The mobile community has been on fire ever since Amazon released their new Kindle Fire HD for it was a steal for the price. This affects the tablet manufacturers specifically since now they will have to offer a similar tablet at the same price ranges in order to be competitive. This is where Amazon has won the battle because Amazon’s model is not only to earn from selling the tablets. They have their own ecosystem where commodities like ebooks, movies and songs are fast moving consumer goods. Amazon offers Kindle Fire HD in Hardware as a Service model. I’m sure you have heard of Software as a Service, and even Infrastructure as a Service, but what is Hardware as a Service? It’s relatively simple yet beautiful concept. You offer a range of services for which a hardware component is integral to get the maximum out of it. In this case, Kindle Fire is that hardware component and the services Amazon is offering ranges from cloud storage, premium ebooks, premium movies as well as premium music and games. They even have action figures matching the specific games which you would be motivated to buy once you get addicted to a game. And that is how Amazon can offer such a wonderful piece of engineering at such a bargaining price.
On the other hand, none of the other vendors have similar ecosystem like Amazon does and so they are at a disadvantage when it comes to offering budget tablets. Their version of budget tablet comes through cropping some important features to cut the cost which end up been unappealing to customers. However, recently some budget tablets were released which offered moderate performance matrices. Today we are going to compare one of those tablets with Amazon Kindle Fire HD in order to understand what they have missed. This high end budget tablet is Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A with a Quad Core processor compared to the dual core processor in the Kindle Fire. However, read our first impressions about these devices and you will understand how the performance pipeline is maintained in each of the tablet before we compare them at the same arena.
Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Review
At the moment, this 8.9 slate is the crown jewel of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet line. It is offered in two versions; one with Wi-Fi and one offering 4G LTE connectivity. We will be talking about the Wi-Fi only version although you can consider the review for the other version synonymous to this only differing with the 4G LTE feature. Amazon Kindle Fire 8.9 is powered by 1.5GHz dual core processor on top of TI OMAP 4470 chipset with PowerVR SGX 544 GPU. Amazon claims that this chipset outperforms the new Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset although we need to run some benchmarking tests in order to verify that. The center point of attraction in this 8.9 slate is its screen. Amazon Kindle Fire HD features a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels at a high pixel density which gives the user an absolute pleasure to look at it. According to Amazon, this screen has a polarizing filter enabling the viewers to have an ultra-wide viewing angle while featuring anti-glare technology for rich color and deep contrast reproduction. This is achieved through eliminating the air gap between the touch sensor and the LCD panel by laminating them into a single layer of glass. It has a matte black plate with a thin velvet black strip where Kindle Fire HD is embossed.
Amazon has included exclusive Dolby audio in the Kindle Fire HD to enhance the audio experience offered by the slate. It also has automatic profile based optimizer that changes the audio output depending on the content being played. The powerful dual stereo speakers enable deeper bass in your musing filling the room without distortion at higher volumes taking you on a wonderful journey to the stereo world. Another feature Amazon boasts about is Kindle Fire HD having the fastest Wi-Fi in any of the tablets that offer premium notion. Fire HD achieves this by mounting two antennas and Multiple In / Multiple Out (MIMO) technology that allows you to transmit and receive simultaneously with both antennas increasing the capacity and reliability. The available 2.4GHz and 5GHz dual band frequencies seamlessly switch to the less congested network ensuring that now you can go farther away from your hotspot than usual.
Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a content prone laptop thanks to the millions and trillions of GBs of content Amazon have as movies, books, music and so on. With Kindle Fire HD, you are entitled for unlimited cloud storage that is as good as everything. It also offers premium features like X-Ray for movies, books, text books etc. If you’re not familiar with what X-Ray do, let me brief it. Have you ever wondered who was on the screen when a movie is playing at a specific screen? You had to go through the IMDG cast list just to find that out, but fortunately those days are over. Now it’s just a click away with X-Ray, which gives you an overview of who is on the screen and their details, if you further navigate. X-Ray for ebooks and textbooks lays an overview about the book which is really cool if you don’t have time to read the book in full. Amazon’s Immersion Reading can synchronize kindle text with companion audible audiobooks in real-time so that you can hear the narration while you are reading. The Whispersync feature enables you to lift off after reading an ebook and the slate will read the rest of the ebook for you while you work on something else. How cool would that be eh? The feature is available for movies and games, as well.
Amazon has included a HD camera in the front for video conferencing, and there is also a deep Facebook integration which we should try out. The slate has improved performance for Amazon Silk browser and offers a facility for the parent to the control child’s time spent with the tablet.
Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A Review
Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A is a 9 inch tablet that fits between the 7 inch and 10 inch tablet storm. It has moderate performance matrices although we have to take it for a run to ensure the quality. It has a LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 167ppi. IdeaTab 2109A has an all-aluminum variety rear encasement which can appeal to your finer tastes. It is rather light for a tablet in this class weighing 1.26 pounds. Lenovo IdeaTab 2109A is powered by 1.2GHz quad core processor on top of NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with 1GB DDR3 RAM. Android OS v4.0.4 ICS is the current operating system although we hope Lenovo would release an upgrade to v4.1 Jelly Bean soon. This is not a powerhouse by the looks of it, but it certainly wouldn’t break your heart. If you buy this tablet, we guarantee you’re in for some sweet gaming experience with the 12 core NVIDIA Tegra 3 GPU.
IdeaTab A2109A comes in 16GB of storage capacity while having the option to expand the storage using microSD card up to 32GB. There is a 3MP camera at the rear as well as a 1.3MP camera in the front for video calling. IdeaTab A2109A is certified for SRS premium sound which means you are in for a great audio experience, as well. There is a 3.5mm headphone port and a micro USB port as well as a micro HDMI port. Unfortunately, IdeaTab 2109A doesn’t sport HSDPA connectivity. Instead, it’s limited to Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n which may be an issue if you are in a country where Wi-Fi networks are rare. We don’t have records about the battery usage patterns as of yet although it was purported that Lenovo IdeaTab 2019A would come with a two cell lithium ion battery. The prerelease is offered at a price of $299 at BestBuy.
A Brief Comparison Between Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A
• Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is powered by 1.5GHz dual core processor on top of TI OMAP 4470 chipset with PowerVR SGX 544 GPU while Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A is powered by 1.2GHz Quad Core processor on top of NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset with ULP GeForce GPU and 1GB DDR3 RAM.
• Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has 8.9 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels at a high pixel density while Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A has 9 inch LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 167ppi.
• Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has HD camera on the front for video conferencing while Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A has 3MP camera with 1.3MP front camera.
• Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 offers a range of premium features that aren’t available on any other tablet while Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A doesn’t have any such features.
Conclusion
Let us look at the similarities between these two tablets first. Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is powered by a dual core clocked at 1.5GHz while IdeaTab A2109A is powered by a Quad core clocked at 1.2GHz. Amazon claims that their TI OMAP 4470 chipset outperforms Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset which may indicate Kindle Fire HD would be faster. Then again, it only has a dual core compared to the quad core processor on IdeaTab. In terms of display, Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is a clear winner featuring the 1920 x 1200 pixels high resolution display with an advanced display panel. As far as we are concerned, those are the only things we can compare in these two tablets as thereafter, they separate their own ways. Amazon Kindle Fire HD may well be your choice if you have invested in Amazon before and have commitments towards Amazon like prime library etc. However, if you do want a tablet that can give you true Android experience, then Lenovo IdeaTab A2109A should be your choice as Kindle Fire offers a heavily stripped version of Android kernel. Since both tablets are offered at the same price tag of $299, your purchasing decision may come relatively easy.