All new - 40% faster performance, twice the memory, longer battery life |
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- Perfect portability - thin, light, and durable
- Over 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, books, audiobooks, and popular apps and games such as Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, HBO GO, Pandora, and Angry Birds Space
- Ultra-fast web browsing over built-in Wi-Fi
- Integrated support for Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and more, as well as Exchange calendar, contacts, and email
- Free unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content
- Kindle FreeTime - a free, personalized tablet experience just for kids on the new Kindle Fire. Set daily screen limits, and give access to appropriate content for each child
 Prime Instant Video - unlimited, instant streaming of thousands of popular movies and TV shows- Kindle Owners' Lending Library - Kindle owners can choose from more than 180,000 books to borrow for free with no due dates, including over 100 current and former New York Times best sellers
The All-New Kindle Fire  |  All-new Powerful ProcessorMove seamlessly across apps and open titles quickly at a touch. With a new 1.2GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, Kindle Fire is 40% faster and more fluid than before. Free Cloud StorageKindle Fire comes with 8GB on-device storage, so you can download favorite titles to view offline, anytime. You'll also get free, unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content, so you can rest easy, knowing that you'll n BUY NOW CLICK HEREever lose the content you love. | Extra-long Battery LifeKindle Fire has been re-tuned to optimize power consumption. The result: a longer battery life, with up to 9 hours of reading, surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music. Easy to Hold in One HandDesigned to travel with you wherever you go. Small enough to fit in a purse and light enough to hold in just one hand, Kindle Fire is perfect for browsing, playing, reading, and shopping on-the-go. | |  |  Beautiful, New UIKindle Fire's new UI makes it easier than ever to find and enjoy your favorite titles. Spin through recent content straight from your home screen. Pin favorites and access at a touch. Whether you're in the mood to watch, read, listen, or play, Kindle Fire gets you started quickly and easily. No Set-up RequiredKindle Fire arrives pre-registered to your Amazon.com account so you can get started right away, including having immediate access to any previously purchased content you may have. BUY NOW CLICK HERERead-to-MeWith Text-to-Speech, Kindle Fire can read English-language content out loud to you, when available from the publisher. | Unparalleled Content DiscoverabilityKindle Fire makes it easy to find content you'll love by using Amazon's powerful recommendation engine to compare your purchases and favorites with over 15 years of consumer purchase history and suggest content to you, right from your homescreen. 1-Click ShoppingNo switching between apps, no juggling passwords and profiles - Kindle Fire is seamlessly integrated with Amazon's content stores so you can shop new books, movies, games, and apps with a single tap. | |  |  Perfect for ParentsKindle FreeTime is a new service, built from the ground up to help give parents peace of mind when it comes to tablet use. Parents can create a profile for each of their children and choose what books, apps, games and videos they want to give their kids access to. Kindle FreeTime is free on the new Kindle Fire. Set Screen LimitsMany parents choose to limit their kids' screen time, but doing so without the proper tools is difficult. With Kindle FreeTime, parents can set daily limits for Kindle Fire use, or restrict certain categories - like games and video - while leaving unlimited time for reading. | ...And Perfect for KidsWhen kids use Kindle FreeTime, it's like they have their very own, personalized tablet. The background color and fonts change to a kid-friendly design. They only see the titles that they have access to see. The home screen carousel shows their recently viewed titles. And, they can even navigate visually to content based on characters or topics - for example "Cinderella," "Dinosaurs," or "Puppies." Built ToughKindle Fire is designed to stand up to accidental bumps and scrapes. Our state-of-the art display is 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, so you can let your child play, without worry. | |  |  Kindle Owners' Lending LibraryRead for free. With Prime, Kindle owners can borrow any title from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for free, as frequently as a book a month, with no waiting and no due dates. The Kindle Owners' Lending Library features over 180,000 titles, including all 7 Harry Potter books, and over 100 current and former New York Times best sellers. Prime Instant VideoPrime members also enjoy unlimited, commercial-free streaming of over 25,000 popular movies and TV episodes such as Iron Man 2, Thor, Rango, The West Wing, Glee, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Parks and Recreation. | Free Month of Amazon PrimeIf you haven't tried Amazon Prime in the past, we'll give you a free month. Experience what millions of members already enjoy: unlimited streaming of hit movies and TV episodes, reading a Kindle book a month for free, and Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items. We think it's the best bargain in the history of shopping, and we hope you do too. | | |  The Greatest GamesKindle Fire is built for the best in gaming. Enjoy best-selling games such as Angry Birds Space and Where's My Perry?, and exclusive Android titles like Fibble and Skylanders Cloud Patrol. Up Your Game with GameCircleEarn achievements, compare scores with GameCircle and Facebook friends, or take on the world with global leaderboards. GameCircle titles with Whispersync automatically store your progress in the cloud, so you'll never lose an unlocked level or saved game, even if you delete it from your device. | Your Favorite AppsKindle Fire gives you instant access to the most popular free and best-selling apps, including titles like Netflix, HBO GO, Facebook, Hulu Plus, Pinterest, Pulse, Pandora, The Weather Channel, Zillow, and Magic Piano. | |
| Are you a developer? Kindle Fire Developer Resources can help you get your apps and games on Kindle Fire tablets. Learn more  |  Rent or purchase the biggest new releases and most popular titles from every major movie studio and TV network including Warner, Fox, Sony, Disney, Lionsgate, MGM, Universal, Paramount, and more. Stream instantly over Wi-Fi or download to enjoy later. | Unlimited Streaming with PrimeIn addition, Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, commercial-free streaming of over 25,000 popular movies and TV episodes such as Iron Man 2, Thor, Rango, The West Wing, Glee, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Parks and Recreation. | |  |  Massive Book SelectionShop the Kindle Store for over 1.2 million of the most popular books, or explore millions of free, public domain books such as Pride and Prejudice. Vibrant MagazinesEnjoy over 500 magazines in glossy, full-color layouts, photographs and illustrations. Double tap an article for easier reading view and starting next month, tap the cover to go directly to an article and bookmark your favorite articles for future reference. Magazines include favorites such as Vogue, National Geographic, Maxim, Cosmopolitan, ESPN and Better Homes and Gardens. BUY NOW CLICK HERE | Lowest Book PricesOver 600,000 books are less than $4.99, over a million are less than $9.99. Read for Free with PrimeAmazon Prime members can borrow over 180,000 titles for free with the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. Exclusive Kindle TitlesOver 180,000 Kindle exclusive titles from best-selling authors including Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen Covey, Andy Borowitz and Karen McQuestion. | |  |  Huge Music SelectionWith over 20 million songs from thousands of artists, Amazon's MP3 music store is home to one of the largest music libraries on earth. Music you buy on the Kindle is saved to the cloud for free, and you can play or download it anytime. | Your Music. Everywhere.Import the rest of your music library to Amazon Cloud Player and play it wirelessly on your Kindle Fire - just tap Music on the Home screen to get started. Browse and search your library, create and manage playlists, play your music from the cloud, or download for offline playback. All your Amazon MP3 purchases and your first 250 imported songs are stored free. | |  |  Audiobooks by AudibleAudible offers more than 100,000 titles written by best-selling authors and performed by world-class professional narrators. The collection includes Anne Hathaway's performance of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Samuel L. Jackson's performance of A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes, and Susan Sarandon's performance of The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, as well as many others. Whispersync for VoiceNow you don't have to put a good book down, even if you're cooking, running or commuting. With Whispersync for Voice, you can seamlessly switch between listening to the Audible audiobook and reading the companion Kindle book right where you left off. Learn more | Experience Immersion ReadingWith Immersion Reading, Kindle Fire can now synchronize Kindle text with companion Audible audiobooks with real-time highlighting to create a more immersive reading experience, as well as deepen learning and comprehension. Almost 15,000 Kindle books and 15,000 companion Audible audiobooks across a wide array of genres are available. | | | BUY NOW CLICK HERE |  No Other Company Offers This Kind of FlexibilityAt Amazon, we make it easy for you to access your content on other devices. The books, videos, apps, audiobooks, games, and music that you buy for your Kindle Fire can also be enjoyed on Amazon apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, game consoles, TVs and more. | |
| Features  |  X-Ray for Movies
Explore favorite characters and actors at a touch. Kindle Fire uses the power of IMDb to bring Amazon's exclusive X-Ray service to movies. Simply tap on any scene to instantly see which actors are currently on screen, jump straight to other movies in which they star, and more. X-Ray for BooksTap on any page as you read to access X-Ray, an easy way to uncover more from the books you love. Instantly find chapters and locations that mention ideas, characters, and important places, as well as background info, biographies, and more from Shelfari and Wikipedia. Experience Immersion ReadingWith Immersion Reading, the Kindle Fire can now synchronize Kindle text with companion Audible audiobooks with real-time highlighting to create a more immersive reading experience, as well as deepen learning and comprehension. Almost 15,000 Kindle books and 15,000 companion Audible audiobooks across a wide array of genres are available. | Whispersync for VoiceNow you don't have to put a good book down, even if you're cooking, running or commuting. With Whispersync for Voice, you can seamlessly switch between listening to the Audible audiobook and reading the companion Kindle book right where you left off. Learn moreWhispersync for MoviesStart streaming a movie on Kindle Fire, pause, then resume watching straight from the same scene on your TV. Whispersync remembers your last scene watched across all your apps and devices, so you can avoid the frustration of having to find your spot. Whispersync for BooksKindle Fire uses Amazon's Whispersync technology to automatically sync your library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across all your devices. With Kindle reading apps available for phones, tablets, PCs, and Macs, you can keep the story going wherever you are. Whispersync for GamesGameCircle titles with Whispersync automatically store your progress in the cloud, so you'll never lose an unlocked level or saved game, even if you delete the game from your device. | |  |  All Your Personal EmailThe new email app on Kindle Fire makes BUY NOW CLICK HEREsending mail, viewing attachments, and syncing contacts simple. With full support for the world's most popular email providers - including AOL, Exchange, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and more - it's our easiest-to-use email ever. Connect to Your Corporate EmailRead email and attachments, manage calendars, and sync contacts on the go. Kindle Fire features full support for Exchange-based accounts making it easy to stay connected when you step away from the office. | Deep Facebook IntegrationIn addition to the free Facebook application found in the Amazon Appstore, Kindle Fire is fully integrated with Facebook, making it easy to connect, share, and play with friends and family. Sync favorite photos at a touch, share quotes and passages straight from your book, or instantly find friends playing your favorite GameCircle titles. Carry and Read Your DocumentsYour weekend travel plans, the latest office report - keep your essential information close at hand and backed up on the cloud. Email spreadsheets, PDFs, Word docs and more directly to your device or upload from your PC or Mac using Amazon Cloud Drive. | |  |  Enjoy and ShareRelive your most memorable moments. Our new, beautifully designed photo app makes it easy to swipe through albums, or step in to full-screen viewing. And sharing your photos couldn't be easier. Just tap on individual images to email them to anyone you like. | Import and EditKindle Fire makes it easy to keep favorite photos close at hand. Download your albums from Facebook, or use the Amazon Cloud Drive desktop application to upload photos from your PC or Mac. Editing on your device is just as simple, with many popular photo editing apps available in the Amazon Appstore, such as PicSay Pro, PicShop, and Adobe Photoshop Touch. | |  |  Kindle Fire offers a new version of Amazon Silk, our cloud-accelerated browser, which provides a better than 30% reduction in page load times over the previous version. Easy to ReadThere are multiple ways to enjoy your favorite web content. With a single touch, the user interface disappears to allow for full screen reading. Or, you can turn on Reading View to enjoy a clean, easy-to-read version of the site that removes all unnecessary images and other website clutter. | Trends and RecommendationsLooking for the latest news or the next big site? Trending Now alerts you to pages that have recently seen an unusually high level of traffic, which is generally a good indicator that the page or topic may be particularly noteworthy right now. | |  |  Introducing Whispercast, Amazon's free online tool that helps your school or business manage a deployment of Kindle devices and wirelessly distribute content. Centrally manage your Kindle devices and send eBooks and documents to your students, employees, or customers with ease. | Kindle at SchoolKindle excites students about reading. The same great features that help you lose yourself in a book on Kindle translate seamlessly to the classroom, helping students learn to read or study more effectively. Learn more about Kindle at schoolKindle at WorkTake advantage of email, calendar, and apps from the Amazon Appstore for Android to stay connected away from the office. Learn more about Kindle at work | | Technical Details  | | Display | 7" multi-touch color display; 1024x600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, IPS (in-plane switching) technology | | Size | 7.44" x 4.72" x 0.45" (189 mm x 120 mm x 11.5 mm) | | Weight | 14.1 ounces (400 grams) | | System Requirements | None. Kindle Fire is ready to use right out of the box - no setup, no software to install, no computer required to download content | | Storage | 8GB internal storage, approximately 5.5GB available for user content | | Battery Life | Up to 9 hours of reading, surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music. Battery life will vary based on device settings, usage, and other factors such as web browsing and downloading content. Actual results may vary | | Charge Time | Fully charges in 3.3 hours via the Kindle PowerFast charging accessory, or slightly longer with other micro-USB power adapters that you may already have. Charges in approximately 11.5 hours from your computer via the included USB charging cable | | Wi-Fi Connectivity | Single-band Wi-Fi. Supports public and private Wi-Fi networks or hotspots that use the 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n standard with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security using password authentication; does not support connecting to ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) Wi-Fi networks | | PortsBUY NOW CLICK HERE | USB 2.0 (micro-B connector) port for connection to a PC or Macintosh computer or to connect to the Kindle PowerFast charging accessory | | Audio | 3.5 mm stereo jack and integrated stereo speakers | | Content Formats Supported | Kindle (AZW), KF8, TXT, PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, Audible Enhanced format (AAX), DOC, DOCX, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, PCM/WAVE, OGG, WAV, MP4, AAC LC/LTP, HE-AACv1, HE-AACv2, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, HTML5, CSS3, MP4, 3GP, VP8(.webm) | | Sensors | Accelerometer | | Location Services | Location-based services via Wi-Fi | | Warranty and Service | 1-year Limited Warranty and service included. Optional 2-year Extended Warranty available for U.S. customers sold separately. Use of Kindle is subject to the terms found here | | Included in the Box | Kindle Fire tablet, USB 2.0 cable, and Quick Start Guide. Power adapter sold separately |
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| Kindle E-reader Family | Kindle Fire Family |
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| Kindle Paperwhite 3G | Kindle Paperwhite | Kindle | Kindle Keyboard 3G | Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G | Kindle Fire HD 8.9" | Kindle Fire HD | Kindle Fire |
| $179.00 | $119.00 | $69.00 | $139.00BUY NOW CLICK HERE | $499.00 | $299.00 | $199.00 | $159.00 | | Screen Size | 6" | 6" | 6" | 8.9" | 7" | 7" | | Display Technology | Paperwhite Built-in light | E Ink Pearl | E Ink Pearl | HD LCD | HD LCD | LCD | | Resolution/Pixel Density | 212 PPI | 167 PPI | 167 PPI | 1920x1200,
up to 1080p HD | 1280x800,
up to 720p HD | 1024x600 | | Audio | - | - | Stereo speakers | Dolby Audio,
dual stereo speakers | Dolby Audio,
dual-driver stereo speakers | Stereo speakers | | Connectivity | | -
Wi-Fi | Free 3G
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Wi-Fi | 4G LTE
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Dual-band,dual-antenna Wi-Fi | -
Dual-band,dual-antenna Wi-Fi |
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Dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi | -
Wi-Fi | | Storage | 2GB on device
Plus free cloud storage for all Amazon content | 2GB on device
Plus free cloud storage for alBUY NOW CLICK HEREl Amazon content | 4GB on device
Plus free cloud storageBUY NOW CLICK HERE for all Amazon content | 1BUY NOW CLICK HERE6GB or 32GB on Wi-Fi device
32GB or 64GB on 4G device
Plus free cloud storage for all Amazon content | 16GB or 32GB on device
Plus free cloud storage for all Amazon content | 8GB on device
Plus free cloud storage for all Amazon content | | Dimensions | 6.7" x 4.6" x 0.36" | 6.5" x 4.5" x 0.34" | 7.5" x 4.8" x 0.34" | 9.45" x 6.5" x 0.35" | 7.6" x 5.4" x 0.4" | 7.44" x 4.72" x 0.45" | | Weight | | 5.98 oz | 8.7 oz | 20 oz | 13.9 oz | 14.1 oz | | Processor | - | - | - | Dual-core,
1.5GHz OMAP4470 | Dual-core,
1.2GHz OMAP4460 | Dual-core,
1.2GHz OMAP4430 | | Battery Life | 8 weeks
wireless off | 4 weeks
wireless off | 8 weeks
wireless off | 10 hours
continuous use | 11 hours
continuous use | 8.5 hours
continuous use | | Web | Experimental
browser | Experimental
browser | Experimental
browser | Cloud-accelerated
browsing using Amazon Silk | Cloud-accelerated
browsing using Amazon Silk | Cloud-accelerated
browsing using Amazon Silk | | Interface | 
2-point
multi-touch |  BUY NOW CLICK HERE
5-way
controller | 
Keyboard | 
10-point
multi-touch |
10-point
multi-touch |
2-point
multi-touch |
Customer Reviews3.6 out of 5 stars 3.6 out of 5 stars Most Helpful Customer Reviews 4,499 of 4,572 people found the following review helpful Configuration:With Special Offers|Amazon Verified Purchase UPDATE: I bought both a Fire HD and a Gen 2. (as a present to my mother in law) My initial reviews were written after playing with them for like 20 minutes. I merged both reviews into one to really compare the two products. I'm still answering questions in the comments if you have any. And see the video that compares the two and gives a mini tour of the Kindle system.
