Seven weeks ago, Amazon held a press conference to unveil a suite of new Kindles, the most newsworthy of which was a full-color 7-inch tablet called the Kindle Fire. Like many in the press, we were blown away by the $199 price for a full-featured tablet?it?s less than half the price of Apple?s cheapest iPad. What?s more, the Fire introduced a new concept in Web technology: Amazon developed a cloud-accelerated browser named Silk.
The Fire?s low price, combined with Amazon?s huge customer base, seems to guarantee that the Fire will be a hit product this holiday season. But how does the device stand up to everyday use? Amazon had a very look-but-don?t-touch interaction with the press at the launch event, but now that we?ve got one in our office, we?ve been able to dig into the hardware and software (a custom-skinned version of Google?s Android 2.3). Here, Popular Mechanics? technology editors debate the merits and demerits of the newest addition to the Kindle platform.
Hardware
Glenn Derene, senior tech editor: The Kindle Fire is exactly what I expected it to be: a solidly built, compact tablet with a bright, high-resolution screen with excellent off-angle viewing. It has a micro-USB port (primarily for charging, but it can be used for side-loading content from your computer), a headphone jack, and one hard button for power and sleep. It also has two stereo speakers, curiously oriented to one side.
Its performance specs are both impressive and disappointing. It?s got a dual-core 1.2-GHz processor, which actually gives it comparable processing power with the Apple iPad 2. But the Fire has only 8 GB of onboard storage. That hews to Amazon?s cloud-centric philosophy, but could cause problems when you leave the comfortable confines of your Wi-Fi network. And the Fire lacks many of the other hardware specs that iPad users may be familiar with (cameras, 3G support, Bluetooth). But then again, is this device even meant to be cross-shopped with the iPad? John, what do you think?
John Herrman, assistant tech editor: First, on the hardware: It?s pretty nice. The screen is lovely, and the whole device feels well-constructed and substantial?though perhaps a bit too substantial, at least compared with a regular old Kindle. It?s a great deal heavier than a similarly sized paperback. ???
Whether or not this thing is intended to go toe-to-toe with an iPad, that?s certainly the perception. People are placing millions of preorders because they think this is a cheaper iPad. Amazon has encouraged this perception, and it basically ensures that the Fire will be a huge seller.
In reality, I think these are very, very different devices.
GD: Agreed. But I also think Amazon considers the Fire an upsell to its millions of Kindle users?this is the Kindle for the rest of your media. My take is that anyone who had the means and desire to buy an iPad is just going to get an iPad. But for better or worse, the iPad is going to be what sets expectations for this device.
Software
GD: Hardware should just disappear and get out of the way once you turn on this type of device, so software, arguably, is more important. Here, Amazon?s interface is initially impressive. The home screen looks nothing like the Android OS that we know is lurking underneath. The primary element of the home screen is the Fire?s Carousel, which scrolls fast through apps, books, and video content, starting with the last thing you interacted with. Under that are shelves that house your favorite content. It?s quite logical and slick, but things start to fall apart from there. ???
JH: ?Lurking,? I think, is the perfect word for what Android is doing here. The Carousel is the only place in the Fire?s software that responds to touch in a natural, smooth way. The icons move as though they?re connected to your finger, and behave according to recognizable rules of physics. The second you leave, whether you delve into a book, app, or webpage, the smoothness breaks down.
GD: And so does some of the logic. Presumably, Amazon?s own Android apps are approved by the company, because they make sense on this sort of device. But once you leave the home page to use third-party software, it?s easy to get lost in the user interface. It?s the old Android back button experience all over again. The Fire?s basic navigation buttons (which are onscreen pop-up icons) are not always the same, and sometimes conflict or overlap with the navigation of apps. ?????
What?s more, I was surprised to find that the Silk browser, one of the Fire?s signature technologies, didn?t seem to offer a noticeably faster or more compelling view of the Web.
