Amazon Kindle Fire Review

Key features

• 7" 16:9 IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen of WSVGA resolution (1024 x 600) pixels
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity
• 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset
• License-free Android-based OS
• 8GB of on-board storage, free cloud storage for all Amazon content
• Weight of 413 grams
• Accelerometer
• Excellent HTML5 browser
• Adobe Flash support, Flash videos up to 720p
• Standard microUSB port, mass storage
• 3.5mm audio jack

Main disadvantages

• No 3G
• No memory card slot, limited inbuilt storage
• Reflective screen of poor brightness
• Very limited video codec support
• No camera
• No physical volume controls
• Non replaceable battery
• No native Google apps, no access to the Android Market
• Some features unavailable without an Amazon Prime account
• Video streaming not available outside US

The Kindle Fire is not an e-reader. It's a multimedia device with web browsing and email - and that's a lot more than an e-book reader. Yet, the backlit LCD screen is obviously no match for e-ink. The Kindle Fire is touted as a reading device - as much as it's for Internet browsing, listening and watching. If it's mags and comics, we'd agree. For e-books, any other Kindle would do a much better job. The Fire is actually for users who have a Kindle already. It's an addition - not a replacement - to any generation of Amazon's e-ink devices.
An older-gen Kindle e-reader and a Fire combined cost less than most tablets out there. The Kindle is so cheap because it lacks many basic features. The sub-200 dollar price tag is meant to encourage Amazon subscribers to keep on shopping for music, video, apps and games as they've been for books on their Kindle readers.