There was a time not too long ago when the convergence of several different gadgets into one hybrid device was something of a trend. It made perfect sense. Why not commingle several utilitarian devices into a Swiss Army knife-like product?
Amazon’s newest and most radical Kindle, the Fire, is such a device that combines what consumers like about e-readers, tablets and smartphones. Except that it doesn’t really excel at any of the things that make these devices great.
At $200, the Kindle Fire is perfect for streaming-media consumption, if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber. The key here is that if you live in Amazon’s ecosystem of services, then the Fire is the perfect complement that bookends the experience. But for anyone outside of Amazon’s digital playground, there isn’t much to drool over.
Amazon’s new “cloud-accelerated” Silk browser was meant to be a wow factor but it comes up short. It isn’t any faster than the iPad’s Safari browser.
It doesn’t even compete, honestly. (Both devices were tested on a level playing field.) Silk does seem to load the next logical page that you would navigate to a smidge quicker, though. One out of two ain’t bad!
Fire owners will be doing a lot more scrolling and pinching, too. The widescreen orientation adopted by every Android tablet suffers from lack of screen real estate.
At its core, the Fire is a Kindle, so it handles books decently. The lack of more physical buttons — there’s only one — may bother some folks. You can swipe or tap to turn pages, but returning to the home screen can be a bit tricky because you must tap the center of the screen to pull up the on-screen controls. Oftentimes, you inadvertently turn the page. If you’re looking for a device to just read eBooks, you have plenty of options. E-ink displays are better suited for marathon reading sessions, anyway.
Which brings up Amazon’s Newsstand. While it boasts a handful of notable publishers, the presentation isn’t what you’d expect it to be. Users can read magazines in a more traditional view, but its diminutive screen forces users to either zoom in or revert to the “Text View,” which displays text and some images and nothing else. That doesn’t really sound like much of a magazine reading experience to me but maybe I’m just weird (read: I’m not).
Where the Kindle Fire does shine is in its video streaming capabilities. Though the Fire’s screen resolution is less than 720p (1024x600) it handles high-definition content well enough for an enjoyable experience. With new content deals seemingly popping up every day, Amazon is quickly bringing the most wanted video content to its customers. Both Netflix and Hulu apps are in the works for the Fire to satiate the needs of cable cutters and augmenters. What is available to Prime subscribers isn’t bad but it all depends on personal preference. I enjoy Super Troopers but you might not. Keep in mind that the Fire only has 8GB of storage with 6GB allocated for downloaded content, so choose offline library wisely. (Amazon does offer Fire users unlimited cloud storage but unless you’re near a Wi-Fi hotspot, you’re out of luck.)
As an Android device, the Fire runs Android apps but in a more controlled environment that Amazon has renamed “Amazon’s Appstore for Android.” In other words, Amazon has vetted the load of crapware that lives in the regular Android Market to ensure that smaller number of quality apps in its Appstore works properly on the Fire.
Like most convergence devices before it, the Kindle Fire doesn’t do anything exceptionally well (except for buying things via Amazon) but the price is right at $200. Buyer beware. Perhaps the rumors of this model being a stopgap before the real Amazon tablet is released next year are true.
Amazon’s newest and most radical Kindle, the Fire, is such a device that combines what consumers like about e-readers, tablets and smartphones. Except that it doesn’t really excel at any of the things that make these devices great.
At $200, the Kindle Fire is perfect for streaming-media consumption, if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber. The key here is that if you live in Amazon’s ecosystem of services, then the Fire is the perfect complement that bookends the experience. But for anyone outside of Amazon’s digital playground, there isn’t much to drool over.
Amazon’s new “cloud-accelerated” Silk browser was meant to be a wow factor but it comes up short. It isn’t any faster than the iPad’s Safari browser.
It doesn’t even compete, honestly. (Both devices were tested on a level playing field.) Silk does seem to load the next logical page that you would navigate to a smidge quicker, though. One out of two ain’t bad!
Fire owners will be doing a lot more scrolling and pinching, too. The widescreen orientation adopted by every Android tablet suffers from lack of screen real estate.
At its core, the Fire is a Kindle, so it handles books decently. The lack of more physical buttons — there’s only one — may bother some folks. You can swipe or tap to turn pages, but returning to the home screen can be a bit tricky because you must tap the center of the screen to pull up the on-screen controls. Oftentimes, you inadvertently turn the page. If you’re looking for a device to just read eBooks, you have plenty of options. E-ink displays are better suited for marathon reading sessions, anyway.
Which brings up Amazon’s Newsstand. While it boasts a handful of notable publishers, the presentation isn’t what you’d expect it to be. Users can read magazines in a more traditional view, but its diminutive screen forces users to either zoom in or revert to the “Text View,” which displays text and some images and nothing else. That doesn’t really sound like much of a magazine reading experience to me but maybe I’m just weird (read: I’m not).
Where the Kindle Fire does shine is in its video streaming capabilities. Though the Fire’s screen resolution is less than 720p (1024x600) it handles high-definition content well enough for an enjoyable experience. With new content deals seemingly popping up every day, Amazon is quickly bringing the most wanted video content to its customers. Both Netflix and Hulu apps are in the works for the Fire to satiate the needs of cable cutters and augmenters. What is available to Prime subscribers isn’t bad but it all depends on personal preference. I enjoy Super Troopers but you might not. Keep in mind that the Fire only has 8GB of storage with 6GB allocated for downloaded content, so choose offline library wisely. (Amazon does offer Fire users unlimited cloud storage but unless you’re near a Wi-Fi hotspot, you’re out of luck.)
As an Android device, the Fire runs Android apps but in a more controlled environment that Amazon has renamed “Amazon’s Appstore for Android.” In other words, Amazon has vetted the load of crapware that lives in the regular Android Market to ensure that smaller number of quality apps in its Appstore works properly on the Fire.
Like most convergence devices before it, the Kindle Fire doesn’t do anything exceptionally well (except for buying things via Amazon) but the price is right at $200. Buyer beware. Perhaps the rumors of this model being a stopgap before the real Amazon tablet is released next year are true.
