Have had a KF in the household for about a month. As noted earlier in this thread, my guess was that it provided about 80% of the functionality of the iPad at about 40% of the price. That still seems about right. Not an iPad competitor but a great device for a family that wants another device for media consumption or for those who can't justify/afford a $500+ device.
Purchased our KF after the initial OS update so I can't comment on the performance of the device prior to that and a second maintenance update was automatically pushed to the device a few days ago.
Some observations:
() Reports of lags, crashing, jerkiness, etc. No evidence at all. Period. Of about 70 apps loaded on the KF, one game routinely force closes. Otherwise, virtually everything works as advertised.
() Slow performance with apps and internet browsing. Again, no evidence in our experience. I suspect that early reports stemmed from either not fully baked software, problematic wifi performance, or both. We have very fast broadband service at our home and I used a 4G/LTE mobile hotspot when away from home. Each functions more or less flawlessly though I have had a few cases where I had to try repeatedly to get a wifi signal from the hotspot modem.
The accelerated silk browser is quite fast. Comparable to the iPad. Not sure if this is an improvement from earlier reports as a result of software updates or better performance of the Amazon servers. In any case, the early complaints don't appear in our device.
() Video streaming. Excellent quality. Although the screen size is only about half that of the iPad, the 16x9 aspect ratio of the KF is better for movies than the iPad 4x3. (Though not for content creation.) In addition, the KF supports Flash. Not a big deal but it's a checkmark. Finally, the "free" movies/tv shows (part of the $79 per year Prime membership) is a plus. Netflix and Hulu+ also work well.
() App availability. No complaints. Most of the essential apps (at least for us) available for the iPad are also available from Amazon. Popular games, productivity apps, email management, schedules, etc. Side loading from the entire Android market is simple and if that's not enough, rooting is simple and straightforward, as well.
() Books. My wife was skeptical about the backlit KF screen compared to her e-ink Kindle. Turns out it's no problem as she can adjust the screen brightness to provide a very readable display. Big advantage when reading in bed at night (no bedside light required.) When and if the sun ever comes out in Seattle, she may want to use her old Kindle for reading outside.
() Audio. Amazon is, on the whole, less expensive than iTunes and has frequent specials. Built-in speaker is marginal at best, but with headphones or speakers, the KF is the equal of the iPad. No hardware volume control but the complaints are overblown. One touch and volume is immediately available in most scenarios. A bigger problem is placement of the audio out port at the bottom of the device. It should be at the top.
() UI. If you think the iPad's rigid grid is annoying, you'll hate the KF. It's even worse. Though complaints about the "Carousel" and "jumpiness" are nonsense (at least in the current software in our device), the domination of the main screen by recently opened apps and placement of "favorites" at the bottom of the screen is a PITA. At least one can banish apps from the Carousel. Would be better to put the favorites at the top of the screen and require proactive placement of apps in the Carousel (rather than requiring apps to be removed from the Carousel.) Otherwise, though, it works fine.
And on the bright side, sideloading another launcher is simple. Try doing that with a non-jailbroken iPad.
() Screen size. There is no getting around the fact that a 7" screen has about half the screen real estate of a 10" screen. You give up that real estate in return for the greater portability and easier one-handed use of the KF. (My wife and kid both love that.) The main constraint comes about in web browsing. And while the KF is not as easy to use for wandering about the web as the iPad, it beats the hell out of smartphones. And the greater pixel density of the KF (compared to the current iPad) makes up (not completely) for the iPad's larger screen.
It comes down to this. I find the iPad ok for undirected browsing. Better than the KF. But if I'm doing serious research on the web, I don't use either device. And if I'm looking for an answer to a specific question (e.g. looking up a wikipedia entry), the KF is perfectly adequate.
() Content creation. No contest. Though most of the apps one needs are available (e.g. Documents to Go, note taking apps of various sorts), the lack of bluetooth means no physical keyboard is available. With a 7" screen and a 16x9 aspect ratio, this is not a device for writing a novel. Email management works fine though (especially compared to a smartphone) and if you don't like the keyboard, there are lots of options available via sideloading from the Android marketplace.
() Storage space. Unless one wants to store a dozen movies on the KF, the six gigs of internal storage combined with unlimited cloud storage on Amazon's servers works fine. Obviously, this is a "cloud oriented" device. No provision for adding local storage, no usb, etc. But more than 70 apps and a dozen books on the device (with another fifty books in the cloud) makes hardly a dent in the available storage.
() Parental Control. This is an oddity. When the KF was introduced, there were lots of complaints about lack of parental controls. In fact, though, the KF is actually better than the iPad. A free app, "Kids Place" enables me to set up my 7 year old's apps on a separate screen with password control. She can play games (which are also available to others) but cannot surf the web (unless I enable it) or access the KF's settings. Likewise, I can prevent her from ordering a refrigerator on Amazon without a password.
All in all, the KF has been a big hit in this household. My wife loves the portability compared to the iPad. My daughter no longer feels deprived if I'm using the iPad. As already noted, the iPad has numerous advantages if you're trying to make it do the work of a low end laptop. But for a family that finds adding another iPad an "expense too far," it's a great complement to the iPad.
Better or worse than the Nook Tablet? I have no idea. The KF does what it claims without a hiccup. The KF is more dependent on wifi than the Nook as I understand it (i.e. less storage) but since the storage on the Nook is available only for B&N purchased content I'm skeptical about that advantage.
Better or worse than other lower end tablets? Again, I have no idea. I suspect that if you want to hack, something like the Toshiba Thrive or one of the smaller Samsung tablets might be a better choice. But I didn't want another device to manage and maintain. Like the iPad, the KF requires virtually no maintenance. In fact, considering the hassles of iTunes, the KF has some definite advantages.
