Kindle Fire Tablet

7" LCD Display, Wi-Fi, 8GB

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8,828 of 9,016 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Compare FIRE HD to the KINDLE FIRE GEN 2 September 14, 2012

By clickz4

Configuration:With Special Offers|Amazon Verified Purchase

Length: 2:29 Mins

UPDATE: I bought both a Fire HD and a Gen 2. (as a present to my mother in law) My initial reviews were written after playing with them for like 20 minutes. I merged both reviews into one to really compare the two products. I'm still answering questions in the comments if you have any. And see the video that compares the two and gives a mini tour of the Kindle system.

My Background: I've had 4 android phones, I've had multiple e-readers and my latest 'touch' device is the Le Pan II Android tablet. I've worked on several iPads but never been compelled to spend the extra money for one myself. Wife has a first generation Fire.
============

The new Kindle Fire and Fire HD are the second generation color kindle e-reader/media player/tablet devices. The original Fire received a lot of well earned 4 star reviews. It was a great product but at the end of the day, it was a first generation product. It was no iPad slayer. The Fire HD raises the bar and raises it quite a lot. Jeff Bezos said they set out to make the best tablet available period and -in some regards- they did that in spades. In other ways not so much. (more on this below in the closing thoughts)

HARDWARE:

BUILD QUALITY:
- BOTH are top Notch. I didn't expect anything less from Amazon but they really are solid feeling.
- FIRE HD lighter and while it is about the same thickness, the edges are rounded more like an iPad. sleeker look and more comfortable to hold.
- FIRE GEN 2 is heavier and 'boxier' built to more fit existing covers I guess. It's heavier too.

SIZING:
The HD is just a bit taller but a decent bit wider than the Fire. --- NOTE pay attention to accessories because THEY ARE NOT THE SAME SIZE.... The cover from my wife's Gen 1 Kindle will fit the Gen 2 kindle (sorta) but NOT THE HD.

THE SCREEN:
- FIRE HD SUMMED UP IN TWO WORDS Oh. My. The Le Pan, the iPads and the Gen 2 Fire all have great screens. The Fire HD takes them all out. I read somewhere there was polarizing a filter over the Fire HD screen. Polarizers reduce glare by only letting 'straight' light though not off angle bounced light. This makes an enormous difference to this display. The off angle viewing is probably the best I have seen in any flat screen. 6 stars.
- FIRE GEN 2 Still a high quality screen. I'd same the same or better than any other high end tablet on the market.
- NOTE A few people in the comments asked about the touch response. - I do not have a problem except in the browser, it is sorta too sensitive. If you move your finger smoothly you can avoid the jitters.

THE WIFI.
- FIRE HD I admit only the geeky probably care but the wifi rocks. I have a mimo router and one quick copy from my server and I was getting almost 30MB/s. To put that into perspective, that's about as fast and an external USB Hard drive can push data to your computer. (USB 3.0 will be faster but they are rare today) -- The other thing is that I have a long skinny house and when I'm in the back bath, the Le Pan drops off. (ahem not that I surf on the potty or anything, just when I test it, you know.) With the Fire HD I can surf in the back yard.
- FIRE GEN 2 still got 20MB/sec. But consider this... at that speed you can fill the entire memory in 5 minutes. Seems good enough to me.

THE SOUND:
- FIRE HD ok I'm a bit of an audio snob. The sound is fantastic for being a tablet. Which is to say it's still only marginally acceptable. You can still buy a $15 pair of Koss KSC75 headphones and blow the speakers away BUT I will say this is the first device I would actually listen to music on. The rest I simply don't even bother. I suspect most people would call the sound excellent.
- FIRE GEN 2 still have a very good sound. For the spoken word it would be very fine. For music it is lacking in my book.

