Just got notification of Amazon’s latest Gold Box deal: its 8.9” 4G LTE Kindle Fire HD tablets, refurbished, at $80 off retail. That knocks the 32 GB version from $300 down to $220, and the 64 from $350 to $270. Full 1 year warranty included; the AT&T 4G LTE data plan costs extra.
Not really sure this is necessarily a huge bargain. $80 isn’t all that big a discount for a refurbished product, Also, the Fire tablets are too closely tied to Amazon’s own content ecosystem to count as a true general-purpose Android tablet; one of the attendant problems is that a number of really popular Android games, such as Plants vs. Zombies 2, are still nowhere to be found in Amazon’s app store.
On the other hand, if you just want a glorified e-reader and media player and are already heavily invested in Amazon’s content ecosystem, the Fire series are the only Android tablet currently capable of playing Amazon Instant Video without requiring some rather involved tinkering.
This deal is valid Monday, May 19th only, and it might well sell out before too late in the day. If you want one, better get it early.
