Amazon invented the low-cost tablet segment with the original Kindle Fire, which went on to be Amazon’s best-selling product ever. For many, it was an ideal media consumption device: it was thin, light, had a reasonably good screen, and was tied to Amazon’s rich offering of movies, music, books, and magazines. The new 7″ Kindle Fire HD a higher resolution 1280×800 display (the same as the Nexus 7), a dual-core CPU, more RAM, and more storage. It’s also thinner and lighter that the original Kindle Fire, plus it has a host of new software features that make consuming content more interesting, like X-Ray for movies. If you’re wondering whether the Nexus 7 or 7″ Kindle Fire HD is the better value for your $200, check out our comparison.

• The display is far, far superior to that of the Nexus 7. Color saturation and contrast is fantastic. Viewing angles are wide. HD video looks terrific.
• The speakers are incredible. Literally, amazing. Due to their placement, they fire towards you when you hold the tablet with two hands, providing a real (you have to trust me on this) surround effect. Volume gets really high.
• The device is slow. It stutters easily, and web-browsing performance isn’t great. That said, looking at content (whether books, movies, music, or magazines) is smooth.
• The Fire HD feels heavier than the Nexus 7, but it feels nicer in-hand.
• The special offers are actually useful! With one easy swipe, I got $5 of free Amazon music streaming. Not bad!