Both the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 are excellent value tablets for the solid, capable hardware you're getting.
But you need to think carefully about what you want from a tablet and what the alternatives are before deciding upon a purchase.
If you're heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem, with hundreds of books and MP3 tracks stored in your digital Amazon locker and a Lovefilm account waiting to stream movies to you - and if your day isn't complete without a bout of virtual window shopping on the vast Amazon website and you want an instant mainline to all those bargains - one of these could be for you.
If your main wish is for a device that pulls all these elements together in a highly-funneled interface, and other common tablet tasks such as email, web browsing gaming and mapping are distant secondary concerns, then the Amazon Kindle Fire HD range provides everything you want and most of the things you need.
Unfortunately, those are some pretty big ifs. The Google Nexus 7 is a far more balanced tablet, offering the same kind of 7-inch hardware for the same kind of price - but with the infinitely more flexible stock Android OS and a far superior app store, as well as apps to give you all the Amazon goodness you could want.
Meanwhile at the larger end of the scale we have the Google Nexus 10 which offers a bigger and sharper screen than the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and a faster processor, as well as all the benefits of the stock Android experience and Google Play Store. However, it's worth noting that it's also a fair bit pricier at £319.
Meanwhile, we have Apple's iPad mini splitting the two devices, which might not have the high-definition display or impulse-buy-territory price tag of either, but cruises into a commanding position on the back of Apple's typical design and app ecosystem mastery.
We liked
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD range's user interface is very beginner-friendly and offers something genuinely new over its rivals.
In terms of hardware, both displays (while a little on the yellow side in some cases) are sharp and ideally suited to movie watching (especially the 8.9-inch model), the stereo speakers are suitably punchy, and those dual-core CPUs drive apps, games and HD video along very well. All for a bargain price.
Access to the formidable Amazon ecosystem is the Amazon Kindle Fire HD duo's main strength, however, and there's no arguing with the sheer range of, or easy access to, movie, music and book content.
We disliked
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The interface, while intuitive, is restrictive, making standard tablet activities like email needlessly tough to access. Other major tablet tools like multitasking and mapping are just plain missing.
This interface also feels sluggish when accessing any of the online Amazon store sections, making one question the wisdom of pushing quite so much to the cloud at this point.
While Amazon is great for most media content, it's comes in a distant third place for apps and games.
Verdict
Unusually, given their populist design philosophy, both the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 can be considered as niche products, aimed at those who feel intimidated by typical tablet interfaces or who just want to be left alone to their media consumption.
They represent great value for money, offering highly capable and solidly built tablets for well under £200 and £300 respectively. It's just that the Google Nexus 7 and (to a slightly lesser extent) Google Nexus 10 give you more for your money, including a superior level of hardware, a far more sophisticated operating system and a far superior app store.
Meanwhile, sandwiched between the two in terms of screen size, there's the Apple iPad mini with its unmatched app ecosystem and super-sleek design. Between them, Apple and Google have arguably squeezed out the capable-but-limited Amazon Kindle Fire HD range in all but price.
Amazon's complete UK offering can be classed as a success, then, but, ultimately, only Amazon nuts and total tablet novices need apply.
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