What should I get? iPad or Fire

[iStudentUK]

iPad. You'll end up returning the Fire.

You should listen to *LTD*, he is known for his impartiality around here.

 

[*LTD*]

You should listen to *LTD*, he is known for his impartiality around here.

What is there to be impartial about? The current state of tablets is well known.

Those who are already spoiled by an iPad usually do not trade down to anything else. They await the next iPad. And those that are prospective tablet customers have little to no reason to get a tablet other than the iPad unless they are looking to experience a very specific Android feature, because objectively and on the merits, Android tablets today aren't even in the same league as the iPad.

 

[jsh1120]

I just read today's Wired review of the Kindle Fire.
...Saddest was the fact that its web-bowsing experience (despite the much ballyhooed Silk) sucked. And that it wasn't very good as an e-reader of either books or magazines.

If the Wired reviewer is correct about Silk, that is a major problem for Amazon. Interestingly, though, no other reviewer (e.g. Engadget, Gizmodo, etc.) had the same issue.

As the Gizmodo review says,

"Silk? It works just as well as Amazon said—pages rendered fine and rapidly, thanks to the cloud-crunching, and can be bookmarked, emailed (via Amazon's capable little native client), Facebook shared—and yes, tabbed. Silk is as real a browser as mobile Safari, and ultra legible thanks to that book-worthy display. Pinch it! Zoom it! It's great. The best part is it'll only become faster as more beings start caching their online journeys for the rest of us. Thanks, fellow Kindle Fire owners! We're in it together!..."

http://gizmodo.com/5858779/kindle-fire-review-the-ipad-finally-has-serious-competition

Bottom line? Avoid cherry picking a complaint from a single review that isn't echoed by anyone else.

As for "books and magazines," the "problem" for magazines is that they don't fit as well on a 7" screen as on the iPad's 9"+ screen. Big surprise. But many customers will be happy to trade that "problem" for the greater portability and lighter weight (30% less) of the Fire. And that's before content providers reformat their content for millions of Amazon devices, just as they did for the iPad.

As for books, the knock in that case is the absence of e-ink. And while that may be a problem for some who want the same experience on the Fire that they get on the Kindle, it's not like they can get e-ink on the iPad or any other tablet.

 

[Sasha-1]

I've already had an iPad 2 before and i absolutely loved it. I sold it to get money for macbook air and now I'll be selling my windows laptop so I'll have a little money for another toy.

so which decision to make. My time with the iPad was marvelous and I have nothing to complain of.

the fire on the other hand is dirt cheap at 199. my tablet uses will also be 98% web surfing or reading. 1% playing games. 1% writing a quick email or a document.

what do you guys think?

You want web surfing, then the larger display of the iPad, plus the excellent on screen keyboard, in case you need it to post on your fovorite forum, will be good to have. Plus, I think you might find you like iMessage to chat with friends. Why not take it to school or work and use the iCloud sync based notepad as well. Plus the easy sync with all you other apple media. Just seems like he better choice to me.

 

[rhinosrcool]

Look, everyone knows it pales to an iPad. However, it is priced low and is more portable than the iPad. Also, the 7" size is much easier to hold for prolonged reading. Once it gets rooted, it will be more useful. So, it's a very viable alternative to an expensive iPad.

 

[Sangdushi]

what are the current rumors on ipad 3 release date? q1 of 2012? March-ish? maybe I'll just wait for that. the awesomeness of the ipad has spoiled me, was really hoping for a homerun from Amazon since I love the company so much but they weren't able to pull it off. I guess if Amazon couldn't do it, no one can.

 

[Retrostarscream]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

It seems your aware of the fire's capabilities & limitations.

If your in the market for a cheap alternative to the iPad that is rough around the edges, geared for consumption rather than creation, & has no little to no association to Apple's own closed garden ecosystem, then give it go.

You could always return it if it doesn't meet your demands.

I'm sorry, didn't realize you made up your mind already.

 

[Wreckem]

If the Wired reviewer is correct about Silk, that is a major problem for Amazon. Interestingly, though, no other reviewer (e.g. Engadget, Gizmodo, etc.) had the same issue.

