A proper review of the Kindle Fire HD is on it’s way. However we bandied around the office the idea of doing a quick first impressions vs the Nexus 7 and the idea got the thumbs up so here it is.
Go here for an in depth review of the Nexus 7, this article will only touch on a few points when comparing it to the new Kindle Fire HD.
The Nexus 7 is no longer the new kid on the block. Amazon has released the Kindle Fire HD and it has released it in quite a few variations. A 7 inch model, a 10 inch model and a 10 inch model with 3G/4G. So already, for some peopleThe Kindle would have an advantage over the Nexus 7 as you get a better a choice in sizes and formats. Having said that the Nexus 7 3G seems to be on it’s way! Ok, firstly is the nexus 7 better than the original Kindle Fire? Hell yeah! but in the fast moving world of tablet pc’s, the Kindle Fire is already starting to look long in the tooth. The Samsung Galaxy range came out 
what seems only yesterday, yet it was years ago and the hardware is also showing signs of age.
So how is the Kindle Fire HD better the old Kindle. Well it is faster and as you might have guessed it is HD. Screen Resolution jumps to 1280 x 800 and it has a mini-HDMI socket to take full advantage of this. Yes it’s great that the little screen has so many pixels, but really HD needs to be viewed on a bigger screen to get the full impact. The Nexus 7 comes with exactly the same resolution 1280 x 800and has no HDMI socket. Is this a bad thing? well depends as I said to take advantage of the HDMI you want a big external screen but the Nexus 7 isn’t really marketed as a HD device (even though it is one) so I doubt anyone buying one would be that disappointed.
The Kindle Fire is tailored to the Amazon website and as such does a great job as an eReader and for streaming video. I love how integrated the Kindles are into the Amazon website and how lots of Android has been hidden from the user. It feels more iPad in that way. Built for a purpose and sticks to that purpose and does it very well. However the Nexus is more open and has better access to Google apps which is fast becoming a rival to iTunes.
Hardware wise they are pretty neck and neck, the Kindle just edging out the Nexus 7 but most users would not see any difference. The one place that is glaring is the area of memory, The Kindle can go up to 32Gig were as the Nexus has a maximum of 16Gig. Why neither give you a miniSD slot is beyond me. Memory is cheap these days so you would think they would have given you as much as possible!
Conclusion
Really it is a much of a muchness. Personally the Kindle Fire HD does it for me. I like the Amazon experience and I have been happy with nearly every Kindle device I have owned. Having said that the Nexus 7 is quite frankly an awesome little tablet also. Another thing to consider is that Google will make every effort to Keep the Nexus up to date with the latest version of Android and that is always a good thing for and Android Tablet.
