Kindle Fire HD 7 hands-on

This week we’ve had the opportunity to take a peek at the next generation of media tablets by the name of Amazon Kindle Fire HD. There are two new devices, one of them being a 7-inch tablet, the other a 8.9-inch tablet, and both of them will be released alongside a slight upgrade to the original Kindle Fire which has also had a price cut to compete with the Google Nexus 7. The Kindle Fire HD in its 8.9-inch display edition has a 1920 x 1200 display (or 254 ppi) display while the smaller device has not yet had its entire set of specifications released – rest assured though, they’ll be a bit of a bump over the refreshed standard edition.

The Kindle Fire HD lineup has a OMAP 4470 processor from Texas Instruments, Bluetooth connectivity on the inside as well, and an HD webcam on the front. The smaller edition of both the 7 and 8.9-inch devices have 16GB of internal storage while the larger edition of the 8.9 tablet has 32GB of internal storage as well as 4G LTE connectivity. The 7-inch version of the tablet you see here will be shipping on September 14th and for $199 while the original Kindle Fire (refreshed) will be popping up for just $159 – the 4G LTE version comes in November.

The Kindle Fire 7 has a body that’s had its predecessor’s square-edges taken out, so to speak, with a bit more flare on the back to boot. You’ve got a stripe of shine across the back while the majority of the device’s backing is made of a slightly grippier bit of rubbery plastic. The software we’re seeing here is an upgraded user interface compared to the original Kindle Fire, but for the most part you’re working through the same set of media in a very similar way. That said, a lovely collection of software updates that you can find in our Amazon tag portal today – as well as in the timeline of today’s events below.


Note also that the 7-inch version of the device appears to be closer to final form than the 8.9-inch version of the device, the latter being held to the side by none other than Amazon’s own Peter Larsen a this week’s event. Don’t worry though, the biggest difference between the 7 and the 8.9 is the display size – stay tuned to SlashGear for more on the development of these tablets as it occurs!

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Kindle Fire HD 7 hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Kindle Fire HD 7-inch hands-on (Update: video)

Kindle Fire HD 7inch handson

As expected, the big news at today’s gadget-filled Amazon event is the successor to the Kindle Fire, which was launched in New York, roughly this time last year. It’s not the Fire 2, however — this is the Kindle Fire HD. It’s clear the minute you grab hold of it that Amazon wanted to start over with this device in a number of ways. There’s none of that OEM build quality from the first go-round. This is a nice, slim device that really feels as though it can stand up to some of the nicer Android tablets out there — we’d certainly put our initial impressions of build up there with the Nexus 7, which just happens to share the same screen size and 1280 x 800 resolution.

The corners of the tablet are more rounded than its predecessor, with a glossy bezel going around the display — a little bit of the rubberized backing creeps out on top of this. There are no buttons here, however. If you want to effect the screen, give it a tap and you get a small virtual menu on the side. As advertised, the display is quite vivid. Amazon talked up the decrease of glare, though it was a bit hard to tell just how successful the company was, given the fact that we’re indoors. The device has a matte rear, with that stereo speaker going down a line in a middle, vents on either side.

Performance-wise, this seemed pretty snappy running off a heavily-skinned version of Android 4.0, and we got the pre-loaded (at least on Amazon’s own tablet) Hunger Games movie to load quite quickly, thanks no doubt to all of the investment the company put into the WiFi side of this device. Interestingly, there was a little lag as we were flipping through the pages of a book, with the Fire doing a little loading every few pages or so.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Continue reading Kindle Fire HD 7-inch hands-on (Update: video)

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Kindle Fire HD 7-inch hands-on (Update: video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia Lumia 920 hands-on extended cut: City Lens and PureView

We had an extended look at the Nokia Lumia 920 this week courtesy of Nokia and Microsoft, complete with a brief glance at the difference between standard and PureView photography technology. What you’re about to see is a look at the unibody-like design of the hardware first, then a vision of what it means to work with Windows Phone 8 with Nokia-specific additions like Nokia City Lens and wireless charging right out of the box. And of course you’ll have Microsoft’s full suite of Office apps to back you up as well, SkyDrive included!

Have a peek first at how Nokia presents an updated vision for their Lumia line with a lovely 4.5-inch display and a body that’s 10.7mm thick, 70.8mm wide, and 130.3mm tall. You’ll be seeing a bit of a “smile” at the top and bottom of the device as the front stays flat under the pillow of the display glass and the back curves to the contour of your hand. This device is available in yellow, red, white, gray, and black, and will be available to actually own later this year – price and release dates have not yet been revealed, mind you.

