Along the top of the rear side is a glossy strip that houses two rear-facing speaker grilles. The physical buttons are also bigger this time around, which we imagine many shoppers will see as a welcome improvement. And despite the proximity to my hands when I was holding it, I never found myself accidentally turning off the device. The buttons sit just above where your hands will likely cradle the tablet, which makes it easy to adjust the sound without taking your hands off the device. On the right side, you'll find a big power button, with a volume rocker over on the left. The matte rear slopes a bit on all sides, making the tablet a bit more comfortable to hold. And besides, we strongly recommend you pick up a case for the thing, so you'll likely have that logo covered most of the time anyway. But hey, what do you expect? Sneaking advertising onto things is what Amazon does best. As with the rest of the Fire line, the company's gotten a bit more aggressive with branding. Once again, too, that rear cover is home to a big, glossy Amazon "A to Z" logo. The rear of the 8.9 is nearly identical to the 7-inch model, which is to say it's mostly fashioned out of a pleasant soft-touch material. Also, at 13.2 ounces, it even manages to be 0.7 ounce lighter than last year's 7-inch version. Not to mention, it's come a long way since the first-gen Fire came out. In fact, the HDX has shed some bulk all over, down to 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.31 inches from 9.45 x 6.5 x 0.35 on last year's model. Both have slimmed down noticeably from last year's HD series. Introduced the same day as the 7-inch model, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is in many ways a scaled-up version of its smaller sibling. Does all that add up to a truly competitive device? Or has Amazon strayed too far from its budget roots? But as long as you're stuck with Fire OS, the company's going to do what it can to provide the best experience possible with the addition of some compelling features.
KINDLE FIRE HD 8.9 TEARDOWN ANDROID
This comes with some drawbacks, of course - namely, an ecosystem that's far more closed-off than regular Android would be. Still, Amazon's managed to keep pricing down thanks to its content-centric business model, which assumes you'll continue buying stuff long after you open the box.
It's hardly expensive, but we've long since stopped using the word "budget" to describe it. Starting at $379 for the 8.9-inch model, the price has come along for the ride as well.
That means a stellar screen, some zippy internals and a slimmed-down body. Granted, Amazon's new HDX tablets still aren't the sexiest devices around, but the company's taken great pains to ensure they're some of the best. It was an uninspired bit of hardware that seemingly arrived off the same factory line as the BlackBerry PlayBook. With the first generation, it was tough to see the tablet as anything more than a content-delivery device designed to keep users locked into the Kindle ecosystem. It's worth noting just how far Amazon has come since the early days of the Fire line.
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