Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX bests iPad Air in display test

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Comments

  • Reply 61 of 95
    Strange,

    I find DisplayMate usually seems to concentrate on the bits that makes Apple look better.
    Where's that steering committee gone to? In fairness to Apple and Displaymate, he did throw in the now dated Nexus 10.
  • Reply 62 of 95
    I bought the Kindle Fire HDX 7 on Day 1 and have been using it the last week. In summary, I find the HD screen better than my iPad Retina screen, the battery definitely lasts longer and the Mayday help feature is truly amazing. However the lack of a rear facing camera puts it in second place to the iPad Mini for most users. At least that's my view. If interested you can see my full review here: http://blog.vimware.com
  • Reply 63 of 95
    bigmac2bigmac2 Posts: 639member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    FWIW Kit-Kat will run on 3 year old Android phones, requiring very little overhead/resources. I'm sure you meant one specific 2 year old smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus. Agree that one should have received an update to 4.4 and Google stating a guarantee of only 18 months of updates for Nexus devices isn't anything to brag about.



    As for the rant against Amazon are last years Kindle's really not supported anymore? Very poor showing if so.

     

    Too bad Kit Kat won't be supported on any TI OMAP  smartphone-tablet, like the Moto Droid, Google Glass, Galaxy Nexus, Nook HD…  Yet another wide load of orphans Android devices on its way for landfill. 

  • Reply 64 of 95
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by vims View Post



    I bought the Kindle Fire HDX 7 on Day 1 and have been using it the last week. In summary, I find the HD screen better than my iPad Retina screen, the battery definitely lasts longer and the Mayday help feature is truly amazing. However the lack of a rear facing camera puts it in second place to the iPad Mini for most users. At least that's my view. If interested you can see my full review here: http://blog.vimware.com

    And when the retina mini is released in late November with the 326 ppi screen there goes that metric as well.

  • Reply 65 of 95
    ipenipen Posts: 410member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by patpatpat View Post





    But is a much lower density screen.

    Kindle: 339ppi, 4.1Mpixels

    Air: 264ppi, 3.1Mpixels

    Didn't know Air has a lower density.  I thought "Retina" display has highest density everywhere.  Maybe I'll wait for the retina mini.  The density sure will be higher there.

  • Reply 66 of 95
    ipenipen Posts: 410member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff View Post

     

    to some people it is significant.

    ...

    Now... would you want to run your business on a kindle?  can you play decent games on a Kindle?  Is it easy to buy/download/manage your apps on a Kindle?   

    ....


    Do not run your business with ipad if it's a customer facing business.  2 ipads got stolen from my business by customers and none has been stolen so far after I changed to samsung.

  • Reply 67 of 95
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member

    Why is this shoot-out being given such attention, when the 8.9" HDX tested is a pre-production unit that no doubt was tuned to the hilt by Amazon? Distribution of the 8.9" HDX doesn't begin for over a month... and even then it may be in only limited quantities.

     

    The 7" HDX has been distributed for weeks already, so why wasn't a randomly chosen 7" production unit tested?

  • Reply 68 of 95
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ipen View Post

     

    Didn't know Air has a lower density.  I thought "Retina" display has highest density everywhere.  Maybe I'll wait for the retina mini.  The density sure will be higher there.


    "Retina" means that any increase in resolution wouldn't be discernible to the eye at normal viewing distance.

  • Reply 69 of 95
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ipen View Post

     

    Do not run your business with ipad if it's a customer facing business.  2 ipads got stolen from my business by customers and none has been stolen so far after I changed to samsung.


    iOS 7 security features should help a lot to discourage theft.

  • Reply 70 of 95
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Cpsro View Post

     

    Why is this shoot-out being given such attention, when the 8.9" HDX tested is a pre-production unit that no doubt was tuned to the hilt by Amazon? Distribution of the 8.9" HDX doesn't begin for over a month... and even then it may be in only limited quantities.

     

    The 7" HDX has been distributed for weeks already, so why wasn't a randomly chosen production unit tested?


    The wifi 8.9" HDX comes out on November 7. That's 2 days from now.

     

    They tuned the display for more brightness and lower screen reflectance?

  • Reply 71 of 95
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Maestro64 View Post

    One example is the fact the Kindle is a bit brighter display, so they running the back light hotter, 

     You don't know that the backlight is brighter or using more power.

    Quote:


    and we know the kindle does not run as long as the ipad doing similar task


    You don't know that.

    Quote:


    Also being too bright is not necessarily a good things since it can wash out colors or make them look over saturated.


    Which one is it? Those are opposites.

     

    Quote:


    Personally I tend to turn my brightness down, for two reason increase battery life and I do not like my displays overly bright, even most people who work on display and are doing graphic work where colors are important tend to turn down brightness.


