So many people posted reviews of the Kindle Fire seemingly as soon as they opened the box. Apart from the obvious stuff anyone could see, much of what was said by many seemed to be speculation. I thought I’d share my opinion of Amazon’s little tablet after some actual use.
I preordered my Kindle Fire as soon as Amazon started taking orders. At $200, I figured if it could do everything they advertised, it was more than a great deal! Mainly, I wanted something on which to watch videos while exercising on a treadmill or elliptical machine. Having a bigger screen for apps (vs my iPhone) seemed nice too, especially for games like Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds, Flight Control, and Bejeweled Blitz. Plus, it’d be great to have a portable iPad-like device for the Web, Facebook, Pandora, etc.
I’ve had the Fire a week now. I took it with me on a trip to the Midwest, using it in the airport, on planes, in a hospital, at home, etc. Overall, I’d say the device is almost perfect.
Almost perfect?
While movies look great on the Fire’s HD screen, I found myself wishing it offered a bit more volume on the sound. The external speakers located on one end of the device sound as good as any laptop’s speakers, but are best used in a quiet room. As for headphones (not included), I suggest looking for a nice noise cancelling pair to go with the device, as movie sound might easily be overwhelmed by your surroundings, especially on a subway or an airplane. Ear buds won’t really cut it.
As for games, most of them play just as they would on the iPad or any other Android device, which is great, but I was disheartened to discover that there is no option for Bejeweled Blitz on the Android market. There’s regular Bejeweled, but no “Blitz,” and that, for me, takes all the fun out of the game. My reason for playing is to beat my friends and have my score displayed over theirs publicly. Also, the game play for Bejeweled seemed a bit clumsy compared to Apple devices.
Movie rentals download fast and you can start playing them before the film is completely downloaded. You also have the option of watching from the cloud. On my return flight, I was rudely reminded by experience that movies should be downloaded before boarding your plane, as airline wi-fi sucks and a 90 minute movie could take your entire trip to download. The other internet features seemed to work excellent on airplane wi-fi, although YouTube videos were sometimes slow to start.
I also found myself wishing I had some sort of stand to prop the Fire on so that watching movies and videos could be done without having to hold the device at the proper angle. I’m sure there’s probably something like this available on the aftermarket.
I compared my Kindle Fire to my brother’s iPad. While the screen on the Apple device was obviously much larger, being 4:3 proportioned, its display of wide screen movies was not much larger than that of the Fire, which already has a more correctly-proportioned 16:10 screen for movies. Also, I was able to slip my Fire into my jacket pocket for transport: Try THAT with an iPad!
More downsides? The Kindle has no camera and no 3G connection. Personally, I think the iPad makes a crappy camera and I’m not looking for another monthly bill for internet connection. The Fire has a shiny screen and there’s no E Ink function for book reading like the other Kindles. Book pages look better on the Fire with the screen brightness turned down quite a bit, but I’m betting most people who buy the Fire won’t do much reading with them anyway.
The big upside? Battery life on this thing is insane! It never seems to run out of juice. In one day, I played two movies, updated three Facebook pages, read my email, caught up on my YouTube subscriptions, played games for several hours, and still had juice left over! Meanwhile, my iPhone had drained half its battery while it sat ignored in my pocket. I’ve only ever run it out once, and it seemed to take forever for that to happen. Let’s put it this way, when the warning that reads “15% battery life” shows up, you’ve still got a good twenty minutes of Angry Birds left before the thing shuts down. The iPhone and iPad don’t even come close to that.
The Kindle Fire doesn’t come with an owner’s manual and doesn’t need one, its software tutorial walks you through operation after the first boot-up and it’s very intuitive. Navigation is simple, although the home screen is a bit clumsy; apps, movies, games, etc are all displayed in a familiar “cover flow” design and are accessible by tapping on the covers, but are displayed in order of last use, so there seems to be a mixed bag kind of thing going on. I prefer to use the top touch menu to select from the options; news, books, music, video, docs, apps, and web.
The web browser works great and offers tabbed browsing and easy bookmarks. It seems to be a combination of Firefox and Safari. Copy and paste functionality works well once you get through the learning curve (one thing on the device that’s not so intuitive).
Overall, I’d say the Kindle Fire is the way to go if you’re looking for an inexpensive web tablet or portable movie player. If you absolutely have to have cameras, Skype, 3G, and all that, spring the extra few hundred for the iPad. For most of you, though, you’ll be glad you only spent the two hundred bucks!
