Kindle Fire $199

Anyone interested in this? The specs are not bad for 200 bucks. I might pick one up, the ipad is so limited when it comes to web browsing, its a joke. The games, well it seems that google has about the same amount of games, i could be wrong but they have all the popular ones. I wish it had a camera though. Kindle Fire - Full Color Kindle with 7" Multi-Touch Display, Wi-Fi

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Claymoore

I got mine last week, and so far it is everything I expected it to be.

I did not expect it to be a replacement for my laptop when it comes to true computing tasks. I did not choose the Fire 'instead of' an iPad because I am not interested in the current functionality of a 10" tablet. When that market matures with future generations of the iPad, Kindle Fire, and Windows 8 tablets, I will re-evaluate and see if I have a functional need for a larger tablet. I did not even expect the Fire to be my primary eReader as intend to keep using my Kindle DX.

What I wanted was a device to replace my old iPod, and the Kindle Fire easily surpasses any of the current iPods in functionality. I have been an Amazon Prime member for years and moved away from iTunes to the Amazon MP3 store when I got my Droid a couple of years ago because Android cannot play DRM protected iTunes music. Amazon introduced their Cloud Player this year and then added unlimited storage for DRM-free music, which makes it easier for me to get away from iTunes by allowing me to copy my ripped library to the cloud. I frequently travel for work and while I could - and often do - use my original Droid or new Droid Razr as a music player, I was always concerned about draining the battery on a long flight and then not having a phone when I landed. I often used my phone, iPod, and Kindle DX on the plane to maximize functionality and battery life. The Fire gives me the choice of replacing two of those devices with one, while adding the ability to watch movies or TV shows. I wanted a media consumption device first, with the need for browsing, eReading or apps further down on my requirements, and the Kindle Fire perfectly meets that need.

The entry-level iPod touch with 8 GB of memory is also $199. If you had $199 to spare, which would you choose?

nel

if it was a 10inch display for the same price then i'd buy one for studying. I cant justify the £400+ for the ipad just for studying.

Lizano

Any Toshiba Thrive owners? The reviews on those are pretty good, and going for $350, not a bad price.

chrisone

So i just received my kindle fire yesterday

After a full night of playing with it, here are my opinions.

Size:
I love the device, it is exactly what i had imagined it to be. It is about the size of a dvd/bluray case, 1 inch smaller from the width and 1 inch taller, it also weighs less than the ipad2. It is about 1mm thicker than my iphone 4.

Gaming:
The device performs great for web, email, chatting, media consuming. Games are ok, it is not really a gaming device, it does not process hardcore graphics like an ipad2/transformer prime. However is does play all those fun games, (plants vs zombies, cut the rope, angry birds, etc). The awesome thing i love is that amazon gives you a free download of the day!

Media consuming:
handles websites better than the ipad (enough said.) Does everything else the ipad and top tablets can do. The screen is beautiful, i have already downloaded all the work apps i used on the ipad on the kindle fire (Amazon app store has everything i need, i didnt see anything missing that would be in the itunes.) Reading PDFs is also great, i didnt see any disadvantage to using a 7inch tablet. I can read and see everything perfectly fine.

Price:
best $199 i have spent in a long time!

Future:
Looking forward i would love to see a camera and microphone, nvidia tegra 3 processor, more memory. I will buy the next kindle fire no doubt. Someone on here said it very well, Apple is missing out on the 7inch tablet market. There is a huge market for this size of device, i will never buy a 10inch tablet, when i have 11inch laptops in my possession, that just doesn't make any sense anymore.

advanex1

Thanks Chris. I was trying to decide whether or not to buy one for my wife and I. Looks like I've got a great review to go off of now. Looking forward to getting mine when I get back in the states.

Devilsbane

Mine arrived on Wednesday and has been played with for many hours already. So far I'm quite impressed with it, its a good size to have around.

snadam

chrisone wrote: »

Reading PDFs is also great, i didnt see any disadvantage to using a 7inch tablet. I can read and see everything perfectly fine.