SPEED: Both are quick with the HD being quicker. The Le Pan II is no slouch but I think the HD edges it out. Since the Le Pan apparent died this morning it's hard to compare. :-(

NOTE: IT DOES NOT COME WITH A WALL WORT CHARGER It comes with a micro USB cable that can be used with your existing USB wall worts. (ie your cell phone charger) You can buy a rapid charger for it or even plug it into your computer to charge. This is an odd choice from Amazon IMO.

NOTE 2: Unlike the Gen 1 Fire, (and contrary to what you might have read) the new Kindles DO NOT support flash. Rumor has it you can hack it to install Flash I have not tried yet. I'll try to run this down by this weekend.

NEW FEATURES (as promised)

EXCHANGE CALENDAR SYNC:
BOTH - Exchange on the Fire (both) just rocks. I really like the calendar app. The contact manager can't keep up with the one on the iPad but it is sufficient. Ditto the email. But the setup was easy and it seemed fast. Love it.

SKYPE:
- FIRE HD Spent way too long video skyping today. It worked as well as skype ever works. (long time skype users will understand that) yes it was glitchy but less than other platforms so no complaints. The sound really made a difference here.
- Fire GEN 2 I don't think Skype came with it. I'll update with a definitive later.

HDMI
- FIRE HD ONLY I promised someone in the comments to test this soon but I misplaced my HDMI cable. (drat) I guess I'll order a new one and update when it arrives.

BLUETOOTH
- FIRE HD ONLY worked very smoothly pairing with LG tone. (great product btw) I'll be using that for Skype in the future.

FREETIME: BOTH This is a widely requested feature that allows multiple users (i.e. kids) to log in and have their own customized tablet experience. It also allows parents to limit the time kids spend on certain tasks, like watching movies, while giving them unlimited time to read. Parents have been asking for this forever. (Are you listening Apple?) I wasted 20 minutes looking for it before I looked it up and Amazon is not shipping it until next month. The existing parental controls are pretty decent actually.

CLOSING THOUGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

If you're new to Kindle make sure you understand what you are buying here. Kindles are made -and sold at a highly discounted price- to allow you to purchase media from Amazon. Don't think of this as an android tablet, because it really isn't. Yes Amazon uses the Android operating system but you'd never know they hide it so well. This device is made (basically) exclusively to read/watch/listen to media you buy from Amazon. In that regard this device is about as great as they could make it. HOWEVER. The Kindle Fire (first generation) was notorious for not playing well with many Android apps. If you're a app monster or looking for something to replace your laptop to allow you do work on the road and occasionally consume media, you need to look at an Android tablet or an iPad. But don't let that discourage you:

Via Amazon Prime, you get 25,000 streaming movies and T.V. shows you can watch 24/7 unlimited. We dropped Netflix because Prime Instant Video was so good. Amazon gives you a free month with the either Fire so you'll get to see the value before you buy. (it's a no brainer btw) There are also over a million free books available for the Kindle. I try to limit how many I buy/download but I have over 100 books on my previous Kindle that are waiting to be read, all but like 4 of them were free. Also if you own a Kindle and subscribe to Prime, you can borrow one book per month from the Paid section. And big name books too... all 7 Harry Potter books are up there. If you figure that is worth at least 10 bucks a month, you're getting $120 of content per year and Prime only costs (I think) $79. Or looked at another way, that's $240 in content in two years and the Fire HD is only $199.

If you're new to e-readers, owning one might just change your life. I had probably read 8 book length books in the last decade. (I'm a periodical junkie.) I now read at least one book per week. I was a big reader before but I'm reading more than I ever have in my life. Many studies show that people are reading as much as 3X more when they get an e-reader. If you're a parent looking to inspire a love of reading in a child, STOP. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200. Buy them an e-reader.