My Background: I've had 4 android phones, I've had multiple e-readers and my latest 'touch' device is the Le Pan II Android tablet. I've worked on several iPads but never been compelled to spend the extra money for one myself. Wife has a first generation Fire.
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The new Kindle Fire and Fire HD are the second generation color kindle e-reader/media player/tablet devices. The original Fire received a lot of well earned 4 star reviews. It was a great product but at the end of the day, it was a first generation product. It was no iPad slayer. The Fire HD raises the bar and raises it quite a lot. Jeff Bezos said they set out to make the best tablet available period and -in some regards- they did that in spades. In other ways not so much. (more on this below in the closing thoughts)
HARDWARE:
BUILD QUALITY:
- BOTH are top Notch. I didn't expect anything less from Amazon but they really are solid feeling.
- FIRE HD lighter and while it is about the same thickness, the edges are rounded more like an iPad. sleeker look and more comfortable to hold.
- FIRE GEN 2 is heavier and 'boxier' built to more fit existing covers I guess. It's heavier too.
SIZING:
The HD is just a bit taller but a decent bit wider than the Fire. --- NOTE pay attention to accessories because THEY ARE NOT THE SAME SIZE. The cover from my wife's Gen 1 Kindle will fit the Gen 2 kindle (sorta) but NOT THE HD.
THE SCREEN:
- FIRE HD SUMMED UP IN TWO WORDS Oh. My. The Le Pan, the iPads and the Gen 2 Fire all have great screens. The Fire HD takes them all out. I read somewhere there was polarizing a filter over the Fire HD screen. Polarizers reduce glare by only letting 'straight' light though not off angle bounced light. This makes an enormous difference to this display. The off angle viewing is probably the best I have seen in any flat screen. 6 stars.
- FIRE GEN 2 Still a high quality screen. I'd same the same or better than any other high end tablet on the market.
- NOTE A few people in the comments asked about the touch response. - I do not have a problem except in the browser, it is sorta too sensitive. If you move your finger smoothly you can avoid the jitters.
THE WIFI.
- FIRE HD I admit only the geeky probably care but the wifi rocks. I have a mimo router and one quick copy from my server and I was getting almost 30MB/s. To put that into perspective, that's about as fast and an external USB Hard drive can push data to your computer. (USB 3.0 will be faster but they are rare today) -- The other thing is that I have a long skinny house and when I'm in the back bath, the Le Pan drops off. (ahem not that I surf on the potty or anything, just when I test it, you know.) With the Fire HD I can surf in the back yard.
- FIRE GEN 2 still got 20MB/sec. But consider this... at that speed you can fill the entire memory in 5 minutes. Seems good enough to me.
THE SOUND:
- FIRE HD ok I'm a bit of an audio snob. The sound is fantastic for being a tablet. Which is to say it's still only marginally acceptable. You can still buy a $15 pair of Koss KSC75 headphones and blow the speakers away BUT I will say this is the first device I would actually listen to music on. The rest I simply don't even bother. I suspect most people would call the sound excellent.
- FIRE GEN 2 still have a very good sound. For the spoken word it would be very fine. For music it is lacking in my book.
SPEED: Both are quick with the HD being quicker. The Le Pan II is no slouch but I think the HD edges it out. Since the Le Pan apparent died this morning it's hard to compare. :-(
NOTE: IT DOES NOT COME WITH A WALL WORT CHARGER It comes with a micro USB cable that can be used with your existing USB wall worts. (ie your cell phone charger) You can buy a rapid charger for it or even plug it into your computer to charge. This is an odd choice from Amazon IMO.
NOTE 2: Unlike the Gen 1 Fire, (and contrary to what you might have read) the new Kindles DO NOT support flash. Rumor has it you can hack it to install Flash I have not tried yet. I'll try to run this down by this weekend.
NEW FEATURES (as promised)
EXCHANGE CALENDAR SYNC:
BOTH - Exchange on the Fire (both) just rocks. I really like the calendar app. The contact manager can't keep up with the one on the iPad but it is sufficient. Ditto the email. But the setup was easy and it seemed fast. Love it.
SKYPE:
- FIRE HD Spent way too long video skyping today. It worked as well as skype ever works. (long time skype users will understand that) yes it was glitchy but less than other platforms so no complaints. The sound really made a difference here.
- Fire GEN 2 I don't think Skype came with it. I'll update with a definitive later.
HDMI
- FIRE HD ONLY I promised someone in the comments to test this soon but I misplaced my HDMI cable. (drat) I guess I'll order a new one and update when it arrives.
BLUETOOTH
- FIRE HD ONLY worked very smoothly pairing with LG tone. (great product btw) I'll be using that for Skype in the future.
FREETIME: BOTH This is a widely requested feature that allows multiple users (i.e. kids) to log in and have their own customized tablet experience. It also allows parents to limit the time kids spend on certain tasks, like watching movies, while giving them unlimited time to read. Parents have been asking for this forever. (Are you listening Apple?) I wasted 20 minutes looking for it before I looked it up and Amazon is not shipping it until next month. The existing parental controls are pretty decent actually.
CLOSING THOUGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
If you're new to Kindle make sure you understand what you are buying here. Kindles are made -and sold at a highly discounted price- to allow you to purchase media from Amazon. Don't think of this as an android tablet, because it really isn't. Yes Amazon uses the Android operating system but you'd never know they hide it so well. This device is made (basically) exclusively to read/watch/listen to media you buy from Amazon. In that regard this device is about as great as they could make it. HOWEVER. The Kindle Fire (first generation) was notorious for not playing well with many Android apps. If you're a app monster or looking for something to replace your laptop to allow you do work on the road and occasionally consume media, you need to look at an Android tablet or an iPad. But don't let that discourage you:
Via Amazon Prime, you get 25,000 streaming movies and T.V. shows you can watch 24/7 unlimited. We dropped Netflix because Prime Instant Video was so good. Amazon gives you a free month with the either Fire so you'll get to see the value before you buy. (it's a no brainer btw) There are also over a million free books available for the Kindle. I try to limit how many I buy/download but I have over 100 books on my previous Kindle that are waiting to be read, all but like 4 of them were free. Also if you own a Kindle and subscribe to Prime, you can borrow one book per month from the Paid section. And big name books too... all 7 Harry Potter books are up there. If you figure that is worth at least 10 bucks a month, you're getting $120 of content per year and Prime only costs (I think) $79. Or looked at another way, that's $240 in content in two years and the Fire HD is only $199.
If you're new to e-readers, owning one might just change your life. I had probably read 8 book length books in the last decade. (I'm a periodical junkie.) I now read at least one book per week. I was a big reader before but I'm reading more than I ever have in my life. Many studies show that people are reading as much as 3X more when they get an e-reader. If you're a parent looking to inspire a love of reading in a child, STOP. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200. Buy them an e-reader.
SO THE BIG QUESTION, WHICH ONE DO I BUY?
- If you're on a VERY tight budget the Fire Gen 2 is a great product at a great price point. Coupled with Prime, you have access to mountains of cheap content.
HOWEVER. When you look at what you get for the small difference in cost, the Fire HD blows it away... You get a better screen, better sound, bluetooth, it's faster, thinner and lighter than the Fire. You also get double the memory, better wifi and over 2 hours more battery life. All for $40. I guess Amazon wants to make color Kindles as affordable as possible but I don't even know why they made the small one. I'm not sorry I bought it but all things considered, I would buy two big ones if I had it to do over.
I'll be taking questions in the comments for the next week or maybe more, so feel free to ask.
Hope this was helpful. Was this review helpful to you? 411 of 418 people found the following review helpful Configuration:With Special Offers I purchased the Kindle Fire ten months ago for my daughter. Three weeks after she got it, it was stolen. Amazon worked with our police department to find the person who had taken it. Amazon first put a hold on the person's account and shut down the Kindle Fire so it wouldn't work. Then, once Amazon had a subpoena, Amazon gave the police all the information the thief had registered to my daughter's Kindle Fire and the police were able to recover it and get it back to us. Since that time, we have purchased an additional Kindle Fire and, just recently, a Kindle Fire HD. We use them like iPads at a fraction of the cost and the number of free books and apps available is unmatched by their competitors. Our oldest Kindle Fire (ten months old) just stopped charging and I contacted Amazon via Live Chat. Immediately, they said they would send me a replacement Kindle Fire and would also email me a printing label for free shipping to return the defective one. Their customer service is incredible! The Kindle Fire itself is amazing. The internet is fast; connects perfectly to all wi-fi; the graphics are clear and sharp; the books and apps offered are endless. My teenager listens to Pandora on it constantly. I'm always reading. My husband checks the sports scores. My young sons are always playing the game apps. We have them protected in KlearKase protectors and have found them to be well-made, quality devices. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Kindle Fire to anyone of my friends and family. Was this review helpful to you? 595 of 611 people found the following review helpful Configuration:With Special Offers|Amazon Verified Purchase I just received my kindle fire today. I had a hard time deciding between the HD, this, and the paperwhite. I decided on this one, because I really thought I'd like the immersion reading. I have an audible account and I've been reading along to the audiobooks. It's amazing how fast I can get through the books (at 3x speed) and I really retain the info. The immersion reading is super-easy to use and definitely worth upgrading to this. The whole point of the kindle is to read more, and this new feature makes it possible to read 2 or 3 times as many books in the same amount of time. I'm an average-speed reader and was able to read 4 books (with the help of the audiobook reading pace) in the last 30 days and one was the 800+ page Stephen king, "11/22/63".
I also tested out the text to speech. It's a lady's voice and much, much, easier to understand than the text to speech on my kindle keyboard. It also has many speed options and I think it reads faster than my kindle keyboard version. I am very, very pleased with it.
It is much more responsive than the previous kindle fire I'm upgrading from.
If you are worried about the free offers, don't be. I DETEST commercials and advertising so much, I quit reading magazines and watching television. The offers only show on the startup, no big deal. I already took advantage of a $5.00 credit for amazon video. I was able to rent two movies and it only cost me 89 cents, when it was said and done, and I was planning on renting Hunger Games tonight, anyway. So, so far, I don't mind the offers at all.
My favorite feature is the immersion reading and the text-to-speech improvements. I also downloaded all the free kindle books with the free audiobooks for the immersion experience. These are books I always wanted to read,but never had the discipline to just read them. Reading and listening to those books are worth the price of this new gadget, IMO.
Way to go, Amazon, for a great product and a great price!
P.S.