Inside you’ve got a dual-core Snapdragon S4 Processor, inside you’ve got NFC capabilities as well as wireless charging abilities right out of the box, and the whole shebang will be available eventually with GSM, WCDMA, and 4G LTE connectivity as well! This device works with a microSIM card, has 1GB RAM and 32GB internal storage – with 7GB cloud storage free via SkyDrive.

Of course one of the most fabulous elements in this device is its Carl Zeiss Tessar lens working with 8.7 megapixels of power with PureView technology. You’ve got a glorious bit of technology under the hood here, folks, ready for image stabilization, lightening of dark environments, and such vibrant scenes as you’ve never seen before. Have a peek at our hands-on photos and video above and below and don’t forget to hit the timeline below as well for more key points from the Nokia event – and stay tuned for more Lumia and Windows 8!

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Nokia Lumia 920 hands-on extended cut: City Lens and PureView is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Nokia Lumia 820 hands-on extended cut with NFC

It’s time to have a bit longer look at a video showing off Nokia’s brand new Lumia 820, the smaller of the two smartphones revealed this week with a fully functional version of Windows Phone 8 onboard. This device has many of the same powerful attributes as the Nokia Lumia 920, but has a bit smaller profile and brings in rounded edges and an interchangeable backplate that doesn’t have NFC embedded right out of the box. What we got to see yesterday was not just the special NFC-toting backplate that you can purchase separate from the 820, but the device working live with Nokia City Lens and Nokia Transport as well.

If you’ll head back to our original hands-on with City Lens drive suite you’ll see how this software has been in the works for Nokia devices for quite a while now. With the launch of the new Windows Phone 8 line of Nokia Lumia devices, this GPS-centered world-expanding set of apps is able to show you how unique the Nokia vision can be. The video you’re about to see includes another peek at City Lens as it applies to New York City – full of locations for whatever activity you so choose: perhaps you’d like to head to a local pizza joint?

You’ll also see our Nokia host show us through Nokia Transport which on the Lumia 820 demonstrates how long a journey from your current location to a chosen location would take on the train and on foot. This app is able to not only tell you how long it would take if you started right at the minute you found the info, but in the future as well. If you’re starting in 10 minutes, your journey might take a whole lot different amount of time depending on traffic – Nokia knows.

And of course there’s the NFC action you’ll also be seeing in our hands-on with the Nokia-related accessories shown off this week as well. Here the Nokia Lumia 820 can take part in the fun with its own NFC backplate – or battery cover, whatever you want to call it – if you do so choose to partake. Having this separate option for NFC allows Nokia to offer the device at a lower cost if the user doesn’t need the technology – fun stuff!

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Have a peek at the rest of our Nokia action this week in our Nokia tag portal and check the timeline below for some key points from the event and subsequent hands-on opportunities!


Nokia Lumia 820 hands-on extended cut with NFC is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Motorola RAZR M Hands-On!

Motorola has also launched an entry-level phone that offers a very compelling screen/body size ratio. Thanks to its thin bezels, the Motorola RAZR M can pack a 4.3 display in a form factor that is about as wide as the iPhone 4S, and a little higher. In some ways, it seems like what Apple is going to shoot for with its upcoming iPhone 5 on Oct 12.  To be fair, it does feel great in the hand, and is very much manageable with a single hand. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Motorola RAZR Maxx HD preview, Motorola RAZR M and RAZR HD renders spotted ahead of Motorola event,

Motorola Droid RAZR family portrait

Motorola Droid RAZR family portrait

We have three new smartphones from Motorola here — the Droid RAZR HD, the Droid RAZR Maxx HD and the Droid RAZR M — and we wouldn’t be very good hosts if we didn’t properly introduce them. So, here they are. Meet the RAZRs.

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Motorola Droid RAZR family portrait originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola RAZR Maxx HD preview

We’ve just covered the Motorola launch event live on Ubergizmo, but now we’ve had some “hands-on” time with all three phones, including the Motorola RAZR Maxx HD, which will be the most exciting of all for the “enthusiast” category of users. Why? Simply because it’s an even better version of the previous RAZR Maxx but it keeps the 3300mAh battery which is the most important family trait of all. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Motorola Droid 4 update arrives, battery life improved, Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX limited edition models for Verizon employees,

Motorola DROID RAZR HD and MAXX HD Hands-on

Earlier today Motorola took the stage and announced the next stage of their DROID lineup. That being primarily the Motorola DROID RAZR HD complete with a beautiful 4.7-inch HD display, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and all day battery life. Then they surprised us all by announcing a RAZR MAXX HD too. The MAXX of course featuring a massive 3,300 mAh battery offering unparalleled battery life. Check out our hands-on pictures.

