Thread: Kindle Fire

Now that I have the Kindle Touch, and like it, I am considering the purchase of a Kindle Fire. It appears, however, to have some functions which cannot be accessed by users outside of the US. Although the Kindle Touch is all mine, I suspect the Kindle Fire will be hijacked by my wife/kids. Any users out there who could provide a review? Many thanks.

^ Does it have any advantage over a regular tablet (other than being a bit cheaper)?

^^Thanks FS. Kind of confirms my suspicions.

Originally Posted by Dan

^ Does it have any advantage over a regular tablet (other than being a bit cheaper)?

The size of it is nice- it's between a 'smart phone' and a tablet, and will fit in a (large) pocket.

The lack of available apps (in Asia) really put it behind an iPad or Android tablet, IMHO- if you lived in a country with access to Amazon Prime it would be a different story.

For $200 it's an excellent web surfer, and it's good for magazines and color pics, but I wouldn't say it has any advantages over other similar products.

I don't think it has any cameras, which is a disadvantage on the beach for those Kodak or Lovely rear End moments

^^ Thanks. I've got bazillions of pdfs which I want to read so I'm going to have to buy something and I think it's going to have to be a tablet but I was wondering what the advantage was of getting a Fire over an iPad or an Android device - nothing much it seems.

Originally Posted by Dan

I was wondering what the advantage was of getting a Fire over an iPad or an Android device

Only the price

This guy doesn't like it

Originally Posted by Dan

^^ Thanks. I've got bazillions of pdfs which I want to read so I'm going to have to buy something and I think it's going to have to be a tablet but I was wondering what the advantage was of getting a Fire over an iPad or an Android device - nothing much it seems.

If you're going to be reading text, I would highly recommend getting a regular Kindle (like the 'Kindle Touch' Davis reviewed in another thread)- tablets have a back-lit screen which will tire your eyes in a hurry- the regular Kindle uses ambient light and has 'digital ink' (which is very similar to a printed page) and you can read from it for hours on end just like you can with a paperback novel.

I have the original Kindle as well- I can download my books on both devices- when I try to read from the Kindle Fire, I generally give up after a short time and reach for the other (cheaper) Kindle (though it has a crappy, barely usable web browser, if that's a consideration).

Yes, I realise that the screens on tablets are less than ideal but a lot of the stuff I have is in pdf format and has funny formatting (papers and articles for example, or stuff that needs special handling). I had a look at Kindles and the stuff I have probably won't display well as a pdf (all that scrolling left and right) and it won't convert into Kindle format without ending up in a real mess. If I were just reading novels, then yes, I'd definitely go for a Kindle but I don't think it'd work out for me.

Originally Posted by FailSafe

Originally Posted by Dan

^^ Thanks. I've got bazillions of pdfs which I want to read so I'm going to have to buy something and I think it's going to have to be a tablet but I was wondering what the advantage was of getting a Fire over an iPad or an Android device - nothing much it seems.

If you're going to be reading text, I would highly recommend getting a regular Kindle (like the 'Kindle Touch' Davis reviewed in another thread)- tablets have a back-lit screen which will tire your eyes in a hurry- the regular Kindle uses ambient light and has 'digital ink' (which is very similar to a printed page) and you can read from it for hours on end just like you can with a paperback novel.

I have the original Kindle as well- I can download my books on both devices- when I try to read from the Kindle Fire, I generally give up after a short time and reach for the other (cheaper) Kindle (though it has a crappy, barely usable web browser, if that's a consideration).

Fully agree that the regular Kindle is much, much better for books but I do find that using it to read PDFs is a pain in the butt because it is so difficult to navigate. Probably easier and more comfortable on a tablet.

I've actually never loaded a PDF on my Kindle- I've only purchased books from the Amazon store, so they display perfectly- I'm not sure how they look, so I can't comment on that.