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

Kindle 7th Generation Basic Review (2014)

by Tony Thomas

After enjoying my Kindle 5th generation for a few years, I decided to upgrade to the new 7th generation basic Kindle. I needed a device with more memory and at only $79 with Special Offers and $99 without, it seemed to be a decent reader at an affordable price. 

I went on quest to search for one locally. Staples was a no-go. They only had the previous gen models and a well-worn display.  Fortunately, Best Buy was right next door. Best Buy also had a beat-up display, but alas there was a lonely 7th gen basic with no tagging or price. If I hadn't recognized it from pictures I had seen, I would have probably missed it.

Note to Amazon: You really need to improve your merchandising. Best Buy now has a Apple store, Samsung store, Windows store and Sony store.  How about a Kindle store?

Anyway, I finally got it home and opened up the typically minimalist Kindle box. Inside, there was only the Kindle, a basic instruction card and a USB cable.  No power adapter. That will cost you an extra $15-20 for the Amazon version.  

Fortunately, I still have the charger from my old 3rd gen Kindle "keyboard" model.  Reportedly, you can also charge the device in about 4 hours from your computer's USB jack.

Compared to my 5th gen, the new basic Kindle seems to be less sleek and more boxy.  The beveled back breaks up the otherwise bland and utilitarian design and makes the device easy to hold.  It is slightly thicker than the old version and a tad wider and longer as well. It offers a wider bezel and a bigger "chin". The design is reminiscent of the first generation Kindle Fire which leads me to believe that Quanta may be behind this build. There are no buttons other than the power button at its usual location next to the USB port at the bottom. 

That's right. No buttons. This is the first basic Kindle to offer touch control. It uses an infrared (rather than capacitive) 6" touch screen featuring Pearl e-paper technology with 167 ppi resolution. It is capable of 16 levels of gray and is not back-lit. The contrast seems to be similar to that of my 5th gen and text is dark and easy to read.  Photos can look a bit washed out, however.

5th gen vs. 7th gen Kindle Basic

New features include:

• Goodreads and social media integration.
• Enhanced "X-Ray" feature that allows you to see the structure of fictional works. 
• Integrated vocabulary builder with flash cards. 
• Kindle "FreeTime" to encourage young people to increase their reading. 

Features coming soon include:

• "Family Library" to allow you to link to your spouse's account.
• "Word Wise" to allow you to read selected challenging books more easily.
• Enhanced search capabilities incorporating info from Goodreads and the Amazon site.
• "About the Book" for more detailed author and book info.

The new 7th generation Kindle basic comes with 4GB of memory--twice as much as my 5th gen--and enough to store thousands of average-sized books.  In addition, as with all other Kindle devices and software, you also receive free cloud storage for your books and documents.

Using the new 7th gen is pretty easy.  The only snag is that, when you hit the power button, nothing seems to happen.  However, if you look closely, you will see a message at the bottom of the screen to swipe to unlock your Kindle.

Also, the infrared touch screen works much better than I expected. It is very responsive and flawless in operation.  You just tap on the right to advance a page, on the left  to go back a page, and on the top of the screen to view the menu and other information.  I found it almost as enjoyable to use as a capacitive screen, despite its lack of multi-touch capabilities.

In addition, the device allows you to view the covers of the books or just the text of the titles.  As with previous Kindles, there is an experimental web browser that is poky and awkward to use, but it may come in handy in a pinch. I guess that is why it is still experimental.

All in all, the 7th gen basic Kindle is a solid performer with long battery life (weeks, not days, in many cases), great readability and ease of use, small footprint and light weight.  If you are looking for a non-backlit e-reader that can hold a library full of books, it is a great choice.

For more info: 

Amazon Website

Kindle Fire Review

I had a chance to demo the new Kindle Fire at my local Staples store yesterday and was very impressed.  For $200, you will be hard-pressed to find a better media consumption device.

The key thing to remember is that the Fire is not a Google Android tablet.  It is primarily a book reader with many additional features that allow you to consume various types of media, including movies, music, games and applications.  You won't find any Google applications on the device and the Amazon App Store only offers a fraction of available Android applications.  In addition, you won't find any cameras, GPS, Bluetooth, 3 or 4G, or other niceties on the Fire that you will find on your typical Android tablet.  And if you are looking seriously at the Apple iPad, it may or may not be adequate.  It really depends on what you want to use it for.  But keep this in mind: it is less than half the price.

That said, the Kindle Fire has a lot to offer.  If you are an avid book reader, the Fire offers a great reading experience with color screen, backlighting and crisp text.  (The battery life is decent but nowhere near that of the e-Ink Kindles.)  If you love movies, the Kindle Fire offers a great movie-watching experience on a small screen.  If you love music, the Fire has you covered as well.  In addition, many of the top apps and games are also available on the Fire.  The Amazon ecosystem provides a very wide range of media to consume.

