Apple's iPad mini ups the ante considerably, packing in a 5-megapixel rear camera in addition its 1.2-megapixel front snapper.
The Kindle Fire HD provides a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera capable of 720p video.
Android fans are certainly going to find plenty to take issue with on the Kindle Fire HD and should probably stick with the Nexus 7, (opens in new tab) but even non-nerds are likely to find iOS 6 a more pleasant overall experience. You're tied to the Amazon ecosystem, too, so there's no Play store access, and the hugely customised nature of the Fire HD's OS means that updates are going to be scarce, if they exist at all. It's unrecognisable from stock ICS and features a bevy of potential annoyances: unless you buy your way out of it, advertising is fed to you at a number of turns, including the lock screen. The Kindle Fire HD is a very different proposition, running a heavily modified version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The new OS is every bit the slick, user friendly experience people have come to expect, and one of the benefits of Apple's fiercely proprietary ecosystem is that updates come instantly. With regards to battery life, there's little to choose between the two: both devices are thought to pack 4,440 mAh batteries, with run time of up to 10 hours and 11 hours for the iPad and Kindle respectively.Īpple's latest mobile platform, iOS 6 (opens in new tab), seems to have found its feet after a disasterous debut headlined by the Apple Maps debacle (opens in new tab). Actual performance obviously can't be measured by specifacation alone, but on paper this is a clear win for the iPad mini - even though its processor is nearly two years old itself. The Power VR SGX540 GPU used in the Fire HD is outdated to say the least - it's found on ancient smartphones like 2010's Samsung Galaxy S and 2011's Galaxy Nexus (opens in new tab). The Kindle Fire HD sports a TI OMAP 4460 SoC under the hood, also based around a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, though with a lower clock speed of 1.2GHz. Processor and batteryĪpple's A5 chipset, as used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, features a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU with an estimated clock speed of 1.5GHz, complemented by a PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. Although that's not not much memory compared to most Android tablets, our iPad mini review (opens in new tab) notes that it "never feels slow or underpowered." The Kindle Fire HD packs a more standard 1GB of RAM that should confidently handle most tasks. With regards to memory, teardowns of the iPad mini have put its RAM at just 512MB (opens in new tab). Neither device features a memory card slot, so media-first consumers are advised to consider their on-board storage needs wisely and purchase accordingly, though price obviously becomes an issue with the more capacious Apple products. The Kindle Fire HD comes in 16GB and 32GB iterations.
Both displays are built on IPS LCD technology.Īpple's iPad mini features a full range of options for content hoarders: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB models are available. The Kindle Fire HD's smaller screen packs superior specifications: its 1,280 x 800 pixel resolution features a density of 216ppi. Fanboys clearly hoped the device would feature the Cupertino-based firm's famed Retina standard - an iPad mini with Retina is rumoured (opens in new tab) for later this year - but it falls short of this expectation with a resolution of 'only' 1,024 x 768 pixels at 163ppi.
DisplayĪpple's iPad mini (opens in new tab) has been roundly hailed as an instant classic since its October 2012 launch, though its display has attracted some muted criticism. The more utilitarian Fire HD is a fair bit chunkier, with a girth of 10.3mm and a weight of 395g - extra heft that could prove a bit taxing if you're planning long reading sessions. The iPad mini's classic minimalist design is typical of its iconic manufacturer: measuring just 7.2mm in depth and weighing just 308g, it's the kind of super-svelte product we expect from Jony Ive and his team. Apple's reduced form factor offering has nearly an inch more screen real estate, measuring 7.9in, while the the Fire HD falls more stiffly in line with its segment, sizing up at exactly 7in. Both the Apple iPad mini and Amazon Kindle Fire HD (opens in new tab) fall into the 7in tablet category.