The new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet: details and practical observations. Multimedia and usage
Ten months ago, the Kindle Fire blew up the American market. The largest online store Amazon presented a device that was actually a terminal for buying digital content from a corporate website. The tablet was offered at an extremely low price, equal to the cost price, and Amazon planned to make money on content sales. The calculations were justified - the Kindle Fire became the best-selling product of the online store, the sales figures for films, music, games and books were just off scale. But analogues from other brands soon appeared. America's second online book retailer after Amazon, Barnes & Noble, unveiled the Nook Tablet, and Google, the service-oriented Nexus 7 Google play, an online store for applications and games for Android OS. There are rumors of an imminent release of Apple's iPad mini. In a word, competitors are not asleep.
To maintain its leadership position, Amazon introduced the second generation Kindle Fire. Now users are offered several modifications of the device. You can choose a tablet with a 7-inch screen (it will have 16 or 32 GB of memory), or you can choose an 8.9-inch version (32 or 64 GB of memory). There is a version of the 8.9-inch tablet with 4G support. These are the main differences from the first generation model. And the Kindle Fire 2 also received a camera, an HD screen, a special stereo system, a dual-band Wi-Fi module, and an HDMI output.
Our review is devoted to the model - it appeared on sale first. Using her example, we will evaluate the potential of the second generation Kindle Fire, and also try to find out how the tablet will be of interest to Russian users.
Design
The first generation tablet was criticized for its low-key "cheap" appearance. Amazon has redesigned the device - the new look does not make the Kindle Fire HD a standard of style either, but it has more attractive lines. The back surface of the tablet received rounded edges instead of the square edges that were present on. Due to this, the visual impression is created that the novelty is much thinner than its predecessor (in fact, the thickness has decreased by only 1.1 mm). The Kindle Fire HD measures 193 x 137 x 10.3 mm. The tablet has become 3 mm wider and 17 mm longer than its predecessor. The weight has decreased from 413 to 395 grams.
In general, the design has remained modest and unassuming. The screen is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass. The back surface is made of soft-touch rubberized plastic. The entire width of the rear panel is covered by a plastic overlay, along the edges of which there are speakers. Its right side is stamped "Kindle". Below this insert is the Amazon logo and certification information.
The location of the camera, buttons, and ports clearly indicates that the tablet is geared towards primarily landscape use. Taking the Kindle Fire HD in our hands horizontally, we have a camera above the screen right in the center, power buttons, volume control and a headphone jack on the right side of the case, micro-USB and HDMI connectors on the bottom end. Via micro-USB, it is proposed to charge the tablet (there is no charger included) and transfer files from the computer, and the HDMI output is used to display the image from the tablet to an HD panel or monitor.
How successful was the design of the Kindle Fire HD? From a visual point of view, the tablet looks more elegant (due to the rounded edges of the back cover), and has become a little lighter. In terms of ergonomics, a definite plus is the horizontal orientation and a wide frame around the display, for which the tablet is convenient to hold with your hands. The camera is positioned optimally. Minus - the shape of the power buttons and volume control. Due to the fact that they are recessed into the body as much as possible, it is very difficult to find them blindly. At first, the user will have to rotate the tablet in order to turn it off or simply add volume.
Screen and sound
Although the anti-reflective coating is applied to the screen, it does not particularly protect against glare, so it will be difficult to read or watch a movie in bright sunlight. But this is a common problem for all tablets with an LCD display - it is also present on the KIndle Fire HD.
Compared to the Nexus 7, an important plus for the Kindle Fire HD is the Dobly Digital Plus speakers. At the presentation of the novelty, Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon) talked a lot about the fact that the developers put an HD screen on the tablet not at all for show. Amazon is preoccupied with the task of delivering the user an integrated pleasure from watching HD content. Hence - the presence of a stereo system that provides a 720p film with a high-quality sound range. The speakers are located at the edges of the cabinet for optimal stereo effect. There are no wheezing even at maximum volume. The sound is really great: even if you cover the speakers with your fingers (which sometimes happens when you hold the tablet with both hands), the sound remains high-quality and clear.
Device operation
The proprietary interface has hardly changed in comparison with the first Kindle Fire. The centerpiece is the same carousel of installed applications, open files and browser windows. The content of the carousel is scrolled forward or backward with a finger, and all items are sorted according to the "recently opened files in front" principle.
