Kindle Fire: Comparing an Apple, an orange and a bit of a lemon
The Amazon Kindle Fire reviews are in and you can do all of that reading or just read this. Blorge has the head to head hardware and service comparisons, as well as the conclusions you need to make an informed buying decision.
First off, get the the hardware comparisons out of the way.
- • Price: The Kindle Fire, $199 vs. iPad, $499 and up
• Screen size: Fire, 7-inch vs iPad 9.7-inch
— Fire uses the same IPT LCD tech as iPad
• Software: Fire, Android 2.3 vs iPad, iOS
• Storage: Fire, 8GB (not expandable) vs iPad, 16GB and up
— Both offer some version of cloud storage
• Thickness: Fire, 0.45 inches vs iPad, 0.34 inches
• Weight: Fire, 14.6oz vs iPad, 1.3lbs
• Apps: Amazon Appstore w/ thousands of (mostly smartphone) apps vs iOS app w/ 100,000 iPad optimized apps
• Camera: Fire, has no cameras vs iPad, not great cameras
— via Seattle Times
That said, if you’re still not seeing it, please realize the iPad and Fire are very different devices targeted at different constituencies.
Bottom line sums
If you need to work on a tablet, don’t get the Kindle Fire. By most accounts, Fire has a serviceable email client, but browsing has been roundly panned.
If you like casual gaming — i.e. Angry Birds — Fire’s a perfectly serviceable solution, though graphics intensive games (i.e. Death Rally, Infinity Blade, Rage HD, etc.) aren’t available and won’t be playable assuming they ever get ported.
Where the Fire shines is video and shopping. And, though I’m writing this device sight unseen, the thing that makes Fire tempting to me is Amazon Prime, which nets you “free” second day shipping and lots of content, including free movies, books, TV and music.
That’s the math that matters most — the real cost of the Kindle Fire is $275 (tablet + Prime). If this calculation works for you, Amazon’s tablet might be for you…
What’s your take?