I have an iPad, and the last time I went on vacation, I left it at home and brought only my fire and kindle keyboard. I didn't miss my iPad at all and this new gen fire is even better. Seriously, it's that good. Was this review helpful to you? Most Recent Customer Reviews
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You wait a year for an Amazon Kindle Fire (see our Kindle Fire review) to make its way to the UK, then two come along at once, with the greatly enhanced Amazon Kindle Fire HD arriving at the same time as its predecessor. We'll say this from the off: now that the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is here, the original Kindle Fire seems somewhat surplus to requirement. Far more interesting, though, is the intense external rivalry presented by the Google Nexus 7 and the iPad mini. Amazon Kindle Fire HD review Starting from just £159, and offering a 7-inch HD display and a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD appears to offer great value for money. But it also needs to offer a stand-alone tablet experience that's capable of matching - or even surpassing - its illustrious rivals. Best cheap tablets 2012: top budget options The Amazon Kindle Fire HD certainly matches the Nexus 7 in terms of price and raw hardware, and it comfortably trumps the iPad mini on price and screen resolution. But, as we've come to realise, Apple's dominance in the tablet market has been built on strong design, coupled with a peerless content ecosystem and a super-slick UI. Amazon Kindle Fire HD review The Amazon Kindle Fire HD may be cheap, but ultimately it will still need to embrace all three of these key elements if it's to succeed. If you still think of Amazon Kindles as those little monochrome holiday companions, then you should know that the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a completely different beast. Rather than focusing on the very specific job of downloading and reading electronic books, this is an all-purpose tablet that acts as a window onto Amazon's wider multimedia world - films, music, apps and games are all included in the Kindle Fire HD's remit. With that in mind, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD is a much simpler, purer design than the original Kindle. The emphasis here is on the screen first and foremost, with the only hardware controls coming in the shape of some weedy and difficult-to-locate volume and power buttons on top of the device, right alongside its 3.5mm headphone jack. Amazon Kindle Fire HD review The lack of a fixed home key adds to that minimalistic vibe (we'll discuss the effect that has on usability later). The only detail on the front of the device is a 1.3-megapixel camera for video calls - there's no rear-mounted camera here. Despite that impossibly cheap price point, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD doesn't feel like a cheap device. It's solid in the hand, with none of the creak you find in many budget Android tablets. There's a nice contrast between the Amazon Kindle Fire HD's smooth, glass front and its grippy matte back. It's quietly pleasing from a tactile perspective, even though it lacks the sheer machined precision and premium feel of Apple's tablets. Amazon Kindle Fire HD review While Apple has opted for a super-slim bezel for its iPad mini - partly to facilitate that wider 7.9-inch display - Amazon has been more generous with its own offering. Indeed, the thick border around the smaller 7-inch screen brings it closer to the full-sized iPad in design than its miniature brother. We like this approach from a purely practical perspective (it actually makes it look a little chubby, if we're honest). It's still comfier to hold the Amazon Kindle Fire between your thumb and fingers than it is to rest it in the span of your hand, even when held in portrait view. Of course, that's partly because it's slightly chunky for its size - at 395g it's almost 90g heavier than the iPad mini. One area in which Amazon would hope to gain a big advantage with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD over its rivals is with its display. As we've mentioned, we're talking about a 7-incher here, but it's the quality of that screen that's causing Amazon to boast. Amazon Kindle Fire HD reviewThe company claims that the display features a polarising filter and anti-glare technology, which apparently boosts colour and contrast, as well as improving viewing angles. Despite such claims - not to mention early positive reports from the US - we have to admit to being slightly underwhelmed by our initial experience with the Amazon Kindle Fire HD display. It seems distinctly yellow to our eyes. Of course, it could just be that we've been conditioned by Apple's slightly cooler, bluer high-definition displays. Indeed, once your eyes have grown accustomed to its warmer hue, you'll no doubt begin to appreciate the Amazon Kindle Fire HD display's more naturalistic colour contrast - particularly when viewing video content. It's certainly richer than the somewhat washed-out and dim Nexus 7 screen. That's only half the story with the Kindle Fire HD display, too. The clue is in the name - that 7-inch display is sharp. It's high-definition-sharp. In fact, with a resolution of 1280x800 and a pixel density of 216ppi, it's considerably sharper than the iPad mini equivalent. Amazon Kindle Fire HD review This isn't particularly apparent within the main Kindle Fire interface, but it certainly bears fruit when reading a book or browsing the internet, where small text remains clear and eminently readable. This display is powered by a capable 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 CPU. While this is far from the most powerful processor on the market, it is very well balanced and certainly doesn't come up short when faced with demanding tasks like high-definition video and 3D games. One final piece of hardware-related info we really must cover is the Amazon Kindle Fire HD's impressive speakers. Positioned on either side of the device (if you're holding it in landscape), they're surprisingly punchy, given their size. They really do crank out some respectable stereo sound - both in terms of volume and clarity. Naturally, we'd recommend using earphones whenever possible, but for those times where you're just following a quick email link to a YouTube video, they're more than adequate. The Kindle Fire is a mini tablet computer version of Amazon.com's Kindle e-book reader. Announced on September 28, 2011, the Kindle Fire has a color 7-inch multi-touch display with IPS technology and runs a forked version of Google's Android operating system. The device—which includes access to the Amazon Appstore, streaming movies and TV shows, and Kindle's e-books—was released to consumers in the United States on November 15, 2011. On September 7, 2012, upgrades to the device were announced with consumer availability to those European countries with a localized version of Amazon's website (United Kingdom,[8] France, Germany, Italy and Spain).[9] The Kindle Fire's external dimensions are 7.5×4.7×0.45 inch (190×120×11 mm),[10]. The visible area of the screen is 6×3.5 inches (150×89 mm). The Kindle Fire retails for US$199.[11] Estimates of the device's initial bill of materials ranged from $150 to $201.70.[12][13] Amazon's business strategy is to make money on the selling of digital content on the Fire, rather than through the device itself.[14][15][16] On September 6, 2012, the Kindle Fire price was reduced to $159, RAM upgraded to 1GB and processor clock speed upgraded to 1.2GHz. A new and more video-friendly version called the Kindle Fire HD was also announced, to be on sale on September 14 (7 inch version).[17] As of October 2012, the Kindle Fire is the second-best-selling tablet after Apple's iPad, with about 7 million units sold according to estimates by Forrester Research.[2] At a press conference in Santa Monica, Calif. Thursday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed a slightly upgraded $159 version of the first 7-inch tablet, then wowed the crowd with 7-inch and 8.9 inch versions of the all-new Kindle Fire HD. Read our live coverage of Amazon's press event here The entry level Fire will cost just $159, a $40 price drop from the first. Meanwhile, Amazon says it delivers 40 percent faster performance and longer battery life, with a faster processor and twice the RAM. You can order it today, and it ships Sept. 14. But the bigger deal is Kindle Fire HD, which comes in two sizes, a 7-inch version for $199 (also available Sept. 14), and a 8.9-inch edition for $299 (available Nov. 20), each starting with 16GB of internal storage. Amazon Rosa Golijan / NBC News Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds up a Kindle Fire HD at a press event in Santa Monica, Calif. If you feel like spending more, there will be a $499 version of the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD that will run on a 4G LTE cellular data network, and come with a $50-per-year data plan that gives you 250MB of data access per month. It will have 32GB of storage. Kindle 'Paperwhite' e-reader has higher resolution The specs The 8.9-inch model has 1920 x 1200 resolution with a dense 254 pixels per inch (just shy of the current iPad's 264 ppi). It's 8.8mm thick and weighs 20 ounces. (For comparison's sake, the iPad is 9.4mm thick, and 23 ounces, but it does have a slightly larger screen, measuring 9.7 inches in diagonal.) Keen observers may note that Amazon went in Apple's direction with screen dimensions. Instead of going with a 16x9 ratio, which would only permit a 1920 x 1080 resolution, they went a little fatter, for a more pleasant portrait view, with those extra pixels. Kindle Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7-inch model starts at $199. The screen resolution on the 7-inch HD is 1280 x 800. This qualifies as "HD" because it will deliver 720p video natively, and it will look great on that smaller screen. The original 7-inch Kindle Fire display is 1024 x 600, so it's a healthy bump up from a screen that was already pretty easy on the eyes. The Kindle Fire HD tablets get a new email app, a custom Facebook app, and a Skype app for video chatting. Which means, yes, the Kindle Fire HD tablets have a front-facing camera. Bezos says that with dual-band Wi-Fi and stereo speakers, plus a powerful Texas Instruments OMAP 4 processor and a reduced-glare screen that is easier to see in sunlight, the tablets should give competitors such as the iPad and the Google Nexus 7 tablet a run for their money. Kindle Rosa Golijan / NBC News Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE -- presumably from AT&T, if that logo is any indication. The standout $499 version, equipped with 4G LTE, may prove to be a solid value. It's not confirmed that the carrier is AT&T, though the logo matches the one AT&T uses. And though you may balk at only getting 250MB of cellular data per month, even on a plan that costs you just $50 per year, bear this in mind: Not only will you use your tablet mostly in Wi-Fi situations, but the deal itself comes with 20GB of Amazon cloud storage and a $10 Amazon Appstore credit. Just something to mull over. The features Rather than run through the long list of new Fire HD features Bezos revealed, I thought I'd just show you this video highlighting them all: The first and most important thing that should be said about the Kindle Fire is that this is not an "iPad-killer." It is not designed to be. I have seen so many articles and comments comparing this to the iPad, and surveys where people are asked if they will be buying a Kindle Fire over an iPad this Christmas. If you are expecting an iPad, or even a tablet, you will be disappointed. The main purpose of this device is to deliver Amazon content to you more effectively. It is designed for consumption, not creation. That is the reason it is so cheap and why Amazon is taking a loss on it. They are hoping to make up for that loss through sales of videos, music, books, and apps through Amazon's Web Services. You can also use it to view your own movies and media, but will find that it is more limited in that way than a regular tablet. Personally, as someone who has ordered several rentals from Amazon Video, and had to contact customer support for every single one of them due to problems with Amazon's Unbox player or purchases not appearing in my downloads, I can really appreciate this. But if you don't plan on using Amazon at all to obtain your media, you may want to take this into consideration before purchasing the Fire. Additionally, the reason this product is so hyped, and one of the reasons I like it so much, is due to the ridiculously low price. Amazon reviews shouldn't focus on price, but it is hard not to with this device. On price alone, this is a five star device. However when looked at the Fire overall, and when compared with other touch devices (what little there is to compare it to), I have to give it four stars, since there are a few areas I feel could use definite improvement. FORM FACTOR - The Kindle Fire feels almost the same in my hand as my 3rd generation Kindle but it is a bit heavier. It might be difficult to hold it one handed and read a book for an hour or watch a movie. You're going to need to rest it on something. The display is made of Gorilla Glass, which is a highly damage-resistant. You can still crack it, but I have used a phone with Gorilla Glass for two years on it and it has zero scratches on it despite being kept daily in my pocket with my keys. The back of the tablet is rubberized, so it won't slide around and won't get scratched easily. It also feels good in my hand. Despite all the companies that will be selling them, I do not think you need a screen protector. I have scratched Gorilla Glass before, but it is very difficult to do. CONNECTIONS/STORAGE - On the bottom are a headphone port (which will accept external speakers), micro-USB (for charging and file transfer), and power button. The Fire doesn't come with an SD card slot, with good reason. As mentioned, Amazon wants you to get content directly from them. It also reduces the production costs. You can transfer your own content to the device through the USB connection from your home computer. The Fire comes with 8Gb of storage, which is enough to hold about 8 downloaded movies, 80 apps, 800 songs, or 6,000 books. I filled mine up right away so I never checked it out of the box, but apparently it is closer to 6.5Gb as the OS is going to take up some of this. You have to really become adept at managing your content through the Cloud. Books won't take up much room, but magazines are around 250Mb and movies are a little under 1 Gb. Free videos available through Amazon Prime cannot be downloaded, only streamed. So unless you buy a movie from Amazon or transfer one of your own, you must be connected through a wi-fi connection in order to watch your movie. AMAZON CLOUD - If you have not tried out the Amazon Cloud Drive, you will be pleasantly surprised. You get 5Gb (which they will probably increase in the near future) of free online storage to store anything you want, and you can access it from anywhere. This combines very nicely with the Fire. 5Gb isn't much for my collection, so I upgraded to a higher plan (rates are $1 per extra gigabyte per year). I can upload a playlist to it and listen to it on my home computer, then when I get to work the Fire can access it and pick it up where I left off. Any songs you get from Amazon Mp3 are automatically stored on the Cloud and don't contribute to the 5Gb storage space. E-READER - This was going to be the big determination in whether I should get a Fire or the new Kindle Touch. Ultimately I ended up getting both since I prefer the E-Ink technology to the backlit display of the Fire. If you are the type of person who reads a lot and expect to spend at least 50% of your use on reading books, I don't think you will be satisfied with the Fire over your Kindle 3 or the Kindle Touch, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers. It just isn't the same, and after hours of reading, the display would make my eyes hurt a bit (just like with any tablet). However it is nice not to have to use a lighted cover to see my books in the dark. The Kindle Fire is difficult to read in bright sunlight or on the beach. The touch navigation is very nice, but it doesn't function as nicely or quickly as it does on the iPad or even the Kindle Touch. This can be a problem for me, and the main reason I am using the Kindle Touch for reading books. Additionally, the Fire doesn't support real page numbers, even though the Touch does. So you have to use that ridiculous "location 121 of 16077 - 2%" format. A year of that with my last Kindle and I still don't understand what that means. They need to fix this in an update. Being able to touch a word and have it bring up the dictionary is incredibly convenient and takes less than 2 seconds. But still, the Kindle Touch handily beats the Fire for reading. MAGAZINES - The Kindle Fire can also handle magazines, however the display is just too small to be an enjoyable reading experience. I tried out several different magazines, and the main problem I had was with the formatting. I tried to read an issue of Bon Appetit and my eyes were straining after three pages. There is no way to read a single article without zooming. The Fire handles magazines two ways: with Page View, which shows the original magazine display, and with Text View, which attempts to just provide the text of the article. A lot of magazines these days have several things going on in one page, with multiple columns, little sidebars and boxes everywhere, etc. I couldn't view a lot of this without zooming, the text is just too small. So Page View did not work very well for magazines like this. It is especially tough with magazines like Entertainment Weekly, Men's Health, GQ, etc. I found magazines like that unreadable on the 7" display. Magazines that focused mostly on the article, like Nature, Wired, etc, were handled much better. Some magazines even come integrated with embedded video and audio, which is a very nice feature, and one I can see being very useful for things like Men's Health, but I haven't had as much of a chance to use it yet. Text View is a very nice feature that works mostly well, but seems to get a bit confused with magazines that have complicated formatting, so it pretty much defeats the purpose since those are the ones I need it for the most. COMIC READER - This is one of the main reasons I purchased the Fire. Amazon has a fairly extensive collection of comic books available for the Fire, including an exclusive deal with DC to publish many of their books. In addition to a proprietary comic reader that comes on the Fire, Amazon also has a Comics by ComiXology app available to purchase issues and subscriptions through. Although I initially thought the 7" display would be too small, it is actually decent enough to serve as a comic reader. I would definitely prefer a 10" version if they came out with one in the future. A 10" tablet is still the way to go for comics, but if you're looking for a cheaper option and portability, the Fire isn't too bad, and definitely beats a smart phone. It has a "panel by panel" feature that lets you scroll through the issue by different panels, which it will then zoom in on. You tap the panel when done, and it moves to the next panel. This is great for getting a larger view and working around the size restriction, especially since some of the text in the comics is just too small to read. Although it is fairly decent, if you are considering the Fire just for comic books, and you are a Marvel fan, you may want to hold off and look at another retailer's device which I think has a few more options. You can load your own .cbr comic files on the Kindle, but you'll need to use a third party app, like Comicat to do it. AMAZON MP3/VIDEO - Amazon hopes that you will get the majority of your content from them. That is why the Fire is so reasonably-priced. Amazon music is DRM-free. DRM is copy protection. That means that the record labels haven't locked down the music you buy from Amazon to restrict how you use