Above the carousel is a horizontal menu, in which, in particular, there are items "Applications" (Apps), "Books" (Books), "Music" (Music), "Photos" (Photos) and so on. There are many icons and they do not fit the entire length of the screen - many of them are hidden. You need to scroll the menu all the way to the right with your finger to find, for example, a browser. This menu cannot be called intuitive. To get to the "Settings" section, you need to click on the black bar at the top of the screen with your finger - the device settings are located in the drop-down menu. Also a rather controversial decision. A user who first took a tablet in hand will have to puzzle over to find, for example, a display brightness control.
Navigation in the menu is carried out using the virtual keys "Home", "Back" and "Menu". The Home button is now in the left corner of the screen, and the Back button is centered. Not very convenient. The device does not offer multitasking, the only way to quickly access applications that you often use is to add them to your favorites. Access to it is opened by the "Star" icon located next to the above-mentioned virtual keys.
Even without any additional manipulations with the device (root or additional firmware), it is possible to install applications from apk files. This is how we managed to install Cool Reader on the tablet for reading books in FB2 and EPUB formats, the MX Player application for watching films in almost any video format, as well as, for example, Yandex Maps. But you won't be able to use the Android market (Google Play), as well as the AmazonStore application store - the latter requires that the account of the American issuing bank be linked to the account. Among the traditional Android apps available on the device are OfficeSuite, Skype, Facebook and the Opera mini browser pre-installed.
Among the software innovations that were introduced on the Kindle Fire HD, the Whispersync for Voice and X-ray features stand out. To use the first option when buying a book, you need to purchase its audio version (for about $ 4). In this case, alternate reading and listening to an audiobook, naturally, with "memorizing" the page on which you interrupted, switching from the book to its audio version. The second function will be useful when watching movies. In movies, X-ray allows you to display information about the actors in the frame in real time. Their biographies and filmographies are downloaded from the largest internet movie database IMDb.
The Russians will definitely not be able to evaluate X-ray, but Whispersync for Voice will work for English-language books. To purchase applications (or even download free ones), movies, music and games, the tablet requires you to register a card issued by an American bank in your account. Russians will only have access to reading opportunities. Credit card from a Russian bank tied to Amazon's account you can only pay for books or subscriptions to periodicals. No holiday.
Reading of books
The interface of the reader has not changed much. You can turn pages by short pressing and swiping your finger across the display. In the settings, there are several options for field sizes, 6 fonts and 3 options for the background and text color (black on white, brown on sand and white on black). Multitouch makes it possible to work relatively comfortably with PDF files. Periodicals downloaded from Amazon can be read in two modes: with illustrations (in the form of a regular magazine page) or in plain text (in this case, you can adjust the font size). The standard program works with TXT, MOBI and PDF files. Using Wireless Upload, you can optionally upload DOC, DOCX, and RTF documents to your Kindle Fire HD. Through the program Cool Reader, you can read the popular FB2 and EPUB e-book formats.
Speed
In terms of performance and speed, no problems were identified with the Kindle Fire HD. And those applications that were installed on the device, and those that we installed there at our own discretion, worked without problems and did not freeze. Games like Andry Birds just fly, books and magazines just flip through at lightning speed. HD-video plays without problems: the image does not slow down, the sound does not lag behind the picture. We did not measure performance with special tests, and is this required? Most users are unlikely to be able to seriously load the processor when using the tablet for entertainment purposes. An ordinary user who needs to surf the Internet, play games, and watch a movie, the performance of the Kindle Fire HD will satisfy one hundred percent.
Time autonomous work
During the week, while our testing of the tablet lasted, we can say the following regarding the duration of the work: the Kindle Fire HD keeps the charge at the usual level. No better, but no worse than other seven-inch models - or Nexus 7. Amazon says that in normal use (a little bit of web surfing, watching videos, listening to music and other joys) the device will work on one charge for 11 hours. It turned out that the stated number is quite true. And only such excesses as lengthy Skype calls can significantly reduce the battery life. Long video calls drain the battery very quickly, in normal mode, the Kindle Fire HD has a standard 7-inch tablet battery life - 10-11 hours.
By the way, there is no charger included with the device - it is suggested to charge the tablet from a computer. Experimentally, it turned out that you can use an adapter from Kindle 3 to charge the device. Charging the tablet from the outlet is much faster. The Kindle Fire HD fully charged from the network in 3.5 hours.
