With the dust having now settled post Apple iPad Air announcement, it couldn’t be a better time to talk about other tablet options that are more cost-effective to young professionals and, for the most part, offer similar or better specs.
One of those options begins shipping to Canada tomorrow, that being the upcoming Kindle Fire HD, running Android 4.2.
The 7-inch tablet, which sports a 2.2Ghz Snapdragon 800 processor, a 1920×1200 pixel display, 2GB of RAM, dual-band WiFi, a front-facing HD camera, and 11 hours of battery life, will start at $254 for the 16GB model, going up to $294 for the 32GB version and $334 for the 64GB model. It offers access, though not as expansive as our American counterparts, to all that Amazon has to offer including apps, books, games and movies.
But, it’s Android, not iOS; why should you care?
Because, pound for pound, you get more for your money with Android. Its direct competition, the iPad mini with retina, starts at $299 for 16GB of internal memory, has marginally higher screen resolution (2048×1536), sports roughly the same battery life (Apple claims up to 10 hours), has much less RAM (512MB), and otherwise does not have the flexibility that is offered by the Android ecosystem.
Not enough for your on-the-go lifestyle? Seven-inch and 8.9-inch versions of Kindle’s Fire HDX tablet will begin shipping to Canada on Nov. 26, which will start at $254, and $399 for 16-gigabyte models. HDX models are equipped with Qualcomm’s top of the line quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, which are three times faster than the older Kindle Fire line.
How’s that for a Christmas wishlist curveball?