Wife bought one and likes it.
Virtually unlimited library and very readable.
I have two Fires. Great device. Integrates nicely with Amazon Prime video streaming, reads well, nice browser. I think it was worth every penny. Nothing out there beats it as this price point.
CC
my brother told me he returned his....
He compared it to his sons I-Pad and found it wanting.
I received mine over a week ago, it’s very nice BUT I don’t consider it a tablet device. It’s a media display device. It does books very well, easy on the eyes and can be read in the dark. The screen automatically adjusts for lighting levels too.
It plays movies and TV episodes from Amazon in very good detail. The selection is very good and prices are reasonable for rentals or purchase.
It also can surf the web BUT! I don’t recommend it for typing out long posts. The keyboard is way too sensitive and small for me.
As a media display device it is very, very good and I do recommend it for those who are looking for that limited capability. Just don’t expect it to be a tablet computer or a Smart Phone.
We own two 10” Kindle DX models plus a 6” Kindle. Wife just got a Kindle Fire too. For only reading, the Kindle DX is better because of screen size and the electronic ink. The DX is 10” v. 7” Fire. However, wife loves the Kindle Fire because still easy to read and can do a lot more with it than just read books (web browsing, Android apps, etc.).
Want a pure reading device? Consider the Kindle DX. Want to do more than that, get the Kindle Fire. Skip the 6” Kindles. Too small for reading IMHO and don’t have the versatility of a Kindle Fire.
You are aware that for many ebooks, there is no price diff between the ebook and the dead tree edition? Publishers are frequently charging the same, or close to it, for either edition. FWIW, we have a Nook and an android tab. Both are very good ereaders. But I’m still getting the dead tree edition if it’s cheaper, or I know I’ll be keeping the book :-)
I have an iPad, but recently bought the Kindle Fire for my husband. He likes it. The screen is a little small for me, I have problems seeing the text on the websites. Also, because of the smaller screen I’m less accurate when I use the touch screen (often “touching” the link I didn’t intend to.)
As someone mentioned, if you have Amazon Prime, it’s great for instant videos, or if you use Netflix. Lots of free eBooks also with Amazon Prime.
Best pro, when compared to iPad, you can view Flash.
That being said, I love my iPad (I use it for work as well as for entertainment.) But like you said, the difference in price is substantial and the Kindle Fire is more than adequate for an entertainment device.
—another question from a beginner to these devices—with an HDMI-UBS cable, can I hook a Kindle Fire to my HD TV and show movies, etc., on the tv?
I have bought two of them for my kids for Christmas.
I have a rooted Nook Color, running Android, so it is very much like the Fire. The Fire has goodies that no one, sorry iPad, can top. With the Fire you get a month free of Amazon Prime which gives you the Kindle Lending Library. Every month for free you can download a book and take as long as you’d like to read it. Think of it like Netflix. Think of it as your local library but you don’t have to go there and you don’t get chastised for returning the thing late. With Amazon Prime, you also get streaming video and Amazon offers a ton of movies and TV shows. You also get free 2 day shipping on anything from Amazon.
If I didn’t have the Nook, I would get a Fire. And reading on one of these instead of a paper book is great. I don’t understand about the book smell people complain that’s missing. There are probably close to 100 books on my Nook and it takes up very little space, I don’t care about the missing book smell.
This is the future. Provided after we still have electricity if the nitwit is reelected.
Kindle Fire review from EEV blog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip9az2c3-F8&feature=feedu
Kindle Fire teardown from EEV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ6xxveRJSw&feature=feedu
I got my new Kindle Fire last week and I like it so much I’m getting my son one for Christmas. All the praise
you have read on here is accurate. I watched an episode of ‘Planet Earth’ last night and was amazed at the sharp picture.
I bought the original Kindle when it first came out. The ebooks then were never more than 9.99 and I got a lot of really good books that I have gone back and re-read many times.
My son and I have always shared books and when I found out that you can have as many as 6 devices on your account and share the content, I got him a Kindle.
My husband likes audio books and we have an account with Audiobooks.com and one of the first things I did was check out our audio library and it is compatable with the Fire.
So I can read books and magazines, or listen to a book while I am knitting.
You can surf the web with it and you can set up an outside email account such as yahoo, hot mail or your own private one if you choose.
But don’t expect an ipad, its a media device and a very good one. You can also get some ebooks on Amazon from free to .99,1.99,2.99. Some libraries also lend ebooks.
I bought B&N’s colored Nook for my grandson a few days before they came out with their version of an Ipad which was even cheaper. I’ll admit as a meddling grandmother, it was an attempt to help this three year-old learn English as his mother, a psychologist, is Portugese and although fluent in seven languages, including English, evidently speaks only Portugese to him. She’s with him all day; they live in NZ, and my son’s busy teaching psychology. When he gets home, she wants only Portugese spoken. She’s determined to return to Portugal permanently. They were in that dreadful earthquake and lost their house and all their possessions, but it seems a bit much to want to flee to Portugal of all places.
Well, they’ve flown to Portugal for three months (before they have to go back to NZ), and son emailed me how grateful he was that I’d gotten the Nook for little Daniel. Why in the world — with Portugal in such trouble, would you want your child basically trapped there, unable to speak English which is today’s lingua Franca? This is nuts. Something unfortunate is going. At some point I suspect the only contact my son will have with Daniel will be over the internet, so I guess the Nook was indeed a great idea.
The Kindle Firs is nothing more than a direct POS device linking to the Amazon ecosystem of services. It’s meant as a device that locks you in to books and movies and whatever else can be bought through Amazon.
Why would anybody want to limit themselves to just one vendor? The fact is that, the Fire should not have to cost anybody anything, and it should be free if it’s mostly a POS device in every home.
You might consider a cheap Android tablet, or an Android phone for that matter. There are eReader apps for all the major ebook formats (Kindle, etc.). Not only can you use it as an ereader, you can surf the web via WiFi.
My wife just got one and likes it very much.
I haven’t played with it yet but I will say that I was very impressed with the graphic display while playing streaming media. Excellent picture.