Kindle Fire 7 Review (Fifth Generation - 2015)

by Tony Thomas

The Kindle Fire 7 is a new tablet from Amazon at a very low price. I only paid $49 for mine. 

What kind of tablet do you get for such a paltry sum, you may be asking?  Well, it's not going to set any speed records and it isn't the sharpest screen that I have ever seen. But it only lists for $49!

Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of the new Kindle Fire 7 tablet.


First, the advantages:

1. Very Low Cost. $49 is a hard price to beat.  And when you buy a six-pack, you get one free!

2. Good Performance for the Price: It is solid, works well and I didn't find any major bugs.

3. Great Content Consumption Device:  That is where the Fire 7 shines. Reading books, watching movies, listening to music (use headphones), light gaming, checking e-mail, shopping and web browsing are its strengths.

4. Perfect for Amazon Prime User:  If you paid for an Amazon Prime subscription, this tablet will let you binge on the full-range of Amazon content.

5. Decent Battery Life:  About 7 hours. Not great, but not too shabby.

6. Very Durable and Well-Built:  I have seen impressive drop tests on You Tube. It seems like it will take abuse better than most tablets.

7. Well Designed UI:  Very simple to use and better than the old Fire carousel.

8. SD Card Slot:  Since it only has 8GB of storage, you will need it if you want to watch movies. A nice touch at this price point.

9. Pocketable:  Bigger than a smartphone. Smaller than most tablets.

Now, the disadvantages:

1. Limited Onboard Storage:  Only 8GB, but only 5 GB is usable.  This is meant to be a web device so it is an acceptable limitation.  I still would have preferred 16GB.

2. Medium Screen Resolution:   No retina display here (1024 x 600 @ 171 dpi). More like a typical notebook computer display. I had no problem reading on it, however.

3. No Google Apps:  If you are an avid Googler, you may feel deprived. The good news is that you can still get your G-Mail and use Google search in the browser. But the only way to access You Tube is through the browser.

4. Limited Apps on the Amazon App Store: No access to Google Play. Thankfully, most of the "big hitters" are available on their app store and the included apps are functional and well-designed.

5. Mono Speaker: And the sound isn't that great. Pack some earbuds.

6. Limited Productivity Potential: You can cobble together enough apps to get some things done. I installed Evernote and Wunderlist, for example. DropBox isn't on the Amazon app store but I was able to download it from their web site and side-load it. (Yes, you can side-load most Android apps.)

7. Thicker and Heavier than Most Tablets:  Not super slim like the latest iPad. Not annoyingly thick and heavy, though. More like a tablet from 5 years ago.

8. Proprietary OS:  Fire OS5 "Bellini".  Basically Android Lollipop with the Google removed.

9. Poor Quality Cameras: Low-resolution front and rear.  Better than nothing and they will do in a pinch if you have a lot of light.

10. Screen is a Fingerprint Magnet:  Be prepared to clean it often.

11. Slippery Back:  Plan on getting a case.

12. Limited Screen Real Estate:  After all, it is only 7".

13. No Voice Commands:  I use Siri and "OK Google" a lot and I really miss them when using the Kindle 7.

What else can I say? It is a $50 tablet and a real bargain for the price. It is cheap enough to be easy to replace if you lose it or break it.  You really can't go wrong!

Kindle Fire 7 on Amazon.com

Will Amazon Make the 7" Tablet Attractive?

Most of the Android Tablets introduced recently are 10.1" to directly compete with Apple's ubiquitous 9.7” iPad. The fact that most of them have failed to gain widespread acceptance has confounded tablet makers.

Enter Amazon. Their new Color Kindle will sport a 7" screen and is clearly targeted at Barnes & Noble's popular Nook tablet. It will reportedly run a custom-skinned older version of Android 2 and will serve up books, movies and music. The 7" form factor was popular before Honeycomb and Tegra 2 machines were introduced, primarily because they could run Android phone OSes like Eclair and Froyo. The smaller size makes 7" tablets more portable--even pocketable--and easy to hold in one hand. Many large tablets are homebound due to their size, bulk and awkwardness.

Google officially frowned on the smaller tablets and encouraged licensees to wait for Honeycomb and the big screens. As a result, there are only a handful of mainstream 7" tablets out there: the Galaxy Tab, B&N Nook, The Dell Streak and the HTC Flyer. While it has been form factor that has been largely ignored by major manufacturers, cheap, 7” Chinese tablets abound, rebadged by companies like Coby and Archos/Arnova.

Can 7” tablets catch on? Samsung recently demonstrated a 7.7” tablet in Germany, but it is unclear whether it will ever be introduced in the US due to Apple’s patent infringement crusade.  Since Steve Jobs has boldly declared that Apple will never make a 7” tablet, it is one form factor that Android could truly dominate.