Come November, Amazon’s Kindle Fire Android tablet will be a year old, which means that its successor is shortly on the way.
Sources “familiar with Amazon’s plans” have told AllThingsD that the next-generation Kindle Fire will be thinner and lighter, and feature a built-in camera. It will also have a display resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels — about the same as the iPad 2, and a substantial upgrade from the current Kindle Fire’s 1,024 x 600-pixel screen. (The iPad 3′s “retina” display is 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, for comparison.)
The Kindle Fire 2′s screen won’t only be sharper, it will also be slightly more square, AllThingsD‘s sources said. The screen of the next Kindle Fire will have an aspect ratio of 1.60, compared to the current Kindle Fire’s more elongated 1.71 aspect ratio.
The device is expected to ship before September.
AllThingsD made no mention of a second forthcoming tablet. Last week, tech blog BGR reported that Amazon is planning to announce two new Kindle Fires as soon as next month: a 7-inch version called “Coyote” and a 10-inch “Hollywood” tablet. The Coyote, BGR says, has a dual-core processor just like the current Kindle Fire, while the Hollywood is said to pack a more powerful quad-core processor.
Whether it launches one tablet or two, Amazon is going to face some tough competition leading into the holidays. According to multiple credible outlets, Apple is planning to launch a 7-inch “iPad Mini” that could come within the price range of the $199 Kindle Fire. Google’s 7-inch, $199 Nexus 7 has also already received rave reviews from the press — our own Christina Warren called it “the Android media tablet the Kindle Fire was supposed to be.”
Of the one actual and two rumored tablets — that is, the Kindle Fire 2, the iPad Mini and the Nexus 7 — which do you expect will lead the pack through the holidays?
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