Amazon Kindle Fire HDX vs iPad Mini: Hardware Specs, Release Date, Features, and Price Compared

Amazon's Kindle lineup has just gotten a couple new tablets that boast competitive specs and prices. So how does the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX stack up against one of the reigning tablets in the market, the iPad mini? Let's take a look.

Display

The Amazon Kindle Fire HDX comes in two sizes: a slightly pared-down 7-inch model and an 8.9-inch beast. The iPad mini splits the difference with an 8-inch screen (7.9 inches to be exact). While there are reports that the new iPad Mini 2 will come with a Retina display, recently it appears that those will be in short supply, and we'll have to wait until sometime in 2014.

That's bad news for Apple, because both models of the Kindle Fire HDX rock what Amazon is calling an "HDX" display. The slightly less powerful 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX still comes with a 1,920 x 1,200p resolution screen, giving you 323 pixels per inch and the 8.9-inch HDX packs the pixels with a ridiculous 2,560 x 1,600p (339 ppi) screen. Amazon's tablet also features a dynamic ambient light detector that ups the display contrast to make sure that darks on the screen remain visibly dark, even with a flashlight shining directly on the screen.

Meanwhile, the most current version of the iPad mini available has a 768 x 1,024p resolution giving you a much-lacking 163ppi. Of course, this will change with the new version, but not until after the holidays. The mini's screen does have a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on it, so it's got that going for it. Which is nice.

Power (Processor and Battery)

The Apple iPad mini has a 1GHz A5 chip, which is also outdated by industry standards, but is sufficient for a smooth experience using most applications. The Kindle Fire HDX also blows this out of the water, though, with a 2.2GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM for much more intensive programs (and games).

Despite the high-powered HDX screen and bleeding-edge processor, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX can supposedly give you up to 11 hours of mixed use on the 7-inch model, and between 12-17 hours of reading time, depending on the screen size. That beats the iPad mini's 10-hour use time.

Size

Given the heavy-duty specs on the HDX, especially the 8.9-inch model, it will obviously be heavier than the iPad mini. The 4G version of the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX pushes closer to a pound at 13.5oz or 384g. Still, that's lighter than a comparable Kindle Fire HD. And the 7-inch model is almost exactly the weight of the 312g iPad mini, actually undercutting that weight by a couple of grams.

Likewise, the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX is larger than the iPad mini, at 231 x 158 x 7.8mm as opposed to 200 x 134.7 x 7.2mm. However, the one-inch smaller 7-inch HDX has 186 x 128 x 9.0mm dimensions.

Other Features

Both come in a Wi-Fi only and LTE version, and both support Bluetooth 4.0. Both have front-facing cameras for HD video chatting, and the 8.9-inch HDX has an 8-megapixel rear camera, which beats the iPad mini's 5-megapixel shooter (don't take pictures with a tablet though, please). Both tablets can have plenty of space for media, as both come with internal storage ranging from 16GB to 64GB - though neither have a microSD card slot for extra storage.

The iPad mini features the Apple-unique "lighting connector" for faster data transfer between tablet and computer, and it supports Apple's AirPlay feature, which is only available on iOS devices, while both Kindle Fire HDX models comes with Amazon's new Mayday live 24/7 interactive help service at the touch of a button. Basically, if you have an all-Apple environment, the iPad mini is still probably your best bet. But if you're not technically adept at all, Mayday will come in handy - and it might make a good gift for Grandma (while giving her someone to talk to at the touch of a button).

Availability and Price

The iPad has been on the market for about a year now, and ranges from $329.00 for the WiFi-Only 16GB model to a very pricey $659.00 for a 64GB LTE iPad mini.

The Kindle Fire HDX line was just announced, so it will start shipping on October 18, with the LTE version shipping November 14. The Kindle Fire HDX costs as little as $227 for the WiFi-Only 16GB 7-inch HDX, while the base price for the 8.9-inch HDX is $379.00 and can range up to $594.00 for a 64GB LTE version.