The much hyped, very mysterious, ultra inexpensive Kindle Fire has arrived. I’ve had mine for a little over 48 hours.
I’ve been waiting awhile for something like this. A dead-simple-yet-capable, ultra portable, affordable computer that gives me full access to the web, multimedia, and various documents1. In many ways, the modern tablet is the new netbook, but unlike the netbook, it debuted at a fairly high price point. Lower priced tablets have been thus far extremely lackluster in both capability and access to established media outlets. The Fire addresses these challenges head-on with decent physical specs, a full-fledged (if slightly limited) app store, and tight integration with all content that Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and others have to offer.
And the Kindle Fire is simple2. It does multimedia consumption, and does it well. That is all. No Skype (no mic or camera), no expansion via accessories (no Bluetooth), no crazy customizable interface. No widgets, calendaring, or advanced contact management. Just your books, movies, the web, and some games…along with a beautiful screen, intuitive interface, and a good sense of aesthetics.
I bought my Kindle Fire primarily for interacting with PDF files and Kindle versions of textbooks. If you’ve ever used the Kindle app for Android, then you know what the experience is like on this device. It’s awesome. Adobe’s PDF reader is available free in the app store, so that takes care of basic PDF needs. I paid 99 cents for ezPDF Reader, a great app that gives me some advanced options like reflowable text and bookmarking. It’s everything I need to get my research done, without breaking out the laptop. This alone makes the Fire a worthwhile purchase for me.
Add in a decent Netflix implementation, solid web-browsing, and some of my favorite apps and games…and I’m a pretty happy camper, even if the user interface still needs a bit of work3.
If you need to be using your tablet as a laptop replacement, then the Fire is not for you. If you are primarily reading fiction, then the Fire is not for you (I’m not giving my up my e-Ink reader for that purpose). If you are all about the Skype and the Facetime, you’re thinking of the wrong tablet. If your wants and needs revolve primarily around entertainment, the web, and a more interactive experience with the text (e.g. fast searches, PDFs), you can’t go wrong with the Kindle Fire. With these things in mind, I haven’t been disappointed.
In fact, it’s just what I wanted.
- To be completely honest, most of us have these capabilities in our smartphones—yet what the Kindle Fire does, it generally does much better and more comfortably than a mobile handset. Video (for the the most part—the Netflix app needs some work) is smooth. The hi-res, seven inch screen gives me plenty of real estate for reading without the bulk of a larger surface. The web browser is snappy and can handle just about anything I throw at it, and again, the 7” screen makes a big difference there. ↩
- I really shouldn’t have to write this, but the Kindle Fire is not an iPad. It doesn’t try to be an iPad. It’s not meant to be an iPad. It is tablet, like an iPad, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. The iPad is much more powerful. It has many more capabilities (Bluetooth, cameras, a microphone). It’s significantly larger than the Fire. Quite frankly, the iPad has defied many critics initial opinions (mine included) and has become in many respects a legitimate content creation device and a communications powerhouse. That’s not the Kindle Fire is all about. It’s really, truly, in every way, media consumption machine. Keep that in mind. And remember they’re selling this thing for less than $200. ↩
- The UI does need refinement. Sometimes it takes two taps for an action to register, and currently there’s no way to delete certain media items from the main screen of the device…a bummer if you’re sharing and you’d like some privacy. I’m confident Amazon will take care of these things in future sofware updates. ↩