Wi-Fi
At the presentation of the novelty, Jeff Bezos (founder and CEO of Amazon) said that one of the main innovations is the use of a dual-band Wi-Fi module in the Kindle Fire HD, that is, in fact, a pair of transmitters wireless... Bezos assured that the new Kindle Fire HD will definitely surpass the third iPad in terms of wireless connection speed - HD videos will load 40% faster. MIMO technology allows the tablet to use two Wi-Fi bands. Most Wi-Fi devices use the standard 2.4 GHz frequency, interfering with each other and slowing down the connection. The Kindle Fire HD is capable of additional 5 GHz network coverage for more stable and faster wireless performance. This is in theory. In reality, it turned out that the Internet speed of the Kindle Fire HD is at least the same as compared to the iPad. Moreover, the iPad browser may well give a head start to the proprietary Amazonian Silk in terms of speed and responsiveness to user actions. If you plan to use the Kindle Fire HD in a single Wi-Fi hotspot, the benefits of MIMO technology will be evident. In a normal home environment, we did not feel the advantages of having an advanced Wi-Fi module in the tablet.
Camera
The front camera on the Kindle Fire HD is for Skype calling. High-definition video calling is another plus for the Kindle Fire HD. Other manufacturers of tablets (including the giants Samsung and Apple) for some reason do not pay due attention to the quality of video calls. The front camera on the Nexus 7 is downright unfortunate. On the Kindle Fire HD via Skype, your interlocutor will not only be able to see your outline - the picture quality for video calls is simply top notch. The camera can be attributed to the indisputable advantages of the tablet.
Firmware and Russification
When it comes to how convenient it is to use the tablet in its original form for Russian users, the question arises about alternative firmware and Russification. We think the out-of-the-box Kindle Fire HD is a very interesting option in the 7-inch tablet segment. The only serious drawback now is the lack of Russification. There are not so many other disadvantages.
Perhaps it would be nice to have memory card support on the Kindle Fire HD. However, for example, the closest competitor Nexus 7 also does not support flash drives, and its version, equal in price to the Kindle Fire HD, is offered only with 8 GB of memory. The Kindle Fire HD has twice as much for the same price. In addition, it is unlikely that Russian users will watch exclusively high-definition video on the Kindle Fire HD. Installing a third-party video player (and it is possible without root and firmware) allows you to watch movies in any format.
Another disadvantage may seem like the lack of GPS. But on the other hand, the tablet is not a smartphone and it is not very convenient to use it as a navigator. And so, as an affordable entertainment device for everyday use, the Kindle Fire HD justifies itself. The screen here is better than that of the Nexus 7, you can already install many applications from apk files, and original interface will soon be "finished", opening access to Google Play and the possibility of comfortable installation of any applications. In addition, after a while, Russification will appear for the Kindle Fire HD, followed by alternative firmware for Android 4, which allows replacing the original shell with the usual "open" interface.
The overall impression of the first model of the second generation Kindle Fire is extremely positive. Amazon paid attention to "little things", secondary parameters that other manufacturers did not really take into account (speakers, front camera, wireless quality). The priorities so far have been considered a large screen resolution, a powerful processor and the lowest possible price. The first Kindle Fire also offered these benefits. In the second version of the device, priority was given to the quality of video, sound, video communication, and wireless data transmission. has not lost the advantages of the first version, received new ones, and will certainly take its rightful place in the segment of 7-inch tablets.
The main competitors of the Kindle Fire HD in Russia are. Their advantages: open Android, support for flash cards (from Samsung), GPS-module. The Kindle Fire is favored by a better quality screen, lower price, advanced additional options (HD-camera, dual-band Wi-Fi, stereo speakers, HDMI connector). Thus, the Russians will either have to put up with the shortcomings of the Kindle Fire HD and wait for the appearance of alternative firmware, or pay attention to the mentioned models with a "full" OS Android.
And although two years ago, tablets different forms and the sizes flew like hot cakes, global sales have been on the decline recently. Even Apple, the founder of the tablet form factor, is losing its fans.
Manufacturers are increasingly targeting the budget end of the market, suppressing the mass market with polycarbonate, and at around £ 5,000, the Amazon Fire (2015) is the latest example. The tablet is really so cheap and angry that retail electronics stores are offering Amazon tablets in bundles - buy five and get the sixth for free!
Amazon tries to be wherever there is no Apple, to reach every corner that the company from Cupertino has not crawled into. And while Apple preaches high-end devices, Amazon, by contrast, considers every tablet below the top-of-the-line.
