CNET’s Donald Bell says that Reviewing Kindle Fire was not an easy task and was probably his toughest assignment in 2011. Though the tablet is missing a lot of things like 3G, camera etc., Bell says that this is a tablet that wears its price tag like a bulletproof vest. At $199, it is bound to keep many people interested.
Kindle Fire: Hardware
(Image credit: Zdnet) It is powered by 1GHz TI OMAP processor much like Playbook, but has just 512MB of RAM and mere 8GB of storage. We already knew that it doesn’t come with 3G and WiFi is the only connectivity option, but its a shame that it even lacks Bluetooth.
The Fire also has no “home” button, and comes with just one button for powering it on/off. Topolsky find this approach a little too annoying But most of the reviewers felt that the size and shape of Kindle Fire is a big plus as it feels just like holding a note book.
Kindle Fire: Display
Just like the Playbook, Kindle Fire sports a 7-inch, 1024 x 600 IPS LCD panel with optimum brightness, good color reproduction and decent viewing angles. Engagdet’s Tim Stevens wasn’t particularly happy about Kindle Fire’s 169ppi pixel density. He also pointed out about how different Kindle Fire’s glossy display feels when compared to other Kindle’s E-ink display. As for the capacitive touch screen, Topolsky says that the touch response felt relatively good as compared to similar panels on other devices. Shockingly, according to CNET’s Donald Bell, Kindle Fire supports just two-finger multitouch. Ouch!
Kindle Fire: Battery & Performance
As for the performance, the heavily customized Android 2.3 felt a little too sluggish when compared to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. Verge says, in Linpack, the Fire scored a respectable average of about 34 MFLOPS. In the browser, the Fire returned a SunSpider result of 2541.9ms – not too shabby.
Kindle Fire: Software
Most of the reviewers were of the opinion that Kindle Fire is more about the software and the eco-system than the hardware. It would be easily dismissed if users simply look at the hardware, but the software and services pack the punch. MSNBC’s Wilson Rothman says Kindle Fire is an amazing device for reading, watching video, listening to music, checking email, even playing some games.
Silk Browser
Now, if you find that shocking, there is more to gobble up. Topolsky says, 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.
Wrap-up
As Topolsky says, Kindle Fire isn’t an iPad-killer, but it is a really terrific tablet for its price. Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color tablet will be out later this week and carries an impressive spec. But will it have a polished software like Kindle Fire remains to be seen. For now, as Tim Stevens says, Kindle Fire is a perfectly usable tablet that feels good in the hand and has a respectably good looking display up front.
Pros:
Incredible Price ($199) Solid build and form factor Access to lots and lots of premium media User friendly, consistent UI
Cons:
Weak hardware specs: no 3G, no Bluetooth, no camera Just 8GB storage No Android market Buggy Software
