Amazon's Kindle Fire gets an upgrade, price cut to $159

Kindle Fire upgraded
New features, new price

The Amazon Kindle Fire wasn't left out of the new-product-happy-press event the online retailer hosted in the L.A. suburb of Santa Monica, Calif. Thursday.

In addition to announcing the Kindle Fire HD - in 7-inch, 8.9-inch and 4G LTE flavors - and the Kindle Paperwhite, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos let it be known the good old Kindle Fire is getting a boost, too.

The tab will now feature a "new faster processor," two times the RAM (1GB), 40 percent faster performance and longer battery life.

That processor is specked at 1.5GHz, according to Amazon.

The price also dropped to $159, down from $199. The U.K. (plus some other European countries) got its own Kindle Fire pricing Thursday.

Although the look is still the same and there's still no camera or Bluetooth, Amazon seems amped on the new features and new price.

On fire

According to Bezos, the Kindle Fire comprises 22 percent of tablet sales in the U.S. Its popularity is what prompted his company to rethink and retool their go-to tablet.

Though pre-ordering is open today, the device won't ship until Sept. 14.

We'll have hands on reviews with the devices Amazon introduced today, but until then check out our Amazon Kindle Fire 2 hub page for all the latest coming out of Santa Monica.

Via CNET, The Verge, Amazon

Michelle Fitzsimmons

Michelle was previously a news editor at TechRadar, leading consumer tech news and reviews. Michelle is now a Content Strategist at Facebook.  A versatile, highly effective content writer and skilled editor with a keen eye for detail, Michelle is a collaborative problem solver and covered everything from smartwatches and microprocessors to VR and self-driving cars.