Review: Kindle Fire by Amazon
We at The Android Library have purchased Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet in order to review this device and evaluate its services as it has proved to be highly popular since its announcement. Because of its low price, below $200, this tablet has paved the way for other tablet manufacturers to adjust the prices and options available on their products and the Kindle Fire's possible popularity and success means that this technology will open up to users who could not previously afford it. To find out more about this tablet or to purchase it, visit Amazon's Kindle Fire website.
This tablet is very limited in some ways because of the low price, making it not very useful for specialized users and people who are really into the technology. But, it is also targeted towards certain demographics like older people and average users who do not need specialized features but do want a simple tablet that can browse the internet, run games and apps, and be used to watch video, listen to music, and read books. Below is a detailed review of the Kindle Fire, to get a glance at a quick and general review check out the Kindle Fire First Impressions review. Also remember to check out the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review for comparison.
General Information
| Rating: |  (3 of 4) |
| Price: | $199 |
| Processor: | TI OMAP 4 Dual Core 1GHz |
| Screen Size: | 7 inches |
| Sound: | Top Mounted Stereo Speakers and 3.5mm Stereo Audio Jack |
| Cameras: | None |
| Battery: | Up to 8 hours |
| Android OS: | Gingerbread 2.3 (Customized by Amazon) |
| Features: | Wireless Internet, 8GB Storage, Silk Browser |
| Data Plan: | Wi-Fi Only |
| Dimensions: | Height - 7.5 inches, Width - 4.7 inches Depth - 0.45 inches, Weight - 14.6 ounces |
List of Pros and Cons
| Pros: | Cons: |
| heavy, sturdy, bright screen, easy to hold, strong screen, looks nice and has clean lines, great price, has good tied up benefits with Amazon's services, clear video playback, decent battery life, the user interface is very unique to this device, fast recharge time | slow response on screen occasionally, volume controls not great, no cameras, some features not easy to navigate or find, some icons (like the settings one) are too small, lack of personal customization options, no straightforward way to gain access to resources (like Google's Android Market) outside of Amazon's services, Silk browser has some glitches, power button on the bottom of the device gets pressed accidentally easily, no obvious accessibility options for people with disabilities |
How It Feels
For being smaller in size and having a smaller price tag, the Kindle Fire is surprisingly sturdy and heavy feeling. The outer case of the body is made of a tough and resilient material and the glass of the screen seems very strong. It is very easy to hold and has a bright and clear screen.
Screen
The 7 inch screen is pretty nice. It is clear and bright and you can manually adjust the brightness in the settings. The screen also seems very sturdy and strong. One negative point is that there is no auto-adjust feature for the brightness settings that many other tablets and smartphones have. The screen can also be inconsistent with responsiveness on occasion. Sometimes it will be too touchy and other times it will be too slow. You cannot control the auto-rotate, but it is fairly quick to respond to the way you hold the device. Within the settings you can also change the screen timeout time, ranging from 30 seconds to never.
Speed
The Kindle Fire tablet is quite fast when it comes to loading applications and other things, like videos. It is quite responsive when touching an icon and getting it to open, too. Although, sometimes, the touch responsiveness can be inconsistent. Downloading and uploading are pretty quick and easy. Overall, it is quite fast, but it would probably slow down significantly as more of the storage memory is used up.
Battery
On the device description on amazon.com it states that the battery should run for 8 hours straight when using the device for reading and 7.5 when using it for video playback. This is a little below the average when compared against similar devices. And, it's probably not 100% accurate because most users flip between watching video, using applications, reading, playing games, etc., which would drain the battery a little faster. However, the battery life does seem to be fairly close to what Amazon claims in their description.
When you run the device for a long time the battery does get a little warm, as is expected, but it does not feel like it is about to overheat. Recharging the battery is simple and it comes with a wall charger in the package. The recharge time was fairly quick and it took under two hours to recharge more than half of the battery. It would probably average out at about four or four and a half hours for a full recharge. When the device is charging the power button is red and when it is fully charged the button turns green.
Sound
The sound quality is average at best. The volume control is simple to adjust, but the highest level is somewhat inconsistent between different applications and uses. For example, when you adjust the volume to the highest level on the main screen it is still fairly quiet, but on some games or other applications that same highest level is extremely loud. This means that people who have issues with hearing might have some difficulty adjusting the volume to fit their needs and could possibly have trouble hearing notifications on this device.
There are two built-in speakers on the top of this device as well as an audio jack located at the bottom near the power button. The audio jack can be used for headphones, which could help solve some problems with the sound level for some people. There does not seem to be an accessibility mode on this device which is unlike most Android devices that have accessibility features built into them. This means it could be incredibly difficult to adjust the device for users who are visually or hearing impaired. There is no built-in microphone so there is no way to record audio or use voice commands. There are also no external buttons for sound control.
