Monday, 23 February 2015

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 6 - Review

Amazon Kindles have been on the market for 8 years now with lots of upgrades along the way. I was always interested in maybe owning one but kept coming back to the thought of "I love reading paper books, so why bother with a Kindle?" I was under the impression that the Kindle was an e-book reader and nothing more. I couldn't be more wrong. I've been having a little play around with the Amazon Kindle Fire 6 HD & stand cover to see what it's like for myself.






The Amazon Kindle Fire 6 HD is more of a tablet than an e-book reader. I own an Apple iPad mini so I found myself making comparisons between the two. Firstly you register the Kindle with your Amazon account so you can make purchases easily. Obviously, you can purchase books and read them through the Kindle but you can also surf the internet, visit the App Store and download your favourite applications, stream videos, list to audiobooks; the list is endless. As a blogger, I have to say that it's a bloggers best friend. I can download the Blogger app to write my posts on the go and even sync up my email accounts.



The quad-core processor (up to 1.5GHz) makes for faster applications and smoother videos. The 6" display is the perfect size. I always thought that my iPad mini was easier to handle than my sisters' original iPad but the Kindle is ten times better. I can hold it comfortably in one hand and it doesn't take up much space in my bag if I'm carrying it around. It is a lot more compact. It is a little heavier than the iPad mini but that's probably because its components aren't as spread out.

As a mother, I am forever snapping photographs of my children. The Kindle has both front and rear facing 2MP cameras and with free, unlimited Cloud storage I can take as many as I like without worrying about running out of space. The rear camera wide-aperture lens supports panoramic and HDR images. With the camera app you can even edit your pictures. With the click of a button, you are able to share your images through to your social media accounts.



The Amazon Kindle Fire HD 6 is a great family tablet. You can create personalised profiles for up to 2 adults and 4 children so you can all share the tablet but keep everyone's accounts separate. My favourite aspect is that it has revolutionary parental controls called 'Fire for Kids'. Parents can create accounts for their children and choose which apps, games, books and videos their child can have access to. You can also set a daily limit for gaming or videos but then have unlimited time for reading. Inside Fire for Kids, you still have the camera feature and children are able to use stickers to edit their own little pictures but as it's for kids, they are unable to share the photographs to social media accounts.




Chris and I spend a lot of time streaming movies and TV shows to watch. We were happy enough with the way we previously watched but Amazon have showed us how much better it can be. ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) learns what movies and shows you like, judging by what you've already watched, then gets them ready for you to watch so you don't have to waste time waiting for shows to buffer. When we watch a show or movie, I always find myself asking Chris, "What else was he/she in?" then off I go to IMDb to find out. X-Ray (powered by IMDb) instantly shows which actors are on screen and you can jump to other movies that they are in. You are also able to view what you're watching on the Kindle on your TV too through either Amazon Fire TV, PS3, PS4 and Samsung TVs. This means you can still watch your show on the TV but your Kindle is freed up so can surf the web or social media at the same time.



The battery life is fantastic. It seems to last longer than any tablet I've previously used. My dad had a play around with it and he was so surprised by how clear and colourful the screen is. He was under the impression that all Kindles were in black and white! 

It is available in Black, Citron, Cobalt, Magenta or White so you can choose your Kindle colour to what suits you.


For only £79 for 8GB or £99 for 16GB at Amazon it is fantastic value for money. You can do so much more on the Kindle Fire than on higher priced tablets. 

(Disclaimer: We received a Kindle Fire HD 6 on loan to try out for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)



1 comment on "Amazon Kindle Fire HD 6 - Review"
  1. Anonymous16 December 2015 at 17:26

    Nice post.

    ReplyDelete