也是因为平板电脑内部的强大硬件。但是，我们希望在未来改进一件事：地址栏(address bar)和顶部的选项卡非常大，而且总是占用空间。当您在网站上滚动时，这些栏可能会自动隐藏，以便为实际内容留出更多空间。
The Washington Post - is a newsreader for the renowned Washington Post daily newspaper.
天气(Weather)- 一个简单的应用程序，以优雅的方式提供天气预报。
Wish List - takes you to your Wish List from your Amazon account.
我们通常喜欢 Fire OS，但如果亚马逊至少添加一些原始的 Android 自定义选项可能会更好。我们欣赏用户界面的简单性，但例如轮播在主屏幕上占用了太多空间——没有它我们会更好。(We generally liked Fire OS, but it could be much better if Amazon would add at least some of the original Android customization options. We appreciate the simplicity of the user interface, but the carousel for example is taking too much space on the home screen - we would be better without it.)
基准性能
凭借其 2.2GHz四核 Qualcomm Snapdragon 800(quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800)处理器和 2GB内存(RAM)，亚马逊(Amazon)的Kindle Fire HDX 7是一款功能强大的平板电脑。了解规格固然很好，但它与在基准测试中查看硬件的表现相比是不一样的。因为Kindle Fire HDX 7在Fire OS上运行，它实际上是一个Android 系统(Android)，所以我们使用了与在任何其他Android 设备上相同的(Android device)基准测试应用程序(benchmarking apps)。那么让我们(So let)来看看它是怎么做的：
我们在任何计算设备上测量的第一件事是提供的CPU 性能(CPU performance)。为此，我们使用了最流行的基准测试应用程序之一(benchmarking apps)Vellamo。
第一个测试是Vellamo Multicore，这是一个旨在测量同时运行多个任务时的CPU 性能的基准测试。(CPU performance)Kindle Fire HDX 7获得了 1873 分，这是一个非常高的分数。
然后，我们继续测量CPU在单任务操作中的表现。Vellamo Metal测试展示了设备将如何处理不知道如何使用多个CPU 内核(CPU core)的应用程序。考虑到很多应用都属于这一类，这是一个非常重要的测试。亚马逊(Amazon)的Kindle Fire HDX 7获得了 1428 分。这个分数告诉我们，即使使用单个CPU 内核(CPU core)，这款平板电脑也能提供高水平的性能。
评估设备时一个非常重要的测试是其游戏性能。为了测量它，我们使用GFXBench GL Benchmark。为了能够正确地对设备进行排名，我们认为相关的测试是曼哈顿(Manhattan)和霸王龙(T-Rex)测试。我们只考虑它们的屏幕外版本，因为这意味着它们以 1080p 分辨率运行，而与测试设备的原始分辨率无关。
在曼哈顿(Manhattan)测试中，Kindle Fire HDX 7成功渲染了 603 帧，这是一个不错的结果。
在T-Rex测试中，Kindle Fire HDX 7渲染了 1267 帧。这个分数表明这款平板电脑提供的游戏性能(gaming performance)很好，您可以畅玩亚马逊(Amazon Appstore)应用商店中的任何游戏。
我们现在对Kindle Fire HDX 7(Kindle Fire HDX 7)在原始功率和游戏体验(power and gaming experience)方面的表现有了更好的了解。接下来，我们想看看它如何处理更常见的事情，比如浏览网页。为了衡量它在这方面的表现，我们再次使用了Vellamo。此应用程序提供的浏览器测试可衡量设备在必须使用HTML5、CSS3 或 JavaScript(CSS3 or JavaScript)等方式呈现网站时的性能。不幸的是，Vellamo与(Vellamo)亚马逊(Amazon)的Silk 浏览器(Silk Browser)不兼容，因此为了能够获得一些尽可能接近现实的结果，我们首先侧载了谷歌(Google)的Chrome 浏览器(Chrome browser)。Kindle Fire HDX 7获得了 3420 分，这是一个非常不错的成绩。
我们测试的最后一件事是电池提供的自主权。众所周知，Kindle Fire HDX 7配备 4550 mAh 锂聚合物电池(mAh lithium polymer battery)。在正常使用中，这款平板电脑可以持续使用一天甚至更长时间。但为了得到更“科学”的结果，我们还使用了PCMark提供的(PCMark)Work 续航(Work battery life)测试。亚马逊(Amazon)的Kindle Fire HDX 7在这个基准测试中得到的结果是大约 7 个半小时的运行时间，这是不错的，但并不令人震惊。
判决
亚马逊(Amazon)的Kindle Fire HDX 7是一款很棒的小平板电脑。我们喜欢它在您提交的任何任务中的响应速度。该硬件足以支持 Appstore(Appstore)中的任何应用程序或游戏(app or game)。该设计可能不吸引某些人，但如果您喜欢简约，您拥护极简主义理念(minimalist philosophy)并且您喜欢棱角分明的设计，那么您也会喜欢这款平板电脑。另一方面，在为您提供自定义选项时，用户界面(user interface)不是很友好，亚马逊(Amazon)应该在他们的Appstore中添加更多应用程序。最后，我们相信Kindle Fire HDX 7对于任何对亚马逊感兴趣的人来说都是一个不错的选择(Amazon)和他们的服务，如果你是亚马逊 Prime 会员(Amazon Prime member)的话，这是一个非常好的购买。
Reviewing Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 - A Good Tablet With Strong Hardware
Recently, we got our hands on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7, а tablet manufactured by, you guеssed it, Amazon. The company is a giant in the world оf online retail, and it's alѕo the most renоwned e-book reader manufacturer out there. However, for some time now, they have also produce other mobile devices, like tablets, smartphones or TV stickѕ. The Kindlе Fire HDX 7 is the third generation of Kindle Fire tablets and it promiseѕ to deliver great hardware and an іmproved operating system, that's both light, elegant and easy to use. This is our first еnсounter with an Amazon mobile device, so you can imagine how curioυs we were about it. Find out from this review all the strong and all the weаk points of the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7:
Unboxing The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7
