With Google’s second-generation Nexus 7 now shipping, everyone’s wondering how and when Amazon will counter it with a new Kindle Fire HD. We already know the retail giant is working on one, and thanks to these leaked photographs, we now know what it’s going to look like as well.

Meet the new 7-inch Kindle Fire HD 2.

It’s a rather odd shape. It doesn’t look too dissimilar to previous Kindle Fire tablets from the front, but when you flip it over, you’ll find these rather large, angled edges. There’s a volume rocker on on of those edges, a power button on the other, and what appear to be stereo speakers on the top edge.

You can clearly see the Amazon logo on the device’s back, too, which proves this is indeed a Kindle tablet. The device looks pretty thick — particularly in the shot below — but unfortunately no measurements are available at this stage. Th source behind the photos claims, however, that the device will be thinner and lighter than the current 7-inch Kindle Fire HD.

The photos were obtained by Boy Genius Report, which expects the new 7-inch Kindle Fire HD 2 to offer a high-resolution 1920×1200 display, a 2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. There will also be a front-facing camera — as you can see in the pictures — but no rear-facing one.

While these photos certainly look genuine, it’s worth pointing out that they may not be an accurate representation of the new Kindle Fire HD’s final design. This may simply be a prototype device — one of many built by Amazon during the tablet’s testing phase — that could never see the light of day.

We’ll assume this is what it’s going to look like for now, then, but don’t be too surprised if the design is different come launch day.

• SourceBoy Genius Report