After weeks of waiting, I finally got my hands on Fire…Kindle Fire.
Kindle Fire represents Amazon’s initial foray into the Tablet market. Retailing at US$199.00 the Kindle Fire is a 7 inch tablet that seamlessly integrates Amazon’s ecosystem of books, music, video and magazine services. Included in the cost of the tablet is a free month of Amazon Prime. Prime allows the Kindle Fire user to access movies, read bestselling books and it includes free two day shipping directly from the Kindle Fire.
What comes in the box? One Kindle Fire, one U.S. power adapter, and a quick start guide – a very brief quick start guide. I’d like to start this review with a look at the design and features of this tablet. The quick start guide leads you to the Kindle Fire home screen where you can access a user guide with more detailed information on the device.
Handling the device, I found it to be solidly constructed with a soft rubberized backing that allows for a good grip on the device. Thin and sleek, the design is interrupted by a power button, USB 2.0 (micro-b) and stereo audio jack (pictured below).
Categories: Gadgets
Thanks, Tania. You just helped me make up my mind, and I just bought mine. Now if I can just wait until Tuesday.
Glad to be of help, Jonn.
Great review. I have a Nook (color) and the two gadgets seem similar in many ways except the operating system of course. It looks like a nice device. I use my nook for reading and not web browsing so it suits me but this device seems a little more high powered for other uses. Nice first try for Amazon.
My sister owns a Nook and raves about it. I’m happy to note in this market there is an e-reader to suite everyone.
Well done, Tania. I appreciate the attention to detail and useful photos. BTW, a week after I got my iPad, I gave my MacBook to my children and haven’t missed it. I do most of my writing on it even at home where I have access to an iMac.
I am so enamored by the technology of the iPad. As soon as I can upload and edit photos into Lightroom while tweaking videos in Sony Vegas then I will be the first(-ish) in line to purchase this wonder of an iPad.
re. lack of 3G: the cost to Amazon of providing free 3G (as they do with eInk Kindles) would be prohibitive when extended to streaming content.
3G access is billed per megabyte transmitted, with a typical eBook coming in at a few hundred KB and a typical movie at several hundred MB to over a GB.
If there’d been a paid 3G plan included, there’d have been a flood of complaints about Amazon “forcing customers into a monthly fee” (in fact there were already numerous complaints about just that based on mere rumours on their support forums when the first rumours of Amazon entering the tablet market emerged last year).
So being WiFi only is for Amazon a prudent choice. An optional 3G capability (with a slot for a SIM card to be installed by the customer after signing up for a plan of his choice) might have been possible, I guess Amazon’s market research concluded this wouldn’t bring enough extra sales to warrant the higher product cost.
I agree that keeping the cost to US$199 prohibited the inclusion of free 3G. I’d would be open to purchasing 3G for the Kindle, but you’re probably right about the sales.
While I like my Fire, there are a few “Cons” that should be mentioned:
1. No volume buttons, and no volume control on the video player popup controls. You have to open the basic settings control to adjust volume.
2. The touch screen sometimes responds to fingers NEAR the screen, and it can be hard to hold the device in portrait mode for reading a book without inadvertent paging.
Kevin,
I found a pop up volume control during a video playback – is this what you are looking for?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skye820/6381029253/
pardon the quality of photo..
if you want more movie/tv choices, the Netflix and Hulu+ apps are both available in the Kindle Apps store. I can’t speak for the hulu+, but the Netflix app works great on the fire.
Most people with broad experience with a variety of tablets who have reviewed the Kindle think it’s significantly inferior to the iPad in a variety of ways that might not be obvious to someone who (as far as I can tell) only used the Kindle.
I recommend checking out Walt Mossberg’s review for what seems like a fair evaluation that is good at noting the pros and cons versus iPad and others.
http://allthingsd.com/20111115/kindle-fire-a-grown-up-e-reader-withtablet-spark/
Note that the Kindle locks you into Amazon’s content ecosystem, while the iPad allows you to download apps from Apple, Amazon (Kindle) and Barnes & Noble. So if you get an iPad you get all the stores in one device, which is a very strong position.
I have used my iPad as a notebook substitute and if you buy the external keyboard it works very well for light writing and editing as you might do on a netbook. It’s no substitute for a MacBook Air or similar.
D
I don’t understand the comparison to an iPad. The two devices are completely different animals. I’ve read Mossberg’s review among several others and haven’t found the sluggishness reported with the interface. However,everyone is free to share their opinion.
When an ipad can approximate a laptop then I’ll consider purchasing one. Right now, I own a netbook, laptop and desktop – the iPad as it stands now cannot replace any of these devices.
So the Fire is inferior to the iPad, which itself is no substitute for an Airbook? So a $200 product has less utility than a $500+ product, which is less useful than a $1,000+ product? Stop the presses!
Seriously, I would never pay $500 for a toy, but the Fire fills the need for streaming video (from Amazon, Netflix and others) and other media consumption tasks just fine. if you want to, you can load non-Amazon apps designed for Android 2.3 by flipping a setting on the Settings page. Works fine with my Audible.com audiobooks, too. You can download content for when you are not on Wi-fi. Did anyone really expect to be able to stream video via 3G for free?
It’s not perfect, but it is a fine Gen 1 product at a great price.
I _almost_ bought one of these, before coming to my senses and realizing that I need to wait for the inevitable bigger version for my purposes (reading PDFs and comics). From what I’ve read (including your link), you can’t get to the Android Market without rooting it and there is no CBR (comic book reader) app available at present from the Kindle Fire app store. I’ll still buy the bigger version when it comes out and take my chances rooting it if I have to, but I’m hoping that little problem is resolved by then.
I’m still wondering how I broke my longstanding rule of not purchasing first generation tech.
I’m sure the next generation will have more interesting bells and whistles
No true about the need to root it. Right on the settings page is a toggle that allows you to turn on the ability to “side-load” apps from non-Amazon sources.
The fire does have a “panel view” which lets you read comics one panel at a time. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like a good option.
I thought the lack of 3G would be a deal breaker for me (in semi-rural PA, near Scott Ott territory, but not quite in it. But I contributed to his first campaign!). I have wi fi at home and at work, but it is scarce otherwise.
My wife and I have earlier generation kindles, and the 3G connection is a BIG DEAL for us.
But so far, I’m not missing it. 8 Gig is plenty of space to load up what I think I am going to want/need while I am out of wi fi range. Cuts down on the impromptu purchases though. I guess that is something Amazon has to balance.
Lack of 3G is a deal breaker for my wife though. Her wi fi at work is locked down big time. No amazon, ebay, etc.
The only things I don’t like are the inability to change what comes up in the carousel (if anybody knows how to edit that, please advise), and the previously mentioned lack of text to audio. Oh well, for $79, I can order a previous generation kindle and get text to audio and 3G for free (plus 1-2 week battery life!), so I’m not going to complain.
So far, I’m running the Fire off my home wifi and haven’t encountered any problems. When I get a spare moment, I’ll download more of my books for those between wi-fi moments.
An important design consideration is that it is not slick plastic, so that when I fall asleep while reading (as happens with increasing frequency), I’ll not require a visit the dentist.
I have never had a kindle of any sort, but am becoming interested in it.
This is a bleg for information: can you UPLOAD a book onto Amazon, for self publishing purposes, through Kindle Fire? Will it include colour illustrations?
Thanks.