JH: In our testing it loaded pages slower than an iPad, which has no Web acceleration at all. Despite Amazon?s marketing pitch, I don?t think the Silk browser offers a radically faster Web; I think it?s a mitigation measure for a seriously slow browser.
That said, I can stand to wait for page loads?that?s not a huge deal. What I can?t deal with is the slow, shuddering navigation around websites. Browsing the Internet on a tablet is supposed to be a relaxing, window-to-the-Web experience. On the Fire it?s fatiguing. As soon as I start I just want to stop. ??
These issues extend all the way down to the Kindle?s bread and butter. I can?t believe there?s shuddering during page turns in e-books. That doesn?t make any sense to me. This is a Kindle! Speaking of which . . .
Content
GD: The Fire is, as you?d expect, intimately linked to Amazon?s store, and is custom-designed to guide you to the store?s impressive catalog of books, music, and movies?as well as a swiftly growing collection of apps. Ours came prelinked to my Amazon account out of the box. We never even had to enter a password to buy stuff.
JH: Yeah, making charges to your credit card is probably the thing the Kindle Fire is best at. ???????
The streaming video catalog is pretty good, as is the music store. The App Store is surprisingly well-stocked, but in our brief survey, the quality of the apps was pretty low. The Kindle bookstore is obviously great, but it?s also available on every major platform. Frankly, the iPad is a better Kindle book reader, through Amazon?s Kindle app, than the Kindle Fire is. Of course, my older E-ink Kindle is a better e-reader than either one.
That said, other Android tablets boot you into a content wasteland. The Kindle Fire at least presents you with a nice spread of media.
GD: Actually, the content that I was most eager to see on the Fire was magazines (for obvious reasons). A small, portable, affordable, and full-color magazine reader could really be a breakthrough for our kind of content. The Fire seems to have two platforms for magazines: There are replica editions (PM looks this way now) and there are dedicated apps. Both are currently an unfortunate compromise.
Replicas have a different aspect ratio than the Kindle?s 16:9 screen, so replica mags show up painfully small on the already tight 7-inch screen. The only way to usefully read them is to zoom and pan or to use the text reader (which expands articles across multiple horizontal pages). The dedicated-app magazines offered better readability and more interaction, but stepped all over the core navigation controls of the Fire. ???
JH: I had high hopes for magazines on the Kindle Fire, but right now the experience is just a mess. Oh well!
Is It Worth It?
JH: I don?t want to overcorrect for other reviewers, but I think people are giving this device?and Amazon?too much credit. I don?t think it?s a good product. I know it?s $300 less than an iPad, and I know it technically does many of the same things, but we?re not talking about laptops here.
A $400 laptop that can do most of what a $1000 laptop can do is a good value proposition, because people need laptops. They?re tools. Tablets are for leisure?for goofing around. And $200 isn?t a better deal than $500 if all you end up with is a frustrating device you don?t want to use. It?s just a waste of $200.
And I say this as a total nerd. I?ve got a lot of patience for shoddy UIs and software quirks. I?m actually a little sad for the people who preordered this thing for friends, family, or themselves. I think they?re expecting?and were led to expect?something that they?re not going to get.
GD: I?m disappointed, too, because I was expecting the device to deliver on the high-performance promise of that opening screen, and I don?t think it does. So, even at the impulse-buy price of $199, I still can?t suggest that people go out and buy this device today.
Still, I think it?s a promising platform, and I?m interested to see how Amazon builds on it. Look at the first-gen E-ink Kindles compared with what Amazon offers today. The company is aggressive about improving its hardware while continuously driving down costs.
Finally, and I know this isn?t saying much, but I?d argue this is the most compelling?Android tablet on the market. And though one day I might kick myself for saying this, I want a compelling tablet from Amazon. The company knows how to sell a wide variety of content at low prices. The Fire is a first swing at bringing all that content into a friendly, affordable package. Unfortunately, it seems like a swing and a miss.
Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/reviews/hands-on-with-the-kindle-fire-6562321?src=rss
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