And with such low prices, the big question becomes, of course: what about the quality? If you consider a $ 50 or more tablet, you can be sure of a smooth user experience, great bezel and metal case with leading specs, but what trade-offs can there be with a budget proposal?
Amazon Fire Design (2015)
The Amazon Fire (2015) tablet looks more like one of those prototype tablets that you sometimes see in blurry screenshots taken in foreign laboratories. And it feels in your hands just like you can imagine when you see these prototypes.
Amazon Fire Review (2015): In short, everything on the iPad isn't on the Amazon Fire.
Despite all this, the rough polycarbonate feels good in the hand, and the device also feels reassuringly substantial. This tablet has enough area, which is noticeable in the arrangement of the buttons.
Aside from the almost invisible microSD slot on the right side of the tablet, there is nothing remarkable about three of the four sides of the Amazon Fire tablet.
This means that on the top of the tablet, you'll find a volume rocker, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Micro USB port, and a power button, all fighting for a place in the sun, which seems like a very confusing decision in Amazon's tablet design.
The front-facing VGA camera sits above a 7-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel screen, while on the back you'll find a 2MP camera, a thin Amazon braining, and a rear speaker.
In the dark, trying to find and press the right button remains very unpleasant, you have to fumble around for a long time.
—
Today, however, there are some differences, general trends in button placement as a result of design evolution, and Amazon's decision in this regard is somewhat puzzling.
Overall, the Amazon Fire 7 looks unassuming and boring. You probably won't care when you watch videos or websites in bed, but get it on the subway and no one turns their heads. Again, at around $ 5,000, you get exactly what you pay for.
Amazon Fire 7 display
Screen technology has progressed aggressively since the first tablets and smartphones.
Remember, it wasn't until five years ago that resistive touchpads were ubiquitous, but now we prefer the gorgeous QHD AMOLED panels.
And, as technology seeped into the budget tablet market, "bad" screens ceased to exist as designers and engineers preferred the cheaper technologies of the past. And this is a justifiable solution that can be considered acceptable within the technological age, although in the case of Fire (2015), some restrictions may have been violated.
With a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, the Amazon Fire we reviewed only offered 171 ppi, which doesn't look great even on a small screen. The pixelation of the text is striking, which makes the reading experience not exactly enjoyable and certainly not on the device that is positioned as the optimal e-reader.
Watching videos doesn't offer an immersive experience either. HD content is obviously beyond the capabilities of an Amazon device, and content that is stuck between 480p and 720p does not benefit the Amazon Fire (2015) screen.
But we have more than bad news. The tablet's display offers decent viewing angles, screen illumination is even and provides adequate brightness when required.
On the other hand, the color reproduction of the panel is not quite inspiring, some tones are quite dull and muted, and visibility in bright sunlight is not very good.
Given its price, it's hard to blame the Fire for the screen quality, but there is still no way to avoid the fact that ASUS and other cheap tablets on the market offer the best quality for a slight increase in price, ASUS MemoPad 7 is especially strong.
Ecosystem and ApplicationsAmazonFire (2015)
Since the release of the first tablet in the Kindle series, Amazon has promoted a “Walled-Garden” strategy with its own content. Hence, given the retail tablet market, sales don't end with the purchase of a tablet.
To do this, the company has developed its own Android add-on, replacing almost everything in the original OS.
This is an extreme degree of modification that can have its advantages - and while it is constantly improving, Amazon's remodel is far from the vast offering of the original Android - but Amazon cannot fix all the shortcomings of this approach.
Turn on your Fire tablet (2015): you will be greeted by a "carousel" - a series of segments, each of which offers its own content.
The home screen offers a rich selection of pre-installed Amazon apps. Swipe to the left and you will see a "new" screen where you will find recently used applications. Swipe right and you get, in this order, "Books", "Videos", "Games", "Store", "Apps and Apps", "Music", "Audiobooks" and "Kiosk".
When you use your Amazon tablet for the first time, it looks like you’ve entered an online store, especially when you consider that, by default, ads are displayed on the lock screen - you will have to pay $ 15 (£ 1000) to get rid of from them.
All of this makes the user experience akin to an entertainment site that doesn't offer content enjoyment in the comfort of your own home.
And the way the content is accessed doesn't make sense. The user must navigate to the desired content from a specific site or select something from the "recommendations".
Otherwise, every action will have to be performed using the ubiquitous search bar located at the top of the screen, supported by the search engine Bing (Microsoft) or Amazon. You can perform a similar chain of actions using home screen buttons and shortcuts.
