A few days ago, I got a Kindle in the mail from Amazon, allowing me to try it free for 30 days. I’d like to share a few thoughts on it.
First off, the package was fairly easy to open and setting up the kindle was pretty much done before I got it. I just had to setup the Wifi. There was a nice software update a day or two later that added some info on the lock screen. I chose to try the smaller kindle, because I wanted to see if I like the small screen more than my iPad 3’s 9.7″ screen.
The best features on the kindle is proably the size, weight, and sound quality. It boasts Dolby sound and has good stereo placement. One of the issues of the newer iPads is that the stereo speakers are on hey he bottom and work best holding the iPad in portrait. The kindle speakers are better in landscape, which tends to be better when viewing videos.
The kindle is less than a pound, making it even lighter than the new iPad Air. It’s so much easier to hold than my iPad third gen. This is probably the best selling point of the kindle fire, other than the price tag.
You can really tell how much faster it is than my iPad. The Simpsons Tapped Out and The Sims Freeplay run perfectly on the kindle. Music sounds nice and since it is an amazon product, your amazon cloud downloads are ready to go. Streaming works without a hitch. The screen makes reading e-books a bit easier with a blue backlight but the paper white kindle is still probably better for reading.
Now let’s talk about what I didn’t like about the Kindle Fire. First, there is only a front facing camera, no back facing camera. I suppose if you can only have one, the front camera at least lets you Skype and make selfies without getting the kindle in the shot. Still, having a back camera would be more convineient.
The Silk internet browser is nice, but there is no Chrome app for the kindle, which means I can’t sync my bookmarks and pages. The OS is nice and makes it easy to chose your apps, but closing apps is a pain. It’s no match with iOS7. However, amazon organized media access well, having the ability to chose music, books, videos, etc. at the top of the screen.
Apps work well, but some of them are limited. The TiVo app only streams to iOS devices, though that may change in the future. Apple tends to get the best apps first.
Overall, the Kindle Fire HDX is a good tablet if you are looking for a smaller, lighter tablet, and you prefer an Android based tablet. It’s also a good choice if you have a lot of amazon digital content. As for myself, I’m going to stick with Apple and I may upgrade to the iPad Air.
*Update* I should also add that the buttons are on the back of the Kindle. Not sure I like that. On the one hand, it means that you have just the screen on the front and saves some space. But, I like having the button placement on the iPad as it makes it easier to turn it on and off.