The details have finally been confirmed and basically revealing very little we didn’t already know. The all new Motorola DROID RAZR HD and RAZR MAXX HD are in many many ways extremely similar to last years model, while getting a boost in a few much needed areas. You’ll get the same awesome hardware, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and Kevlar coating all around — but this time the screen and processor received some much needed attention.

The new RAZRs will be the first smartphones to ship with Google’s own Chrome browser preinstalled, but the star of the show is that 4.7-inch HD display, 4G LTE from Verizon, and the Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor under the hood. For those wondering this is the same CPU powering the new Lumia 920, the Galaxy S III, and AT&T’s HTC One X. There’s not much to differentiate the performance here aside from Motorola’s own user interface changes. The RAZR HD and MAXX HD also come complete with 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 VGA front for video chat, and offer micro-SD support for expanded storage.

The difference here between the two is the RAZR HD finds a perfect middle ground offering a 2,530 mAh battery, while the awesome RAZR MAXX HD comes with a 3,300 mAh battery life that promises 21 hours of talk time, 13 hours of video playback or eight hours of web browsing. Pretty impressive right? So far the styling is extremely similar to what we’ve already seen from the RAZR. There’s nothing different here really worth noting. This time around the Kevlar coating on back wraps around the entirety of the device instead of just in the middle. Oh and they’ll be offering both White and Black models although pricing and release date wasn’t yet revealed.

So far our initial impressions are favorable with the build quality, but we knew that coming in. The hardware is similar but the new Kevlar does feel better in the hand. Then of course, the RAZR HD is extremely thin being just 8.4mm thick. The all new Motorola DROID RAZR HD and MAXX HD will be available later this year although exact details weren’t release. They will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich although models we are enjoying hands-on with today have 4.1 Jelly Bean — so the update should arrive soon.

Thoughts?

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Motorola DROID RAZR HD and MAXX HD Hands-on is written by Cory Gunther & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx HD hands-on: bigger battery, beautiful display, Jelly Bean onboard

Motorola Droid RAZR HD Maxx handson bigger battery, beautiful display, Jelly Bean onboard

Every family has a big brother and in Motorola’s case, it’s the Droid RAZR Maxx HD. The device, bearing a 4.7-inch 1,280 x 720 Super AMOLED HD display and running Android Jelly Bean (on these demo units, at least), just went official at the company’s event today in New York City. And to help with the bombast, HelloMoto! trotted out Google’s Eric Schmidt, giving these three Verizon RAZR amigos a hearty welcome. Under the hood, the handset sports a dual-core 1.5GHz S4 CPU, 32GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera on back and, last but not least, the star of this show: a 3,300mAh battery. We spent some time with this Kevlar-coated phone, so follow along as we deliver our first impressions.

Continue reading Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx HD hands-on: bigger battery, beautiful display, Jelly Bean onboard

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Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx HD hands-on: bigger battery, beautiful display, Jelly Bean onboard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Droid RAZR M hands-on (video)

Droid RAZR M handson

Motorola just took the wraps of the Droid RAZR M and, we’ve gotta say, the slender handset is quite the looker. The 8mm-thick body is plastic and Kevlar, just like its titular predecessor, but it adds some nice visual flourishes of its own, including rivets around the rim of the device. Despite its diminutive size, it has a nice heft in the hand, though we wouldn’t say it’s built like a tank. Overall, the device is frighteningly similar to the Droid RAZR, right down to the lock / power key with its concentric circle pattern. Also carried over from the OG Droid RAZR is the 4.3-inch screen. That means we are looking at a qHD Super AMOLED Advanced display, rather than some fancy HD panel and still saddled with a PenTile pixel layout. It also, as we harped on in the live blog, means that Android 4.0.4 has been slathered in Motorola’s own skin. Though, we’ll give credit to the new Google subsidiary for scaling back on the glitz and glam and letting Ice Cream Sandwich shine through a bit.

Continue reading Motorola Droid RAZR M hands-on (video)

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Motorola Droid RAZR M hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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