it. Amazon MP3 music is playable anywhere, even on your Apple devices. It also has a very high bitrate so you are getting great quality. You don't have to worry about not being able to listen to your music 15 years from now if Amazon goes under. It's yours forever. As far as video, I have always disliked Amazon's Video services. The prices are very reasonable and they now have a huge selection, but obtaining the videos is a huge pain due to Amazon's terrible Unbox player. That changes with the Fire, as everything is native and streams/downloads beautifully. If you make a lot of purchases with Amazon, or if you have several Amazon customers in your household, you should take advantage of their Prime program. In addition to the large selection of free videos now available to Prime members, the shipping advantages are amazing. I once had a 200 lb exercise bike overnighted to my house for only $3.99. Everything I order I get within 2 days. The Prime program seems expensive but it has certainly paid for itself over the years for me, and now is even better that it is integrated more with the Fire. The only problem I have with video playback is that everything I watched did not fully expand to the screen, and was letterboxed. Considering the small 7" display size, this was an annoyance for me. I know shows have different aspect ratios, but some should fit the display, and I think many users will be annoyed that they can't zoom or stretch the display to fit. WEB BROWSING - This is another feature I was initially excited about. I like the idea of being able to use the Fire as a netbook. Amazon advertises "ultra fast web browsing" using Amazon's Silk browser. It is based off of technology that is designed to increase page loading times by pre-fetching part of the content. Sounds like a great idea, but doesn't work as well in practice. I tried out the Fire on several different connections and compared page loading times with other devices (all connected wirelessly). The Fire was one of the slowest. Amazon's own web page, which has actually recently been optimized to work with the Fire, takes an average of 7 seconds to load. Other major portals took a similar amount of time or slower. My iPad and my Xoom both load pages much faster. It is not slow enough to be a problem, but not fast enough to impress me or be worthy of Amazon's marketing regarding it. This needs to be improved. UPDATE - As of February 2012, page loading times are much improved. It can still be a bit slow and stutter at times, but you can increase this by following the steps at the bottom of this review. I am mostly satisfied with browsing now, although Silk still occasionally won't recognize it when I touch a link. BATTERY LIFE - Amazon advertises 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video playback. As an average, that's probably fairly accurate. During testing I got an average of 7.4 hours of continuous reading, and 7 hours of video playback over five tests for each. This is a big change over the roughly 30 days of continuous reading with the traditional kindle, so it may hamper you a bit if you're a voracious reader. I just got into the habit of charging it every night with my cell phone. You can shut down the Kindle or put it in sleep mode. I keep mine in sleep mode all the time because it is so efficient that it uses almost no battery. I can leave it in sleep mode for 2 days and come back and not notice any change in battery life, and since I don't have to reboot, it starts up immediately. VS IPAD - As said, this isn't designed to be an iPad. I have an iPad and there is so much more I can do with it compared to the Kindle. The Fire serves a different (but sometimes similar) function. I just don't ever see Amazon building up the type of app store that Apple has, and that's where you're going to find the major differences. Additionally, the 10" display on the iPad makes a huge difference to me over the Fire's 7" display when it comes to watching movies and TV, and reading magazines and comic books. However, I think there is definitely room for the Fire to steal some of iPad's market share, as many people (I am one of them), will find the functions they want in a tablet can be covered by the Fire. USER INTERFACE - The Fire uses a heavily modified version of Android. I really liked the interface, however I don't think it works as well on the Fire as it does on a full tablet device like the Motorola Xoom. Occasionally I would try to make a page turn and have it not register on the Fire, or have it register more slowly than I am used to. If you have a lot of experience with the iPad, you are going to notice that the software doesn't respond as quickly on the Fire as it does with other tablets. Although this is an inconvenience and something I definitely feel needs to be addressed, I can accept it given the lower price point. I will have a problem though if this is not resolved through a firmware upgrade in the future. The Fire's custom version of Android is very nice. The most recent applications or files accessed will display in a carousel format that you can rotate through. You can also set up commonly-used applications as favorites. If you want to access movies and pictures that you manually load onto the Fire, you have to open up the "Gallery" app, rather than accessing them from the "Videos" and "Photos" tabs. The gallery app does not very user-friendly at displaying these files. For instance, it just creates thumbnails for all your video files and doesn't let you view the file names when selecting a video. If you have dozens of videos from a single TV show, there is no easy way to organize them in the gallery. It's clear Amazon wants you to view their videos purchased from them rather than your own. I would really like to see them fix this through a simple firmware update but I doubt they will. NEGATIVES: - No bluetooth and no HDMI. I could really use bluetooth for integration with bluetooth-capable speakers and so I can use bluetooth audio in my car. As a media player, I feel this really should have been included, and I imagine it will with future versions. This is especially important since the audio from the speakers is a bit tinny and weak. I have been using headphones with all my media-playing, which significantly improves the sound. There is also no physical volume button, which is a pain when you need to silence the device quickly (EDIT: You can sideload the "Volume Control" app by RubberBigPepper" from the Android Market for a great software workaround to this). I also would like HDMI output so I can take my Amazon video purchases and watch them on my TV. Another big disadvantage in a device that is made for media. This will also likely be included in a future edition, so at $200, I don't feel bad about possibly having to upgrade a year from now to get it. - Only 8Gb storage space. As mentioned, this device is mainly designed to integrate with Amazon's Cloud, so 8 should be enough, but it would be nice to have at least 16. I imagine Amazon did this on purpose to force people to use their Cloud service. - Touch capability can sometimes be sluggish. iPad and other tablet owners may be disappointed with the touch reaction time and some aspects of the software. - Video doesn't include option to zoom or stretch the display to fit the screen. - Very limited selection of apps from the Amazon App Store. Most of the apps are mediocre games. UPDATE - you can get around this by manually loading apps onto the Fire. Do a search for "sideload kindle fire." It is very easy. - Web "Accelerator" is not as fast as other tablets. - No Micro-USB transfer cable included with it. Another way for Amazon to discourage you from transferring your own files to the device. If you want to do that, you will need to purchase one separately, like the AmazonBasics USB Cable - 2.0 A Male to Micro B (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters). SUMMARY: Bottom line, you will not find a cheaper device out there for streaming music, video, and books than the Kindle Fire. The reason that this device is so amazing is not for what it can do, but for what it can do at such a cheap price. The price tag, not the technology, is the story here. Although I definitely feel there is room for improvement and will be interested in seeing Amazon's second generation of this device (which I think will be significantly improved), the Kindle Fire is a solid start. If you can wait a year or more for Amazon to work out the kinks with the Fire (like it did with its 1st generation of the Kindle), you should definitely do that. The next version should fix a lot of the problems that keep the current Fire from being a "Five Star" product. Unfortunately, reviews shouldn't focus on price, so due to some issues with the form factor and touch interface, I can only give it four stars. It is just not "perfect" enough for me to say it is a five star product without taking price into consideration. But aside for that, there is really only one device you can compare the Fire to - The Nook. So for what it is, I would have no problems recommending the Fire to consumers who can take advantage of it. This product more than lives up to what it is DESIGNED to do. If you plan on getting most of your content from Amazon AND you have a Prime membership, I think you will really find this is a pretty incredible device for the money. UPDATE 28 Dec 2011: After getting a new case for the Fire that makes it easier to hold, I'm starting to use it more for reading (although I still prefer my Kindle Touch for anything over about 45 minutes). Some magazines are now better adapted to the Fire liked my subscription to Wired, and some are still terrible and just compressed PDFs. An update released last week adds more privacy features so you can delete recent history form the carousel, and does improve noticeably on the touch sensitivity, although it can still be frustrating at times and not as smooth as something like an iPad. Browser loading times are still disappointing, but not as bad as they were at first release, and I don't notice them as much. I am continually impressed at battery usage for this device. Despite using it less than an hour a day, I never turn it off and only charge it a couple times a week. The rest of the time it sits in standby mode which is extremely efficient. If they could improve a couple more options I'd be closer to giving the Fire five stars. UPDATE 7 Feb 2012: I have been able to update the browser significantly by doing the following: Open up the browser and select the menu button at the bottom, select the Settings button, and then change the following options: Enable plug-ins: Change this to "off." This will disable Flash, so if you have any web sites that need it you can re-enable it (YouTube works fine). Accelerate page loading: Uncheck this. If your wifi connection is decent, it's not really necessary. Mobile (This one is optional, but I prefer to view everything in mobile mode rather than having Silk trying to force a desktop view on a 7" screen." Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (842) 7,613 of 7,928 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Great device, you will enjoy it, November 15, 2011 By jjceo (Greenwood, Indiana) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) I picked mine up today at Best Buy. At home I plugged it in and set up the WIFI and my Amazon account and it immediately told me that an update was downloading. After about 10 to 12 minutes it rebooted and started working. I own an iPhone, iPad 2, HP Touchpad and a Kindle Keyboard version. This device compares with the Ipad. The reviews that blast the Kindle Fire as being no good are just not true. I am a retired CEO and computer Guru and have a great WIFI set up in my home. Here is my quick and dirty review: WIFI fast and easy to set up and use Keyboard types great, much better than the HP Touchpad and as good if not better than the iPad. Display high resolution comparable to the iPad 2 The device downloaded my 100 books in minutes. Most books downloaded to the device in 3 to 4 seconds. A couple of large books took 5 seconds and I am talking about books with 800 pages! Web browsing is extremely fast. I loaded up a dozen sites that I go to with complex screens and they took 2 to 3 seconds to load. The people who are complaining should fix their WIFI instead of complaining about the Kindle Fire. I see no problem and the speed on the sites I tested is comparable to the iPad 2. One site for a local TV station took about 8 seconds and the screens are complex and contain a lot of videos and changing photos. Apps load and work great, Facebook, Words With Friends and the Weather Channel loaded fast and work quickly. Scrolling works very fast and responsive on the capacitive touch screen. Better than the HP Touchpad Video download is very fast and I have no complaints. Sound is very good on the device. Much louder than on my iPad 2 device. I saw several reviews blasting the Kindle Fire and in my opinion the sound is better than the iPad 2. I put the Kindle Fire into a case I purchased from Oberondesign and it fit tightly, but it did fit. The Kindle Fire is more portable and easier to hold than the iPad and HP Touchpad. The power button is bad. It is easy to bump and it is right next to the power plug. I have already turned the device off 4 times by accident while doing the testing. I was unplugging the power cable and touched the switch every time. This switch should have been on the top of the device. Overall the Kindle fire is a 9 out of 10. For the price it is a 10 out of 10. I am not a professional reviewer nor am I a paid reviewer. The Kindle fire is worth the money and it works well. What happens after 5 million users get onto Amazon is a new test that Amazon must prove they can handle. ****************************** Please look at one of my later comments on an excellent WIFI APP tool than could help you test your home WIFI system. Amamzon sells it and it is free! ****************************** Update 12-21-2011 Amazon has made an update to the Kindle Fire operating system effective today. Make sure that your Kindle Fire is fully charged or plugged in and press the power button for about 20 seconds. Turn on the Kindle Fire by pressing the on button again and it will begin to come on slowly. It will be downloading the update. After it starts it will shut down automatically and then restart again. When the swipe arrow comes on, swipe it and enter your password (If you have one) and your Kindle will start. Be patient when downloading this and wait for the Kindle Fire to totally restart! The new operating system is number 6.2.1 and it was 6.2. You can check this by touching the small gear in the upper RH corner, touch "+More", touch "Device" and then looking at the entry for the "System Version". Major changes that I can see: -Memory is now segmented into two parts that are available to you. The first is Application Storage which is set at 1.17 GB. It will appear at the top of the device screen and you can see how much is used for Apps. This is the memory allocated for your down loaded and resident Apps. - The remaining memory is called Internal Storage and it is now 5.37 GB for your books, movies and other storage besides Apps. It is listed below the Application Storage. -When looking at the Settings page you will see a new access for "Restrictions" which allows you to enable a password to turn WIFI access OFF or ON. If you enable this you will be asked to enter a password, (Minimum of 4 characters) that will allow you to turn Off the WIFI access. You have now just enabled a "child" mode where you can play games, read books, or do anything that is installed on your Kindle Fire. You will not be able to get new email, browse the internet, buy anything, or communicate in any way to the Web as the WIFI is turned off. You will see a key in the upper RH corner where before you saw the WIFI strength indicator. The key symbol means the WIFI is locked OFF. DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD! Remember you can do anything that is on your Kindle but you cannot download anything from the "Cloud" so make sure that your Kindle has everything you want to do on it resident in the Kindle memory. In order to enable the WIFI you must touch the key symbol, touch WIFI, touch WIFI "ON", enter your password and click OK. Your WIFI will reconnect in about 5 seconds. -You are able to remove anything from the Carousel by simply touching it for a few seconds and then selecting "Remove from Carousel". This is a nice new feature and you can still access your books or Apps by using the menu bar items above the Carousel. - Amazon states that operation fluidity and performance enhancements have be added but it is difficult to see what they are as the device does so much you don't know where to look for the enhancements. -Amazon states that the touch navigation is more responsive and again it is difficult to see changes. I do seem to notice that the back arrow symbol on the bottom of the screen seems to be more responsive. There is a post on Amazon to download this update using a computer and a micro-USB cable but I have updated two Kindle Fires using the method I discuss above without a problem. If you would like to look at the Amazon post look here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_k6_updatesi?nodeId=200790620 Many people may not own a micro-USB cable. I could not use the automatic update mode where it says to touch the "Update Your Kindle" button on the Kindle Fire under the Device page as that selection was grayed out. Cycling the power to do a hard reset forced the download automatically. You should receive this update automatically on your Kindle Fire in a day or two after it begins the automatic update roll-out. