iPad Mini or Kindle Fire HD, for mom?

[Rob9874]

Mom's 60th birthday is next month, and I've been telling her I'd like to get her an iPad mini, when I thought they would be $249-$299. But at $329 ($360 after tax) is it worth almost twice as much as the new Kindle Fire HD for $199, tax free?

She has an iPhone, and is competent with iOS, so I think she'd really enjoy the iPad mini. I just need some help deciding if it's worth the money over the Fire HD, for someone who's never used a tablet before. She may be very happy with the Fire HD, and save me some money.

However, I like the fact that the iPad mini comes with the iOS features she's used to, like the mail app, iMessage, Facetime, etc.

 

[deaglecat]

Why not ask her if she would prefer an Ipod Mini or a KF HD and $130 of books.

The same price... and genuinely not an easy decision....

If she is a big reader then the KF HD is a good buy but if she wants to run IOS apps then it is a fail.

 

[Mhotep]

Get the mini. Easy to set up and use.

 

[nfl46]

If money is not a big deal, just get the iPad Mini. At least you guys can FaceTime and iMessage each other. Think about stuff like that. That could be important for some families.

 

[ucfgrad93]

How technically adept is your mom? If she struggles with new technology, then the iPad mini sounds like it would be the best. Do you have a sibling that could share the cost or perhaps your father might.

 

[CrAkD]

Get the ipad. my aunt wanted a fire but im going to get her the mini. she can download the kindle app to read all her kindle books but will also be able to imessage and facetime as well. not to mention she has a mac mini so its just more convenient.

 

[Mr Astonishing]

I know it seems the Kindle Fire HD would be a better buy for the price. One thing you have to consider is she's already capable of using iOS, although Android is similar she might get frustrated with wanting to get apps on her iPad she has on her phone and not being able to find them. The Kindle does have better resolution, but the iPad Mini has a slightly larger screen, rear camera, and more dedicated apps. Both are great tablets, but the fact that she already has an iPhone, and you're not hurting for money pay the premium.

 

[Rob9874]

How technically adept is your mom? If she struggles with new technology, then the iPad mini sounds like it would be the best. Do you have a sibling that could share the cost or perhaps your father might.

Yeah, that's the issue. My brother is splitting it with me, and he likes the idea of $100 ea than $180 ea. Maybe I'll eat the difference. I make twice his salary.

OK, I'm convinced, iPad mini it is. Thanks guys!

 

[Ladybug]

I'm a Mom, who owns an iPad 3 and a Kindle Fire...not the HD KF. I'm not quite as old as your Mom but near enough and I wear glasses for reading. My son bought my KF for Christmas last year so I can't return it, it was a gift.

Anyway, my advice is to get the Mini. The problem I have with my KF is because even though I can increase font size while I'm on the web, it's not consistent. Either things are too small or they end up overblown and I have to constantly change the size of the fonts depending on the websites I'm on. For reading book I love it, but if I do anything online I just end up with eye strain and a headache.

If your Mom is going to be online it will be totally worth the extra money. If she will only be playing games and reading books, then the KF HD will likely be enough. If eyesight is an issue, she will love the Mini and appreciate not having to tinker with fonts and scaling, and the setting is kind of buried in the Settings menu on the Fire.... Sadly my Fire only gets used for books. Anyway that's just my opinion. Best wishes to you whatever you decide.

 

[marty1980]

Stay away from Kindle Fire!!!

Okay so I have some reasoning for this. I purchased 2 Kindle Fires in 2011. They received one (maybe two) software updates within the year. Then Amazon released the new Fire HD and continues to sell a version of the model that I have. I guess they call it the 2012 Kindle Fire.

The 2012 Kindle Fire has the same hardware specs and is essentially the same machine as the 2011 Kindle Fire. My issue comes down to this...

The 2012 Kindle Fire has been updated to the new operating system. However my 2011 Kindle Fires are no longer supported.

WTF? Same hardware, still being sold, but if you bought it a year ago you no longer matter to Amazon.

The concept behind the Fire OS is good. It tries to do what iOS does to make it simple to find content you want and content you already own. For this reason it seems ideal for the older generations. However, I cannot recommend it due to lack of support.

Plus I don't like that the OS has been modified so heavily from stock Android that it is way behind Android 4.1 and the modifications have a big impact on the performance of the device compared to stock Android.

I would say the decision should be between Google's Tablet (Nexus 7 or the possible successor likely to be announced in a few days) or the iPad Mini. Since your mom has and understands iOS it may be the best choice. Plus iCloud is great for people of older generations and being able to take apps between iPad and iPhone is a big plus (without having to pay twice).

Good luck and happy B-day to your mom!

 

[darngooddesign]

Refurbished ipad 3

 

[nixiemaiden]

I have an iPad 2 and a Kindle Fire HD and based on that...I say go with with iPad mini. The Kindle Fire HD is decent for the price but the software is really buggy.

Some of the apps that I have tried to install just vanish because they aren't compatible with kindle fire even though they show in the app store. It doesn't show up anywhere no error or anything...just acts like you never tried to install it.

The carousel they have is horrible. I have a bunch of amazon stuff in the cloud and it keeps downloading into my carousel even though I don't ever want to see it. Why do I want to see a kindle book I read over a year ago? I e-mailed amazon about it and they said they were aware of the issue and would release a fix but this hasn't happened yet.

The software is noticeably laggy in comparison to iPad 2. Browsing the web is incredibly choppy...I would say even more so than iPad 1...

I have to hard reboot my kindle at least once a week because I go to turn it on and the screen doesn't come up. I can see the back light but nothing ever shows up on the screen.

The battery drains a lot faster. If I leave my iPad at 50% for 3 days in standby...when I go to pick it up, it is at maybe 45%. The kindle fire will be just about dead.

Even with all of these problems, I think that the kindle fire is well worth the $200...however I know I personally would have been happier spending more money for the same sort of experience and have it be more stable.

I do like my Kindle for the size but I do wish I had waited for the iPad mini. There were just too many threads around here saying there was no way apple would do it. If I remember right one guy even offered to pay up if they released it?? Time to go find that thread! haha.