    The brightness and lower screen reflectance means you can use it even with bright ambient light... you can use it outside more easily.

     

    Quote:


    The next thing he dings the Ipad on is color accuracy, I would give him this one, but it actually does not matter most people can not even tell the difference.


    He said this, too.  Color varies enough from individual panel to panel that close differences don't mean much.  He said they both had the best color quality available outside of high-end professionally calibrated displays.

  • Reply 72 of 95
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ipen View Post

     

    Do not run your business with ipad if it's a customer facing business.  2 ipads got stolen from my business by customers and none has been stolen so far after I changed to samsung.


     

    More proof Samsung is better for business /s 

  • Reply 73 of 95
    y2any2an Posts: 187member
    The only test group where the Kindle reportedly outperformed the iPad was the subjective one, and the detailed report doesn't explain how that was controlled for observer bias. The reference was an HDTV but go to any TV store and you'll see these have great differences between manufacturers and models. Moreover the Kindle was a pre-production unit provided by Amazon which brings in questions of how typical the sample was. This is too subjective to be meaningful.
  • Reply 74 of 95
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by y2an View Post



    The only test group where the Kindle reportedly outperformed the iPad was the subjective one, and the detailed report doesn't explain how that was controlled for observer bias. The reference was an HDTV but go to any TV store and you'll see these have great differences between manufacturers and models. Moreover the Kindle was a pre-production unit provided by Amazon which brings in questions of how typical the sample was. This is too subjective to be meaningful.

    What was subjective about it? The measurements were all objective, though I suppose the rating given to any particular measurement was subjective.  The Kindle has highter contrast in high ambient light, how is that subjective?

     

    Do you also mistrust when Apple gives out review samples?  They presumably give out Retina MBPs with Samsung panels to all reviewers, while also mixing in the inferior LG panels in the general supply.

  • Reply 75 of 95
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Shadowxaf View Post

     

    The wifi 8.9" HDX comes out on November 7. That's 2 days from now.

     

    They tuned the display for more brightness and lower screen reflectance?


    Uh, tuned for color accuracy.

     

    The HDX display is also about 30% smaller in area than the Air display. Good luck with LTPS at the larger size. Amazon will have enough trouble making a few thousand at 8.9".

  • Reply 76 of 95
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Cpsro View Post

     

    Uh, tuned for color accuracy.


    They are both so close that there's probably more variance from individual panel to panel in the same model than there is from model to model.  But the article didn't really make a big deal about color accuracy anyway, other than to say they are both great.

     

    The biggest differences are that the Fire had higher brightness, lower reflectivity, more density and better efficiency.  And those are all objective measurements that can't really be tuned all that much.

  • Reply 77 of 95
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    Perhaps the operating system matters too?

    I'm sure both Android and iOS supporters will agree with you.
  • Reply 78 of 95
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    bigmac2 wrote: »
    Too bad Kit Kat won't be supported on any TI OMAP  smartphone-tablet, like the Moto Droid, Google Glass, Galaxy Nexus, Nook HD…  Yet another wide load of orphans Android devices on its way for landfill. 

    It is really pointless. My 3Gs got iOS6 a year back, but most new features were disabled... so I ended up with a bit slower but hardly any better iOS5, in essence. And of course, there was no easy way to revert back to iOS5.

    And even iOS5... I still remember iOS4 as the best fit for my phone.

    Considering speed smartphones evolve - and, equally, speed smartphones become obsolete - pushing more than one - at best, two - new versions of OS is, IMHO, more of marketing bragging value than of real value for customers.
  • Reply 79 of 95
    patpatpat wrote: »
    Click the link in the article.
    Max display power consumption :
    Kindle = 3.4 watts
    Ipad air = 4.8 watts

    Significant.
    Nobody notes how much bigger the IPad air display is when they do this do they, also note that the air still delivers over 10 hours of life, the IPad mini with retina is the one that should be in this test but they seem to not care.
  • Reply 80 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Curtis Hannah View Post





    Nobody notes how much bigger the IPad air display is when they do this do they, also note that the air still delivers over 10 hours of life, the IPad mini with retina is the one that should be in this test but they seem to not care.

    Go read the original report. These numbers are normalized for the same screen size.

     

    Hey let me save you the trouble....











    Relative Power Efficiency

    same Luminance 449 cd/m2

    same 9.7 inch screen area

    3.7 watts

    4.8 watts

    6.4 watts

    This compares the Maximum Power Efficiency

    by scaling to the same screen brightness and

    same screen area.

     

    FWIW the Kindle HDX is lighter , has much denser display and has better battery life than the Air (12 hrs), at least from the ZDNet review.

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