The Kindle Fire HDX 7 comes in a black, high quality cardboard box. On its front side, you can see a picture of the tablet you'll find inside, the name of the tablet and also its main hardware specifications. The back side of the box highlights some of the tablet's characteristics, in several languages.
Then, when you open the box, you get to see the Kindle Fire HDX 7 itself.
Beneath the tablet, you get a quick start guide and the warranty leaflet. Tucked away to the top side of the tablet, you'll also find a USB cable. Unfortunately, the Kindle Fire HDX 7 we received had no power charger, but that may vary by your location.
That's pretty much it when it comes to the package and what you find inside it.
Hardware Specifications
The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 offers a 7" IPS LCD display, with a high resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels at 323 ppi pixel density. Amazon promises that the display offers perfect color accuracy and great brightness levels.
The processor powering it is a powerful quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU running at 2.2 GHz. It comes with 2GB of RAM memory and a fast Adreno 330 video chip. In terms of storage space, you can get the Fire HDX 7 with 16, 32 or 64GB of internal storage. Unfortunately, you cannot add a microSD card in order to extend the storage space.
The size of the tablet is 186 x 128 x 9 mm (Height x Width x Thickness) or 7.32 x 5.04 x 0.35 inches and weighs a total of 303 grams or 10.69 oz. The battery has a capacity of 4550 mAh, which doesn't seem like very much, but Amazon promises it can get you up to 11 hours of mixed use.
The operating system installed on the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 we got is Fire OS 4.5.4 "Sangria". It's essentially a custom flavor of the Android operating system, customized by Amazon for their own devices.
The Kindle Fire HDX 7 has a front facing 720p HD camera, but no rear camera. The front camera works really well for video calls in Skype or any other similar app. In terms of connectivity and ports, you get a dual-band WiFi adapter capable of using the 802.11 a/b/g and n protocols, a Bluetooth chip, a microUSB 2.0 port and an standard 3.5mm audio jack. Unfortunately, the network chip doesn't support 802.11ac, so you won't be able to connect to 5GHz wireless networks.
If you live in the United States, Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 is sold in two variants when it comes to its connectivity options. You can get the base model that we got, or you can get a 4G model that works both with AT&T and Verizon. The base model can connect to the Internet only on Wifi and has no GPS chip, while the 4G model includes A-GPS.
You can find the full list of specifications, on Amazon's official page, here: Kindle Fire HDX 7" - Technical details.
Using The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7
When it comes to its design and build quality, we are more than happy with the Kindle Fire HDX 7. On its front side you get nothing more than the screen: no logo, no buttons, no… nothing. While some may find this as too blunt, we like it when things are done with a minimalistic philosophy in mind.
However, the same can't be said about the back of the Kindle Fire HDX 7. The backplate looks like a 3D trapezoid with angular edges and is made of black matte - soft touch plastic that feels really nice and makes it very easy to hold the tablet in your hands. The center area on the back of the Kindle Fire HDX 7 is dominated by Amazon's logo.
The top side of the back of this tablet (if you look at it in landscape mode) is also the place where you find the speakers, positioned on both ends of a black, glossy plastic rim. Placing the speaker to the top of the device is a really good thing, as it stops you from accidentally blocking the sound with your hands while using the tablet.