SO THE BIG QUESTION, WHICH ONE DO I BUY?
- If you're on a VERY tight budget the Fire Gen 2 is a great product at a great price point. Coupled with Prime, you have access to mountains of cheap content.
HOWEVER. When you look at what you get for the small difference in cost, the Fire HD blows it away... You get a better screen, better sound, bluetooth, it's faster, thinner and lighter than the Fire. You also get double the memory, better wifi and over 2 hours more battery life. All for $40. I guess Amazon wants to make color Kindles as affordable as possible but I don't even know why they made the small one. I'm not sorry I bought it but all things considered, I would buy two big ones if I had it to do over.

I'll be taking questions in the comments for the next week or maybe more, so feel free to ask.

Hope this was helpful. Read more ›

2,039 of 2,126 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful product and incredible support from Amazon! October 1, 2012

By Lisa

Configuration:With Special Offers

I purchased the Kindle Fire ten months ago for my daughter. Three weeks after she got it, it was stolen. Amazon worked with our police department to find the person who had taken it. Amazon first put a hold on the person's account and shut down the Kindle Fire so it wouldn't work. Then, once Amazon had a subpoena, Amazon gave the police all the information the thief had registered to my daughter's Kindle Fire and the police were able to recover it and get it back to us. Since that time, we have purchased an additional Kindle Fire and, just recently, a Kindle Fire HD. We use them like iPads at a fraction of the cost and the number of free books and apps available is unmatched by their competitors. Our oldest Kindle Fire (ten months old) just stopped charging and I contacted Amazon via Live Chat. Immediately, they said they would send me a replacement Kindle Fire and would also email me a printing label for free shipping to return the defective one. Their customer service is incredible! The Kindle Fire itself is amazing. The internet is fast; connects perfectly to all wi-fi; the graphics are clear and sharp; the books and apps offered are endless. My teenager listens to Pandora on it constantly. I'm always reading. My husband checks the sports scores. My young sons are always playing the game apps. We have them protected in KlearKase protectors and have found them to be well-made, quality devices. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Kindle Fire to anyone of my friends and family.

1,635 of 1,742 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best value September 21, 2012

By Me

Configuration:With Special Offers|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just received my kindle fire today. I had a hard time deciding between the HD, this, and the paperwhite. I decided on this one, because I really thought I'd like the immersion reading. I have an audible account and I've been reading along to the audiobooks. It's amazing how fast I can get through the books (at 3x speed) and I really retain the info. The immersion reading is super-easy to use and definitely worth upgrading to this. The whole point of the kindle is to read more, and this new feature makes it possible to read 2 or 3 times as many books in the same amount of time. I'm an average-speed reader and was able to read 4 books (with the help of the audiobook reading pace) in the last 30 days and one was the 800+ page Stephen king, "11/22/63".

I also tested out the text to speech. It's a lady's voice and much, much, easier to understand than the text to speech on my kindle keyboard. It also has many speed options and I think it reads faster than my kindle keyboard version. I am very, very pleased with it.

It is much more responsive than the previous kindle fire I'm upgrading from.

If you are worried about the free offers, don't be. I DETEST commercials and advertising so much, I quit reading magazines and watching television. The offers only show on the startup, no big deal. I already took advantage of a $5.00 credit for amazon video. I was able to rent two movies and it only cost me 89 cents, when it was said and done, and I was planning on renting Hunger Games tonight, anyway. So, so far, I don't mind the offers at all.

My favorite feature is the immersion reading and the text-to-speech improvements. I also downloaded all the free kindle books with the free audiobooks for the immersion experience.... These are books I always wanted to read,but never had the discipline to just read them. Reading and listening to those books are worth the price of this new gadget, IMO.

Way to go, Amazon, for a great product and a great price!

P.S.
I have an iPad, and the last time I went on vacation, I left it at home and brought only my fire and kindle keyboard. I didn't miss my iPad at all and this new gen fire is even better. Seriously, it's that good. Read more ›

3,368 of 3,598 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great product but they get you with the ads and missing accessories September 17, 2012

By Old School Working Mom

Configuration:With Special Offers|Amazon Verified Purchase

My 7 year old son has the 1st gen Kindle Fire, and we've been very happy with it. He mostly plays games on it now, but we plan to purchase more movies and books for it in the future. My 5 year old wanted one too, so we just purchased the 2nd gen Kindle Fire for her. She had been saving her allowance and birthday money this whole year for it. We purchased one the day they were announced!

