# From original Kindle Fire to Kindle Fire HD 8.9"



## StephanieJ (Nov 11, 2010)

My first generation Kindle Fire (ordered the day they were announced) stopped charging.  Amazon offered me a great discount and I finally bit the bullet.  It will be here Wednesday, I'm so excited!  My daughter has the 8.9" KF so I've played with hers, it's amazing the difference.

I've so missed my Fire.  I'm just curious if anyone who went from the original to this one regretted doing so?  I'm afraid I'll miss the smaller size but.... I had to do it!


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I went from the original fire to the 8.9 HD. I didn't regret it at all. The bigger size is a super plus for me. I now enjoy all the games a lot better, I can actually see everything. Same with browsing and everything really. I just couldn't see well enough on the small screen for that. I don't read on my fire though. It's for everything else. 
I am not really using my original anymore now. Poor thing is just neglected. 

I am using my 8.9 way more than I did my OFire. Its the size and the clarity of the screen. 

I can finally play hidden objects games, which I love. And puzzle games. The details are amazing now.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Even the smaller sized HD Fire is a big improvement, screen wise, over the original Fire.  Especially if you do a lot with videos I think you'll really like the larger size.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I went from the original Fire to the HD8.9.  Love my big ol' Fire.

Betsy


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## StephanieJ (Nov 11, 2010)

Thanks y'all, I knew I'd came to the right place for some enabling!!


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

I went from the original to the 8.9" HD and I LOVE it!.  I gave my original to a friend and keep feeling apologetic, which is silly, since she never had a kindle at all (well she had my K1, but never really used that).

You will love it!!


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## maries (Dec 29, 2010)

I went from the original to the Fire HD thinking the 8.9 would be too big.  Fortunately a couple days later the 8.9 came out and I could see the size difference.  I ordered the larger one and returned the 7".  The 8.9" is heavier and that took a little getting used to but with what I use my Fire for, it is the perfect size.


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## StephanieJ (Nov 11, 2010)

I love it! I knew I would, I've played with my daughter's a little here and there.  Not much because it made it hard to go back to the non-HD screen on my old Fire.  I'm so very thankful for Amazon making this an affordable replacement!


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

We knew you would love it!!


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

I am in an fitness challenge at work and if I stay with it, I will get a $100 Amazon gift card.  It should be pretty easy, so I am already looking into how to spend it.  My DH and I went out today and compared the 7" to the 8.9" Fire HD.  I am almost convinced to go with the 8.9".  I liked how it felt in my hands and thought it had a smoother interface than the 7" HD.  I also thought it would be a good additional device to my PW.

I am a little hesitant, though.  I don't use my original Fire too much because it is not as smooth as I like.  In other words, I find it a little clunky.  It is hard to get a true feel in a store so I was wondering, are the new HD's actually easier and smoother to use?  Is the change significant enough to tell a difference?  Also, does it keep a charge longer than the original Fire even if it isn't in use?

Thanks for your help


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

Yes to all of your questions but the last.  Personally, and only lately, I've felt like battery drain is excessive.  Might be due to playing the ad version of Words With Friends.. also happened after the last update (and fix for same).  Would like to see others chime in on that part.

But I sure wouldn't go back.  I gave my Original Fire to a friend and when I go to help her with it.. well, I'm not wishing for it back, though it is still a nice device.


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## Patricia (Dec 30, 2008)

I just got my Fire 8.9 about a week ago and I've thought the battery drain is excessive, especially in comparison to my iPad mini.  I don't know what it was like before the update.  I just know that I have to plan to charge it every night.


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

Yeah, battery drain is my biggest complaint on my original Fire, followed by the glitchiness.  We have an iPad 4 and the battery life is outstanding.  I am thinking about the Fire 8.9 HD cause it could be mine alone (no sharing)   And being tied to Amazon the way it is is a plus.

Off topic, does anyone know if you can take a purchased video, copy it and load it on the Fire or load it into the cloud?  That would be another plus for the Fire for me.  Thanks.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Yes, seems a lot smoother & easier on the HD. Everything is better including sound. It's sleeker & lighter weight. Battery on HD drains faster than the Original Fire & it also drains faster than on my iPad. Maybe, it could be due to the fact that the HD apps or something are bigger/take up more space or something, like the videos for HD are different than the ones for the non-HD. After I did a restore to factory settings after a corrupt update, my battery life has improved. I also turned off the Locations thing in the setting to improve the battery life. 

