First Impressions Amazon Kindle Fire
I am a baby boomer who loves watching the changes in technology but hates how hard it is to use without spending hours just to do the basics , This first impression of the Amazon Kindle Fire is for those in similar age group or for those thinking of buying parents / Grand Parents an easy to use tablet.
If you or the person it's for is an Amazon user, this is a great product and it comes with free Amazon Prime membership for 1 month, but I was thinking of getting Prime Membership anyway. It costs $79.00 per year and saves on shipping costs when buying from Amazon. Plus it has free book rental library, free movies and TV programmes streaming (like Netflix) but not as much available. The apps and games are not anywhere near as comprehensive as Google's Android Market but the Amazon App Store does offer better policing of apps.
I do like the fact that you can bookmark where you are in a book and pick up from there, also the same with movies and TV shows where you can resume where you left off. My first impression is it is more like an Apple iPad, with a semi closed ecosystem, this can have advantages and disadvantages. I will no doubt subscribe to a daily newspaper at some stage, but I'm worried that they will still push heavy ads at the same time as me paying for a subscription so we will see.
My daughter who is in her 20's will do a full scale review sometime next week similar to her review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab which will cover much greater detail and may well be very different from this.
General Information
| Rating: |  (3.5 of 4) |
| Price: | $199.00 |
| Processor: | Don't Know - Don't Care |
| Screen Size: | 7 inches x 4 inches |
| Sound: | Internal Stereo Speakers and Headphone Jack |
| Cameras: | None |
| Battery: | Up to 8 hours (depends on usage) |
| Android OS: | Android version not relevant?? |
| Storage: | 8 GB |
| Features: | Wireless Internet, Integrated with Amazon |
| Data Plan: | WI-FI only |
| Sensors: | Don't Know - Don't Care |
| Dimensions: | 7.5" x 4.7" x 0.45" weight 14.6 ounces |
List of Pros and Cons
| Pros: | Cons: |
| cheap, easy to use, wide range of content available much of it free with Amazon Prime plan, set up was idiot proof even for me, it picked up my wi-fi quickly and I just had to put my password in, also picked up my Amazon info including user name and password, super easy to use and unlike so many gadgets you can be up and running using the gadget in a few hours | touch screen slow to respond and sluggish when turning to different mode (landscape), although easier to use still has some bugs for ease of use that need to be ironed out, the how-to guide has no links to the exact location and an example is I went round and round following purchase of App on my Amazon account on PC before I could work out how to get it to load and run on the tablet |
How It Feels
The tablet seems to be clean and screen is crisp, not to heavy and simple to play with. Once you have bought or loaded a few bits they appear on the home screen. For example, I bought a cheap platform game Marv Minor ver 2 ($1.99), A book to read "Richard Castle Heat Wave" and a movie to watch "Rise and Fall of Enron" both part of my Prime membership. Surfing the web seems okay, but I'm not sure about all the fuss with a special browser, Silk, just seems the same as the rest.
Screen
The screen is pretty crisp and once you have doubled the font size easy to read a book.
Speed
Display is quick and sharp but I found touch screen response was slow (My wife got it to work fine though so could just be heavy handed approach).
Battery
Battery life seems fine, I generally leave it on charge when not in use so not its not a true test. My daughter will check this plus many other of the functions etc. next week when she does a full review.
Sound
Sound quality is mediocre, not fantastic but definitely usable.
Cameras
There are no cameras included, which I do think is a pain, it would be nice to have a camera.
Keyboard
Keyboard is fine. I am one of those who prefers a full size keyboard but it works and does the job.
Voice Recognition
Did not try and not interested.
Storage/Organization
Storage is only 8 GB which by today's standards is pretty small, but the Amazon Cloud should take care of extra storage if it is needed, we will see.