We've had it now for 3 days... and while it's still the same great product, we were disappointed to find (after receiving the device) that the 2nd generation Fire comes WITHOUT a wall charger (which the first gen Fire had) and has a whole mess of ads loaded onto it. My 5 year old can't read very well yet - she couldn't figure out how to get rid of the ads, and was constantly yelling for me to come help her. Also, some of the ads featured more mature themes (ads for sexy prime time tv shows, for example) that I would not want to expose my young child to.

To purchase the wall charger, it cost us an extra $20, and it cost us $15 to have the ads turned off. So now we're up to $194 for the Kindle Fire that we thought we were getting for $159, plus a whole bunch of time wasted trying to figure out how to turn off the ads, and waiting for the wall charger to arrive.

I am normally a HUGE Amazon fan, but this one leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Would have given the device 4-5 stars on its own, but with the extra expenses and hassle, I have to take it down a couple stars.

***Update Oct 10, 2012*** Interesting that many folks have taken my review as an opportunity to comment on my parenting skills. While I'm sure folks are "well intentioned" (sarcasm), I don't recall asking for parenting advice. Many have said it's ridiculous to buy an eReader for a child who can't read.... Yet the FIRE is marketed as a competitor to a tablet device, not an eReader. The Fire does everything the iPad can do (except take pictures and videos). My children prefer to read books on paper. Instead, they use the Fire almost exclusively as a gaming device as there are hundreds of free (or super cheap) game apps for kids - including educational apps. They also listen to music and watch videos on it. I looked at it as a replacement for my daughter's leapster (which she is aging out of) and as an alternative to a portable DVD player and/or iPod. Several devices in one. As we are getting ready to take the kids on a cross-country trip, I will be thrilled not to have to lug around several devices that come with DVDs and expensive game cartridges that are easily lost. We will pack one device. Done.

***Update Oct 22, 2012*** Sorry, me again. First, wanted to THANK those who offered support and told me to ignore the negative nellies who suggested I was an indulgent parent raising the spoiled rotten brats of the future. Secondly, wanted to respond to some questions I've repeatedly received. The ads appear primarily on the lock screen. When unlocked, they disappear. For adult users who are used to dealing with ads in free apps, this might be something you'd be willing to contend with to save a few bucks. But this was a confusing concept for my 5 year old - and I repeat that the ads I saw were too mature for a young audience. Even after I paid the $15 to have the ads removed, my daughter's Kindle still received an ad to "Vote for Obama". It appears as a banner at the top of every screen and I have not been able to get rid of it. I am extremely irritated with this, as it seems some ads will get thru regardless.

Others have commented that it's cheap to buy a wall charger, and to quit complaining about it. OK, I see your point - but if it's so cheap, then Amazon should provide it. I find it absolutely unacceptable that Amazon would not provide a wall charger. I realize Amazon loses money on the device, but they do so anticipating they will more than make up for that loss in profit from the apps, books, and movie purchases. As far as I can tell, Amazon doesn't seem to be hurting. So come on, Amazon, throw in the darned wall charger already!!

Finally, since I purchased this item on Day One of its release, I see that Amazon has updated its product description so it's more obvious as to what the device does - and doesn't - come with. Additionally, the product title now includes the words "with special offers" (IMHO, a deceptive way of saying it comes loaded up with ads) - But I'm glad Amazon added it - now people can be more informed than I was about what they are getting themselves into.

I'm an Amazon Prime member - so have invested pretty heavily in Amazon. If I weren't a Prime member, I would have considered other brands over Amazon's Kindle. Read more ›