Because of its low price, and the fact that Amazon is the only company on the planet with the media chops to take on Apple iTunes, the Amazon Kindle Fire has been painted by some as the putative heir to the Apple iPad 2's throne as king of tablets. Sadly, beneath the Kindle Fire's slick veneer and unparalleled shopping integration lies a tablet that fails to impress as either a tablet or as an e-reader. We don't know when we'll get it in the UK, and that may not be such a bad thing. See also: New iPad review. (See also: Kindle Fire HD vs Kindle Fire HD 8.9 review.)
The Kindle Fire is best considered a relatively inexpensive, hassle-free but flawed way to consume books, music, and videos purchased at Amazon. Like an iPod, but for Amazon. As a tablet, though, the Fire can't hold a flame to the best tablets available today: it has subpar specs, a limited interface, and a surprisingly messy app store.
When the Amazon Kindle Fire was first introduced, I immediately wondered where it would fit into the overall tablet universe. It runs a custom operating system based on Android 2.3, limits you to buying apps solely via the Amazon Appstore, and has just 8GB of storage, all red flags that made this tablet stand as a curiosity amidst the rest of the Android crowd. But at $200 in the US, and with the colossal weight of Amazon behind it, the Fire automatically becomes worth talking about.
And that despite that Amazon hasn't even given a date when the rest of the world can buy the Kindle Fire (our best guess is that we may have to forget this iteration, and wait for a Kindle Fire 2).
Amazon Kindle Fire's integration with Amazon's media storefronts is, bar none, the best thing about this tablet. Rather than have one place to shop, and another to use your digital media, Amazon consolidates these experiences into one. The Newsstand, Books, Music, and Apps tabs all take you to your personal library first, and then have a prominent but not offensive option to go to the store for that category. (The exception to this is the Video tab, which deposits you in the video storefront first, and then lets you hopscotch into your personal Library.) The seamless interface makes acquiring content of any kind - be it for ownership, or, in the case of movies and TV shows, streaming, or rental - the best experience of any I've tried on a tablet.
In most other respects, Kindle Fire left me feeling tepid, at best. Let's walk through the device step-by-step to see which marks it hits, and which it misses.
See also: Amazon Kindle Fire: some good, some bad, some to be seen
Amazon Kindle Fire: Simple Design
Physically, the Kindle Fire does little to distinguish itself. Contrary to some reports, it really doesn't resemble black tablets like the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook, which was rumoured to to be Amazon's starting point for the Kindle Fire. In fact, the Fire is smaller than the PlayBook, measuring 190x119x11mm, and weighing just over 400g. That's a hair heavier than Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet, and noticeably heavier than Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.
While the Fire didn't feel especially heavy or tiresome to hold in one hand while reading, its weight is still less than ideal. In fact, a survey of five colleagues saw a clear preference for the weight and balance of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. All preferred the Fire's velvety back, which has a smooth, rubberized texture that makes it easy to hold.
Overall, the Fire has a curious design. It has an asymmetrical black bezel surrounding the 7-inch display (it's thicker along the bottom, when held in portrait mode). The tablet takes simplicity to the extreme. It has just one button, a sleep/wake/power button placed along the bottom edge. I liked that the button was easy to press, and that it glows red when charging, but it was also too easy to accidentally invoke. Next to the power button are the micro-USB port for charging and transferring data, and a headphone jack.
Both of the Fire's speakers are located along the same edge (the top, if held in portrait mode, the left edge in landscape). That means you'll lose the stereo effect no matter how you hold the Fire, and likely end up covering one of the speakers with your hand when holding it in landscape.
The only cabling included is a wall charger; you'll need your own USB cable (if you want to transfer data between your PC and Fire) and headphones. Volume control is handled entirely via software, and this proved problematic time and again, especially when in apps (more on this later).
When you first start-up the tablet, the Fire walks you through a few simple setup points, and then deposits you into your home screen - the same screen you land in when you swipe to the left to unlock the device.
The home screen has a search bar at top, with tabs for Newsstand (where you access various periodicals), Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps, and Web beneath. At the centre of the home screen is a central carousel that shows your most recent acquisitions or most recently accessed content of any sort - books, periodicals, music, videos, web sites, apps - in reverse order, with the latest on top. You can flip through these, and they go by surprisingly quickly, but I found it bothersome to find age-old books I'd bought showing up in this carousel, even if I hadn't downloaded the books from my cloud archive to the device (at least the same didn't happen with my sizable Amazon music collection).
At the bottom of the home screen is a Favorites shelf. Kindle Fire comes with Amazon's Appstore app, the Pulse reader app, the IMDB app, and the Facebook app icons pinned there already. Temper your enthusiasm, though - the Facebook "app" merely leads you off to the mobile version of the Facebook site.
The top of the home screen shows the name of your device, the time, battery status, and Wi-Fi status, and it also features a "gears" button that calls up a popover. for quick access to various settings like the rotation lock, the volume slider - your only volume control for the tablet - brightness, Wi-Fi, and sync (for use with Amazon's Whispernet synchronization between Kindle devices). And it serves as a the jumping point for the main settings menu.
Want to go back to where you were previously? Tap on the sole, clearly delineated back arrow at the bottom of the screen. Or tap the home button, also clearly delineated, when it appears at the lower left. When in apps, you can navigate by tapping on the up arrow at the bottom of the screen, which in turn reveals the home, back, and menu buttons. But if you're viewing video in Amazon's video player, you'll need to swipe up from the bottom, since the player takes up the whole screen.
Overall, on the surface Amazon's grey-and-orange themed interface is an improvement over standard Android 2.3, with clearer labels and cleaner design on the whole.
