Amazon Kindle Fire tablet

Name: Amazon Kindle Fire tablet
Item: Amazon Kindle Fire tablet
Rating: 2.50
Author: Melissa J. Perenson

A tablet that fails to impress, as either a tablet or as an e-reader

Melissa J. Perenson

PC World (US online)

16/11/11

Expert Rating

2.50 / 5

Pros

Easy shopping for Amazon books, music, videos
Smooth integration of cloud and local storage

Cons

Sluggish performance
Interface still has some bugs
Not as flexible and versatile as other tablets

Bottom Line

The 7in Android-based Amazon Fire will appeal to those who buy books, videos, and music at Amazon, but it will frustrate those looking for a more versatile slate.

Would you buy this?

Yes 23
No 9

Price
$ 199.00 (AUD)

We ran some of the PCWorld Labs' tablet tests on the Fire, and found decidedly mixed results. It was the second-slowest tablet (of more than two dozen we've tested) at transferring files from a PC. On the SunSpider JavaScript test, the Fire was slower than the HTC Flyer (Wi-Fi) and every Honeycomb tablet we've tested, but faster than last year's original 7in Samsung Galaxy Tab and a slew of tablets with single-core, sub-1GHz processors and Android 2.2 operating systems.

Amazon bills the battery life as lasting for up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, but those estimates are based on Wi-Fi being turned off. With Wi-Fi on, I found that my casual use of the tablet drained the battery surprisingly quickly. In about 3 hours, 45 minutes, the battery dropped from 56 per cent to zilch; I had brightness set to the default of three-quarters of maximum, and I used the tablet just for browsing the Web a bit, reading email, downloading several apps, and streaming a handful of tunes and a few minutes of video. Stay tuned for our full battery-life tests, which remain in progress.

The 7in IPS LCD screen carries a 1024x600pixel resolution, and bears an antireflective coating. The Fire also has a fairly obvious air gap between the screen's glass surface and the LCD panel itself. The Kindle Fire's screen was noticeably more reflective than the display of the Barnes & Noble Nook Colour when I compared the two side by side.

Amazon Kindle Fire: Conclusion

The Amazon Kindle Fire makes trade-offs to achieve a US$200 price. It's easy to dismiss some of the compromises and weaknesses of the Kindle Fire as the sacrifices necessary to achieve a price point, but the reality is that the Fire may not meet your expectations if you're looking for an Apple iPad 2-like tablet.

For those people who go in knowing what they're getting, and who want an inexpensive tablet that capably — though not spectacularly — handles their Amazon books, music, and video, the Kindle Fire's limitations may be acceptable. However, the Fire falls far short of providing a full and satisfying tablet experience.