At today’s Amazon event, Jeff Bezos dropped some whoppers on the industry: not only an upgraded Kindle Fire, but the Kindle Fire HD, a mother of a tablet that has a Retina-caliber display, serious horsepower, and a super low price starting at just $199 for the 7-inch model, $299 for the 8.9-inch model and $499 for a 32GB 8.9-inch model with LTE. Without a doubt, it’s clear Amazon is gunning for the iPad and the upcoming iPad mini, but how do the new Kindle Fires really stack up?
Below, you’ll find a chart comparing the third-gen iPad, rumored iPad mini, Kindle Fires and (just for comparison’s sake) the Galaxy Nexus 7, spec-by-spec. Please be aware that this chart is still in flux, and is based in the case of the iPad mini on rumors, and in the case of the new Kindle Fires on incomplete information which we have supplemented with reasonable speculation. We will be updating the chart as we get new information about the exact specs of Amazon’s new Kindle Fires, but for right now, we think this is a good resource in how all of these tablets compare against one another.
| New iPad | iPad Mini (Rumored) | Kindle Fire (2011) | Kindle Fire (2012) | Kindle Fire HD (7-Inch) | Kindle Fire HD (8.9-Inch) | Galaxy Nexus 7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | iOS 5/6 | iOS 6 | Custom Android 2.3 Gingerbread | Unknown Android Build | Custom Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich | Custom Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich | Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean |
| Display | 9.7-inch Retina (2048×1536) | 7.85-inch IPS LCD (1024 x 768) | 7-Inch Display (1024 x 600) | 7-Inch Display (Unknown) | 7-Inch IPS Display (1280 x 800) | 8.9-Inch IPS Display (1920 x 1200) | 7-inch IPS-backlit LCD (1280 x 800) |
| Processor | 1GHz Dual-Core A5X | 1GHz Dual-Core A5 | 1GHz Dual-core ARM Cortex A9 | Unknown | 1.2GHz OMAP TI4470 dual-core ARM Cortex A9 | 1.5GHz OMAP TI4470 dual-core ARM Cortex A9 | 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex A9 |
| RAM | 1GB | 512MB | 1GB | 2GB | 2GB | 2GB | 1GB |
| Storage | 16GB, 32GB, 64GB | 16GB, 32GB, 64GB | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB, 16GB, 32GB | 16GB, 32GB, 64GB/td> | 8GB, 16GB |
| Camera(s) | 5MP (rear) + VGA (front) | Unknown | None | None | 1.3MP (front) | 1.3MP (front) | 1.3MP (front) |
| Video Capture | 1080p | Unknown | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wireless | UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, GSM, CDMA, LTE | Unknown | None | None | None | HSDPA, LTE (only high-end model) | None |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.0 | Bluetooth 4.0 | None | Unknown | Bluetooth | Bluetooth | Bluetooth 3.0 |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11b/g/n @ 5GHz | 802.11b/g/n @ 5GHz | 802.11a/b/g/n @ 2.4GHz | 802.11a/b/g/n @ 2.4GHz | 802.11 b/g/n @ 5GHz (dual-antenna) | 802.11 b/g/n @ 5GHz (dual-antenna) | 802.11a/b/g/n @ 2.4GHz |
| Dimensions | 9.50 x 7.31 x 0.37 inches | Unknown | 7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45 inches | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown (0.31 inches thin) | 7.81 x 4.7 x 0.42 inches |
| Weight | 653 grams | Unknown | 413 grams | Unknown | Unknown | 566 grams | 340 grams | Cheapest price | $499 | $299 | $199 | $159 | $199 | $299 | $199 |
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
13 responses to “Spec-By-Spec Comparison: iPad vs. iPad Mini vs. Kindle Fire vs. Kindle Fire HD”
Guys. Google’s tablet is called the “Nexus 7”. There is no “Galaxy” anywhere in the name. It was made by Asus, not Samsung. Goggle Play calls it the “Asus Nexus 7” if you want a longer name. I know you guys don’t really care as this is an Apple blog, but I think its important to get facts straight when reporting information to the public.
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The new iPad has 1GB of RAM.
iPad3 wins obviously
This is kind of a waste of time isn’t it? It’s all guesswork. There haven’t been any rumoured rices for the iPad mini at all for instance yet you put it in at $299 (rather high I’d say), as if you actually knew when of course you don’t at all. Quite beyond guesswork actually.
What’s a Galaxy Nexus 7?
You apple fanboys sure are funny sometimes
Nexus 7 beats it by a nose
Nexus 7 = best. tablet. ever.
Why do you think Apple is copying Google?
You should include the screen area in in^2 and cm^2.
I appreciate the style of writing and information provided here especially the comparison charts, but, there is next to no information known about the mini iPad at all beyond the rumored screen size. We in fact do not know the cheapest price, processor, memory, if it will have BT4.0 (very likely, but not definite) so the comparison chart really doesn’t help much.
We also do not know if Apple is going to offer the mini iPad with different storage sizes, they may in fact try to keep it 16/32GB max to minimize sku’s and price point. After all when you start getting to 3G or 4G LTE and 64GB on an mini pad you might as well get the full blown device.
awesome another comparison comparing a product that isnt even confirmed.. so we have no idea what it really has..
News flash: a tablet isn’t only about the CPU. The iPad is better than the Nexus 7 in every other way other than CPU. And the rumored iPad mini is also better than the Nexus 7 aside from CPU and display resolution.
these specs are not correct.