Roundup of Early Kindle Fire Reviews

[MacRumors]

Amazon's first color tablet, the Kindle Fire, began shipping today following its September introduction. The Fire, the top-of-the-line Kindle tablet, has reportedly given some potential iPad purchasers second thoughts as the Fire is some $300 cheaper than the least-expensive iPad.

Image via Wired​

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- NYTimes

- "It is designed almost exclusively for consuming stuff, particularly material you buy from Amazon, like books, newspapers and video. It has no camera, microphone, GPS function, Bluetooth or memory-card slot. There is a serviceable e-mail program, but no built-in calendar or note pad."

- "You feel that $200 price tag with every swipe of your finger. Animations are sluggish and jerky -- even the page turns that you'd think would be the pride of the Kindle team. Taps sometimes don't register. There are no progress or "wait" indicators, so you frequently don't know if the machine has even registered your touch commands. The momentum of the animations hasn't been calculated right, so the whole thing feels ornery."

- "The Fire deserves to be a disruptive, gigantic force -- it's a cross between a Kindle and an iPad, a more compact Internet and video viewer at a great price. But at the moment, it needs a lot more polish; if you're used to an iPad or "real" Android tablet, its software gremlins will drive you nuts."

- Wired

- "Pixel for pixel, the tablet's 1024×600 display actually delivers quite nice image quality. Swaddled in ultra-protective Gorilla Glass, the display uses in-plane switching (IPS) technology to deliver a bright, appropriately saturated screen image with solid off-axis viewing (meaning you can still see what's on screen when looking at the display from an exaggerated angle)."

- "As far as performance, all the apps I tested worked fine on Amazon's hardware -- as well they should have, because not only have they been pre-approved by Amazon, they were also designed for Android smartphones, which (theoretically) boast less processing power."

- "Despite all claims from Amazon that its Silk browser technology would bring sublime web-surfing performance to the Fire's desktop, I found the tablet's overall web experience to be quite ratty."

- Mashable

- "This is a product I wanted to love. The Kindle Fire's unveiling was so impressive. Jeff Bezos hitting all the right notes in true Jobsian fashion, telling the tale of a product vision so clear it made my eyes tear up. Instead, now I'm discovering it's a somewhat flawed gadget -- a product that literally does not always know which way is up."

- "This interface is not always optimized for 1024×600 resolution on a 7-inch screen. While the bookshelf and items on it are large, some of the controls are tiny."

- "It is the closest tablet I've seen yet to an Apple iPad: a consistent, well-thought out marriage of hardware and services that offer an almost frictionless environment for app purchase and content consumption. This is why the iPad has been so successful and why I think the Kindle Fire, despite its imperfections, is a winner, too."

- The Verge

- "It's been speculated on (and more recently stated as fact by Barnes & Noble) that Amazon used the [BlackBerry] 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 -- it's just that it's incredibly unoriginal."

- "Unlike the PlayBook, iPad, or pretty much any other tablet on the market, the Fire has no hardware volume controls, meaning that you have to go through a series of taps (especially if the device is sleeping) to just change the volume. The Fire also has no "home" button -- simply a small, hard-to-find nub along the bottom used for sleeping and waking the device, and powering up and down."

- "I found magazine reading to be a little cramped on the small display, and zooming and panning around lacks a smoothness that would make the experience more enjoyable."

- Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times

- "Kindle Fire is explicitly a device for enjoying books, periodicals, music, video, and games. But it can also handle the sort of computer-ish tasks that are often necessary distractions when you spend an hour or two in a coffeeshop reading a book. Things like checking email, looking something up on the Web, or telling your Twitter and Facebook friends that this dude who just walked into the coffeeshop has the most awesome mane of heavy metal hair spotted in the wild since Poison concluded their '86-'87 "Look What The Cat Dragged In" tour."

- "The reader app lacks the lovely little flourishes found in an iPad book reader. Page turns are mechanical, with little thought to transitions or interactions. When you're reading content that benefits from a little manual panning and zooming (like the contents of a webpage, a PDF, or a hard-formatted digital magazine), the experience is very Android-ish. Effective, yes, but not anything like the instantaneous liquid feedback you get from an iPad."

- "Steve Jobs, in the middle of lambasting 7-inch tablets as an utter disaster, insisted that they could only work if the box included enough sandpaper to grind down the user's fingertips to half their normal size. Well, that's just rubbish. All around, the Fire is as good a reader as the iPad. The two different screen sizes are just better in different scenarios."

The Kindle Fire is $199, available now from Amazon.

Article Link: Roundup of Early Kindle Fire Reviews

 

[Whaditis]

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Predictable

 

[gkarris]

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well what a surprise

 

[*LTD*]

Once again, we get the "it's good, but it's no iPad" attitude.

Which in the tablet market, usually means the beginning of the end.

 

[campingsk8er]

As much as I love the iPad and Apple, I kinda actually wanted this product to work for Amazon. They are a great company and [normally] make good products. I'm kinda disappointed this was a flop.

 

[D4F]

I wasn't aware that kindle is runnin on iOS5...