And since the unit is heavily subsidized by Amazon, you get great hardware ( dual-core processor, great screen, etc.) at little more than cost.  The memory is the biggest limitation with only 8GB onboard.  The accelerated Silk browser is adequate, but judging from the benchmarks I’ve seen, it is hard to say whether the acceleration feature lives up to its hype.  When you get one, you may want to experiment with turning acceleration off and see what the performance is like.

If you are looking for a true Google Android tablet, you need to look elsewhere.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab would be a much better choice since it does offer all of the Google applications, dual cameras, GPS and more memory.

But if your objective is getting an inexpensive media consumption solution, the Kindle Fire will fit the bill quite nicely.

Amazon Kindle Fire: A Smokin' Hot Deal!

Amazon dropped a bombshell on the tech world today by announcing their new Kindle Fire Tablet at an unbelieveably low price: $199 for a 7” color tablet?  No, that is not a typo.  $199.

Just hours before the announcement, analysts predicted that the new Kindle Fire would cost between $250 and $300.  Bezos and company have delivered a tablet that is not only affordable, but also provides a compelling multimedia experience.  They bypassed the familiar Android UI and cooked up one of their own to highlight Amazon’s expansive offerings.

One exclusive feature of the Fire is the new Amazon Silk (tm) accelerated “split browser”.  It uses an application on the tablet along with an application in the cloud to dramatically speed up web page loading.  Using Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) technology to do the heavy lifting, it also incorporates predictive algorithms to push content to the browser, making it even faster.

While the specs don’t compete with other Android Tablets (only 8GB of storage, no camera or microphone), Amazon is leveraging its massive cloud capabilities to provide books, music, software and movies in a way that no other competitor can--except Apple.  And, they are doing it at a fraction of the price of the iPad 2.  It seems that the folks in Cupertino are well aware of what is coming as news reports state that they have cut iPod 2 production by 25%.

However, it does include a multi-touch 7”  IPS screen with Gorilla Glass (tm) and a dual-core TI processor--features not seen on such an inexpensive tablet.  It seems that this tablet is heavily subsidized by Amazon, as they probably expect to recoup costs from increased sales.  Battery life is up to 8 hours.  Not bad considering its size and price.

Will this change the tablet game?  I think so.  First of all, it signals the re-emergence of the 7” tablet size pioneered by the Samsung Galaxy Tab, plus puts downward pressure on future tablet pricing.  This is good news for consumers and multimedia aficionados 

The Kindle Fire is available for pre-order now and will ship November 15th.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051VVOB2/ref=famstripe_kf

K is for Kindle

I bought an Amazon Kindle 3 WiFi on a whim back in February.  Since then, it has become a daily travel companion.  Why?  First of all, over 3500 books can live in this diminutive device.  That means that I no longer have to tote a bunch of dog-eared paperbacks, bent magazines, or heavy hardbacks around.  And, as the TV ads say, the 6" non-reflective E-ink(tm) screen is amazing, even in bright sunlight.  The contrast-ratio is much better than the Sony Reader that I used to carry.  The ability to change the font-size means that you can go from small to large type in seconds.  It is also sips electricity.  You can read for a month or so without a recharge.  Try that with an iPad or other tablet.

Getting new books into this device is dead easy.  Since it has built-in wifi and Whispersync(tm) technology, you can purchase a book and start reading it in less than a minute in most cases.  One thing that I didn't know before I bought it is that each Kindle comes with a unique, modifiable, e-mail address that allows you to send books, PDFs and other compatible files to it via e-mail.  You can choose which e-mail accounts it will receive data from, so you don't have to worry about spam.

Kindle books are usually cheaper than paper books and many are free.  The money that I have saved in buying paper books and paying shipping costs has made the Kindle a real bargain for me.  Plus, with the Kindle software, I can also read my books on my computers, iPod Touch, Galaxy Tab and Blackberry.

Other features include built-in stereo speakers, a headphone jack and a built-in mp3 player.  That makes it easy to listen to music or Audible (tm) audio books on the go.  Some books allow text to be read aloud using a computerized voice.  This isn't something that I use but it is a great feature for the visually impaired.  It also has a built-in dictionary that allows you to look up definitions while you are reading and an experimental web-browser.  I recommend the browser only as a last resort as it is slow, has a monochrome screen and does not always display pages correctly.

The Kindle 3 sells for $139, but you can also buy a 3G version for $189 if you want to be able to download books or magazines away from a hot spot.  There is also a subsidized version for $114 (Kindle with Special Offers) if you don't mind reading ads.

There are rumors that Amazon is planning to introduce an Android tablet this fall.  I hope that it doesn't mean that the Kindle 3 is a goner, as its E-ink(tm) screen, light weight, low-cost, and amazing battery life make it a more appealing reading option than heavier tablets.

www.amazon.com