This new KFHD 1280x800 HD

This new KFHD 1280x800 HD

This new KFHD replaces last year's basic Kindle Fire. Although it has some cool new features, it lacks a camera, microphone, and HDMI port. For this reason, I'm glad I kept my 2012 model since it does have these 3 features!

Here are my initial impressions of the 2013 Kindle Fire HD: I like the placement of the on/off & volume buttons. Being on opposite sides makes it unlikely to hit the wrong one. I never cared for the carousel (this is what you see when you turn your Kindle on and it contains all the books & apps you have recently accessed), and now there's an option to have favorites showing on the home screen instead, and the apps/books can be rearranged to your liking. I was very surprised that web pages can no longer be placed in the favorites bar (which is now being called "home"). I don't know why Amazon removed this option, and we also are unable to have the last accessed web page appear in the carousel. But you can still bookmark your favorite web pages & YouTube videos for easy access.

When I play songs purchased from Amazon's MP 3 store the lyrics scroll down karaoke style. Nice feature, but it doesn't work on every song. This device has a cool new feature called "Quick Switch", which allows us, when reading or using an app, to bring up recently accessed items with a swipe instead of having to exit the book or app you were using and go back to the "home" screen to open up another one.

In terms of sound, I find it to be tinny and not as rich as it is on the original KFHD. But you can really improve the sound of music by wearing a good set of ear buds. Ironically, music sounds muffled unless you hold the device in landscape mode with your hands covering the speakers. Holding it this way projects the sound out to you.

This new KFHD 1280x800 HD