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (254) 10,903 of 11,372 people found the following review helpful 3.0 out of 5 stars I want to love it, I really do. But I can't., November 15, 2011 By waetherman - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) As a long-time Kindle fan I was eager to get my hands on a Fire. For the most part I've found that it does what I wanted it to, which is be the one device I can take with me anywhere. There are some great features; the reader app is excellent (though not without flaws), the app store experience is terrific, videos are fantastic, and the device is quick and for the most part dead-simple to use, all thanks to the services Amazon provides. And of course the extras that come with Prime membership really make it a real value - I won't be cancelling my Netflix streaming account just yet (watching Netflix on the Fire works very well) but I imagine within a year Amazon's free streaming video catalog will be just as good as Netflix. The free "lending library" book every month really is the icing on the cake though, and makes Prime membership a no-brainer. The hardware itself is solid and has a quality feel, it's just the right size for one-handed use, and the screen is fantastic (for an LCD screen) with good brightness and excellent color, and a very wide viewing angle. So as a reader, video player and music streaming device the Fire excels, and as an occasional browsing, emailing, game playing tablety thing it does pretty well. But there are some downsides too; the small bezel size makes holding it without inadvertent page-turns difficult, the lack of buttons makes controls harder, the accessible storage memory is limited to just 5GB, which seems awfully small when carrying my own video content on a trip, and overall the interface of the system is just a little awkward and unfinished. Sometimes the back button doesn't work, buttons are hard to push accurately or launch the wrong function, navigation isn't exactly intuitive, etc. Particularly annoying are things like the way that almost half the screen is taken up by menu bars when browsing in landscape mode, the "momentum" of the browsing not stopping, menu bars that sometimes just pop up randomly while reading, and the navigation of Newsstand content like the New York Times is incredibly awkward. And then there's the jerkiness that happens when browsing or navigating other content; to me, this just shouldn't happen when reading a book. This is a Kindle, after all. On the missing or unfinished side its disappointing that there isn't even a little bit of social media built in - no sharing clips of books or newsstand material via email, FB or twitter. Also missing is the "read out loud" found on other Kindles, and the new "X-Ray" feature found on the other new Kindles. There is no archiving or syncing personal documents - they have to be mailed individually to the Fire. And there's no page numbers in the books - c'mon, Amazon, this is even available for the old Kindles at this point. The browser lacks some basic functionality like being able to rearrange bookmarks, and other little annoyances. The email application is very basic, and doesn't always format text properly, and doesn't have simple things like a landscape mode to view a list of messages. But the biggest "unfinished" feature of the Fire is the Cloud integration; the Cloud doesn't work hand-in-glove with the Fire in the way you think it might. In order to access features like the video or the docs, you basically have to go through a browser the way you would from any other device. For the most part the Cloud acts only as a digital locker for items purchased from Amazon, not seamlessly as a repository for any kind of content you want to access from the Fire. The way the Cloud seems to be marketed, and the way it should work, is that the Fire and the Cloud should work seamlessly together for all kinds of content; if you upload your own movie from your PC to the Cloud, you should see it in your Video tab on the Fire, and be able to stream it or download it. If you upload folders of work documents to the Cloud, they should be available to browse and download from the Fire's Doc tab. But that's not the way it works. For whatever reason, the Fire's using a Frankenstein mix of the Cloud, Kindle digital library, the app store, and local storage to handle content needs. It just isn't quite ready for prime time, and it isn't what people are expecting when they pick up the Fire. All of these little things add up to make what could be a great device merely adequate. Many will be able to overlook these problems and enjoy the Kindle Fire for what it is; an inexpensive all-in-one-entertainment device. I only point them out to remind people that they should not expect perfection from the Kindle Fire, at least not out of the box. Over the next few months it's possible (likely) that many of the problems I have could be fixed with software revisions - i.e. the bezel problem could be fixed by making the margins in the reader app non-active, for instance, and the problem with the menus taking up too much room could be fixed by making them accessible via swipe-up or swipe-down. Hopefully Amazon is already working on these things. Until then, I'm trying to learn to live with the Fire as best I can. Maybe I can learn to love it. NOTE: This review has been edited slightly since it was originally posted for the purposes of clarity and to answer questions that have come up in the comments thread to this review. Please leave a comment if you need clarification or think that something has been missed. UPDATE NOV 30: a recent software update seems to have fixed several of the above problems, specifically the system speed and page-turning speed are better, and the button response is much improved. Random menus no longer appear when reading, momentum in the browser doesn't seem to be a problem anymore, and the carousel is much easier to use as a result of it having slightly more "friction" in paging through the most recent items used. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (901) 4,691 of 4,891 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Value at $199 and Full of Functionality / Bells / Whistles, November 15, 2011 By Michael Gallagher (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) I've had a chance to play with the Kindle Fire for a few hours now, and overall I think it is a great tool /toy when you factor in the cost of ownership and what you get. Compared to $500 minimum for the introductory price of the bottom of the line iPad2 (WiFi only), at $199 this is a great buy. Using a Wifi connection at two different locations, the speed was pretty fast connecting to the Amazon server as well as to a couple of Internet sites. I had fast connectivity and display on Fox News, CNN, my personalized Yahoo page, and the website of the International Association of Penturners (hey, I do have hobbies!). I had slow connectivity at both Wifi locations with Google, ESPN, MSNBC, the Houston Chronicle, and the Weather Channel - I hope the unique app for ESPN and the Weather Channel are a lot faster, but I haven't loaded them onto the Fire yet. I will point out with the exception of the Google website, those other sites listed as slow are usually slow on my other handheld devices such as my Droid phone and my work iPad2 (yes, the Kindle guy owns and uses an iPad for work purposes). The web browser is called Silk, and it is nice and user-friendly. Let's talk about what I see as the benefits first: The screen size to me is just right for what I will be using it for - I have used an iPad and the screen is larger - but I did watch about 15 minutes of an episode of season 3 of 24 on the Fire and I didn't have screen envy or felt like I was missing anything. The sound quality was good, but I listened to it mainly with a set of headphones so I wouldn't wake my kids. Concerning size of the overall unit - not too heavy or bulky and it fits nice in your hand. I have it in one of the Marware covers and it just "feels" right: that's not a firm statement for a review, I know, but what else can I say? Holding the iPad feels a little bulky at times but the Fire is just a little bit larger than my Kindle keypad, so I was pretty much conditioned to this size over the past few years. Compared to the iPad, the Fire doesn't generate near as much heat. Speed of the apps as well as reading a book is VERY fast and responsive. I haven't tried a a challenging spreadsheet or Word document with the Open Office app yet, but then again I can't think of too many times where (based on my guesstimated usage) I will be doing those kind of tasks on my Fire: I like to keep my work separate from play. Maybe the time will come when business applications will become more prevalent with the Fire, but that's a story for another day. Back to the pricing - $199 is an absolute steal for a unit with this many features. Compare that to an iPad2 at more than twice the price for a few more inches of screen space. Some people really want that, but it doesn't bother me. You will also receive a month free of Prime membership and I highly recommend you try out the benefits, which are more than free two-day shipping. You get full access to thousands of movies and tv shows for free. You can give them a test drive on your Fire and see if it is for you or not. I already rent a lot of movies to my Tivo via Amazon, and I can see the functionality of the free movies combined with the for rent options being able to be played on this device as very compelling for when I go on business trips. And, for those of you I've been playing Words with Friends with, this morning's moves were made on the Fire - the touchscreen worked flawlessly. I transferred some music to the Fire and it works like a charm. I haven't had enough time to really dive deep into this feature yet and come up with a playlist or jukebox list, but the sounds quality was nice: not too loud and not too soft. Here are some potential negatives: I don't think I will be reading too much on this device. Who knows, that opinion may change, but I REALLY like the Kindle for reading with its eInk screen. I read a lot outside or in bright light, and based upon my experiences with reading on an iPad the eInk is better than the full color for reading outside. However, my youngest child really likes the full color resolution as the books he likes to read has a lot of pictures in it (he's in elementary school). So, to each their own. I didn't purchase the Fire for reading, but more for entertainment. As mentioned above, the screen is smaller than an iPad. That doesn't bother me (see comments above), but it may bother some people where size matters or they have to have the "biggest" of this and that. I really wish they would have shipped this thing with a micro USB cord: if there is one in the packaging I missed it. Luckily, I have a few of them in the house, so I wasn't too put out. I imagine they did that to keep the overall cost at $199. There are lots of apps available for the Fire because it uses the DROID platform, but Apple lovers will pound their chest and say "but we have over a million apps" blah blah blah. I think you should look at the QUALITY of the app vs. the quantity, as there is certainly a lot of junk in the iPad app store (as there is the DROID store), but your basic functionality for the apps I want / need are there. Overall, at $199 this is an extremely great value to me and well worth it: Amazon has hit a home run with this one. If you haven't grabbed one now, get one before they run out before Christmas! EDIT TO ADD: Okay, I've tried to add this twice and it bombed, so hopefully the third time is the charm. Email setup was very easy - it took about a minute to setup my main Google account, and I was able to send a test message to another account as well as receive and reply to other emails. I sent a picture via email to the Fire and it showed crisp and clear. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (89) 2,103 of 2,211 people found the following review helpful 3.0 out of 5 stars Fire - the FAQ, November 14, 2011 By A. Dent "Aragorn" (Minas Anor, GD) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) I tried to make the first 2 sections as informative and as objective as possible, hoping that anyone not yet decided whether they want a Fire or not may find this at least marginally useful. The rest and the star rating should be heavily influenced by my own subjectivity and biases. PLAYING WITH FIRE (USABILITY) ______________________________________________________ [NOTE added on Aug. 1, 2012] Q: The Fire was released back in 2011. Should I buy this model today? A: No. The Fire was a great buy during the year it was launched and shortly thereafter but, as time went by, newer and better tablets became available and Amazon is likely to announce an updated and upgraded version before the end of the year. In the second half of 2012 tablets such as the Nexus 7 matched the Fire's price and greatly surpassed it in features: faster CPU, better screen resolution, camera, Blue-tooth, GPS, microphone, open to the larger Android world and running the latest version of Android. The best course of action would be to hold on until Amazon announces its new model(s), then make an informed decision. ______________________________________________________ Q: Do I get free and unrestricted access the Web? A: Yes. The Silk, multi-tabbed browser allows access to just about anything on the Web. Q: Can I store songs, video, photos on the Fire? A: Yes. The Fire has about 5GB of physical storage space. In addition, Amazon offers 5GB of free 'cloud' online storage for non-Amazon media. Q: Is the 5GB of physical storage large enough for, let's say, 50 apps, 1000 songs, 1000 photos and 100 home videos? A: Yes, except for the home videos. Q: Does 'Kindle' indicate that this is a true reader, like the other Amazon Kindles? A: No. The Fire is a customized Android tablet with a backlit touchscreen. While it does come with a Kindle app accessed through the 'Books' tap on the home screen, the reading experience is similar to that from any other tablet. Q: Does the Fire make it easy to access Amazon content? A: Yes. The Fire was designed to facilitate that. You will have easy and immediate access to you Amazon-purchased books, music, video and apps and to their related stores so that you may purchase more. Q: Does the Fire make it easy to access non-Amazon content? A: No. You can transfer and retrieve/play non-DRM content directly into the Fire via an USB cable. Anything stored on Amazon's Cloud that's non Amazon-purchased shouldn't exceed 5GB or you will have to pay a fee for the additional storage. Q: If I have another Android tablet/phone, will I have all the already-purchased apps available on the Fire? A: Yes and No. YES for all the apps downloaded from Amazon's Appstore and NO for all others. Q: Are 'major' apps such as Netflix or Pandora preinstalled? A: No but they are easy, quick and free downloads from Amazon's Appstore. Q: Is the Amazon Appstore the default store for Android apps? A: Yes. And Amazon would like it to be the only store. Q: Do I have access to non-Amazon Android app stores? A: No. Or not unless you are prepared to engage in some serious tinkering. While you can install Amazon's Appstore on any Android tablet from Google's Marketplace, Amazon's Appstore does not carry a Google Marketplace app at the time I'm writing this. Q: Can I install apps from sources other than the Amazon's Appstore? A: Yes but it's not easy. A Fire setting will enable the installing of non-Amazon Appstore apps but, without access to third-party app stores, some skills are required. Q: Are there any Google apps available at the Appstore? A: Not at the time I'm writing this. Q: Is it easy to buy Amazon digital or non-digital merchandise through the Fire? A: Yes, it's very easy. Fire is built to facilitate that. Q: Is it possible to turn off 1-Click? A: Yes and No. 1-Click can be disabled for non-digital purchases but it can NOT be disabled for digital purchases. Q: Can I prevent my kids or anyone else from making purchases while using the Fire? A: You can password-protect access to the Fire itself but, once in, it's impossible to prevent 1-Click ordering of digital content. Q: Are there ANY restrictions I can set? A: You can disable in-app purchases or you can set parental controls with a PIN for in-app purchases if enabled. Post-patch, you can password-protect Wi-Fi. Q: Are 'parental controls' limited to requiring PINs for in-app purchases? A: Yes. Q: Is it possible to make any of my past digital purchases disappear from Fire's 'cloud'? A: No. (According to Amazon's Customer Service rep.) Q: Would Amazon allow me to 'return' digital items that I (or someone else using my Fire) ordered by mistake? A: I was told by a Customer Service person that there is a 7-day refund policy on digital items. Not tested by me. Q: Does the purchase come with any perks? A: Yes. You get one-month free Amazon Prime which translates in free 2-day shipping and access to Amazon's streaming video library. Q: Did the Dec. 20, 2011 patch address all parental control and unrestricted 1-Click issues? A: No. Password-protecting Wi-Fi access does not address these issues because it's an 'all or nothing', crude and ineffective answer to real concerns. Password-protecting Wi-Fi is not a solution to anyone who would like to allow access to most cloud content but restrict or block 1-Click purchases and access to certain categories of content. INTO THE FIRE (SPECS AND FEATURES) Q: Is the Fire display bright and sharp? A: Yes. Q: Is battery life on par with today's expectation? A: About 4 hours of battery life are a little bit less than what competition offers. Q: How does the Fire connect to the outside world? A: Fire is a Wi-Fi device. There is no 3G/4G. You can also connect and transfer connect from a PC/laptop via the USB port. Q: Can the Fire be charged from a laptop or a standard USB charger? A: Not very efficiently. The charger that comes with the Fire is rated 1.8A/5V. Generic USB chargers output a lot less than 1.8A. Q: Does the Fire have cameras? A: No. Q: Does the Fire have a microphone? A: No. Q: Does the Fire have a motion sensor? A: Yes. Q: Does the Fire come with GPS, compass, IR sensors? A: No. Q: Does the Fire have Bluetooth? A: No. Q: Does the Fire have an HDMI port? A: No. Q: Is there any way to pair a physical keyboard, speakers or some display device with the Fire? A: Not at the time I'm writing this. Q: What are the sound output options? A: Sound outputs through the speakers or through the headphones port. Q: Absent volume control buttons, is it possible to control volume through Fire's virtual controls from within an app? A: It depends on the app. Some apps do not allow it. Q: Is Fire's storage expandable through memory cards? A: No. Q: Is CPU performance adequate? A: Yes. KINDLING THE FIRE (my conclusions and rating) I found the Fire to be a good pick for anyone seeking a small, portable interface into the digital content world 'out there', especially but by no means limited to Amazon-provided content. However, for anyone who would like to share their Kindle, the Fire may be a little too hot to handle at this time, especially if you are sharing it with kids or if it's meant to be used by a kid. Please read my note at the bottom of this review for the details. I also listed Fire's other issues with the hope that I may be able to help anyone not sure whether the Fire is indeed what they want. After several months of me and my daughter playing with the Fire I can say that I am generally pleased with my purchase. I will be thrilled once Amazon addresses at least the huge problem having to do with parental controls over Fire-made purchases. I also hope that Amazon open the Fire a little bit more to non-Amazon content sources and... please... I want my Gmail app. The Fire is Okay because it's an inexpensive, easy to use, capable, not fully locked tablet. It makes it easy to buy and 'consume' all kinds DRMed of media, especially that which is stored in Amazon's cloud (free for all Amazon purchases) and I had little difficulty adding my own DRM-free content. The Fire is not a replacement for PCs or laptops but no tablets are. I don't miss an outward looking camera because there are much better alternatives to taking pics with a tablet but a little cam looking at user's face and a mic (video calls) would add significant value to a good product. Then, of course, there are the issues I listed above. I'm going to grant the Fire 3 stars at this time. Three stars mean "It's Okay." My rating could and should improve once Amazon addresses some of the issues I listed above. ______________________________________________________ NOTE on 1-CLICK PURCHASES (playing with FIRE revisited) It is currently impossible to turn off 1-Click purchases of most media on the Fire. This is quite an issue for anyone who has kids, especially if the user happens to be the kid. The way the Fire is currently set up you are going to get your song or your movie or your book almost the instant you touch them while browsing through the store. This may be okay when you are using a laptop because you can set multiple accounts and make sure that only those authorized can order things but the Fire can be easily shared and I'm not aware of a way that would allow both multiple accounts and the ability to access the purchased media at the same time. To make the story short, it is possible to set some controls but at the App Store only but it's only for in-app purchases. The other media stores: music, movies, books do not allow for any restrictions such as asking for a password or PIN before completing a purchase transaction. The Customer Support person I discussed this verified that this is indeed the case and she promised to forward my feedback to the higher ups. Until then, I am and I will continue to be very concerned. Not that our daughter would knowingly buy the entire Amazon movie library without my permission but that, possibly, one of her friends would do that without being fully aware of what she is doing. Amazon MUST address this or sell the Fire as an 'adults only' product. -- >> Brush your teeth, it's the law! << Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (80) 1,288 of 1,358 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars A great device and an excellent value, November 14, 2011 By Learn Richly "Learn Richly dot com" (Indiana) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) SHORT