Lovely screen, fast processor, decent build quality, Amazon features
Poor quality camera, no Google Play, no Mayday video support, no expandable memory
It could be a phone... but it's not. Amazon's latest 6-inch device is very much a pocket-sized tablet for shoppers on a budget.
As with other Fire HDs, it comes in a sturdy case clad in rubberised plastic, though this doesn't have the same tactile finish as its siblings. It's not particularly svelte either at 11mm deep but at least you can the feeling it can stand up to a few knocks and bumps, and it's available in a range of bright colours as well as the standard black.
Screen & Chassis The 6-inch screen is covered by tough Corning Gorilla Glass and offers a standard HD resolution of 1280x800 pixels (252ppi). It's not the best but for this size of a device it's more than adequate -- nice and bright, with rich contrast and wide viewing angles.
Though its based on Android, the operating system is Amazon's own Fire OS 4, fronted by the Sangria user interface. So it's nice and slick for finding your way around the Amazon store and associated features, but it lacks the diversity ofau naturalAndroid and there's no access to the million-odd apps on Google Play.
The HD 6 also lacks some features we've come to expect, like Mayday video support, but it has some new ones, like ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) which is supposed to learn what movies and shows you like and gets them ready for you to watch. The more you view, the more adept the system is meant to become at predicting what you want to see and lining it up for you. And X-Ray, which uses the IMDB to offer info on actors in whatever you're watching. Second Screen lets you show your TV and movies on your TV screen though it's currently limited to a handful of models, including Samsung and Amazon Fire TVs and PlayStation. And you get a month's worth of Amazon Prime (so long as you haven't had it before).
You can create up to six different user profiles (the idea is for two adults and four children) and Amazon Free Time allows you to set different access levels for each, including books, apps, games and videos and how long they can spend on each.
Software & Processor The quad-core processor contains a brace of cores clocked at 1.5GHz for higher intensity activities, and another two at 1.2GHz for lower power operations. The idea is that this should lead to greater efficiency and power management. And in use it certainly feels as powerful as it needs to be. Apps load quickly, games play smoothly and movies generally play without a hitch.
Photography
Amazon clearly has no interest in photography for the HD 6.
There's just a bog-standard fixed-focus 2 megapixel snapper on the back with limited options and capability. It's fixed focus, but it does offer HDR and Panorama settings, and it can record 1080p video, allegedly, though it looks pretty scrappy. Pics are low quality as you might expect and prone to noise. There's also a very basic VGA version on the front - not great for video calls, or much else really.
There's a choice of 8GB or 16GB memory versions but as usual, you can't add more since there's no microSD slot. Amazon will hold everything you buy from them though, as well as any pics you take with your Amazon device in the cloud, which goes a little way to make up for it, but your options are still limited.
Battery life however held up pretty well and we got close to two days of steady use out of it.
Conclusion Like other Amazon Fire tablets, the HD 6 focuses on a niche and works it. If you want a device for work, or you like variety, then this isn't for you. But if you want a pocket-sized tablet for watching TV and movies, reading books or playing music, and are happy to buy most of it from Amazon, then it offers a fine screen and decent processing power, as well as a wide range of features, though you will be locked into Amazon's increasingly high-walled garden.
Software: Fire OS 4 (based on Google Android)
Processor: Quad core (dual core 1.5GHz and dual core 1.2GHz)
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 6in FHD, 1280x800 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 2 megapixel; VGA front-facing camera
Video playback: MPEG4, VP8, H.264/MPEG4/AVC, MPEG4 SP, H.263, AVI, HDCP2.x, PlayReady DRM
Audio playback: Dolby Digital (AC-3), Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3), non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, PCM/WAVE, AAC LC/ELD, HE-AAC (v1 & v2), AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, Audible Enhanced format (AAX)
Radio: No
Battery: Li-Ion
Size: 169x103x11mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
