Here's our breakdown of everything you need to know about Amazon Fire HD 6.
Prices: The Fire HD is available in 2 variants -- 8 GB at $99 and 16 GB at $119. It costs another $15 to get rid of the advertisements.
Pros: Amazon Fire HD 6 inches has a screen well suited for reading. It is the smallest tablet in Amazon's lineup and can be held in one hand. At $99, it doesn't cost much and is very affordable. In spite of the low price, it has a solid build quality. The battery life is good with 5 hours, 47 minutes of video playback time. And coming from the Amazon stables, you have all the Amazon content readily available to you, along with the non-Amazon content as well, of course.
Cons: This tablet is very thick and heavy, in spite of the appeal of the smaller size. It weighs 290gms and is 10.7mm thick. The $99 base model has 5.07GB of free storage and comes with ads on the lock screen. It costs $20 for 8GB added storage and another $15 to get rid of the advertisements, making the total come close to other more powerful tablets. It has not got a memory card slot. The Fire HD 6 lacks Mayday, Amazon's customer-service app.
Specs: The Fire HD 6 uses a quad core processor, 2x the speed and over 3x the graphics performance of previous generation Fire HD. The tablet runs on Android OS, v4.4 (KitKat - customized). The Fire HD 6 features a Corning Gorilla Glass display which makes it more resistant to scratches or drops. The 2MP rear-facing camera allows high-resolution photos and 1080p HD video. It is available in black, blue, pink, white, and yellow, and has an angled back.
Talking Points: One critical difference between Amazon and other Android tablets is the focus on the cloud, something that becomes very important with an 8GB tablet. The tablet does not physically differentiate between apps and content stored on the phone and there's a switch to see device-only content.
The tablet is great for the entire family, with provisions for creating unique profiles for each family member, Family Library (to share content with your family), FreeTime (for parental controls) and a Fire HD Kids Edition are also available. Apps, of course, come from Amazon's app store.
Conclusion: The Amazon Fire HD 6 with its smaller size would have been better had it been sleeker and lighter, but at $100, it does deliver quality for the price and is a compelling buy in its range.
