After doing an enormous amount of research - watching and reading countless reviews, a detailed look at the specs - I decided that the Kindle Fire was a match made in heaven for me. I am not very tech-savvy, nor did I anticipate doing anything particularly productive on a tablet so a $700 iPad was out of the question. It would be a waste of money to buy one and not use it to its full capabilities. I have heard about many of the problems associated with the Fire but luckily enough I got mine as a Christmas gift in which there were two updates at that time so I have experienced very few of the common problems. As this being my first review for a product, ever, I'm not sure how to go about running through the details so I will give my experiences:
NEWSSTAND
I subscribed to one magazine which was a pretty hassle-free process. I don't know what the standard is for a great magazine experience on a tablet but I've been pretty satisfied over all. The picture quality is stunning and I enjoy reading in text-view. Although, when it comes to text accompanying a collage of pictures, a text-zoom/magnification mechanism or feature would be nice instead of constant pinch to zoom.
BOOKS
The Fire is my first e-reader so I was super excited to have my e-books on the go (instead of reading it on the cloud reader on my computer). I was thrilled to find out a lot of classics are free or available at a low price. I like the ability to change the font type, size and line spacing, as well as the color of the background from white, sepia or black with white lettering. The black is particularly great at night. Over all my reading experience has been wonderful. The one thing I would add is page numbers. When I downloaded a copy of Dracula I almost had a heart attack when I thought it was 5,570 pages. It turns out those are positions (?). I'm not sure how that works but I mostly play attention to the percentage completed.
MUSIC
My kryptonite! Which I'm sure Amazon is counting on in order to makes some money off of me lol. I love music and I love how easy it is to download music instantly and have it on your cloud immediately. It is also easy to download from the cloud onto the device. I've heard some complaints that if you upload your own personal non-Amazon music content to the cloud you cannot download it to the device. So far, I have found this to be false. I was able to download all of my content from the cloud to the device without any problems.
VIDEO
This feature is really only useful if have a Prime membership, your own uploaded video content will not show up here (it shows up in the gallery). Prime comes with access to free streaming of tons of shows and movies and I have made heavy use of it during my free trial since at this time I cannot afford the annual membership fee (broke college student lol). Although, I like the Prime video streaming, the quality, to my surprise, is REALLY poor. I often heard praises for the video quality even though many have said the Barnes & Nobel Nook Tablet has superior video quality to the Fire. I'm not particular put off by this but I don't foresee purchasing any videos from Amazon until I can be sure the quality improves.
DOCS
Docs are pretty straight forward. I can view them using Amazon's PDF reader or Office Pro. Being a student with a lot of academic papers to read this was the major selling point for me and I'm happy to say I'm not disappointed. It is easier to view these files in landscape mode.
APPS
I'm not an app person. I don't usually like playing hand-held games. However, I was very drawn to the irresistible free app per day offer and quickly accumulated a decent amount of apps. I even have a few games. One of the major complaints about the Amazon app store is the lack of apps they have available. At first, I did not think this would bother me at all considering my lack of interest, but, I became very distressed when I noticed there are no foreign language keyboard IME apps. Most consumers probably won't care but for the few who are multi-lingual this is of great importance. The Fire can display foreign languages (even Arabic script) but there is no method of input so far. My hope and prayer is that when the Fire goes international they will add foreign language keyboard IME apps in the future.
* Note: there is a way to download IME apps if you root the Kindle Fire and add the complete Android Market. This is not an option for me however it may be for others.
WEB
Probably the number one complaint I've heard: slow web browsing. Maybe my standards a low, maybe I don't know any better but I really don't find the Silk browser particularly slow. Of course I have made some settings adjustments to insure that it is not slow, for example: turning off the accelerator (as odd as that sounds). I only encounter excruciatingly slow speeds every once in a while. And usually a simple refresh solves the problem. Over all I don't have any major complaints about the browser. It does its job and doesn't run out my patience in the process.
OTHER
Storage Space --- Although not a problem for me at this time, more storage space in the future would be nice.
3G --- I didn't think I would care but having been out and about with the Fire, 3G would be a nice feature as well. Like I said I'm not very tech savvy, but if there were a 3G/4G option available, couldn't you just add the device to your own current 3G/4G plan? Or do you have to pay for the service through Amazon? If the former, I would totally get a 3G Kindle Fire but if the latter, I will stick with the device I've got.
Power Button --- I was surprised after all the complaints that I have not accidentally put my Fire to sleep even once while holding the device. And I use this thing A LOT so there are plenty of opportunities for me to trip over that power button. Frankly, I don't mind its location, but, when the fire is in my purse the accident tends to occur more frequently. I have a case that helps prevent that and I am thinking of getting a sleeve as well.
Speakers --- The speakers are not bad. They don't get too loud but that is not a problem for me. In a quiet room they are loud enough.
Software Controls --- I can see why the lack of external buttons would annoy some but for me it is not a problem. Given the Fire's simple design, I almost prefer it.
Parental Controls --- Parent your own children. If you don't want them doing things that you don't approve of on the Fire don't give it to them.
In conclusion, I absolutely adore my Kindle Fire. It is everything I thought it would be and more. Considering my only real complaint is the keyboard situation, the Fire is near perfect. However, it is not for everyone. My honest advice is, if you have an iPhone or an Android phone and/or a Kindle e-reader, I wouldn't buy the Kindle Fire unless it is something you REALLY want. Most of the features are things you can do on your phone and if you have an e-ink Kindle the reading experience probably won't be that much better. I do not have a fancy phone nor an e-ink e-reader so I'm probably overly impressed with the Fire. I would say, do your research, make sure it is the right device for you and enjoy :)
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