Kindle Fire HD 7-inch hands-on

[ ](http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/06/kindle-fire-hd-7-inch-hands-on/)

As expected, the big news at today's gadget-filled Amazon event is the successor to the Kindle Fire, which was launched in New York, roughly this time last year. It's not the Fire 2, however -- this is the Kindle Fire HD. It's clear the minute you grab hold of it that Amazon wanted to start over with this device in a number of ways. There's none of that OEM build quality from the first go-round. This is a nice, slim device that really feels as though it can stand up to some of the nicer Android tablets out there -- we'd certainly put our initial impressions of build up there with the Nexus 7.

The corners of the tablet are more rounded than its predecessor, with a glossy bezel going around the display -- a little bit of the rubberized backing creeps out on top of this. There are no buttons here, however. If you want to effect the screen, give it a tap and you get a small virtual menu on the side. As advertised, the display is quite vivid. Amazon talked up the decrease of glare, though it was a bit hard to tell just how successful the company was, given the fact that we're indoors. The device has a matte rear, with that stereo speaker going down a line in a middle, vents on either side.

Performance-wise, this seemed pretty snappy, and we got the pre-loaded (at least on Amazon's own tablet) _Hunger Games_ movie to load quite quickly, thanks no doubt to all of the investment the company put into the WiFi side of this device. Interestingly, there was a little lag as we were flipping through the pages of a book, with the Fire doing a little loading every few pages or so.

**Gallery: [Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch](http://www.engadget.com/photos/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-7-inch/)**

[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-7-inch/#5265707)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-7-inch/#5265708)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-7-inch/#5265709)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-7-inch/#5265710)[](http://www.engadget.com/photos/amazon-kindle-fire-hd-7-inch/#5265711)

Filed under: [Tablets](http://www.engadget.com/category/tablets/)

[Kindle Fire HD 7-inch hands-on](http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/06/kindle-fire-hd-7-inch-hands-on/) originally appeared on [Engadget](http://www.engadget.com) on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:15:00 EDT. Please see our [terms for use of feeds](http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).

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