The iPad Mini's best competition - Kindle Fire HD. Head to Head.

Whenever Apple Inc. releases a new product, now a days it is just gobbled up by consumers with an assumption that it will be, by far, the best available product on the market. To much amazement, there are other companies out there who are trying to give Apple a run for their money, and in the tablet market, the Kindle Fire HD by Amazon is one product that may match or surpass Apple in quality, while also beating their prices.

The original Kindle was released in 2007, and since then Amazon has made great strides to remain one of the top sellers in the tablet market. The Kindle was in a class of it’s own until the iPad came out and revolutionized what the tablet could do. The Original Kindle and Kindle 2 were basically just electronic book storage units, the iPad created a multimedia platform that was powerful and portable at the same time. Amazon released the Kindle Fire which added multimedia to the series and put them into the tablet computer market. Until the new Kindle Fire HD, the kindle series had been much less advanced than Apple iPads. But there seems to be a narrowing of the gap between Apple and it’s competitors (as can be seen with the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III) and there are now alternatives to just automatically buying any new Apple tablet.

Comparing Apple’s newest iPad Mini to the Kindle Fire HD head to head is the best way to see how they stack up against each other. From the design side, The iPad mini has a 7.9″ screen with 1024 x 768 screen resolution, while the Kindle Fire HD comes is either at 7″ or 8.9″ screen which have 1280 x 800 and 1920 x 1200 screen resolutions, respectively. This basically means the new Kindle is certified HD while the iPad mini is not.

From a hardware standpoint, the iPad mini and the Kindle Fire HD have similar specs. They both have 16GB memory storage and dual core CPUs. The iPad mini does have a front and rear camera while the Kindle only has a front one. But the Kindle has made an advance in wi-fi connection, with a dual band, dual antennas, and MIMO, while the “mini” only has dual band. With two antennas, the Kindle Fire HD is the fastest table, beating any other by over 40% in speed.

Where the Kindle Fire HD starts to really shine is with it’s content. Everyone knows how Apple iTunes works – buying songs, videos, and movies and being able to watch them from your devices. Amazon can work just like that, but it also has an instant video feature, where you can stream and download videos and music from different devices and platforms like the Kindle and even your Xbox 360. There is also Amazon prime, with which you get 2 day shipping on all physical orders, but also the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and Prime instant video. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library features over 180,000 titles, including all 7 Harry Potter books, and over 100 current and former New York Times best sellers that you can borrow from with no waiting or due dates. Prime members also enjoy unlimited, commercial-free streaming of over 25,000 popular movies and TV episodes.

There is also the subject of price. The iPad mini is now priced at $329, while the 7″ Kindle is priced at $199 and the 8.9″ is $299. So the smaller and larger versions are both cheaper, but price is about the only thing that Apple can say they have more of with their tablet.

Amazon has always been a highly regarded company, and so has Apple, but by pure comparison you can see that both items are quality, so there can be a case for either one. The Kindle Fire HD isn’t a pure blow away winner against the iPad mini, but it can definitely be said that Amazon has created a tablet that can contend with the giants at Apple, and maybe even beat them.

See more of the Kindle Fire HD’s features at http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-HD/dp/B0083PWAPW