Amazon Kindle Fire Review

The Kindle Fire which is Amazon’s answer to the iPad is definitely a hot seller right now. Priced at just $199 it’s attractive to thrifty shoppers and bargain hunters everywhere, and according to one recent survey 51 % of households surveyed preferred the Kindle Fire over the iPad. But what exactly is the Kindle Fire and is it really a better deal than say for instance the iPad?

At this point I doubt that there are very many people who haven’t heard of the Kindle Fire but here is the the run down just in cause you’re not familiar with this latest offering from Amazon. For one thing the Kindle Fire isn’t just an e-reader, it is in fact a functional 7″ tablet computer. Unlike other tablets the Fire only offers 8GB of storage, which may not be enough storage for everyone but Amazon does offer free Cloud storage which is pretty handy.

As of yet there is no 3G option as the Kindle uses WiFi, which really is a shame as I’m sure that a lot of people would prefer 3G. Hopefully this is something that they will consider adding to future models.

The display which measures 7″ with 169ppi pixel density offers for a nice viewing experience but my favorite thing about the display is just how durable it is. While it’s true that with any type of expensive electronics like the Kindle Fire you’re going to want to use a protective case, it’s still reassuring to know that it’s a little harder to damage than you might think. In fact Amazon claims that it’s 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic.

At 7.5 hours of battery life the Kindle Fire offers slightly less battery life than some tablets like the iPad which offers 9.5 hours but more than others like the Samsung Galaxy Tab which only offer slightly more than 6 hours of battery life.

Something that you may not like about this new Kindle is the fact that it has no access to the android marketplace. Of course you do have a wide variety of apps available on Amazon but then again most everyone has their favorites that depending on what they are ,may or may not be available.

Amazon’s web browser Silk does an adequate job of surfing the net and while it’s not the fastest browser out there, it’s certainly not the slowest and for the most part manages to hold its own against other web browsers.

All in all for someone looking for a bargain you’re not likely to find anything better the Kindle Fire, but if you’re not in a big hurry you might want to wait around a while and see if they offer a 3G and possibly a 10″ version in the near future.


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