Kindle Fire review
I've been wanting a tablet for awhile and, not having a ton of extra money, I can't afford a very expensive new gadget. So I picked up the Kindle Fire 7 inch for $50. It's a little small but if you want the 10 inch it'll cost you another $190, so that was not an option for me. Now, on to the good stuff! It runs games very smoothly and loads them quickly, which is nice. As far as streaming goes, I cannot get the Youtube app to work, as it always tells me I need to enable Java. Which is an easy fix but I don't feel like messing with it so I just go to the Youtube website. The videos run great, no lag there either. The Netflix app runs fine as well, but like I mentioned before it is a little small to watch TV on. Yes I'm spoiled; if I'm going to watch TV I like to do it on a big screen.
For the speakers, they're not bad. If you're going to watch TV or listen to music a lot you'll probably want a pair of headphones as they're not the best quality speakers but for the odd Youtube video they're fine.
One nice thing that is included with the Fire is Alexa. I'm sure everyone knows what Alexa is but just in case you don't I'll explain. If you've ever used an iPhone, Alexa is just like Siri, albeit a little more sophisticated. On the Fire you simply hold down the home button and then ask it questions, get directions, order stuff from Amazon, etc. My sister has an iPhone, so I used the opportunity to compare the two. I haven't tried to insult Alexa yet, which is what I do to my sister's iPhone every time I use it, but if I ever get around to it I'll let you know how it goes.
Now for the bad. There's only one browser available for the Fire, called Silk. It's slow. Sloooow. Like put the tablet down and find something else to do while the page loads slow. Which is not cool for me, because one of the reasons I bought the Fire is for cooking. To look at recipes you must use a browser! So I ran to google to see if there's a way to speed it up; there's not. On the old Fires there were settings you could change on the browser to speed it up, but not with the 5th generation. However I did find another way to fix it. I splurged and ordered a 64gb memory card. It was cheap at $19.99, and it's made specifically for the Kindle Fire. It arrived today actually, and once I put it in the Silk browser runs much faster, thank god. I still wouldn't call it lightning fast, but it's much improved.
The last thing I want to mention is the camera. Don't even bother using it. I have an eleven year old digital camera that takes better pictures. So just a word of caution, don't take your Fire on vacation and expect to get awesome photos. I've included the picture to the left so you can judge it for yourself; my dog Max kindly agreed to model for the photo.
Now for the verdict! It's not a bad tablet, especially considering the price. It'll work fine for what I'm using it for, and I didn't expect amazing things for $50. If you can afford it I would recommend spending a bit more money and getting a better quality tablet. Comparing the 7 inch Fire to the 10 inch Fire on Amazon, I can definitely see that the 10 inch is a more powerful tablet with better sound and a better camera. Whether it's worth $230 I cannot say. Has anyone ever used one and want to share their opinion? Let me know in the comments!
For the speakers, they're not bad. If you're going to watch TV or listen to music a lot you'll probably want a pair of headphones as they're not the best quality speakers but for the odd Youtube video they're fine.
One nice thing that is included with the Fire is Alexa. I'm sure everyone knows what Alexa is but just in case you don't I'll explain. If you've ever used an iPhone, Alexa is just like Siri, albeit a little more sophisticated. On the Fire you simply hold down the home button and then ask it questions, get directions, order stuff from Amazon, etc. My sister has an iPhone, so I used the opportunity to compare the two. I haven't tried to insult Alexa yet, which is what I do to my sister's iPhone every time I use it, but if I ever get around to it I'll let you know how it goes.
Now for the bad. There's only one browser available for the Fire, called Silk. It's slow. Sloooow. Like put the tablet down and find something else to do while the page loads slow. Which is not cool for me, because one of the reasons I bought the Fire is for cooking. To look at recipes you must use a browser! So I ran to google to see if there's a way to speed it up; there's not. On the old Fires there were settings you could change on the browser to speed it up, but not with the 5th generation. However I did find another way to fix it. I splurged and ordered a 64gb memory card. It was cheap at $19.99, and it's made specifically for the Kindle Fire. It arrived today actually, and once I put it in the Silk browser runs much faster, thank god. I still wouldn't call it lightning fast, but it's much improved.The last thing I want to mention is the camera. Don't even bother using it. I have an eleven year old digital camera that takes better pictures. So just a word of caution, don't take your Fire on vacation and expect to get awesome photos. I've included the picture to the left so you can judge it for yourself; my dog Max kindly agreed to model for the photo.
Now for the verdict! It's not a bad tablet, especially considering the price. It'll work fine for what I'm using it for, and I didn't expect amazing things for $50. If you can afford it I would recommend spending a bit more money and getting a better quality tablet. Comparing the 7 inch Fire to the 10 inch Fire on Amazon, I can definitely see that the 10 inch is a more powerful tablet with better sound and a better camera. Whether it's worth $230 I cannot say. Has anyone ever used one and want to share their opinion? Let me know in the comments!
Comments
Post a Comment