Amazon wants to control all your media consumption, and with its new tablets and ambitious software features, it may just succeed. The company has officially unveiled its new line of Kindle Fire tablets for 2013. The three new tablets consists of the redesigned Kindle Fire HD (2013), the Kindle Fire HDX 7, and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9.
Preorders for all three are available now. Look for the Wi-Fi-only version of the HDX 7 to ship on October 18, with the 4G variant coming November 14. The Wi-Fi-only Fire HDX 8.9 ships on November 7 with the 4G version coming December 10. The newly designed 7-inch Kindle Fire HD ships on October 2.
The three tablets -- along with the new Fire OS -- are incredibly ambitious (check below to find out why), but until we spend more than just a few minutes with them, we won't know for sure how well they live up to their potential.
To make the pricing as clear as possible I've thrown into this handy chart below.
| Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 | Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 | Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wi-Fi (8GB) | Not available | Not available | $139 |
| Wi-Fi (16GB) | $229 | $379 | $169 |
| Wi-Fi (32GB) | $269 | $429 | Not available |
| Wi-Fi (64GB) | $309 | $479 | Not available |
| 4G (16GB) | $329 | $479 | Not available |
| 4G (32GB) | $369 | $529 | Not available |
| 4G (64GB)
First thoughts
I'm impressed. Well, as much as one can be impressed by a specs and features list of devices he's never touched -- David Carnoy wrote the hands-on portion above.
Amazon appears to be firing -- pun intended -- on all cylinders with its new devices. The prices are low, the specs are high-end, and the feature set is incredibly ambitious, especially Mayday and Second screen.
Could this be Amazon's first big step towards taking over your living room? Maybe. If nothing else, the company has shown that it is at least attempting to move one step closer to creating that near-perfect all-in-one media device most of us seem to want.
Everything listed is no doubt impressive, but the proof will be in how well it's all implemented and working once you get it into your home. The company's devices have a pretty good track record for living up to hype, so I'm willing to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt for now.
 | $409 | $579 | Not available |
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