Posted on 11/27/2011 6:21:00 AM PST by Eye of Unk
Has anyone bought the Kindle Fire yet? Is it an adequate tablet and book reader? With my town having lost its brick and mortar book store all I have is miniscule supermarket best sellers. I do not want to invest in an Ipad, I do like the Kindle foe e-book reading but the Fire at its low price is very tempting, I would like to hear of any reviews, the ones I see on Amazon I have to kinda take for a lot of favoritism.
Wife bought one and likes it.
Virtually unlimited library and very readable.
I have two Fires. Great device. Integrates nicely with Amazon Prime video streaming, reads well, nice browser. I think it was worth every penny. Nothing out there beats it as this price point.
CC
my brother told me he returned his....
He compared it to his sons I-Pad and found it wanting.
Agree. I have an iPad also and it doesn’t compare to the iPad, but the iPad costs much more so it brings more to the table. For $199 the Fire is great.
I received mine over a week ago, it’s very nice BUT I don’t consider it a tablet device. It’s a media display device. It does books very well, easy on the eyes and can be read in the dark. The screen automatically adjusts for lighting levels too.
It plays movies and TV episodes from Amazon in very good detail. The selection is very good and prices are reasonable for rentals or purchase.
It also can surf the web BUT! I don’t recommend it for typing out long posts. The keyboard is way too sensitive and small for me.
As a media display device it is very, very good and I do recommend it for those who are looking for that limited capability. Just don’t expect it to be a tablet computer or a Smart Phone.
We own two 10” Kindle DX models plus a 6” Kindle. Wife just got a Kindle Fire too. For only reading, the Kindle DX is better because of screen size and the electronic ink. The DX is 10” v. 7” Fire. However, wife loves the Kindle Fire because still easy to read and can do a lot more with it than just read books (web browsing, Android apps, etc.).
Want a pure reading device? Consider the Kindle DX. Want to do more than that, get the Kindle Fire. Skip the 6” Kindles. Too small for reading IMHO and don’t have the versatility of a Kindle Fire.
You are aware that for many ebooks, there is no price diff between the ebook and the dead tree edition? Publishers are frequently charging the same, or close to it, for either edition. FWIW, we have a Nook and an android tab. Both are very good ereaders. But I’m still getting the dead tree edition if it’s cheaper, or I know I’ll be keeping the book :-)
I have an iPad, but recently bought the Kindle Fire for my husband. He likes it. The screen is a little small for me, I have problems seeing the text on the websites. Also, because of the smaller screen I’m less accurate when I use the touch screen (often “touching” the link I didn’t intend to.)
As someone mentioned, if you have Amazon Prime, it’s great for instant videos, or if you use Netflix. Lots of free eBooks also with Amazon Prime.
Best pro, when compared to iPad, you can view Flash.
That being said, I love my iPad (I use it for work as well as for entertainment.) But like you said, the difference in price is substantial and the Kindle Fire is more than adequate for an entertainment device.
Same issue (3G) here. Daughter and I were looking at them in Staples yesterday. She has a 3G Kindle, but really wants the fire, but until it comes out with 3G, we’re holding off.
—another question from a beginner to these devices—with an HDMI-UBS cable, can I hook a Kindle Fire to my HD TV and show movies, etc., on the tv?
I have bought two of them for my kids for Christmas.
I have a rooted Nook Color, running Android, so it is very much like the Fire. The Fire has goodies that no one, sorry iPad, can top. With the Fire you get a month free of Amazon Prime which gives you the Kindle Lending Library. Every month for free you can download a book and take as long as you’d like to read it. Think of it like Netflix. Think of it as your local library but you don’t have to go there and you don’t get chastised for returning the thing late. With Amazon Prime, you also get streaming video and Amazon offers a ton of movies and TV shows. You also get free 2 day shipping on anything from Amazon.
If I didn’t have the Nook, I would get a Fire. And reading on one of these instead of a paper book is great. I don’t understand about the book smell people complain that’s missing. There are probably close to 100 books on my Nook and it takes up very little space, I don’t care about the missing book smell.
This is the future. Provided after we still have electricity if the nitwit is reelected.
That would be expected, given the price differential and difference in market sector focus.
Dead tree books are my favorite, but I won’t buy a higher percentage of ebooks until the price drops. I’ll wait for the margins to thin out a bit :-)
That is indeed a good question, or can it transfer to a larger LCD monitor screen. Without heading back to Amazon I was also wondering how this holds up for long plane flights, like more than 10 hours. I know its limited but a person can just bring along a battery source. I have seen them.
You’ll likely be waiting quite a while. Amazon has stated they purposely left out the 3G/4G capability so customers didn’t have to add yet another data plan to their expenses. Bandwidth usage analysis for the Kindles showed that not many people used their Kindles outside of a WiFi area, so that was another reason.
Kindle Fire review from EEV blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip9az2c3-F8&feature=feedu
Kindle Fire teardown from EEV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ6xxveRJSw&feature=feedu
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