SUMMARY: WHO SHOULD BUY A KINDLE FIRE ============================================= The Fire is an all-around excellent device, especially for the price. DO BUY IT, without hesitation, if you want to consume media by yourself or with one other person (max). For example, if you read books and other Kindle content, surf the web, look at photos and want to watch Amazon Instant Videos (Movies & TV) or web-based video sites, then the Kindle will serve your needs well. DON'T buy it if you consume as a group or want to do any creation other than the occasional social media post. Watching movies with many other people is hard (7" isn't that big), and the lack of keyboard options, Bluetooth, etc., makes this a very focused device that creators will soon tire of. Doing anything with maps is difficult or impossible, as are all the nifty apps that require a camera, so if those limitations are a deal-breaker then look at a Samsung Galaxy Tab (to stay small) or iPad (big and expensive). OVERALL STRENGTHS ==================== + The IPS screen is nothing short of fabulous. I've spent several hours staring at it now and am still amazed. It makes my friend's iPad 2 look grainy. Using this as a high-end photo frame on your desk is actually tempting because the colors are so rich. The screen is very close to 16:9 (15.36:9) and fits movies much better than a 4:3 iPad screen, which negates much of the 2.7" screen size difference between the two (but the reverse is true for old videos that are not widescreen). Overall, the video experience is good enough that you soon become immersed in the movie and you forget about the medium. Plus, since it's so small, you can carry with you more often. + The overall feel and construction is super-solid. The rubber/silicone backing gives such peace-of-mind; at this price, I don't plan on buying a case for mine in the foreseeable future. + Compact size. It's about the size of a "steno" pad. You can throw it in your backpack, purse, or coat pocket. Overall the Fire is a great balance between usability and portability--much more screen space than a smartphone (at about the same price) but lacking only one typical phone storage option: in your front pocket. + Simplicity and UI polish of the overall experience is tight. I wouldn't hesitate to give this device to a total tablet novice. This is a great gift idea for even the most technologically-challenged individual. + Speed is perfectly adequate for anything I've had to throw at it. I've tried at least half a dozen games now and they are buttery smooth. The crisp display and saturated colors make it such a joy to re-examine all my old apps. + The email client is slick! I have used apps like TouchDown and want to cry because they are so ugly and complicated. Not so with the Fire! Even though this is not a "creator" device, I am glad that they didn't skimp on a full-featured email client that actually looks nice. + Silk web browser! Side by side on the same wi-fi connection vs. my dual-core Android phone, the web browser doesn't seem that much faster. HOWEVER--they were both *very* fast! Keep in mind two things: 1) Silk is taking away bottlenecks, but if your existing wi-fi connection is already super-fast (i.e. no bottleneck), you won't notice the difference. 2) The "cloud" improvements will only begin to work when there is a large group of Kindle users who are sending data to Amazon so that they can start proactively caching. It should get faster and faster as more people start using it, so don't feel bad if you're not seeing any speed change out of the box. + Content, content, content. What sold it for me was the new Kindle Owner's Lending Library. For my $79 Prime subscription I'm getting access to a ton of shows that were are least partially available elsewhere, but no one else is giving away a book a month. I've seen at least a dozen titles I want to read, so my schedule is "booked" (sorry, couldn't resist) for a year solid. I was already a Prime member, but had never purchased a eInk Kindle because, so now I will have a "Kindle Device" that will qualify me to read a free book a month. OVERALL WEAKNESSES ==================== -No GPS or Google Maps is a disappointment. I wanted this thing to be a huge GPS to take in the car, but without a GPS chip that can't happen. -No Bluetooth limits its use as a creation device. The $30 Bluetooth keyboard I use for my Android phone is useless for the Fire. Please, someone, make a MicroUSB keyboard that works easily with the Fire or point me to one that already works with the Fire and I'll update this section (I couldn't find any on Amazon). -Lack of hardware buttons was at first a turn-off, but after the tenth time of accidentally hitting the home button playing a game on my Android phone, I now appreciate this minimalist approach taken by the Fire. There's the power-button that you may occasionally bump by accident, but you just need to turn the whole thing upside down and the power button is then at the top--problem solved. The remaining complaint is the missing volume button, but I can also understand the reasons behind that. The original iPod touch lacked volume buttons, but they eventually included hardware controls on subsequent devices. -Content Lock-in. This is the flip-side of the coin for having so much Amazon content. Since there's no HDMI, any movies you buy are going to be stuck on the device unless your TV also supports Amazon Instant Video streaming. I think the strength of selection outweighs this, but it's something to keep in mind! -(Minor) Does not play WMV files. My Android phone does this--why is this codec missing? -Battery life--The specified battery life is really a best-case: you'll want to charge this device at least every other night. It's terrible compared to an iPad 2 and great compared to a typical dual-core phone. It remains to be seen if the competition from the large bricks and mortar book store's new tablet is any better, but on paper they say theirs is longer. CREATIVE USES FOR THE FIRE ========================== + Fitness. Use your new Fire as an indoors exercise companion for treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines, etc. Make yourself a commitment to not watch TV until you've worked-out first (while watching/listening/reading on the Fire, of course). It's the perfect size to strap-on or permanently adhere to your home fitness apparatus. This device and a Prime membership is about the same cost as two months for a personal trainer. + Schools and home schools. With the number of education apps out there (and ease of development), expect the Kindle Fire to become THE device for kids to use in their studies. This device, in 2011 dollars, is about the same price as my fancy graphing calculator in high school during the early 90s, so we can only guess what kinds of cool education-centric applications will come from this new class of gizmo. For parents, see a variety of great sites (like mine, Learn Richly) that make it easier to evaluate very fun products that make learning a breeze! + Small business elegance. What if your customers in the waiting room were each given Kindle Fires instead of magazines? How about giving your next sales pitch or presentation as an interactive HTML5 web page that allows your client to engage with the content even as you're explaining it? This also becomes the perfect Kiosk device because it's so open, inexpensive and ubiquitous. + Lists and reference. Putting a $700 iPad in your shopping cart while you check of grocery items makes me nervous, but somehow I'd feel safe doing that with my rugged-feeling grippy-backed Fire. Use it around the house for the kids' chore chart or as a "dedicated" to-do list while at work (what good is the task list in Outlook if I never look at it?)--this price point makes all sorts of things feasible, and especially if you buy multiple devices to establish a community of users in your office or home. APPS INCLUDED & MISSING w/SUBSTITUTE SUGGESTIONS ================================================= Built-in you will find already downloaded: + Kindle Reader App (with more layout options, such as line spacing and margins, than the current phone Android Kindle app) + Amazon shopping app + Integrated Music, Video and Web browsing (Silk) + "Docs" tab that takes documents you email to your @kindle email address and puts them in Kindle format + Audible audio books app (Amazon subsidiary) + IMDB (internet movie database) app for information about movies, actors, etc. (Amazon subsidiary) + Contacts app (looks like standard Android with Fire skin)--will sync with GMail contacts and probably others + Email app with built-in support for Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and "other", i.e. POP for my ISP worked (not sure about IMAP). Attention: NO MS EXCHANGE/OUTLOOK :( + QuickOffice, which is a *viewer* for PowerPoint, Excel and Word--no editing at all + Gallery app for photos--looks like you'll need a MicroUSB cable and a computer to do much with it, though + Help & Feedback + Facebook--seems to be a link to the mobile site + Pulse--good, possibly great, news aggregator/reader + Other various popular apps/games that are links (but not already downloaded)--may be trials or ad-supported and you can get them from the AppStore anyway. Thanks for not installing them Amazon! This device is refreshingly free of "bloatware" Missing: - Task list & Memo / note- taking--I recommend ColorNote Notepad Notes that has both of these functions - Alarm clock--I recommend Alarm Clock Xtreme Free - Calendar--too many choices to recommend a replacement, but you'll probably get one with a paid Exchange email client - Calculator--I recommend Calculator Ultimate Lite - Weather--AccuWeather for Android or My-Cast Weather Lite both get good reviews Anything else I've missed? Comments welcome, thanks! Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (37) 450 of 479 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars First Impression...It works well as a tablet too!, November 15, 2011 By DubStep (San Francisco) - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) This will be a review that will be updated as I continue to use the Kindle. SHORT BACKSTORY: I own a 1st gen Kindle, and despite its original design flaws, I have put it to great use. I am a Prime member. When I saw a tablet(ish) device with a modded version of Android, made by Amazon, with a dual core processor and a smaller, more portable form factor than the iPad for sale at the easy on the wallet price of $199, I pre-ordered immediately. FIRST IMPRESSION: The packaging it comes in is very simple. The Kindle came in a brown cardboard box, which I expected to open and see a Kindle box, but rather opened and saw the Fire itself. Underneath was the Micro USB charger. I immediately plugged it in and fired it up. First thing it asked was to connect to WiFi (it showed every network within at least a 300 ft radius (my office floor is shared with a few others). Connection was hassle free. Then it asked me a few questions, registered quickly with Amazon, and then updated the software. After that 5 minute process, I was free to explore. OS: Intuitive and easy to navigate. A lot of cool little nav helpers come up to explain the various navigational aspects and preloaded apps. It immediately showed all the books in my library. TOUCHSCREEN: Seems very responsive. Keyboard typing was easy enough, especially when laid out landscape. I know other Android devices can bring up different keyboards, so I'll be looking into this. PROCESSING: Haven't opened up anything super intense, but navigating between apps is smooth and doesn't stutter. INTERNET: Took about 6 seconds to fully load a Reuters news page. I've read Silk gets faster with more use, so I'll expect that, but for now, it's definitely fast enough. CLOUD CONNECTION: Awesome. I love everything about it. All my content was readily available and I know my usage of this will go up now that I have this device. MEDIA: I quickly threw on an episode of 24. It looked very crisp and had no trouble whatsoever with streaming. I'll dive into Hulu and Netflix a little later. That's all I've gotten through at the moment. I put this at 5 stars because it MET MY EXPECTATIONS. I read all about this device before buying it, so I knew exactly what I was getting for $199 dollars. It has met all of my expectations of a small form factor tablet that is intuitive, media friendly, and has great processing capabilities. I did not expect an iPad, so there is no comparison in my mind. My next update will go a bit more in depth into EMAIL and Document capabilities as well as exploring some apps. I hope you enjoy this as much as I am! ------ UPDATE #1 EMAIL NICE: Email setup is a breeze for GMAIL (including IMAP) and they present a unified inbox view which is nice. However, they don't thread the emails, but that's not a huge issue. BUMMER: Native Email app doesn't support MS exchange, had to download an app. Again, it's not a big deal, but would have been nice to get work emails on this. Sent a PowerPoint Presentation to my personal email and opened it on the Fire. It displayed perfectly in hi res...I am a happy camper at this moment :) UPDATE #1.5 APPS: This is my first Android(ish) device and as such my first experience with the Amazon appstore. App store is coming up shallow (in variety of apps) esp. in the finance apps department. That is just my initial response and I may not be entering the right search strings (for finance, I tried Bloomberg, finance, finance apps). I'm SURE as more and more Kindle Fire's come online, the developer community will focus on improving and optimizing more apps. Free APP a day program is very cool and I will be sure to set a reminder to look into this every day. I would gladly take any suggestions for finance (news, stocks, charts etc.) apps or any others. UPDATE #2 Loving the Pandora app. And the Cloud player! And just discovered that you can upload UNLIMITED MP3 files to the Cloud just by upgrading to the 20GB plan ($20 annually...). For me, that's over 60GB of music available anywhere + 20GB of anything else. Awesome. UPDATE #3 Now that I've spent a great amount of time with the Fire, I can honestly say that I'm very happy with the purchase. It functions fantastically as a tablet device. It could rival the iPad due to the plethora of media streaming options, portability, CLOUD capabilities, flash availability, and basic functionality (but don't set your expectation on this, it IS NOT positioned to be an iPad competitor). I downloaded the TouchDown Exchange app for receiving work emails. The Accuweather app is much more functional than the native Weather Channel app. Thompson Reuters News Pro is a great reader, especially for financial news. Netflix and Hulu + both work very well and I have had no issue in streaming content for both. YouVersion still needs some refining, but it looks great on this tablet. I am starting to realize that the lack of 3g will be a bummer moving forward, but it is not a blocker yet. If the developer community picks up the popularity of the Fire, I will be excited to see a plethora of new apps coming online. Again, overall, I am pleased at how functional this is as a tablet. FINAL UPDATE No issues so far (3rd day of ownership). This thing doesn't leave my side (at home or the office). Amazon's free app a day program is awesome; today downloaded an email app that is normally $10 for my favorite price...free99. My biggest gripe at the moment is that they don't have multiple keyboard options (outside of landscape or portrait). This was available on other tablet devices with Android OS and would make typing a bit easier. But please...for $200, this thing kicks ass. UPDATE (as of DEC. 19th) The FIRE is working great. I stand by my initial 5 star rating. Not thrilled with Amazon's app store, but like I said before, it will get better as more developers come on line. All of my previous comments still stand. Amazon's free app a day program should not be overlooked as its utility has been fantastic. The BEST thing about this is its form factor. I didn't realize how important this was until I found myself carrying my Fire with me everywhere. With the amount I use it, I'm happy that it is light and almost pocket sized. Battery life seems to be about 5 hours with heavy use, 7.5 with reading. I charge this thing every night along side my iPhone, so it's not a burden. This makes a great gift for any electronics fan looking for a reader and mobile media player. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (22) 214 of 227 people found the following review helpful 4.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what I wanted in a tablet, November 15, 2011 By J. Gower - See all my reviews (REAL NAME) Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) I've been a long time fence-sitter in the tablet wars, but I finally decided that the Kindle Fire was what I was looking for. I had previously purchased the original iPad for my son, but he never used it so I was very worried about spending that much cash for what I feared would be an expensive toy. I was primarily interested in tablets for mobile web browsing, watching some videos now and then (I have a ton of digital movies), and that's about it. I have a very small music collection, which I've moved to both Google Music and Amazon's cloud storage, so I'm not what you'd consider a big mobile entertainment guy. So far, from the time I've spent with it, the Fire is going to fit the bill nicely. 1. WEB. The Silk web browser is fast enough. I don't bother running side-by-side tests, as all I worry about is whether or not I'm going to become irritated by page loads. Thankfully, that's not the case. The text IS a bit dithered (blurry) in some places, which I assume is an artifact of Silk's server-side rendering, but it hasn't seriously affected legibility. Web videos load pretty darned fast, and the entire browser experience just works. 2. VIDEO. I streamed one of my Amazon Unbox videos as soon as I opened the Fire, and was very pleased with the speed at which the video appeared as well as how quickly the controls just got out of the way so I could enjoy the flick. It's going to be an EXCELLENT device for videos. 3. MUSIC. The streaming music store works pretty doggone flawlessly. The only complaint I have so far is that I can't seem to find any difference in the equalizer settings. Beyond that, since I'm not terribly into music, it suits my purposes just fine. 4. BOOKS. Kindle Fire's weak spot, imo, and the reason I give it four stars. But to be fair, it was never going to compete with my Kindle 3. E-ink really is just that much more comfortable to read versus a (relatively low resolution) LCD screen. Text just isn't that crisp and the backlight actually interferes with legibility. I've read rumors that the NEXT Kindle tablet (due in 2012) might just feature a dual LCD/e-Ink display or even a Mirasol display, which would remedy this nicely. For now, though, I didn't expect miracles from LCD and, by golly, I didn't get them. :) 5. APPS. I'm not a big gamer anymore. (I used to be huge on Gameboy, but I got older and slower.) The App store, curated by Amazon, is exactly what I though it'd be. Some might complain about it not having a billion apps, but I really do think everything that the casual user would want is there. (But if you're not sure go browse it and see BEFORE you buy the Fire.) As far as accessibility goes, it's easy to get in and out of. As far as the Kindle itself, it's a SOLID little brick. It's not fancy, nor would I say it has that "Apple aesthetic" going for it, but it's a shick brithouse of a tablet. Amazon might just decide to advertise it as a personal defense device, if they decide the tablet business isn't working out. It's got a nice, rubberized back. It is, however, a bit heavier than I expected and is likely to be less comfortable for long-term reading than the (significantly) lighter Kindle 3 or Touch. The onscreen controls are easy to get to, which stood out to me since I saw some reviews complaining about the lack of physical buttons. Overall, the Kindle Fire is snappy if a little quirky. I figure it's early and that we've got plenty of time for Bezos 'n co. to tweak the software. The Silk browser WILL get faster as more users use it--which is the beauty of cloud storage/computing--and in the long run, I really think the whole Amazon/Kindle ecosystem is just plain excellent. If four and a half stars were available, I'd have shaved only a half a star for the e-Reader functionality, since I knew coming in that it simply couldn't replace my Kindle 3. If you're a Prime member already, this thing's a no-brainer. If you don't have another tablet and you weren't sure about the costs, it's a great time to get your feet wet. Amazon's always been incredible about returns if you don't like it, but I think if you're like me and you wanted a good little media consumption device that works pretty intuitively, does the main things you want it to, and doesn't break the bank, the Fire is a doggone great deal for the cash. