Tablet Review: Kindle Fire

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In the latest soldier to be unleashed on the battlefield of the Tablet Wars is Amazon’s newest generation tablet, the Kindle Fire. But can a $200 mini-tablet take on Apple's iPad 2? The Android-powered, 7-inch device didn't exactly strike me as a productivity machine (at least when you look at the specs) capable of tackling Macintosh’s goliath. However, make no mistake about it — the Fire is a good tablet, with many (though not all) of the capabilities of something like an iPad. And does the release of this product fundamentally change Amazon's position in the market? Let’s find out.

Design

The design of the Kindle Fire is anything but inspired. It would be one thing if the device were simply a black rectangle with a high gloss screen. But what's more striking about the device is just how identical it looks in comparison to a product we've seen before. Namely, the BlackBerry PlayBook. They are a similar size (their dimensions closely match), both feature a 1024 x 600, 7-inch display on the front and have a plastic, soft-touch casing on the sides and back, and both weigh 0.9 pounds.

Still, the device feels solid and well made in your hands. It's got enough heft that it feels substantial, but it's not so heavy that you feel strain when holding it for extended periods. Unlike the 1.3 pound iPad 2, I never felt fatigue after reading a book or magazine on the Fire.
Battery life and performance

The battery on the Fire certainly lived up to Amazon's claim of 8 hours for "continuous reading." In fact, it might have slightly outperformed the ratings while I was using it. Much like my experience with the iPad and iPad 2, I never really found myself worrying about charging the device — it went for days at a time without needed to be plugged in. I think Amazon could do a better job with letting people know where their battery life is at; like most Android devices, you can only see battery percentage inside of a settings menu.
On the performance side, the Fire seems to be on par with much of its Android brethren, though it's possible that some of Amazon's customization is making the tablet feel a little more bogged down than what you'd get with a raw Android experience.

Software

Of course, as everyone knows, the Fire isn't about specs. It's not about horsepower. It's about software and services — and there's at least one of those places where Amazon truly shines. You can't question that the company has music, books, TV, and movie options galore, but how does Bezos' retailer fare at creating a siloed Android experience? The company made a big gamble that it could redesign and re-skin Google's OS in a way that was more user friendly and cohesive. So have they succeeded?

Usage

To be clear, the software experience of the Fire isn't wholly disconnected compared to other Android tablets or phones. You still have some of the basic pieces of the OS in place here, but others have been removed or heavily altered. Things that will seem familiar to Android users include the keyboard, the window shade notification area (though now it's a tap instead of swipe down), and many of the submenus and settings screens.

There are huge changes elsewhere, however. For starters, there aren't "home screens" or "widgets" here. Instead, Amazon offers a virtual bookshelf that has two specific places for your content. The upper level is a Cover Flow-style swipeable list which shows you your most recently used items (across music, books, magazines, apps, and more). The lower level is a user-programmable list, which allows you to place your favorite selections into an organized grid. You can rearrange these icons much like you do on the homescreen of the iPad (they automatically reshuffle), and the list grows downward as you add more items.
Otherwise, the OS has been generally cleaned up and made whole — so every app and menu that you're in looks cohesive and feels like part of the same family. Things aren't exactly perfect, however. I did notice some weird behavior on the homescreen where data seemed to be reloading randomly; the icons would flicker out and then flicker back on unexpectedly. The navigation icons in apps (home, back, and menu) were often finicky, wouldn't accept touches, or failed to appear when I wanted them to. Additionally, the overall OS performance feels jittery and sluggish, there are odd visual bugs, and things like the keyboard are slow to respond — going back to the iPad 2 from the Fire was a stark contrast in fit and finish. There's a lot of polish here, but I see a lot that Amazon still needs to perfect.

Next: More Kindle Fire Features >>
 

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