Thanks for your input Chrisone. This is a deciding factor for my tablet/e-reader purchase. I pretty much read textbooks, and they're pretty much in PDF format (although I have seen many 'kindle edition' textbooks lately). Which is why I'm leaning towards the DX. However, your review has me thinking differently. Have you read anything, say, like a Cisco Press/MS Press PDF on it?

Mike-Mike

those reviews make me want one

Devilsbane

My biggest complaint so far is that I haven't seemed to do anything else since getting it. I was a bit concerned with the smaller size, but it turns out that I really like it. Its a great size to easily just read things off of. If something is too small to see, the multipoint touchscreen is easy enough to use and zoom in. One of my favorite things has been the Ultimate Guitar app. I can go pull up some tabs and then just sit it down in front of me. I used to use my laptop for this, but it was a bit of a pain. There are no shortage of games for android either, can be pretty addicting. The lack of camera or GPS is no big deal to me. I have my phone for both of those. Bluetooth would be nice, but really not a deal breaker by any means. No SD card expansion, but with the amazon cloud at your fingertips it isn't really needed. Integrates with my music up on the cloud perfectly (which I have quite a bit since amazon mp3 is my purchase place of choice).

And the price point is perfect. I'm sure I can already justify the expense after less than a week. Don't expect it to stay that way forever. I've read from a couple different sources that based on the hardware alone it is costing Amazon just over $200 to build. Sure, they will end up making a ton more money off you from apps and accessories but you can't expect them to be taking a loss for an extended length of time. $200 is a bit steep for an xmas gift, but I'm considering one of these for my parents.

TechJunky

I have owned mine for a bit over 2 weeks now. It's hard for me to put it down. I read more books lately than I have ever in my life. The web is ok to browse.... A larger screen would really help, but I didn't buy it for that reason. Email is simple and easy, all the applications seem to work just fine and I honestly have no reason to buy an iPAD at this point.

tpatt100

I am seriously thinking about returning the Toshiba Thrive I bought and pick up one of these.

demonfurbie

tpatt100 wrote: »

I am seriously thinking about returning the Toshiba Thrive I bought and pick up one of these.

id personally keep the toshiba and save up for a fire, i see the point of having a 10in screen with out custom android and i see the point in having a 7in media player

i think youd be able to get more done with the toshiba and keep the fire for carrying around

tpatt100

demonfurbie wrote: »

id personally keep the toshiba and save up for a fire, i see the point of having a 10in screen with out custom android and i see the point in having a 7in media player

i think youd be able to get more done with the toshiba and keep the fire for carrying around

I already have an iPad, my intent was to keep the ipad around as a family tablet since Android has little to no decent family/child apps like the BBC Dinosaurs, Sharks, Disney apps, etc. But the more time I spend with the Android tablet I realized why there was no "Tablet" section like I could find in iTunes because there really are not that many Android tablet apps. I just installed the 3.2 update Toshiba put out and that fixes some of the scaling issues but mostly Android is focusing on making phone apps compatible with tablets and I thought with Amazon behind the wheel the Fire would do a better job with Android tablet apps.

hiddenknight821

For those of you who got the Kindle Fire, why haven't you consider the Nook Tablet? I am just curious to know. I believe you can get the extra memory on the Nook with an SD card.

tpatt100

I would get a Kindle Fire over a Nook because I am a Prime member and having access to the extra media would just be a small perk.

demonfurbie

ya know you can add the amazon appstore to your thrive if they wont take it back, that way you can get the tablet sized apps

Devilsbane

tpatt100 wrote: »

I would get a Kindle Fire over a Nook because I am a Prime member and having access to the extra media would just be a small perk.

Same here. I don't really know much about nook's tablet. But I'm already a frequent shopper at Amazon (and not at B&N). It just seems like the right choice. I'm not saying that the nook isn't good because I really don't know anything about it. I do enjoy how Amazon was able to bring together the cloud/mp3s (where I already have a ton of music), the app store, the kindle lending library ect.

chrisone

One of the deciding factors was my ignorance of the nook features, another factor was the price. I wasnt going to pay an extra 50 for the same features the kindle fire had (i assumed they were identical , because BN NOOK was targeting the Kindle Fire user base). Plus the cloud and amazon support/cloud , BN will never come close to.