This is something of a curated app drawer - not all your apps will appear here. You can hold down on any of these items to add or remove a home shortcut for them, or remove them from the carousel (they will reappear if you launch them again, though). Your apps, in the order last launched, are also here.
If you were watching a movie on Prime Instant Video, for example, it will show up in this carousel (complete with cover art) ready to pick up where you left off, have it been 3 minutes ago or 3 weeks. Think of it like multitasking meets favorites. On the 16GB model I'm reviewing, roughly 11.5GB of that is available out of the box, so you can substract about 5.5GB from the remaining two capacities to figure out what they're working with.īelow this top bar you have the carousel, a list of your common and recent activities. The Fire HDX lineup is one of the few aside from the iPad currently offering more than two storage options, with 16, 32, and 64GB variants of the HDX available in both sizes. Alright, hats off to Amazon for that one - that's a genuinely neat idea. Simple hold the HDX in landscape mode and press up on the tablet with both your thumbs with moderate force, and it will slide up roughly 1/5 of the case, exposing the camera and automatically launching the camera app. Because the HDX simply slides and magnetizes into the case, it's also removed rather easily, but Amazon was more clever than just suggesting you take it out. Oversight? Laziness? Nope - the Origami case has a neat little party trick up its sleeve. This brings us back yet again to the Origami case, which at first glance rather suspiciously lacks an opening for the rear camera. The soft-touch plastic has an inviting, smooth texture not unlike the Nexus 5. While it doesn't feel as solid as the Air (there is noticeable movement and sound when you twist is at the ends), the HDX 8.9 still feels very luxurious and premium. If you were to ask me how a full-sized tablet should feel when it's in my hand, the HDX 8.9 would be the only adequate answer I could provide. It's so incredibly light (and thin), at just 13.5 oz, that it almost has me thinking my iPad Air is a tad ungainly.
The Appstore's selection has gotten better, but some key apps (Dropbox, anything by Google) and many newer games are noticeably absent.Parts of Fire OS, like the Appstore, still feel slow at times.And you can't replace it, because Amazon has banned 3rd-party browsers from the Appstore. The web browser, Silk, has managed to get precisely 0% better since the last Fires.