I still like using my Fires HD - 7" & 8.9", & am glad that I got them.


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

The HD 8.9 is leaps and bounds ahead of the Original Fire.  I love it and have no complaints at all (though I still like my OF and use it for certain things).  The HD has more memory and is faster, so apps run better.  The screen is great, and hooking it up to the TV via HDMI to stream videos works beautifully.  As far as the battery life: I am not familiar with the iPad's life, but I sometimes use the HD for several hours in a day with Wifi on and in use, and it has stayed above 50%, so I guess you should get 6-8 hours maybe?  I almost always plug it in at night to recharge so the battery life is fine for my needs.


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

I've gotten so in the evening or morning or whenever I am home I have it on the charger (and overnight) and even in the car lately.  It almost drains in front of my eyes otherwise.

But I do love it!


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## KimberlyinMN (Dec 30, 2009)

Seamonkey said:


> I've gotten so in the evening or morning or whenever I am home I have it on the charger (and overnight) and even in the car lately. It almost drains in front of my eyes otherwise.
> 
> But I do love it!


Do you use a battery saver app like Juice Defender? (It's free.)

Also what browser do you use? I've found that Dolphin seems to be a constant battery drain on my phone and tablet.


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

I just have the Silk browser, which actually stopped working yesterday..

I'll have to look at that app.

I started having more battery drainage when I started using the Words With Friends app.  Or with the new update, or both..

ETA: they don't seem to have that app in the Amazon store and others have some reviews saying they cause more problems than they fix..


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

I had an issue several times where my battery drained completely overnight (when I hadn't plugged it in and it had an almost full charge).  I tried several batttery apps trying to figure out which app was causing the problem.  None of them told me anything that would help.  I never did figure out which app caused it but I uninstalled several and it hasn't happened since.  

I use Dolphin and haven't seen any extra battery drain from it that I can tell.  I'm thinking of trying out Opera Mini or Chrome now that I have 1Mobile installed.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I've been pleased with the battery life on my HD8.9 since the last firmware update.  Before that, not so much.

Betsy


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## Tripp (May 28, 2009)

A little bit off topic, but DH and I went to our local Office Depot earlier this week to look at the 8.9" Fire.  I always go into Kboards to check the Internet when we look at tablets.  We were back there today and I checked it again and Kboards automatically came up.    I spread the Kboards seeds where I can.


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## NanD (May 4, 2011)

The 
Fire hd 8.9 is my first tablet, so I can't compare, but I have no complaints on battery life. I don't leave WiFi on all the time and charge it overnight when needed
Just bought an hdmi cable and am enjoying being able to stream videos and play my music (love those 5$ albums!) through the tv.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2


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## Patricia (Dec 30, 2008)

Yes, leaving wifi on does make a difference.  I didn't leave it on with my original Fire, but I do leave it on with this one and I notice a big difference.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Patricia said:


> Yes, leaving wifi on does make a difference. I didn't leave it on with my original Fire, but I do leave it on with this one and I notice a big difference.


I makes a difference, too, whether you are leaving it on where there is actually a strong network available, or whether you're leaving it on where there is NOT one and it spends a lot of energy looking for something to talk to.  I guarantee that your battery will drain much faster if you have wifi on for an hour just reading in a place where there IS NO WIFI, than if you have wifi on for an hour just reading at home where you have a good strong network.


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

The problem with the Silk browser on mine got to where it was only displaying a black screen.  It was actually accessing the various sites (this happened even with amazon.com) so it would show in the icon on the carousel but if you tapped that it was just black.

and tonight it went into that mode where you couldn't wake it up, or only get the Kindle Fire screen after pressing the on/off switch for a long time, but then it would go black.  At the time this started I had at least 40% battery and had it on the older kindle charger.  So, before calling Amazon, I brought the high speed charger from upstairs and put it on that and whew.. it came back to life after what seemed like a long reset.  Oddly there was the icon for a game I haven't played in many weeks, on the carousel.