As noted already, Amazon did a good job at integrating its stores into the Fire's individual content sections. Visually, the book-shelf metaphor of your content libraries works well, even if that presentation lacks the personalization many crave. Moving between content in Amazon's cloud locker and stuff stored on the device is as simple as choosing cloud or device; the two are clearly delineated by a consistent visual element throughout all of the libraries. Find something you love, or want to remove? Just tap on the cover and hold down - and pick between adding to the favorites bar on the home screen, and removing from the tablet entirely.
I liked how the Amazon video player functions. Even if you're watching a video streamed on- demand from the Amazon cloud, you can still easily skip ahead a bit. And if you miss a few moments, no problem: Tap on the 10 second rewind for a quick fix.
The built-in email app will get the job done for the basics, but its layout is not especially optimized for landscape, for example, as you'll find with an Android 3.x Honeycomb tablet. And if you back out of the email app to do something else, it returns you to the top of your email list, not to the last message your were viewing.
Forget about multitasking as a whole. Kindle Fire lacks shortcuts to make it easier to get between content, as you'll find in standard Android 2.3 or in the tablet-optimized Android 3.x.
Amazon's contacts app is uninspiring; and surprisingly, the Kindle doesn't come with a basic calendar or clock app, two standard inclusions in Honeycomb tablets.
For all the fuss made about Amazon's Silk Web browser, which uses a proxy server to cache frequently accessed sites and purportedly speed surfing speeds, I can't say I noticed much of a difference in my Web surfing. Maybe I didn't hit the popular sites, or maybe the difference is that minimal that it won't be obvious in casual use. The browser supports tabs, at least, which is an improvement over the standard Android 2.3 browser, but I'm still a bit leery of how Amazon manages the whole caching process. And I'm so far not convinced of the process' efficiency.
Even the Docs tab didn't behave as I'd expected. I thought it logical that all documents I've transferred to the device to show there, but only PDFs showed up there. The other Microsoft Word and Excel documents were only accessible via the included Quickoffice document viewer app, under the "Apps" tab. If you want document creation or editing, you'll have to step up to the full Quickoffice Pro or another compatible office suite.
See also: eReaders reviews
NEXT PAGE: Apps and the Appstore
Comments
Doddschristina said: unhappy that I cannot use my kindle fire properly due to the fact that I cannot use my Adobe flash player to access tv or video
GraphEaty said: Just got it today Some of us do travel right I guess we would be a bit distressed if our iPad or laptop did not work overseas Well the Kindle Fire is useless outside the USno Amazon Apps no Video no Android Marketjust a lousy web browser and patchy wireless connection it drops out a lot and am running it side by side next to an Android phone which works fineCant change or download a thing Is simply a cheap front-end driven by Amazon content if you cant access the content ie you are not physically in the US then is just a poor web browser I can read my Kindle books but the standard Kindle is much much better as an e-readerThe review is correct look beyond the Amazon content and as a tablet it is flawed and limited If you want a portable Amazon shop window and World Series means global to you then this device is probably good value for money Outside the US it is a rather over-sized beer mat
Matt Egan said: Id be amazed if we the UK get the first Kindle Fire It may not be a bad thing for two reasons 1 we might get away from this idea that because the Fire is a tablet and it costs half what the iPad does its a bargain They do different things the Fire is better compared with the iPod touch Its a device for consuming media 2 because of this the Fire isnt worth a candle until the Amazon media downloadstreaming tie-ins all work And its clearly buggy So for UK users at the minute it would be 200 wasted All being well the Kindle Fire 2 will be a must have for Britons
soricon said: Some benchmarks just came out and Kindle Fire is not that fiery httpreviewhorizoncom2011
Steve said: How is this a review More like a preview You do know what a review is right where you actually have the product on hand and have used for a good period of time you know to review it Shockingly misleading title
geek said: Tough crowd More than enough information to judge the utility of the Fire and given the price ordering one is a no brainer Accepting what it is and there is certainly enough information to explain that thank you Those who want to complain about it is not or the lack of a hands on review will never be satisfied Cloud storage a custom browser a first class display enough information for me
Leo said: Apparently Kindle Fire already gets twice the searches of iPadGood article Thanks
dimawil said: interestingly i always wanted to know whether their browser will support flash playbackand i also assume it will be a drag and drop system if i want to upload my own mp3s and avi files
Matt Egan said: Some good points there dimawil The basic idea of the Kindle Fire is very interesting but there is a lot for Amazon to prove here
dimawil said: I think for a company that is new to the game and is slightly misleading their audience they are very tight lipped if they want to compete with the big boys and i assume they do they need to be warmer with their qampa every review i saw on youtube where they asked amazon people questions were met with differing answers and also just plain lack of knowledgethe author is right to say that ok this costs only 199 but what happens if i want to upgrade my os to sandwich if it doesnt support that and i have to buy a new one then thats another 199 and the originial 199 becomes a 398 which is an ipad 2i think amazon dont know themselves where they are and this shows through their lack of knowledge about the future of the tabley
Gl said: The title is extremely misleading This is not a review at best it could be classified as a brief preview
Matt Egan said: A fair point Did you search for in depth preview
Phil Levy said: Still I do think that in depth preview would be less misleading than review
Matt Egan said: Hi Ken The author has been very careful to explicitly describe her experience of the device We are very keen not to mislead but we feel there is good information to impart here but we wont - for instance - give a star rating This is our review at this stage as soon as we have our hands on the device there will be a more objective benchmarked review but in the mean time I think this piece is useful and informative
Ken Barnes said: Can you tell me how youve reviewed this item given that you dont actually have one