Cameras
The Kindle Fire does not have any cameras built into the device. This is partially responsible for the low price tag of the product. So, while it is a little disappointing that it lacks at least a single camera, you also have to remember the trade-off in the price.
Keyboard
The keyboard that is on the device is Amazon's Kindle keyboard. It is an okay keyboard that is very simple and straightforward. It has a numbers option along with some special characters and it can be set so that it makes tapping noises when you press the "keys". It can be a little over-sensitive and will add letters to whatever you are typing without you even touching the letter. There were many occasions where I just had my finger hover over a letter and it would type the letter without me actually touching the screen. There is a possibility that you could find other keyboard options within the Amazon App Store, however, the selection is currently quite limited. Overall, the keyboard is just okay and can occasionally be over-sensitive.
Voice Recognition
There is no built-in microphone on the Kindle Fire so there is also no voice recognition feature. This is another trade-off that is partially responsible for the low overall price of the device.
Storage/Organization
The Kindle Fire comes with 8 GB of storage capabilities, with only about 6.5 GB of that actually available for use. This is a reasonable amount of storage, considering Amazon lets device owners store almost everything Amazon-related (movies, music, books, applications, etc.) in the Amazon Cloud for free. This is very convenient if you use Amazon's services on a regular basis, but if you wanted to load your device up with other music or documents, then there is not a lot of storage space to work with.
If you wanted to directly load things onto your Kindle Fire from your computer, you will have to buy a separate Mini USB data cable to do so, since it is not included with the device. This could cost up to $20 or $30 more depending on where you buy the cable and the level of quality. If you have a smartphone or another Android device it is very likely that it came with one of these cables that plugs into a charger. The mini USB cable that come with my Samsung smartphone worked with the Kindle Fire.
The organization of files within the Kindle Fire is pretty simple and self-explanatory as the overall user interface is very user friendly. There are orderly categories on the main screen that include Newsstand, Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps, and Web. There is also a "carousel" on the main screen that holds the most recently and often used items that one can scroll through. You can also pin your favorite applications and links to the main screen on what look like shelves that can be browsed.
Amazon App Store
One positive, but equally negative point, is that Amazon has decided to let Kindle Fire users only have access to the Amazon App Store. This is a good thing because the Amazon App Store is monitored much more closely and has a few more useful features (like the ability to test an application before buying it) than the Android Market offers. This is also a bad thing because it limits choice and means that many users might not be able to get some of the important applications that they could find in the Android Market.
One thing about the Amazon App Store that bothered me was that the permissions that an application asks for were not made as obvious when downloading an application as it is when using the Android Market. When you download an app from the Android Market a list of permissions pops up that forces you to look at what the applications wants to access on your device before you accept the download. In the Amazon App Store, those permissions were still listed but sometimes you would have to scroll down to find them all and there was nothing specific that popped up and confronted you about what access you would let the application have on your device.
Amazon has completely blocked access to the Android Market from the tablet, and I find that to be a little limiting for me personally, but for other users it could be fine. There are ways to get around this block, but they involve messing around with the device and that could cause some serious issues with the device if you do not know what you are doing. Unfortunately, I think that Amazon's blocking of the Android Market will force more users than might normally take the risk to hack their device in order to gain access to the Android Market because it has more choice than the Amazon App Store. This will mean more broken devices and potential security loopholes that users will have to deal with.
Silk Browser
The "Silk Browser" that Amazon has made the standard for the Kindle Fire is supposed to be faster and better than the typical browser for a variety of nerdy reasons. I have used it to try to determine if it is special in any way, not knowing much about the mechanics behind why it is special, and I have concluded that I see no noticeable difference between the Silk browser and any other typical browser. In fact, it seems just as slow and glitchy sometimes as the basic Android browser. For me, it runs fine but does not stand out as extraordinary in any way.
Clipboard
The copy & paste functions on this device are fairly simple and a little limited in some cases. You can easily highlight text and expand the highlighted text with relative ease. There is a little magnifying glass highlighting tool that shows up as you select text and this is helpful to make sure you've selected what you intended to select. Once you've selected text in documents or books your only options are to search the text or look it up in Wikipedia or Google. When selecting text within the browser there are many more options like saving, copying, pasting, sharing, bookmarking, opening links, etc.
Built-In Apps
The Kindle Fire came with several pre-loaded applications that were available on the device or on the cloud ready to download. The built-in apps on the device included Gallery, Quickoffice, Amazon Shop, IMDb, Pulse, Contacts, Email, Audible, Facebook, and Help & Feedback. The applications ready for download from the Cloud are Comics, ESPN ScoreCenter, Pandora, The Weather Channel, and Words with Friends. This tablet also came with some pre-loaded content such as a dictionary, the Kindle Fire User's Guide, and web links to Amazon, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, MyHabit, Wikipedia, Twitter, Craigslist, LinkedIn, ESPN, and IMDb.