An interesting design choice on Amazon's part is that the power button and the volume rocker are also placed on the back of the Kindle Fire HDX 7. At first, we found this positioning to be a little bizarre, but after a short while, you get used to it and even enjoy it. It feels very natural and easy to turn the volume up or down when watching a movie, for example.
Going back to the front of the Kindle Fire HDX 7, the screen is really impressive. The Full HD, 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution, screen uses an IPS LCD display that offers wide viewing angles, good color reproduction, great contrast and very high brightness levels. The Kindle Fire HDX 7 is a great tablet for watching movies, reading books or newspapers, or simply browsing the Internet, even in bright light conditions, like when you are outdoors. From this point of view, this is a much better tablet than most of those we have tested in the past.
The Kindle Fire HDX 7 also has a good set of speakers. The audio quality is really good and, even if the speakers are not very loud, they don't distort any sound coming out. However, if you want to enjoy its full audio power, you should use a good set of headphones.
The biggest drawback of the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet we reviewed is the storage space available. We had the less potent model, with only 16GB of internal storage space. Out of that, only 10.79GB are available to the user, the rest being used by the operating system and the default apps bundled with it. As we mentioned before, the tablet doesn't include any SD slot, so you can't extend your storage space by adding an SD card either. If you think about the fact that the tablet itself offers a Full HD screen and hardware to match it, it's obvious that you'll want to use it for watching media files in 1080p resolution. Such HD files tend to be very big: we're speaking about more than a few GBs for each file. Having only 10GB of free space means you might be able to store only one or two movies on the tablet's internal space, besides the basic apps you'll want to install. As such, if you intend on buying the Kindle Fire HDX 7, we strongly recommend you to choose one of the 32GB or even the 64GB variants.
The Kindle Fire HDX 7 offers a front facing camera, but no rear one. The camera is capable of shooting pictures and capturing videos at 720p, and it's clear that it was designed only for video calls. If you want to take selfies, we don't recommend you do that, unless you're going to be satisfied by pictures with a noisy look and with somewhat dull colors.
In terms of performance, Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 simply rocks. The powerful quad-core 2.2 GHz CPU combined with the 2GB of RAM memory and the fast Adreno 330 video chip are unstoppable. Everything runs smoothly: the tablet itself boots in no time, the apps load instantly, watching Full HD videos is a stutter free experience, browsing the web is a real pleasure and multi-tasking is something that feels natural on this tablet. There are no lags whatsoever. We were very happy with the performance the Kindle Fire HDX 7 offers.
When it comes to its battery life, the Kindle Fire HDX 7 doesn't have any problem lasting for a day under normal use. If you're a light user, you might even charge it every couple of days or so. However, in intensive processing tasks like watching movies or playing games, we managed to use it only for 4 to 5 hours, which is still enough for you to watch an entire movie, check your email and browse a few pages on the Internet before actually charging the tablet.
What we loved mostly about Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet is the strong hardware it packs and the beautiful display. The tablet is fast and responsive no matter what you ask it to do. However, there are two things that would have made us like the tablet even more: a rear camera and a GPS sensor on the WiFi only model.
Fire OS 4.5.4 & Bundled Apps
The Kindle Fire HDX 7 we reviewed used Amazon's Fire OS 4.5.4, an operating system forked from Android. However, the original Android went through so many customizations that it's no longer recognizable.
Fire OS offers a user interface designed to be as simple as possible. This is a good thing, and we must admit we like it. However, Amazon also stripped the original Android of all the customization options. You can't customize your device, even if you wanted to. You're stuck with what Amazon had in mind to give you and that's pretty much it.
The interface used by Fire OS is created by Amazon, for Amazon users. It promotes content available through the Amazon Appstore, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Bookstore and so on. The home screen features a carousel with the apps (or other content) you recently accessed, and a grid of your favorite apps pinned under it.
On the top of the interface you have a toolbar that offers links for Search, Shop, Games, Apps, Books, Music, Videos, Newsstand, Audiobooks, Web, Photos and Docs. Also, similarly to Android, if you slide from the top of the screen you can access some quick settings and your notifications.
When it comes to the apps bundled with the Kindle Fire HDX 7, Amazon followed the same minimalist philosophy and didn't preinstall many apps. By default, you get the following apps:
Calculator - a simple calculator app.
Calendar - a calendar & agenda app.
Camera - lets you take photos or capture videos with the front facing camera. Interestingly enough, it also offers plenty of editing options for the photos you take.
Clock - a minimalistic clock & alarm app.
Contacts - lists all your contacts.
Email - an email app that works well and looks quite nice.