As the Gizmodo review says,

"Silk? It works just as well as Amazon said—pages rendered fine and rapidly, thanks to the cloud-crunching, and can be bookmarked, emailed (via Amazon's capable little native client), Facebook shared—and yes, tabbed. Silk is as real a browser as mobile Safari, and ultra legible thanks to that book-worthy display. Pinch it! Zoom it! It's great. The best part is it'll only become faster as more beings start caching their online journeys for the rest of us. Thanks, fellow Kindle Fire owners! We're in it together!..."

http://gizmodo.com/5858779/kindle-fire-review-the-ipad-finally-has-serious-competition

Bottom line? Avoid cherry picking a complaint from a single review that isn't echoed by anyone else.

As for "books and magazines," the "problem" for magazines is that they don't fit as well on a 7" screen as on the iPad's 9"+ screen. Big surprise. But many customers will be happy to trade that "problem" for the greater portability and lighter weight (30% less) of the Fire. And that's before content providers reformat their content for millions of Amazon devices, just as they did for the iPad.

As for books, the knock in that case is the absence of e-ink. And while that may be a problem for some who want the same experience on the Fire that they get on the Kindle, it's not like they can get e-ink on the iPad or any other tablet.

You are cherry picking yourself.

Engadget.

However, if we move past pure rendering speed, interacting with pages definitely seemed occasionally sluggish. Pinch-zooming was a bit jumpy and scrolling somewhat laggy. It's not a bad performer, but Silk doesn't quite live up to its smooth name.

Mashable

The tab-based Silk browser was, on occasion, as fast as promised. Some pages zip in, but other times Silk would stall out and refuse to load a page.

The Verge

Additionally, much like the standard Gingerbread browser, the Fire suffers from laggy scrolling and imprecise, clunky pinch-to-zoom behavior. Next to the iOS browser or Honeycomb tablets, it just seems less capable. There are some bright spots, like the use of tabs, but overall I was underwhelmed with browser performance.

The only completely glowing review of Silk was Gizmodo. Everyone else mentioned its flaws.

 

[Mac.World]

You are cherry picking yourself.

Engadget.

However, if we move past pure rendering speed, interacting with pages definitely seemed occasionally sluggish. Pinch-zooming was a bit jumpy and scrolling somewhat laggy. It's not a bad performer, but Silk doesn't quite live up to its smooth name.

Mashable

The tab-based Silk browser was, on occasion, as fast as promised. Some pages zip in, but other times Silk would stall out and refuse to load a page.

The Verge

Additionally, much like the standard Gingerbread browser, the Fire suffers from laggy scrolling and imprecise, clunky pinch-to-zoom behavior. Next to the iOS browser or Honeycomb tablets, it just seems less capable. There are some bright spots, like the use of tabs, but overall I was underwhelmed with browser performance.

The only completely glowing review of Silk was Gizmodo. Everyone else mentioned its flaws.

Don't worry about jsh1120. He loves to copy and paste that one single review from Gizmodo, cause it's the only one that sings the Fire's praises.

Let the people who buy the Fire speak their views. It's going to entertain me for days. To bad Amazon will never post sales figures or return rates. I'd love to know both.

 

[Yr Blues]

Buy the Kindle Fire and return it after 30 days. During this period you can use the free Prime trial.

I don't think Amazon Prime is as good as Netflix, though … but you can get Netflix on the Fire.

 

[secksthoi]

Really comes down to the whole idea of switching costs. Do you mind jumping into the Amazon ecosystem with Prime and their media selection? (I am a Prime member and I can't complain ). Or does being with Apple outweigh switching over to Amazon? I prefer and stick with Apple. Using calendar, notes, email, apps, and syncing to have it cross-talk with my Apple computer... well.. yeah...

 

[mjvcsv]

Where did you come up with this release info?I was under the impression the ipad will never drop in screen size.Ive actally been looking toward Android 7 inch tablets or even the new samsung 5 inch player because of apples stance on 7 inch tablets.

Didn't you know that when Apple says they will never do something means they will do it but way better than the current products. Usually. But they will have one and it will be called iPad Mini. Close to half the weight of current iPad with 1024 x 768 resolution.