Kindle Fire HDX 8.9", HDX Display, Wi-Fi, 32 GB - Includes Special Offers (Previous Generation - 3rd)
CUSTOMER REVIEW
This review is for the the no-ad 64 GB wifi-only HDX 8.9. To Amazon's credit it arrived about 2 weeks earlier than originally claimed.
I have a Galaxy S3 Android smartphone so the HDX is for media / web surfing. Since I had already been using Amazon Prime and Cloud Music it was a no brainer for me to use the HDX to fill the role of media / web surfing on a tablet.
Be informed about the download limitations to this device. Amazon has been adding clarification to this which should help would-be purchasers make a more informed opinion. This wasn't as obvious as it should have been when I ordered mine so they're listening which is good.
Be aware that their most popular Prime content *may* not be available to download to your HDX. Caddyshack can be downloaded but not The Hunger Games. You can download certain videos but you won't know which ones until you buy an HDX and try it out. There is no banner (like the Prime banner on the movie icon) to show that it's content you can download to the HDX. You have to open the content to check. *** Edited 12/21: You can now see a list of Prime movies and shows that can be downloaded to the device. That's an improvement and more clearly shows the available downloadable Prime content. Nice job Amazon. ***
I was also under the assumption that you could download as many videos as you'd like with the limiting factor being the memory capacity of the HDX. Also NOT the case. So again, I bought the larger capacity HDX under this assumption. That was dumb on my part as it turns out because you're not limited by storage capacity. You're limited the NUMBER of downloads you can have on your device. Many people will opt up for the 64 GB device like I did only to find that 16 GB would likely do fine since it would be hard to download enough content to fill 64 GB. As another commenter pointed out if you downloaded long movies in full HD perhaps you'd really want the bigger device. Which brings me to the final point.
The final criticism is that once you start watching content you have to finish watching the content within 48 hours or you need to reconnect to the internet. Again, I was surprised to find out that the content I downloaded expired. Hopefully these criticisms lead to a more informed purchase decision on your part.
Here is the official word from Amazon which is indeed on their site and the purpose for my edit. I was unable to find this prior to my purchase and learned about it only after I acquired the device.
* Many (but not all as I note above) Prime Instant Video titles are also available for download on Kindle Fire HD 2nd Generation and Kindle Fire HDX devices. The detail page for each Prime Instant Video title indicates whether the title is available for download. You can download available titles to only two separate devices at one time. If you have already downloaded a title to two devices, you need to delete it from one of them before downloading it to another device.
* You can have a maximum of 25 total Prime Instant Video titles downloaded at a time across all devices associated with your Amazon.com account. While not all Prime Instant Video titles are available for download, the same videos may be available for rental or purchase from Amazon Instant Video, and rented or purchased titles can be downloaded to compatible devices.
* Viewing Period: If you have a Prime membership or Prime free trial, you can stream any video that is currently designated as a Prime Instant Video title on its detail page. You can watch Prime Instant Video titles that you've downloaded within a limited viewing period, which varies by title. A typical viewing period is either 48 hours after you start watching the title or 15 or 30 days after the download, whichever is earlier. We'll typically notify you when the viewing period for a title is close to expiring. After your Prime membership or Prime free trial expires or is cancelled, you cannot watch any Prime Instant Video titles unless you've also rented or purchased that title.
So my recommendations are this. Amazon is a great company, one that I have committed to in a big way with Cloud Music, Prime and now the HDX. They need to be more upfront about the download limitations and I'm very disappointed that I've had to discover these limitations on my own and feel it is important to convey that to others who may be considering this device over others based solely on the much touted video download feature.
Also the rear facing camera in my particular device only works properly 30% of the time. There is some weird RGB output happening. It's not even close to the Galaxy S3 quality or acquisition speed so just don't expect that the camera will replace your SLR and you won't be disappointed.
The rest of the device is great. All my Cloud music magically appeared and it is very easy to operate. I can get on a primitive version of Gmail but it works fine. Outlook Web Access for work is fine. Yahoo! email works fine. No Dropbox app yet and it won't work with Google Docs or Microsoft's online Excel / Word apps but that was known in advance and expected given the fact that Amazon isn't touting this as a work tool; it's for play.
Amazon really owes it to their faithful customers who purchase these devices to improve the download / Prime experience and this will be a home run. I'm looking forward to trying Mayday to help sort out the problems with the camera and inquire about the return policy as I felt very underinformed in advance on the downloaded video limitations. I hope these comments help you ask good questions and help Amazon improve their product and content experience.
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