Amazon has lowered the price of Kindle Fire HD 8.9 in the US, with the Wi-Fi version now starting at $269 and the 4G version starting at $399 for 16GB models, this is the first time we've seen a brand new larger tablet come closed to the $200 price point since the ImmortaPad aka HP TouchPad.
The new prices of $269 and $399 include special offers. if you don't want the advertising on the homescreen it will cost an additional $15 bringing the price up to $284 or $414.
Reviewers liked many features of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 giving an average rating of 4 out 5 stars for.
- Parental controls and Kid-friendly features - such as FreeTime that lets parents create custom profiles for each child, and set daily time limits for Kindle Fire HD use. You can even add favorite books, TV shows, movies, apps and games for them to enjoy safely.
- Ease of use.
- Excellent battery life.
- Kindle Free Time Unlimited is an optional extension for kids 3-8 with unlimited books, games, apps, movies and TV shows.
- Amazon Prime customers get unlimited movies, media and other perks.
In Amazon's comparison of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 vs the iPad, the Kindle Fire HD is a better price, the screen has indistinguishable difference in pixel density, it has dual Wi-Fi antennas instead one in the iPad. Amazon also noted the Kindle product has features the iPad doesn have such content can be used anywhere, X-Ray for movies, and Kindle owner's library. What Amazon did not reveal is that in benchmark tests the Kindle Fire HD is much slower than the iPad 4, Nexus 10, iPad 3, Samsung Galaxy Note, iPad 2.
The Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE with special offers costs $399.99 and $49.99 a year includes 250MB of data per month for a year, averaging $4.16 per month. However it's not enough data to watch movies, it would be enough for email and very light browsing. Or you can buy from AT&T, 3GB for $30/month plus $10 for each additional gigabyte of 3G data.
So how do you decide if you should buy Kindle Fire HD 8.9? It depends upon how you plan on using your tablet if you like to read books, share content with children or need 4G once in while it may be the right tablet for you. The tablet markets offers many good deals on 7" tablets. One of the best deals right for tablets close to 9" is now is for the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. Prices may continue to drop for other competitors later this year.