When planning my review of the Kindle Fire, I knew I'd need two things: time, and a big list of music, movies, and books I wanted to dive into. I say that because I assumed going into the review that the Fire wasn't about to take the place of my laptop. The Android-powered, 7-inch device didn't exactly strike me as a productivity machine (at least when you look at the specs), and knowing the selection of apps and services I would have access to, I planned on doing some serious consumption of content.
Make no mistake about it ¡ª the Fire is a proper tablet, with many (though not all) of the capabilities of something like an iPad. But the focus on this product is most certainly on lean-back experiences, and that's reflected in the price, too. But can a $200 mini-tablet take on Apple's behemoth? Will the Fire derail the plans of other Android tablet-makers? And does the release of this product fundamentally change Amazon's position in the market? I'll attempt to answers those questions ¡ª and more ¡ª in my review below, so read on! M2000 Touch Screen
Hardware / design
The design of the Kindle Fire is anything but inspired. It would be one thing if the device were simply a black rectangle with a high gloss screen (spoiler alert: it is). But what's more striking about the device is just how identical it looks in comparison to a product we've seen before. Namely, the BlackBerry PlayBook. I can't overstate how similar these two products seem. They are a similar size (their dimensions closely match), both feature a 1024 x 600, 7-inch display on the front and have a plastic, soft-touch casing on the sides and back, and both weigh 0.9 pounds.
It's been speculated on (and more recently stated as fact by Barnes & Noble) that Amazon used the PlayBook reference design as the basis for the design of the Fire, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. Don't get me wrong, it's not that the design is necessarily bad ¡ª it's just that it's incredibly unoriginal.
Still, the device feels solid and well made in your hands. It's got enough heft that it feels substantial, but it's not so heavy that you feel strain when holding it for extended periods. Unlike the 1.3 pound iPad 2, I never felt fatigue after reading a book or magazine on the Fire. T8388 Windows 6.
Battery life and performance
The battery on the Fire certainly lived up to Amazon's claim of 8 hours for "continuous reading." In fact, it might have slightly outperformed the ratings while I was using it. Much like my experience with the iPad and iPad 2, I never really found myself worrying about charging the device ¡ª it went for days at a time without needed to be plugged in. I think Amazon could do a better job with letting people know where their battery life is at; like most Android devices, you can only see battery percentage inside of a settings menu.
On the performance side, the Fire seems to be on par with much of its Android brethren, though it's possible that some of Amazon's customization is making the tablet feel a little more bogged down than what you'd get with a raw Android experience. In Linpack, the Fire scored a respectable average of about 34 MFLOPS. In the browser, the Fire returned a SunSpider result of 2541.9ms ¡ª not too shabby, but compared to the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus's score of 1634ms, it seems a little sluggish.
Wrap-up
If you're thinking about getting the Fire, you have to decide not just whether you want a tablet, but what kind of tablet you want. This isn't an iPad-killer. It has the potential to do lots of things, but there are many things I have yet to see it do, and I wonder if it will get there given the lean software support. It's my impression that Amazon believes that the Fire will be so popular that developers will choose to work on its platform rather than on Google's main trunk of Android, but that's just a theory right now. GR888 Phone
Still, there's no question that the Fire is a really terrific tablet for its price. The amount of content you have access to ¡ª and the ease of getting to that content ¡ª is notable to say the least. The device is decently designed, and the software ¡ª while lacking some polish ¡ª is still excellent compared to pretty much anything in this range (and that includes the Nook Color). It's a well thought out tablet that can only get better as the company refines the software. It's not perfect, but it's a great start, and at $200, that may be all Amazon needs this holiday shopping season.