FreeTime - is in fact a "parent controls" feature. You can use this app to create profiles for your kids. Then, you can select the content that they will be able to use on your Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet.
Goodreads on Kindle - lets you connect with the Goodreads community, follow friends and see what they are reading. You can also share and rate books you read on your Kindle Fire HDX 7.
Help - offers help and guides for your Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet. You can also use this app in order to contact Amazon for support.
Instant Video - gives you access to Amazon's Instant Video services. You can buy and watch tons of movies and TV shows.
Maps - a map viewer similar to Google Maps. However, we found this app to be rather useless as it only works if you are online. The Kindle Fire HDX 7 we reviewed has no 4G connectivity and no GPS sensors, so we really couldn't use Maps except when we had a working wireless connection.
My Music - lets you browse and play your music.
My Videos - lets you you browse and play videos.
Shop Amazon - takes you to the Amazon website, where you can search for and buy almost anything you can think of.
Silk Browser - is Amazon's browser app. We mostly liked this web browser: it runs well and it's pretty fast, probably also because of the powerful hardware inside the tablet. However, there is one thing we'd like improved in the future: the address bar and the tabs at the top are pretty large and are always taking space. These bars could be automatically hidden when you scroll on a website so that more space is left for the actual content.
The Washington Post - is a newsreader for the renowned Washington Post daily newspaper.
Weather - a simple app that offers weather predictions in an elegant manner.
Wish List - takes you to your Wish List from your Amazon account.
We generally liked Fire OS, but it could be much better if Amazon would add at least some of the original Android customization options. We appreciate the simplicity of the user interface, but the carousel for example is taking too much space on the home screen - we would be better without it.
Performance In Benchmarks
With its 2.2GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM, Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 is a powerful tablet. Knowing the specs is good, but it doesn't compare to seeing how the hardware fares in benchmarks. Because the Kindle Fire HDX 7 runs on Fire OS, which is in fact an Android at heart, we used the same benchmarking apps as we would have on any other Android device. So let's go see how it did:
The first thing we measure on any computing device is the CPU performance offered. To do that, we use Vellamo, one of the most popular benchmarking apps.
The first test is Vellamo Multicore, a benchmark that aims to measure the CPU performance when running multiple tasks simultaneously. The Kindle Fire HDX 7 managed to get 1873 points, which is a very high score.
Then, we moved on to measuring how well the CPU fares in single task operations. The Vellamo Metal test shows how a device will handle apps that don't know how to use more than one CPU core. Considering that many apps fall into this category, this is a very important test. Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 got 1428 points. This score tells us that the tablet offers high levels of performance even when using a single CPU core.
A very important test when assessing a device, is its gaming performance. To measure it, we use GFXBench GL Benchmark. The tests we consider relevant in order to be able to correctly rank a device, are the Manhattan and T-Rex tests. We only take into consideration their offscreen versions, as that means they are run at a 1080p resolution, regardless of the native resolution of the tested device.
In the Manhattan test, the Kindle Fire HDX 7 managed to render 603 frames, which is a good result.
In the T-Rex test, Kindle Fire HDX 7 rendered 1267 frames. This score shows that the gaming performance offered by this tablet is good and you will be able to play any game available in the Amazon Appstore without issues.
We now have a better idea of how the Kindle Fire HDX 7 fares in terms of raw power and gaming experience. Next, we wanted to see how well it handles more common things like browsing the web. To measure its performance in this area, we used Vellamo again. The browser tests offered by this app measure the performance of a device when it has to render websites using things like HTML5, CSS3 or JavaScript. Unfortunately, Vellamo isn't compatible with Amazon's Silk Browser, so to be able to get some results, as close to reality as possible, we first sideloaded Google's Chrome browser. Kindle Fire HDX 7 managed to get 3420 points, which is a very good result.
The final thing we tested was the autonomy offered by the battery. As we already know, the Kindle Fire HDX 7 features a 4550 mAh lithium polymer battery. In normal use, the tablet managed to last us for a day and even more. But in order to get a more "scientific" result, we also used the Work battery life test offered by PCMark. The result Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 got in this benchmark was a running time of about 7 hours and a half, which is decent but not astounding.
Verdict
Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX 7 is a great little tablet. We loved how fast it responds in whatever task you throw at it. The hardware is more than capable of sustaining any app or game in the Appstore. The design might not appeal to some, but if you like simplicity, you embrace the minimalist philosophy and you like angular designs, you'll also love this tablet. On the other hand, the user interface is not very friendly when it comes to offering you customization options and Amazon should add more apps to their Appstore. In the end, we believe the Kindle Fire HDX 7 is a good buy for anyone interested in Amazon and their services, and a really great buy if you are an Amazon Prime member.
