At the end of 2011, Amazon had released the Amazon Kindle Fire, a revolutionary gadget that offered Android tablet capabilities with a very affordable price. This is probably the most popular Android tablet right now, and it is predicted that this will be still popular in 2012. Now, there are lots of people bought this gadget – there are 13,174 user reviews in Kindle Fire alone.
In this article, I will try to summarize those reviews in one article, and I hope it will help the folks who are interested in buying the Amazon Kindle Fire to decide whether this gadget is suitable for them or not.
The Features of the Amazon Kindle Fire
The Amazon Kindle Fire comes with several key features like 16 million colors in high resolution. Users reported that the screen is good and that they really enjoy reading books and magazines on the Amazon Kindle Fire.
It is also equipped with a dual core processor to guarantee that we will be able to get the best, fastest, and most powerful performance that allows us to open many applications at one time to save our time. Users also reported that using the Amazon Fire for browsing, video downloading, and scrolling the screen is fast.
Amazon reported that they have spacious storage to store 80 apps plus 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books. However, some Kindle Fire owners reported that 8 GB of storage space is not enough if you plan on storing some movies (about 1 GB) or magazines (about 250 MB). But if you just plan to buy it just to read books and listen to some mp3s the space is more than enough.
Amazon also claims that Kindle Fire is extra durable and resistant to accidental bumps and scrapes – like the other kindle devices. There are lots of users that agree with this claim, but they said the Kindle Fire is indeed durable, even if you plan to give it to kids. There is also a user that said that Kindle Fire is more durable compared to her iPad 2.
The Price
The main consideration when purchasing the Amazon Kindle Fire is the price. With a ridiculously low price (USD $199) compared to the $400 Apple iPad, people tend to choose the Amazon Kindle Fire over other tablets. Amazon also reported the production cost of the Amazon Kindle is higher than the retail price. The reason behind this is to make profit from users’ content consumption like mp3, video, apps, and magazine sales.
The Weaknesses
Based on user reviews on amazon.com, the main weakness of the Amazon Kindle Fire is the size. Some people said that it is too small in their hands and they feel it is hard to access and control menus on the tablet. They need to push the buttons accurately; otherwise they will end up pushing the wrong button. This issue leads to frustration for some users because they need to start over when they select the wrong command.
Another main weakness is the limitation of Android based tablets. On the Amazon user reviews page, the main groups of people who are disappointed with the Kindle Fire are the ones who buy the Kindle for use as a regular Android tablet. Amazon doesn’t allow its users to download apps from the Android Market, meaning they can only download apps from the Amazon Web service.
This limitation disappointed some users because there are some apps that aren’t available from the Amazon Web service. However, for people who buy the Kindle Fire just for casual use like reading books, magazine, watch movies and play popular games, like angry birds or fruit ninja, this shouldn’t be a problem.