----------

As much as I love the iPad and Apple, I kinda actually wanted this product to work for Amazon. They are a great company and [normally] make good products. I'm kinda disappointed this was a flop.

Where does it say it's a flop?
You got sales numbers?
Customer satisfaction reports?

 

[scbn]

For those who got used to the ease of use of iOS products, the kindle fire would be a big disappointment. There is a reason why it's so cheap.

On this other hand, I think it's a mistake if Apple continues to ignore the 7 inch markets; there needs to be something between an iPad and ipod touch.

 

[RodThePlod]

As much as I love the iPad and Apple, I kinda actually wanted this product to work for Amazon. They are a great company and [normally] make good products. I'm kinda disappointed this was a flop.

Well - it's not a flop yet. But we know what you mean. I guess it's only a 1.0 product - so I'm sure Amazon are aware of these flaws and will look to address them soon enough.

Having said that, though, they better get their skates on - especially if Apple will be revealing the 3rd generation iPad in the next few months...

RTP.

 

[Tiger8]

To each his own

I still rock a Kindle 3 and I think it's a great product. Hey, I hope this one works. Not everyone has $500+ to spend on a tablet and people deserve a semi-decent machine (rather than the hacks at this pricepoint).

(Still holding out for iPad 3 )

 

[MRU]

It will be more interesting to see how the new Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire compare rather than the iPad to the Kindle Fire.

 

[nagromme]

Now imagine an Apple product with those same problems, and see if reviewers would be even that gentle!

I still like the Kindle platform as a whole, though, and I wish I had a reason to get one of the super-light e-ink versions: I don’t like how dark the white e-ink “paper” is at present, but ther’e something cool about them all the same! (Instead, I’m reading a Kindle book on my iPad right now Thanks, Amazon!)

Cheap dedicated e-readers will have a market for a nice long time; same with digital cameras, music players, and other low-cost special-use gizmos. They don’t have to be an iPad: they do a job.

 

[nick219]

basically it sucks

 

[darbus69]

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just read my first full length book on my iPad and was going to consider a kindle or fire, but not with these reviews-take the time to save the extra $200 and get an iPad...(read the book Born to Run by Chris Mcdougall, it SHOULD change your life!)

 

[Laird Knox]

Once again, we get the "it's good, but it's no iPad" attitude.

Which in the tablet market, usually means the beginning of the end.

"Usually," but in this case I expect the Fire will be sticking around. As long as Amazon doesn't panic and pull an HP I expect the Fire will grow to be a compelling platform.

Personally I would go with an e-ink Kindle for half the price.

 

[Jessica Lares]

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If it wasn't mostly negative, I don't think MR would have posted these reviews. Go figure.

 

[kainjow]

A positive review from MSNBC:

Kindle Fire review: Yes, it's that good

So while we're on the subject of iPad, let's have the talk. No, the Kindle Fire is not anywhere close to being the precision machine that the iPad 2 is. There are no cameras and no microphone. The Fire's screen is half the size of the iPad's, and the Fire's battery life isn't as good, yet the Fire is still a hair thicker. The Fire interface, while seductively simple, lacks the nuances — the futuristic animations and fades — that keep Apple on top.

But for Apple, this still spells trouble. The Kindle Fire can handle about 80 percent of what I want to do on an iPad, for 40 percent of the price. And much of what's missing won't be missing for long. Even if you can justify buying one iPad, you may look to the Fire as a second device in your high-tech home. And if you can't justify an iPad this holiday season, you might consider Amazon's alternative.

 

[Jessica Lares]

This means trouble for Netflix too, if you think about it. My Amazon Prime is only $39 a year since I'm a student and have 6-months free. It's $79 for everyone else. That means you only pay like $7 a month. Netflix just bumped up their prices.

 

[applesith]

They are so kind to its many shortcomings. No one was really expecting much. After all, you get what you pay for. And the $200 is a loss for Amazon.

 

[FuNGi]

A positive review from MSNBC:

Kindle Fire review: Yes, it's that good

"The Kindle Fire can handle about 80 percent of what I want to do on an iPad, for 40 percent of the price. And much of what's missing won't be missing for long."

- You just have a 50% worse user experience to contend with ... No thanks. I'd rather read a book on my kindle iphone app.

 

[kevinkt]

As much as I love the iPad and Apple, I kinda actually wanted this product to work for Amazon. They are a great company and [normally] make good products. I'm kinda disappointed this was a flop.

So what if they are a good company?? They don't deserve ur empathy at this moment lol

 

[TheOrioles33]

So the moral of the story kids? You get what you pay for.

 

[Yvan256]

I'm still more interested in those e-ink readers, just so I can carry PDFs of datasheets around.

 

[Kaibelf]

It will be more interesting to see how the new Nook Tablet and the Kindle Fire compare rather than the iPad to the Kindle Fire.

THANK YOU. Why do people keep comparing this vastly different device to the iPad when there are plenty of other tablets that match the size, functionality, and overall offering a million times more. What's next? "That's a cute baby you had, but it's not Jesus."

 

[GenesisJLS]

People want the best quality product, not a mediocre imitator.

 

[zipster]

The Amazon Kindle Fire is sure to be popular this holiday season among parents who always buy the wrong thing.