The original Kindle Fire debuted last year at an industry-shaking price point of $199. Now that Amazon has superseded the original Kindle Fire with the $199/$299 Kindle Fire HDs, Amazon is dropping the price of and refreshing the original Kindle Fire.

Starting today the Kindle Fire (“Kindle Fire SD”, if you want to call it that) is available for US$159. This $159 nets you a 8GB Kindle Fire that is primarily the same as the one that went on sale last year. The three differences between today’s $159 Kindle fire and last year’s $199 Kindle Fire is this new Kindle Fire has more RAM (1GB vs 512MB), a faster processor (dual-core 1.2GHz vs dual-core 1GHz), and better battery life (Amazon says the refreshed Kindle Fire has been “re-tuned to optimize power consumption” and can last up to 9 hours). There is no longer a 16GB Kindle Fire option. If you want 16GB, you will have to bump up to a Kindle Fire HD.

Pre-orders for this refreshed Kindle Fire start today; shipments will be sent out starting September 14. Hit up the link below to purchase this device.

Kindle Fire on Amazon.com

[via Amazon]