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (2) 96 of 102 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what I wanted!, November 16, 2011 By Mike D - See all my reviews Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?) This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) I received my Kindle Fire yesterday and I have to say that I'm impressed. It's exactly what I wanted and by that I mean it's great for surfing the internet, checking email, reading books, magazines, and comics, and playing the occasional game. This is definitely a content consumption device and that's exactly what it's advertised as. I'm a little tired of everyone trying to compare it to the iPad. My wife has an iPad and it certainly does a lot more than the Fire. However, I don't need all the extras she has on her tablet. I don't need a camera or extra storage or a Bluetooth keyboard and if I need to do document editing or the like, I just use my desktop or laptop. This device is perfect for laying in bed and surfing my favorite sites or checking on my RSS feeds. I haven't read a book on it yet but I did bring one up and it looks great. This thing is perfect for sitting at Starbucks and just chilling out. I have had a few lag issues here and there, brief but noticeable. I know this device will have some growing pains but I have no doubt Amazon will do a great job in providing updates and support. I do not like the fact that controlling the volume requires accessing the settings menu versus having a dedicated control but I can live with that since I won't be listening to a great deal of music on it. The bottom line is you have to decide what use you'll have for a tablet. Don't buy one with all the bells and whistles if you're not really going to use them. Buy the one that has the features you'll use and go from there. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (3) 338 of 374 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Good value for money, November 14, 2011 By Sid - See all my reviews This review is from: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi (Electronics) As an Ipad owner I initially had low expectations for the Fire. However, after having played around with the Fire, I have to admit it is actually quite compelling especially if you are a price conscious buyer. Here's why: - The mp3 apps works real well. I switched to using the Amazon MP3 store fairly recently having used the itunes store for years primarily since Amazon seems to have a larger selection and lower price. I uploaded all my Apple DRM free music to my Amazon cloud drive and now I have access to all my music - both itunes and Amazon MP3. Unfortunately, some of older Apple DRMed music files do not play on the Fire as expected - The video app is real snappy and I had no issues streaming video at home over wifi. I can honestly say that the Amazon video app is as good as the Netflix app on the Ipad. It seems like the netflix app will be released soon for the fire so I plan to compare them side by side then. - I don't read many books so I can't really provide much useful insight on the book app. I did like on the Fire that the one book I owned opened up on the last page I had stopped reading on my Ipad from months ago. The screen is a bit glossy so that may put some readers off. - The Fire is in general very snappy especially compared to most other Android tablets. Not as snappy as an Ipad but oh so close. - I did notice a slight improvement in page load times in Silk. I am not entirely sure whether that was due to the browser or my internet connection. - I don't like the placement of the power button as I find myself accidently hitting it all the time. The fire is also feels a bit heavy but it is not intolerable. Overall, I feel this is a compelling device for the price and the negatives I stated above are minor to me. If I were looking for a 7"" or below $300 tablet, I would say this is the best tablet around. However, if you have $500+ to spend, chances are you would be happier with an Ipad. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink Comment Comments (4) Jump To Top Video review Design Specs Performance Software Wrap-up Comments Close To put a review of the Kindle Fire HD in perspective, you have to peer just a tiny bit into the past. It was barely a week ago that the world watched Amazon begin a magical transformation from that of a humble multinational that retails every product ever made in the world, to that of a consumer electronics powerhouse that wants to bring the fight to Apple on the tablet front. During its event last Wednesday, CEO Jeff Bezos was focused on not just the new products, but about what they mean to Amazon and its customers. These aren't just tablets — they are portals to all the company is, whether it's the cloud services on the backend, retail tie-ins up front, or that new part of Amazon: the one that makes high-end consumer hardware. The original Kindle Fire felt like an experiment, a 'can we do this?' moment for Amazon. The new, $199 Fire HD feels like something very different. A product with an attitude, a directive, a plan. And that plan seems to be something like this: hit them on price, hit them on ecosystem, and hit them where it hurts the most — product design. Amazon also wants to hit them where only Amazon can: retail. But are the hits going to keep coming, or is the new Fire HD a swing and a miss? Find out in the full review below. Video review Design and hardware The Fire HD feels comfortable in your hands Fire_hd_hands_55515 At first glance, the Fire HD isn't exactly something that you'd notice in a lineup of tablets. These days, it's not really art or science deciding how slabs look, but more like a kind of desire for familiarity. In that sense, the Fire serves its purpose fabulously. The device is little more than a matte black rectangle with the requisite rounded corners. The front of the Fire is eaten up by its display and a small camera peering out through the black bezel which runs around the screen. The sides of the device are downturned from front to back, broken only by a headphone jack, volume rocker, and power / sleep button integrated into the top (or right side in landscape) of the device. Along the bottom you'll find a Micro USB and Micro HDMI jack (you can mirror content to a big screen). The Fire has a soft-touch black backing, with a thin plastic strip spanning the length of it that houses a set of stereo speakers. One longs for the details of the iPad The device is slightly thinner than the Nexus 7 (an almost imperceptible .01 inches) but not as thin as the new iPad. It weighs just under a pound, and is both taller and wider than the Nexus 7 by small amounts. The Fire HD fits comfortably in your hands in either landscape or portrait — and just as I noticed with the Nexus 7, the 7-inch form factor seems generally better suited to transportation and light use, like bedtime reading. It's a big improvement over the first Fire. Overall the design is utilitarian, but not unwelcome. The tablet is thin enough and light enough that it feels comfortable in your hands, and is particularly well-suited for book reading in portrait mode. One quibble I have is the placement and depth of the power button and volume rockers. They are not only too closely positioned, but their extremely low profiles make them hard to distinguish and sometimes hard to press, depending on which direction you've got the device situated. This is one of those areas where one longs for the details of the iPad, with its clear-to-the-touch placement of switches and buttons. Kindle Fire HD 7-inch photos View full Gallery Previous Fire_hd_hands_big5_medium Fire_hd_hands_big4_medium Fire_hd_hands_big3_medium Fire_hd_hands_big2_medium Fire_hd_hands_big1_medium Fire_hd_hands_big13_medium Fire_hd_hands_big12_medium Fire_hd_hands_big11_medium Fire_hd_hands_big10_medium Fire_hd_hands_big9_medium Fire_hd_hands_big8_medium Fire_hd_hands_big7_medium Fire_hd_hands_big6_medium Fire_hd_hands_big21_medium Fire_hd_hands_big20_medium Fire_hd_hands_big19_medium Fire_hd_hands_big18_medium Fire_hd_hands_big17_medium Fire_hd_hands_big16_medium Fire_hd_hands_big15_medium Fire_hd_hands_big14_medium Fire_hd_hands_big29_medium Fire_hd_hands_big28_medium Fire_hd_hands_big26_medium Fire_hd_hands_big22_medium Next Fire_hd_hands_3009 Fire_hd_hands_30012 Fire_hd_hands_30020 Display and specs Fire_hd_hands_big17 The 7-inch, 1280 x 800 display on the Fire HD is fantastic. The IPS, LCD screen looks better than probably any other tablet display I've seen, save for the new iPad. While the pixel density is the same for both the Nexus 7 and the Fire HD (216 compared to the iPad's 264), the Fire blows away the Nexus in terms of color richness, black levels, and general brightness. It definitely looks more like an Apple-quality display, and it's clear the company put a lot of effort into making an impression here. Though Amazon has touted the anti-glare coating of the screen, it can still be plenty shiny when viewing content in a decently lit room. Touch response was good in most cases, and very good in some, though I believe there are some fundamental issues with Amazon's software that create subpar experiences in various areas of the Fire HD OS. I'll touch on that in detail in the software section of the review. No pun intended. Fire_hd_hands_30017 In all, it's a tidy package, but not unexpected As part of Amazon's fight to prove it can do hardware right, it's equipped the Fire HD with a fairly modern set of specs, and even boasts about its GPU prowess and CPU speeds. Inside you'll find a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, a PowerVR GPU, and either 16GB or 32GB of storage (I tested the 16GB version). There's also Bluetooth, that fancy MIMO Wi-Fi that Amazon made a big deal out of (more on that below), as well as an accelerometer, light sensor, and gyroscope. The camera mounted under the screen on the front of the Fire is listed as an HD lens, and it appears that it takes photos at a 720p resolution. If you dig enough in some apps, you can find the stock Android camera, but I couldn't get it to do anything but change my photo in Skype. The speakers I mentioned earlier are Dolby Digital-blessed and dual-driven. The wildly hyperbolic Amazon PR page for the Fire HD describes "loud, rumbling movie soundtracks," and "room-filling stereo sound." You won't get anything near those lofty renditions, but they do sound quite nice, and it's a welcome change to have stereo sound (at least in landscape orientation). In all, it's a tidy package, but not unexpected, and not necessarily the cutting edge. It's a modern chipset, an adequate amount of storage, and the required radios for most of what you'll do (though it's missing a GPS chip and NFC, if you're worried about future-proofing). It is disappointing to me that there's no 3G or 4G option here, but one could make the same complaint about the Nexus 7 and most other tablets in this range. Performance, Wi-Fi, battery life Fire_hd_hands_55521 From a standpoint of horsepower, the Fire HD seems more than capable at handling pretty much anything you throw at it (or at least, anything that's available in the Amazon Appstore). Games like Dead Space and Angry Birds played with no slowdown or lag, lists scrolled quickly and smoothly, and books and magazines didn't hesitate when the pages were turned. Movies streamed solidly in HD, and music playing worked without a hiccup in the background. As I said, however, there are software issues which I believe are unrelated to the actual CPU performance of the device. Wi-Fi Jeff Bezos got on stage last week and made a big deal (a weirdly big deal) out of the Wi-Fi on the Fire HD. Amazon claims that using MIMO dual-antenna technology, it's able to best Apple's latest tablet in download speeds. In my testing, I noticed no real difference between the speed of the Wi-Fi on the Fire HD versus that of the new iPad. Of course, there are many variables at play, and I suppose in the most pristine settings it's possible you'll see a winner and a loser in that race. What I observed mostly, in actual use, was that the Fire's more sluggish browser and less intuitive software made the device feel that is was reacting more slowly than the iPad, so even if it was able to pull down data faster, it wasn't clear to me that's what was happening. Battery I've had just under a week to test the battery performance of the Fire, and my results have been largely favorable. Amazon claims you can get about 11 hours of use out of a single charge, split amongst web browsing, video viewing, music streaming, and various other casual activities. I found that this number mostly holds true, but you certainly start to see a burn when using the Fire for something like Skype video calling. In fact, in an activity that puts all of the hardware and software into play, there was a clear dip in battery life. That's to be expected, and the Fire certainly didn't feel like it was overly cranking through its charges — it does what the company claims it does, so there's little room for disappointment here. The Fire HD seems capable of handling pretty much anything you throw at it Fire_hd_hands_30025 Software It's software vs. services Fire_screens_3003 Fire_screens_5558 The software on the Kindle Fire HD may well be the product's Achilles Heel, while the services the software provides are clearly its winning edge. It's an odd dichotomy, to have one half of a product be so uninspiring, while the content that uninspiring half is used to get at is so key to the success of the device. Let me explain. The operating system of the Fire HD is based on Google's Android 4.0.3, better known as Ice Cream Sandwich. As a standalone, stock experience, Android 4 is one of the best mobile OSs on the market, and perhaps the very best for many, many things. Amazon has chosen to wipe nearly all traces of that core OS away from the Fire in order to make a more pleasing consumer experience, replacing almost all of the visual and functional language of the software with its own take on the modern mobile operating system. That's good in some ways, because Android can be very confusing and very technical at times (even if version 4 goes a long way to correcting this behavior). But, it's also bad in many ways, because it puts a jerky, sluggish barrier between the OS as it was intended, and the OS as Amazon would like to see it work. Furthermore, I'm not entirely convinced that Amazon has such good ideas about functionality and workflow, which makes for some confusing moments when trying to get around. Let's start with the basics — navigation around the device. In most areas, Amazon provides a menu which can be called up to get to your home, back, or menu buttons. Since a lot of apps (Amazon or otherwise) utilize these items in a "hidden" state, you do a lot of tap-tapping to get to your nav, which can be annoying. Furthermore, Amazon has moved the home button to the far left, and put a back button in the center. It's a bizarre and frustrating placement, considering the most used button seems to be demoted. It's also vexing because on the ad-heavy stock Fire, you're prone to tapping quickly on that home button only to end up tapping on tiny ads which populate the same exact spot on your homescreen. Coincidence? It doesn't feel like it. Amazon provides no clear multitasking functionality, but it does have a "favorites" drawer which can be pulled up with a touch on a star icon in the corner of the bottom menu bar. On the homescreen, the software also provides a thin row of text to navigate to the sections of the device: Shop (first of course), Games, Apps, etc. In general, that list is a pretty unintuitive method of moving from place to place. For instance, you have to scroll to the far right on the list to find you web browser. Amazon does additionally provide a big carousel of recently-used applications or content, but that menu is always rearranging itself based on what you've been doing on the device. On paper that sounds like a great idea, on a tablet, it's like searching for your lost car in a crowded mall parking lot. Fire_screens_55510 The general feeling when using the Fire HD was that of a kind of light confusion, a low hum of 'where am I now?' Things were never where I expected them to be, or they moved, or they had to be summoned from a hidden menu. A simple home button or persistent navigation element would improve this greatly. There seemed to be too much action, too many options. On the homescreen alone, there are no less than three separate ways to access an application — four if you count the search functionality! Why is it like this? The other big issue I have with Amazon's OS is that it can sometimes feel sluggish, laggy. The keyboard on the device feels downright delayed when you're typing on it, pressed buttons sometimes seemed to momentarily stall, and moving in and out of applications could sometimes cause a slight freeze, where the content (or worse, nothing) will just sit onscreen, stuck. If the iPad and the Nexus 7 feel snappy and "present," the Fire HD seems like it's out to lunch sometimes. It's not a deal-breaker, but it does create a sense that there's a thin layer over everything you're doing on the device — it means presses are unsure, typing is laborious. It almost made me scared in a way to move too quickly, like I would end up engaging parts of the tablet that I hadn't meant to engage. The content offerings soar above the competition, but it's still not there on apps Prime, movies, music, apps, and more On the other hand, the Kindle Fire soars above much of its competition because of the content Amazon offers on the device. The sheer volume of movies and TV, music, magazines, and books you have access to on this tablet is staggering. Furthermore, if you're a Prime customer (and you probably will be once you own this device), a lot of that content is free. It's an incredibly enticing arrangement, and one that makes the Fire HD one of the most recommendable products for users who are concerned largely with lean-back experiences. I was actually astounded to discover how much great content was free and ready to watch in both movies and TV with my Prime account, to say nothing of the book selection in the Lending Library. This is the kind of all-encompassing subscription deal that not even Apple offers — and it is fantastic. The Fire also provides great, seamless experiences for consuming that content thanks to its Whispersync technology, which lets you pick up where you left off on a variety of devices. That means that you can stream a movie on your Fire, then finish it on your Xbox or Roku. You can listen to half a book in audio on the tablet, then start back up on your smartphone; with newer features like Whispersync for games, that will extend even further. It makes the world of Amazon seem much bigger and much more robust than many of the other ecosystems currently battling it out. Amazon is also trying some new tricks with features like X-Ray for movies and books. The gist of X-Ray is that it will dissect some of the metadata of the content — for movies that means actor and crew lists, for books it's characters and bios. Right now it's an interesting yet largely superfluous concept, however