While it does seem that the news of new Kindle Fire tablets leaked out several days ahead of time, Amazon has now confirmed it will launch two new models of its Android-based tablet at its press conference today in Santa Monica.
Engadget reports that the biggest news comes with the introduction of a new Kindle Fire HD. It will have an 8.9 inch screen and a 1920x1200 resolution.
There are some impressive hardware specs on this product, including two WiFi antennas, dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz band support, and MIMO support, all of which Amazon claims makes the WiFi speed of the Kindle Fire HD 41 percent faster than the current Apple iPad. The device runs on an OMAP 4470 processor, and storage options start at 16 GB.
There will be a seven inch Kindle Fire HD that will sell for $199 and is due out on September 14th. The 8.9 inch model will sell for $299 and will go on sale November 20th. Amazon will also sell a 32 GB version of the Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE for $499. It will come with 250 MB of data per month, along with 20 GB of cloud storage and a $10 Amazon store credit for an additional $50 a year.
The original Kindle Fire is still sticking around but Amazon is giving the seven inch model a hardware makeover, with a faster processor and 16 GB of memory. It's going to sell the tablet for just $159 starting on September 14th.
There's been some changes made to the Kindle Fire's user interface, along with some new additions such as Kindle FreeTime which will allow parents to set up time limits for kids on their devices for movies, music and games.
While there were some rumors that Amazon might announce an Android-based smartphone, this press conference had no such reveal today.
Source: Engadget | Image via Endgadet
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