[7" Kindle Fire HD General] woodsonmh:
I've not posted in this forum yet. I've used xda to root several android devices. I've owned or still have nooks, fire, Acer 500, Asus prime, and Asus infinity. I got the hd fully knowing what I was getting. I wanted a media tablet. I'm doing about 90% of my computer time on tablets and wanted to play media and compute at the same time.

Why the hd 8.9?

7 in tablets are good for a lot of things . They are easy to hold and typing is easier. They are easier to carry. However I'm in my sixties and my vision is not what it used to be. I like a bigger screen and wanted something that is easier to type on than 10in. Tablets. I also wanted something a little easier to carry. I wanted hd playback and really wanted something close to my infinity in screen quality. I didn't want to spend $500.I use Amazon prime. I am not an Apple fan. I heard a review about sound quality, that impressed me. With its price the hd was not a hard decision.

What I like.

I am not disappointed. The biggest wow is the sound. I use volume boost on my other tablets and the hd blows them out of the water. Both in volume and sound quality.

I played a hd video on YouTube, comparing hd with infinity. I believe both have 240 resolution. Video looked great on both tablets. Flesh tones looked better on hd. Again no disappointment.

Lots of selections in Amazon app store, and its not that hard to side load apps. I would guess 90% of programs I've downloaded work fine. I use dropbox to transfer programs. Amazon has box app, but I have had no problems with dropbox so that's what I use. Go to their site and download app using silk. Since I have access to Google play with other android tablets, I just upload and download through cloud storage. Use a friend's tablet to do what I'm doing.

I like the email app. Email and calender sync to gmail and its simple to use. Silk web browser works just fine. It's not the fanciest but works just fine. I've had lots more problems with other tablets web browsers. Predictive text is working pretty good on this thing.

WiFi is another reason I like hd, and I was pleasantly pleased when I realized it can operate on the 5000 band.

What I don't like

I'm not going into the Amazon skin issue because it is what it is, and it does a good job front ending Amazon. If you don't like it you can root it. Don't know if I will, but someday when I'm board I probably will.

I would like a hair more grip on the back. This is better than my other tablets but little more would be great.

Sometimes I'm getting poor or no key response. Probably will get fixed in upgrade.

My favorite keyboard sideloaded but the side menu didn't close and blocked part of the keyboard and I couldn't use to. I wish option bar collapsed or I could move it to the bottom having said that I like where the back key is. It's really handy where it's at both exposed hidden. Easy thumb operation.

I wish charging port and hdmi was on the side. Their in the way if you use some sort of bracket or want to rest bottom on something. Not all apps rotate all the way around.

Overall I'm very happy with kindle fire hd 8.9. In its simplest form it's easy to use. Most applications people will use are already here. Not having YouTube is a problem but YouTube downloader app in Amazon store will work. Elsewhere on hd threads there is a instructions to get YouTube without root that works.

What makes this tablet different than anything in its price range is the high performance features. I would have no problem getting this for my mom or recommend this to anyone that wants a tablet to just work. There is a kids mode that I don't need but have heard is very good as well.

No buyers regret here, even though I'm watching ces. Chuckle, always ces envy. I am very happy with my hd.

Woody