Now that the Google has announced the next Nexus 7 and rumors of what could be the next Nexus 10 circulating online, it seems that the time is just right for Amazon to refresh its own Android tablets. And based on leaks, it just might indeed do that soon with some rather unusual and not so unusual upgrades to its Kindle Fire line.
The new 7-inch Kindle Fire HD will be sporting an upgraded resolution of 1920×1200 from the current 1280×800 resolution. On the other hand, the 8.9-inch model, which currently already has a 1920×1200 resolution, will be upgraded to an impressive 2560×1600 display. This gives it a pixel density rivaling that of the iPad and the Nexus 10. Both devices will be upgraded to 2 GB of RAM, which is not that unusual with today’s models.
What might be a bit surprising is that these new models will be running on a Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon 800, which leaks say will be clocked to “around” 2 GHz. Considering that Texas Instruments, which provided the current Kindles’ CPUs, is no longer manufacturing mobile processors, it only seems natural to use Qualcomm’s chips. However, the power that the SoC provides might seem overkill for the Kindle, which could hint that Amazon might be planning to take the device into new territory.
With this set of tasty specifications, one could wonder how Amazon will keep prices down. Considering one of the biggest selling points of the Kindle is the affordable cost, it will be interesting to see how the company will solve this difficult balancing act.
VIA: SlashGear
It’s going to really blow my mind if this ends up being true and they keep the price similar to that of the Nexus7.
If the price goes up, then this move really isn’t going to make a lot of sense to me. Buyers in the market for a Kindle are concerned with content, screen quality, and price. I don’t think they really care about having a monster SoC behind the scenes.