Five good apps for the Kindle Fire HDX
I picked up the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 tablet almost a year ago, as the good hardware at a decent price drew me in. It is still a solid tablet that is worth considering by those looking for a solid investment.
See also: iPad Air 2 vs. Kindle Fire HDX: Which is the best tablet? (ZDNet — Adrian Kingsley-Hughes)
Even good devices need decent apps to be fully utilized and fortunately there are a lot of them to choose from. Having used dozens of apps on the Fire HDX 8.9, these are the ones I spend the most time using. Note these also work well on the Fire HDX 7.
Silk Browser — This is the browser from Amazon that ships on the Fire tablets and it is a great app. It has lightning performance and the touch interface is superb. It easily handles multiple open tabs with a fast page refresh rate.
I am a big fan of Google's Chrome browser and even took the time to sideload it on the Fire HDX. The Silk Browser is so good that I don't ever use Chrome, which is saying a lot.
Included with Fire HDX
Feedly — Working with lots of RSS feeds to follow news of the day requires a good app. The Feedly app works with the service from the same folks and it presents news items in a nice magazine layout that makes it fast to cover a lot of ground.
Free
Tweetings — Twitter apps are a dime a dozen and this is one of the best. The interface uses the screen of the Fire 8.9 nicely, switching to a two-column format in landscape. It's an attractive app that is also very functional.
$3.99
WPS Office — The Fire HDX tablets are good for taking to the office, and this app included with Fire OS 4 is a reason why. This office suite, formerly known as Kingsoft Office, has a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation app all rolled into one. It handles most Microsoft Office documents, and it does so with a nice interface. It handles PDF documents too.
Included with Fire HDX
Kindle — This choice may seem obvious but the Kindle app is a great one on the Fire HDX. The Fire HDX tablets are my favorite way to read Kindle ebooks, and this app is the reason why.
Free
See related:
- Kindle Fire HDX 8.9: Two weeks in and replacing the iPad Air (almost)
- Why you should buy a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (review)
- Kindle Fire HDX: Smooth operation, great screen (hands on)
- Belkin QODE Keyboard Case for Kindle Fire HDX 8.9: Poor design at a price
- Review: Poetic Keybook Case, take the Kindle Fire HDX to work