Why the Kindle Fire HDX Tablet is Right for Your Family

With so many tablet choices out there, how do you choose the best one for your family?  We have seen and used a wide variety of tablets and the most important thing to remember is to go with a name brand.  There are a number of cheaper choices available now from companies we have never heard of before.  Our experience with these cheaper choices has not been good.

But when it comes to choosing a tablet that is best suited for your family, hands down the Amazon Fire HDX is a great choice.  The Amazon Fire HDX appeals to the whole family…

Moms & Dads

• Superior HD display showing movies & TV shows in impeccable detail
• Parental Controls like Free Time to provide a safe place for videos, books, and apps – with controlled access
• The price is reasonable
• Free cloud storage for all of your digital purchases from Amazon (books, movies, music, apps, etc.)
• A great eBook reader for novels, professional books, cookbooks, magazines, and more

Kids

• Within Free Time, kids have their own profile with a vast number of movies, books, and apps to discover
• With Whispersync technology, pages are remembered so when they come back on the same device or another, they can start where they left off
• A great lightweight reader with access to hundreds of public domain, library, and Kindle bookstore books

Features:

•  34% lighter than its previous generation, weighing at just 13.2 oz.
• 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor – fastest Kindle yet
• 2 GB of built-in memory RAM
• 8 megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash for high-resolution photos
• 1080p HD video
• front-facing 720p HD camera for Skype video calls
• Dolby Audio Stereo speakers
• built-in OfficeSuite, plus e-mail and calendar support for Gmail, Outlook, and more
• 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB options
• Wi-Fi capable
• “Mayday” button—on the spot free tech support 24 hrs x 360 days
• over 100,000 apps and games available in the Amazon App store

Pros:

• up to 18 hours available for reading, as unused system components are powered down during this time.
• Kindle Fire HDX screen has even a higher than Apple’s iPad Air (which is 2048×1536 at 264ppi)
• uses a standard micro USB power port, so it can be used with a wide variety of adapters/chargers
• no need to ask a family member or friend how to get around the Kindle Fire HDX, MayDay 24×7, 365 days a year online support…is available on the Kindle!
• built-in Kindle reader makes it easy to purchase books and browse them from Amazon.com
• extremely lightweight

Cons:

• the battery life is not strong if you use it for a variety of apps, you will need to charge up every 1 to 1 1/4 quarter days
• not all of the Google Play apps are available through the Amazon Appstore
• though it uses a micro USB for charging, my other micro USB cords will not charge it, I have to used the Amazon supplied one

Monthly Amazon Add-On’s to Consider

1.  FreeTime App

2.  FreeTime Unlimited

3.  Kindle Unlimited

• The complete Harry Potter series
• many of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books
• The Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja…all 8 books
• Secret Agent 6th Grader series
• 6th Grade Spy
• Lord of the Rings/Hobbit/etc.

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• The Life of Pi
• The Five Love Languages
• The Hunger Games – all in the series
• Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
• The Paper Magician
• Tons of cookbooks from crock pots to gluten-free to Mason Jar meals!

I love that I can look up gluten-free cookbooks or health books on a pure whim now.  I can also easily browse through every book my daughter wants to or is reading too…from another room…or at another location.  My daughter loves taking Accelerated Reader tests and tries to increase weekly.  I no longer need to take her to the library all the time and worry about late fees…which seemed to be inevitable.

You can get Kindle Unlimited for $9.99/mo. and it’s automatically billed for you.  You can cancel anytime, but all “checked out” books will be immediately returned.

4.  Amazon Prime

Amazon’s Prime membership gives you a number of benefits including:

• free two-day shipping on over 20 million items
• 41,000 movies & TV shows to watch
• ability to download and read one of 500,000 Kindle books a month – no due date
• over a million songs to stream, with the ability to customize your playlists

The Kindle HDX 8″ 16 GB sells for $379 through Amazon.  Other Kindle Fire HDX tablets are available in 32 GB, 64 GB, and 4G LTE versions.

A Mom’s Perspective

The Kindle Fire HDX tablet is the lightest tablet I have and also the one with the most vibrant colors, due to its richly intense graphics.  It’s also fast with its 4-core processor, making multi-tasking easy too.  It’s just a great tablet overall for any or all of your family members.

But what makes the Kindle Fire HDX even more remarkable is the free FreeTime app and possible add-on programs you can purchase.  We have not seen another program that allows you to set limits on videos, apps, and even reading before.  And the fact that you can require so much reading first before any other activities can be used…per child is fantastic.

In order for your child to get out of their profile, you need to put in your password first, so the tablet becomes locked down until your child completes his/her needed reading.  What a great resource for parents to teach their children self-control and perseverance.

If you have readers in your family or want to encourage more reading with your kids, the Kindle Unlimited program is a must-have.  Although it may not have all the books you’d like, it still have a plethora of choices and both my 11-year-old and 8-year-old have enjoyed reading a whole myriad of books.  My son has enjoyed exploring his interests about dinosaurs, jokes, cooking, and AR books like The Boxcar Children.

You can feel comfortable purchasing a Kindle Fire HDX, it will be a great fit for your entire family.  Feel free to ask us any questions below in comments, we’d be happy to answer them for you.

*  I was given a Kindle Fire 8.9 HDX in exchange for my honest opinion.  All opinions are my own.