But, the browser is now functioning again.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Seamonkey said:


> The problem with the Silk browser on mine got to where it was only displaying a black screen. It was actually accessing the various sites (this happened even with amazon.com) so it would show in the icon on the carousel but if you tapped that it was just black.
> 
> and tonight it went into that mode where you couldn't wake it up, or only get the Kindle Fire screen after pressing the on/off switch for a long time, but then it would go black. At the time this started I had at least 40% battery and had it on the older kindle charger. So, before calling Amazon, I brought the high speed charger from upstairs and put it on that and whew.. it came back to life after what seemed like a long reset. Oddly there was the icon for a game I haven't played in many weeks, on the carousel.
> 
> But, the browser is now functioning again.


The new icon is probably an indication that an update to that game was downloading. Which also might explain the apparent freezing when you tried to use the browser.

In my experience, when either Fire goes wonky like this the thing to do is put it down for about 15 minutes -- on a charger if it's under 25% or so -- and then check it again. And maybe then do a restart just to let it clear out any stray bits and bytes.


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

Seamonkey said:


> Oddly there was the icon for a game I haven't played in many weeks, on the carousel.


Yes, unfortunately since the update the carousel bug with wrong icons and wrong order has returned.


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

Yes, I also have learned to handle wonkiness by trying to reset (and putting it on a charger) and waiting it out. Never have called (except when it was choking while being re-instated after they de registered while it was missing. It took two CSRs some time to get that one unclogged.

The game was one that was already on the device and had been played on the device, but not recently. I do know for sure I re-downloaded it after the de-register effort.

Interesting that a game that did not show was the one I purchased last night that was the Free App of the Day.

And the browser had been dark for maybe a week, so this was a slow wonkiness..

I'm just pleased that when it came back from refusing to turn on, the browser was also fixed. Why the game was downloading, if it was, who knows?



Ann in Arlington said:


> The new icon is probably an indication that an update to that game was downloading. Which also might explain the apparent freezing when you tried to use the browser.
> 
> In my experience, when either Fire goes wonky like this the thing to do is put it down for about 15 minutes -- on a charger if it's under 25% or so -- and then check it again. And maybe then do a restart just to let it clear out any stray bits and bytes.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Seamonkey said:


> Why the game was downloading, if it was, who knows?


I would bet that the game had an update. That happens with apps every once in a while.


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## Dragle (Dec 10, 2011)

I had 2 things on my status area (when you pull it down from the top) that said "Cubistry - Downloading 137%" and 
Fraction Calculator Plus - Downloading 433%", so I guess those had updates (even though I didn't think any were allowed to auto-download), which would explain the calculator popping up on the carousel (Cubistry is usually there anyway since I play it a lot-relaxing!). But downloads 137% and 433% complete? Weird. They wouldn't go away and I had to reboot to get rid of them.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

I also had the calculator apps as well as a few others show up on my carousal without me tapping on them to update them.


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

AHA!!  It WAS Cubistry!!  And I hadn't played it lately (I've been on my first jag of Words with Friends.. or in my case, Words with Total Strangers, but we keep playing again) but yes, it was updating, per the notification, I saw later.  And no I didn't ask it to update.  hmm

The calculator apps hadn't been downloaded or re-downloaded since the de-register/re-register.

So. Cubistry seems to be the culprit!

However, the browser was displaying solid black for DAYS, even though the icon on the carousel would show a miniature of the page/site that was blacked out.  I was peeved because I like to be able to use GasBuddy, or click on links to caringbridge from email, .. on the Fire.  No Smart Phone.  

Anyway, mystery solved, at least for the total freeze.


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## writermomof2 (Jun 27, 2013)

I just got my Kindle Fire 8.9 right after Christmas and love it. I'm glad I didn't pay the money for an iPad!


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## L.E. Parin (Nov 30, 2012)

I was debating trading in my original fire for credits for the KFHD 8.9 when Gamestop was doing that promo around Christmas.  We ended up keeping it, and I'm really glad I did.  Even though I LOVE the 8.9, I don't seem to get the same battery life as with the original (nice having a backup), and there's a huge difference in weight when trying to hold it one-handed, (which I had to do a lot of when walking back and forth wearing my son in a Moby wrap while he napped).  I'm really glad to have both, but if I had to choose one, I'd definitely pick the 8.9 for the screen


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