Amazon announces Kindle Fire HD devices, while upgrading and cutting price on entrylevel Kindle Fire

As predicted, Amazon has revamped its tablet lineup introducing the Kindle Fire HD and upgrading the existing 7" Kindle Fire in the process.

The new Kindle Fire HD will come in three flavours – a 7" 16GB wifi-only tablet for $199, a 8.9" wifi-only version for $299, and an 8.9" 4G LTE model with 32GB of storage for $499. The connectivity will cost $49.99 annually.

All three will run an Android OS and the 8.9" versions will be powered by TI's OMAP 4470 dual-core processor, a processor which Jeff Bezos stated was 'better and faster' than Nvidida's Tegra 3 architecture.

The new Kindle Fire HD will feature a front-facing HD camera (useful for Skype calls) and dual Dolby Digital stereo speakers along with a dual-band WiFi chip and two antennas.

Bezos claimed that the Kindle Fire HD's two-antenna setup would make wifi connections 41 per cent faster than on the iPad 3 and 54 per cent faster than on the Nexus 7.

The 8.9" Kindle Fire HD model will boast a 1920x1200 resolution at 254 ppi, while the 7" runs at 1200x800, also at 254 ppi.

The original Kindle Fire is now discontinued, replaced by a new enhanced model that bears the same name.

This new Kindle Fire will feature a 7" display along with a processor that is 40 per cent faster than that found in the original tablet. It will also feature twice the RAM and offer a longer battery life.

To further sweeten the deal, it will be priced $40 cheaper than the original version and will now sell for $159.
Game On In addition to the impressive new hardware announcements, the Kindle Fire tablets will support Whispersync cloud backup for games.

Similar to Apple's iCloud, Whispersync will store your progress in games on Amazon's servers and will eliminate the need to start over when you switch devices.

Along with Whispersync, Amazon also demonstrated a new achievements and leaderboard system reminiscent of Game Center.

All devices are now available for pre-order, with the new Kindle Fire shipping on September 14th, and HD devices on 20th November, both in the US.