Amazon Officially Announced Kindle Paperwhite and Two Models of Kindle Fire HD

For a long period of waiting, we finally get the new Kindles from Amazon on the press event in Los Angeles on September 6^th. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, brought out not only a new Kindle Fire, but also other devices and services to all people around the world. Of course, being the press event centerpiece, Kindle Paperwhite e-reader and new Kindle Fire Amazon announced during the event have been the most attractive topics afterward.

The new Kindle Paperwhite e-reader comes with sharper screen display, whose contrast has been improved by 25% and 62% more resolution (now up to 212PPI). It is very thin, as thin as magzines. Using a patented fiber optic cable flattened out technology, the touch-based screen has eight weeks of battery life. On the bottom-left of this device, there is a Time to Read feature which could remind users how long it would be to finish reading books according to reading speed. "[It's] perfect in the bedroom, perfect in direct sunlight," Bezo said during the event. Coming in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G, the Wi-Fi's at $119 while 3G costs $179. Bezos said they can be ordered today and will ship October 1. Besides, Bezos also introduced a new price for the non-touch Kindle at $69.

Well, then it comes to the most exciting part for people. After introducing the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, Bezos announced the big bomb of the event, the Kindle Fire HD, second generation of Kindle Fire. There are two variations of Kindle Fire HD: a 7" (like the original Kindle Fire) and an 8.9" larger version, both of which feature fantastic displays. The 8.9" will have an IPS 1920×1200 resolution screen in 254 PPI, comparable to the Retina Display of Apple’s new iPad at 264PPI, which surely produces excellent experience for users to watch HD movies on Kindle Fire HD besides being used as an e-reader.

Amazon claimed that the new Kindle Fire comes with doubled RAM and at least 44% better performance than that of the first Kindle Fire. Under the hood, Amazon has dropped in a Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 processor, which it says outperforms the Tegra 3. It includes an HD front-facing camera, HDMI output, Bluetooth connectivity, and a laminated touch sensor for better visuals and 25-percent less glare. From the current reports, we have known that the new Kindle Fire HD would be powered by at least Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, not precisely specified on version.

The Kindle Fire HD also includes stereo speakers, an upgrade over the Kindle Fire's mono driver. While the company is also offering a 4G LTE variation, Amazon has improved Wi-Fi networking by adding a dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz receiver, two antennas, MIMO radio technology. The Wi-Fi-only models will come in 16GB and 32GB variations, while the 4G LTE will be available with 32GB or 64GB of storage.

As for the price, the 7" Kindle Fire HD will retail for $199 for 16GB, while the 8.9" Kindle Fire HD will retail for $299 for 16GB. Amazon is also going to sell a 4G LTE version of the Kindle Fire HD for $499. It has 32GB of space. For $50 a year, users can get 250MB of data a month and 20GB of cloud storage.