Kindle Fire HDX

Versus the previous generation (which costs over $100 less), the larger 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX has higher resolution and a faster professor, weighs significantly less, adds a rear camera, and offers an additional two hours of battery life.

Specs at a glance:

• Display — 8.9-inch 2560 x 1600 (339 ppi) touchscreen
• Processor — Quad-core Snapdragon 800 2.2GHz
• Battery — 12 hours mixed use, 18 hours reading
• Camera — Front-facing HD; rear-facing 8MP
• Size — 9.2 (H) x 6.2 (W) inches; 0.31 inch thick; WiFi: 374 grams, 4G: 384 grams
• WiFi Price — With ads: $379 (16GB), $429 (32GB), $479 (64GB); without ads: $394 (16GB), $444 (32GB), $494 (64GB)
• 4G LTE Data Price — With ads: $479 (16GB), $529 (32GB), $579 (64GB); without ads: $494 (16GB), $544 (32GB), $594 (64GB)

The slightly more petite 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX adds more options to this year's Kindle Fire HD. Although both tablets have a 7-inch display, the HDX has higher resolution, faster processor, and one hour of extra battery life; adds a front-facing camera; weighs a little bit less; and offers two additional storage options for about $100 more.

Specs at a glance:

• Display — 7-inch 1920 x 1200 (323 ppi) touchscreen
• Processor — Quad-core Snapdragon 800 2.2GHz
• Battery — 11 hours mixed use, 17 hours reading
• Camera — Front-facing HD; no rear-facing
• Size — 7.3 (H) x 5 (W) inches; 0.35 inches thick; WiFi: 303 grams, 4G: 311 grams
• WiFi Price — With ads: $229 (16GB), $269 (32GB), $309 (64GB); without ads: $244 (16GB), $284 (32GB), $324 (64GB)
• 4G LTE Data Price — With ads: $329 (16GB), $369 (32GB), $409 (64GB); without ads: $344 (16GB), $384 (32GB), $424 (64GB)

The Fire OS is a heavily customized version of Android developed specifically for the Kindle Fire. The new HDX tablets ship with "Mojito," the third-generation Fire OS. The operating system will arrive with the upcoming tablets and push more updates mid-November.

Mojito's key features include "1-Tap Archive," which identifies content that has not been used in a while and provides the option to clear space on the tablet by moving the media to the cloud. Kindle's "X-ray" feature, which shows additional information in books, movies, and TV, is expanding to music. Accessibility tools like Screen Magnifier are also improved in the new OS.

Prime Instant Video, Amazon's Netflix-like subscription service, is now available for offline viewing for no additional cost. Screen-mirroring on Miracast-enabled accessories or TVs is another long-awaited feature for the Kindle Fire. Like this year's Paperwhite, the Kindle Fire HDX will receive Goodreads integration later this year.

The most notable addition is the "Mayday" button. Learn more about Amazon's new tech support service in the next slide.

Mayday comes free for HDX owners. It's live, 24-hour tech support available seven days a week, 365 days a year. Connect to the Internet or a data connection, tap the Mayday button next to settings, and an Amazon expert will appear. The support personnel can troubleshoot and walk users through solutions by drawing on their screens or doing it for them.

According to Amazon, Mayday will attempt to respond to any problem in 15 seconds or less.

New origami covers ($55) are also available for preorder and will ship with the HDX devices on Nov. 7. The magnetic cover snaps onto the rear and has close-to-sleep, open-to-wake functionality. "Origami" refers to the two folding options for the case that keep the tablet upright in portrait or horizontal in landscape mode.