it's not hard to see how Amazon could begin to tie in even deeper connections. The most intriguing, or worrisome, being the ability to purchase items shown in a movie or mentioned in a book from The World's Largest Retailer. One other big point worth noting: the Amazon Appstore is simply not up to par with either Google's Play Store or Apple's App Store in terms of application offerings. In fact, I found it to be deeply lacking in some key areas, with well known apps like Rdio not even available for download. There are a handful of games and some other usable products present, but it is far from a satisfying experience, at least for me. Amazon's product page may look good with its cluster of titles, but once you get beyond a few of the key entries, things get painfully thin. Fire_screens_3009 Fire_screens_big11 Browser Amazon first introduced its Silk browser with the original Fire, touting faster download speeds thanks to a bunch of backend, server-side processing. I didn't see much of a kick in my original review, but I must say the browser on the Fire HD definitely feels like it's getting a boost somewhere along the way. Pages did tend to load faster than I expected, and in side-by-side comparisons with the Nexus 7, though the Nexus beat out the Fire a few times too — so... they're even? Regardless, the performance was quite good, though I did see some odd behavior in pages, like TypeKit fonts rendering sometimes, but not others. Amazon also makes some interesting choices, like including Bing as the default search engine (don't worry, you can change it), and offering "trending" pages to you from your homescreen and in-browser bookmark view. Just like some of the ads on the device, it feels like Amazon is trying to push you somewhere you might not be interested in going. Email, calendar, and contacts The company has upgraded its home-grown email client, and now includes a calendar and contacts app as well. All three are serviceable at best, but none are anywhere close to competitive or best in class. In particular, the email app doesn't even support threaded messages, and has no support for Gmail's labeling — though it will star items. After using the Fire HD for a day, I was longing for the full-featured, cohesive experiences of the Nexus 7 or iPad. Advertising Much has been made — and much has yet to be said — about the inclusion of advertisements throughout the Fire's operating system. Though you can opt out of these ads for a mere $15, it's likely many people will not choose to pay the extra cash, or not even be aware that the option exists. With the ads displaying, the Fire HD can at times feel like the most blatantly pushy, consumer-focused, retail-oriented device ever made. There is no shame in what Amazon is doing — nearly everywhere that content lives on the device, the company is trying to push you towards more content. Even in places that might be considered sacred, like your homescreen (a view you see most often), there are breadcrumbs to get back to the store for more buying. And that's to say nothing of the full-screen lock screen ads, and subtle, sneaky text ads that populate the corner of the device. On the one hand, it's kind of great. Hey, you like content? Here's some more content you might like! On the other hand, it's a little weird, and a tiny bit scary. You want to feel ownership of your devices, and you want to feel empowered by your devices — but the constant and consistent advertising here can sometimes make the Fire HD feel more like a catalog than a tablet. Maybe that's fine for some users, but I thought it was off-putting, and frankly a distraction from an otherwise fine product. Wrap-up Compare It Kindle fire hd - 7, front Amazon Kindle Fire HD (7-inch) 7.5 Verge Score Good Stuff Terrific display Ecosystem with Prime is outstanding Faster performance all around Bad Stuff Software can be buggy and sluggish App selection is still weak For lean-back experiences only There are two devices in this review There are two devices in this review. The first is something like an appliance — a window through which you casually view content, a way to listen to music, an e-reader for the train ride home. On that device, things like a big app selection or elaborate user experience take a back seat to content selection, price point, and simplicity. On that device, it's not about going toe-to-toe with the competition in every way (as Amazon seems to want to do), it's about offering a lot of fun stuff to consumers, and getting them to consume more. As that device, the Fire HD is a complete success. A marvel of bottom-line engineering and incredibly clever subsidies. It's a really, really good tablet for doing some very specific things. But there's a second tablet in the review as well. One that gets compared to the iPad and Nexus 7. One that I expect to do more than just show me movies or help me shop. One that should be a companion for all kinds of things I want to do, that doesn't feel limited, that doesn't respond to my touches slowly, that doesn't make me wait. As that device, the Fire HD still has a long way to go. I think it can get there, but it isn't there yet. When the Kindle Fire first arrived last September, it was in a class all its own. There were plenty of other 7-inch tablets running Android, but none of them were as successful. Sure, Amazon’s tablet did most of the same things as competing offerings. Some of those things it did ably, some it did sloppily — but it did them all for $200, less than half the price of the cheapest iPad. It turns out “cheap” was quite the trump card, and despite its many quirks, the Fire was a huge smash. But things are different now, and other manufacturers have come out with devices that hit (or come close to) that magic price point. Most notably, there’s Google’s own Nexus 7, a consumer favorite that’s set new expectations for how a $200 tablet should look and perform. Competitive pressure is usually a good thing, and after using the newly updated 7-inch version of the Kindle Fire HD for close to a week, I can say that the changes Amazon has made in order to stay at the head of the budget tablet pack have produced a machine that’s just plain better all around. The changes Amazon has made in order to stay at the head of the budget tablet pack have produced a machine that’s just plain better all around. The Fire’s user interface has been improved, and is now smoother and more polished. The hardware is more elegant, too, with a better screen, a smarter set of controls, and a redesigned shell that no longer looks like a BlackBerry PlayBook. Enhancements to the Kindle Fire’s core functions — reading books and watching movies purchased from Amazon’s vast content store — have make consuming media on the tablet more enjoyable than before. The depth of the hardware improvements can’t be overemphasized. The very first thing I noticed when I picked up the Fire HD was how the new rounded edges nestled into my hands more naturally than the chunky, square edges of the original Fire. While the screen is still 7 inches, the face of Fire HD is larger than that of its predecessor: it’s 2 millimeters taller and 17 millimeters wider. But what the Fire HD has gained in 2-D real estate, it’s lost in height and weight, measuring 1 millimeter slimmer and 18 grams lighter. That might not sound like a lot, but the device is noticeably lighter. The original Fire oddly lacked external volume controls, so you had to tap through the menus just to raise or lower the sound. This super-annoying quirk has been corrected, and volume buttons now sit flush along the tablet’s tapered edge, next to the sleep button. The old protruding sleep button is gone, too. It’s now recessed, so it’s much harder to accidentally press it by placing the tablet on a table or in a cradle while holding it in portrait mode. Goodbye, inadvertent sleeping. When the Kindle Fire first arrived in the US last September, it was in a class all its own. There were plenty of other seven-inch tablets running Android, but none of them were as successful. Sure, Amazon's tablet did most of the same things as competing offerings. Some of those things it did ably, some it did sloppily -- but it did them all for less than half the price of the cheapest iPad. It turns out "cheap" was quite the trump card, and despite its many quirks, the Fire was a huge smash Stateside. But things are different now, and other manufacturers have come out with devices that hit (or come close to) that magic price point. Most notably, there's Google's own Nexus 7, a consumer favorite that's set new expectations for how a £129 tablet should look and perform. Competitive pressure is usually a good thing, and after using the newly updated seven-inch version of the Kindle Fire HD for close to a week, I can say that the changes Amazon has made in order to stay at the head of the budget tablet pack have produced a machine that's just plain better all around. It will go on sale in the UK in October for £159. Design The Fire's user interface has been improved, and is now smoother and more polished. The hardware is more elegant, too, with a better screen, a smarter set of controls, and a redesigned shell that no longer looks like a BlackBerry PlayBook. Enhancements to the Kindle Fire's core functions -- reading books and watching movies purchased from Amazon's vast content store -- have make consuming media on the tablet more enjoyable than before. The depth of the hardware improvements can't be overemphasised. The very first thing I noticed when I picked up the Fire HD was how the new rounded edges nestled into my hands more naturally than the chunky, square edges of the original Fire. While the screen is still seven inches, the face of Fire HD is larger than that of its predecessor: it's two millimeters taller and 17 millimeters wider. But what the Fire HD has gained in 2D real estate, it's lost in height and weight, measuring one millimeter slimmer and 18 grams lighter. That might not sound like a lot, but the device is noticeably lighter. The original Fire oddly lacked external volume controls, so you had to tap through the menus just to raise or lower the sound. This super-annoying quirk has been corrected, and volume buttons now sit flush along the tablet's tapered edge, next to the sleep button. The old protruding sleep button is gone, too. It's now recessed, so it's much harder to accidentally press it by placing the tablet on a table or in a cradle while holding it in portrait mode. Goodbye, inadvertent sleeping. The new display is much nicer, a 1,280x800-pixel IPS panel with a pixel density of 216 ppi. When viewed next to the Google Nexus 7, the Kindle Fire HD's display is clearly crisper and has better contrast, though neither can compete with the latest iPad's Retina display. The Fire HD's display is also notable for its glare protection. It won't eliminate glare entirely, but it does have less glare than the iPad and Nexus 7, making it easier to use in less-than-optimal lighting situations. Software Like the previous Kindle Fire, the HD model runs a version of Android that's been dressed up and customised by Amazon -- though the Fire now runs Android 4.0 instead of stale old 2.3, and performs much better because of it. Amazon has removed the "bookshelf" from the Kindle's interface, replacing it with a "favorites" drawer. You can access this personalised list of favorite items from within any app by tapping the star that resides near the home button. You can place whatever apps, albums, movies, websites (anything that appears in the main carousel) you want into the favorites drawer for quick access. It's a welcome addition, but the Favorites drawer can't replace the power of a quick app switcher. If an item doesn't reside in the Favorites drawer, you need to return to the Home screen and scroll through all your installed items to access it. This is a pain for power users who have become accustomed to quickly switching between apps on other devices. If you do have to navigate back and forth between apps, the process is much smoother than before. Flicks of the carousel and swipes of the menus are responsive and smooth as butter. All the herky-jerkiness of the original Fire's UI has been exterminated. The only times when I encountered stutters or system hangs was when I was launching the Silk browser by tapping on a link in some app or document. The tablet always seems to hesitate a moment before launching the browser. The browser itself is better than before, but it's still the place where the Kindle's weakness is most exposed. Some sites lacks the smooth scrolling evident in the rest of the operating system. Amazon did add some fancy custom features, like the ability to strip ads, photos and other miscellaneous items out of articles -- similar to the Reader feature Apple built into Mobile Safari to make reading web articles easier. Alas, the Kindle has no read-it-later feature; you'll need to pick an app for that. In all, the browser lacks the polish and smoothness I've grown used to on other devices, and it feels about 90 percent finished. Likewise, the email client, contacts manager and calendar are serviceable, but they all feel kind of not-quite-there. The email app is as quick and snappy as the rest of the system, and it supports Exchange, so it takes only a few moments to set up a new account. However, the client doesn't support downloading inline images in emails to the device. Attached images will download just fine, and you can open them separately, but you can't download images that are inline. The email client isn't the only thing that has a problem with images -- the tablet has a front-facing camera, but it ships without a default camera app. As of press time, the only way to access the front-facing camera is to use Skype for Kindle Fire HD. By using Skype, I can confirm that the camera works, but I can't actually determine how well it captures pictures or video. I'm sure Instagram will appear in the Amazon App Store with support for this camera at some point, and we'll all be able to apply funky filters to our selves. X-Ray and audio X-Ray -- the feature that brings up an index-like listing of information for whatever you're reading or watching -- is outstanding, and especially helpful for novels with a plethora of characters. The new integration of IMDB data into the X-Ray for Video feature is also excellent. At any point, you can pause your movie and look at all the associated data about the actors, director, or whatever. It's interactive and fun, and totally in tune with how the ultra-connected among us already watch movies. The new features Amazon has added to the ebook reading experience are also top-notch. Initially, I thought the Immersion Reading feature -- a sort of "read along with me" trick that highlights text while the audio version of a book is read aloud -- was just a cute gimmick I would tire of quickly. But after reading along to the text of Bossypants as Tina Fey spoke the same words to me through the speakers, I'm a believer. It's mesmerising. Better yet, the Audio Whispersync feature is flawless. I listened to a book for a while, stopped the audio, then opened the text version. The sentence where the audio left off appeared at the top of the page every single time. Speaking of sound, the audio pumped out by the Kindle Fire HD sounded better than other tablets. The Dolby-tuned stereo speakers actually produce a clear stereo image, instead of the flat, tinny reproduction you get on other tablets with one speaker. Bass is negligible, and in a loud room, you're always going to be better off with headphones or an external speaker. (It has Bluetooth, so hello Jambox.) But in a pinch, it's a decent setup for listening to tunes or audiobooks Storage Where do you store all those books and videos? Amazon's cloud, of course, though the Fire HD ships with 16GB of storage, which is more than you get on most tablets in this price range. (The Nexus 7 starts at 8GB for the same price.) You can double that storage for an extra £40. Conclusion Clearly satisfied with the success of last year's initial launch, it seems Amazon is now intent on building up the Kindle Fire HD to make it the most compelling and feature-rich tablet you can buy for £159. Purists will still prefer something like the Nexus 7, which has a better browser, extra goodies like GPS, and offers a more well-rounded experience. But if you're aligned with Amazon's vision, and especially if you've fully immersed yourself in the company's ecosystem -- signing up for Prime, watching tons of videos, reading stacks of books -- you won't do better than this. It's possible the 8.9-inch version of the Kindle Fire HD, which has a sharper screen will be the smarter purchase for US users, but sadly that model isn't scheduled to launch in the UK. However, even as other compelling tablets swoop into the spotlight over the next few months, the Kindle Fire HD will still be a great piece of hardware at a great price. Sometimes companies make small, flowery claims about their products -- makes the perfect gift! Stunning visuals! But in the case of the Kindle Fire HD, Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, made a very big and bold claim: "We haven't built the best tablet at a certain price. We have built the best tablet at any price," Bezos said on stage last week when he introduced the 7- and 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDs. Bezos' bravado was understandable. Even though the new 7-inch Fire HD starts at just $199 it has substantially better specs than last years' $199 Kindle Fire and is comparable to higher-end tablets with its HD display, dual-core processor, stereo speakers, and improved Wi-Fi. WATCH: Kindle Fire HD Review But while it sounds good on paper and on its own, the competition is much more fierce than it was a year ago and it's not just a specs game. Google's Nexus 7 costs the same and has similar hardware features. And then there is Apple's iPad, which starts at $399 and has reigned as king of the tablets since its introduction. So, is Amazon's claim, well, just a claim? PHOTO: Kindle Fire HD Joanna Stern/ABC News Amazon's Kindle Fire HD has a 7-inch display,... View Full Size The New iPad Review Watch Video Nexus 7 Review Watch Video Tablet Sizes: Which is the Best One for You? Watch Video Improved Hardware, Screen It takes no more than a second to notice how much nicer the new Kindle Fire HD is in comparison to the older model. The all-black, rubberized back, the thinner design, and rounded edges all make the tablet more comfortable to hold, and it's a better looking device as well. However, Amazon did widen the tablet with a thicker screen bezel, which makes it a bit harder to hold than the Nexus 7. Also, the 13.9-ounce tablet is a tad heavier than the 12-ounce Nexus 7, though you'd only notice if you were holding them both side by side. But my major nitpick with the hardware has to do with something as simple as the power and volume buttons. The black buttons are flush with the edge of the tablet, blending in a bit too well. I often found myself looking for the buttons for longer than I should have had to, and then confusing them with each other. Amazon added HD to the name, which gives you an idea of just how much it is focusing on the new, 1280 x 800-resolution screen. I didn't find the Fire HD's display that much better than the Nexus 7's in my side-by-side comparisons, but I did notice a difference outdoors. The Fire's screen now has a special coating that makes it easier to see outside and reduces glare. It's not as good as the regular E Ink Kindle under direct sunlight, but with the hot California sun beating down, it was much easier to see text and images on the Fire HD's display than on the Nexus or iPad. (The $299 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD will have a higher-resolution display.) Amazon also added a camera to the top of the tablet for video calling over Skype. Video and voice calls with the app were clear, but the app itself was slow at times. Still, the audio that came through the stereo speakers on the back of the tablet was crisp.
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