Amazon jabs at Apple, says Kindle Fire HDX is 'Lighter than Air' - GeekWire

October 23, 2013 at 1:43 pm by Blair Hanley Frank

Visitors to Amazon's homepage today were greeted with a subtle jab at Apple's new iPad Air tablet. A banner advertising the new Kindle Fire HDX came with the tag line "Lighter than Air," a clear nod to Apple's newly-announced lightweight tablet.

While it's true that the Kindle HDX is lighter than Apple's iPad Air, weighing .82 pounds to the Air's 1.0, there's a bit of a problem with Amazon comparing the two tablets: they're not actually the same size. The iPad Air comes equipped with a 9.7 inch screen, while the Kindle Fire HDX's screen only measures 8.9 inches from corner to corner, which may account for some, if not all of the weight savings between the two devices.

And while the iPad Air is heftier, it's actually six-hundredths of an inch slimmer than the HDX.

Of course, if there's one way Amazon's tablet is clearly lighter than the iPad, it's Amazon's pricing. The cheapest iPad Air will cost $ 499 when the device launches in November, while the Kindle Fire HDX starts at $ 379, even below the price of Apple's new Retina display-equipped iPad Mini.

Blair Hanley Frank is GeekWire's Bay Area Correspondent. He has also worked for Macworld, PCWorld and TechHive. He can be found on Twitter @belril.

Buy from$ 229

• key specs

• Form factorTablet
• Operating systemAndroid
• Screen size7 inches
• Storage typeInternal storage (16 GB, Flash)
• Maximum battery lifeUp to 11 hours
• Dimensions7.3 x 5 x 0.35 in
• Weight10.7 oz
• Released10/18/2013

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