In general, it seems that the design of the user interface suffers from a lot of redundant information, but if you get rid of all that is unnecessary, you will get the impression of "incompleteness".
Despite the fact that user interface The tablet is based on Android 5.1, and the Amazon tablet looks like its interface was the result of abandoned experiments several years ago.
Convenient baby functions
And while any budget tablet can't stand up to the iPad, parents on a tight family budget will playfully play Amazon's smaller tablets when it comes to kids' features. In this area, Amazon and its series of "hot" tablets were eaten by the dog. First of all, according to Amazon, its tablets are 1.8 times stronger.
This kid-friendly approach goes beyond Amazon's tablet design and build quality. Amazon's software, while can be confusing and annoying in some areas, has a number of innovative features designed to keep parents and kids entertained.
Parents can set daily goals, timelines, manage the content their child can access, buy unlimited support for Amazon Fire for Kids, and can also choose which features their child can control on the device. Separate accounts can be created for different ages.
The excellent account support provided by the redesigned OS promises to switch between accounts in a matter of moments, making the Amazon Fire an attractive option for kids' home tablets or travel devices.
Amazon is taking a route that other manufacturers are only exploring and offering on the most expensive tablets, which promises some Amazon dividends.
Amazon Fire Programs (2015)
Given that Amazon is working on its own Android redesign, as well as targeting digital content and services, it should come as no surprise that it offers its own app store. Unexpected news: it does not boast of variety.
Users got a lot of good as a result of the app war between Google and Apple, which left by a huge margin, offering millions of apps to the market. Microsoft and Amazon are trying to follow these two, but they offer only a fraction of the success in the mobile app market and, unfortunately for Amazon, even Microsoft offers more in this regard.
And while the Fire has full Android compatibility, Amazon tablet users can't access Google services with a tablet out of the box.
This means that Google Maps, Google docs and all other applications are not available, therefore, you have to download third-party counterparts, but they rarely offer the same performance and, therefore, are not an option for a large target audience.
Users who choose third-party downloads of official Google apps will be left without regular updates to those apps, which is especially important with Google Maps.
Therefore, most users will be forced to choose from a tiny number of applications in the store. And while several big titles are present on the Amazon platform, including a few streaming TV services, along with some games, the Amazon ecosystem has nothing to offer that comes close to even Windows Phone.
The lack of an official YouTube app, for example, is one prime example. The fact that one of the most popular online media services in the world has no representation in the Amazon store other than through a few third-party applications is a testament to the problems of the Amazon ecosystem.
For those who simply intend to use a tablet to access content or use already purchased Amazon services, this will not be a problem. But for other users, the lack of available applicationsis likely to be one of the main reasons for rejection.
Amazon Fire (2015) performance and battery
The performance of the Amazon Fire (2015) tablets is actually very good for its price category, thanks to 4-core aRM processors from clock frequency 1.3GHz backed by 1GB of RAM.
And although Fire will not be able to chew loud names, it does well with most games. And while it won't be able to match the performance of the iPad Air 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, it isn't worthless.
Specifications backed up by GeekBench benchmark results. Amazon Fire (2015) scored 359 points in the single-core test, beating the 2-year score, and the multi-core score of 1191, for example, beats the Moto G, which is powered by the 4-core Snapdragon 400.
While those numbers may not sound impressive, remember we're talking about an Amazon tablet that costs around £ 5,000. Considering the market situation, the result is impressive.
With 1GB of RAM, the Fire doesn't offer a propensity for multitasking, but it's enough for the job. Switching between applications is the same as on vanilla Android: the square soft key gives access to the extended block of applications, although launching more than several at the same time will force them to reboot.
Performance is one area where Amazon, as you might think, has compromised; Fortunately, this is not the case.
It's not the most suitable tablet for power users, but it's certainly more than capable of providing hours of productivity for the novice user.
Battery life
Without hundreds of notifications throughout the day, given its modest processor and negligible screen resolution, the Fire's battery offers a consistent seven hours of battery life, Amazon promises, especially if it plays video.
It is clear that the tablet cannot offer the same battery life under gaming load. As you might expect, the tablet heats up during extended gaming sessions, which causes the battery to drain quickly enough, about three hours instead of seven - roughly the duration of a short flight, let alone a train journey.
In traditional use, as the Amazon Fire 7 (2015) review showed, the tablet can withstand a full day and a little more, provided that you surf the web, use iPlayer for a short time, a few casual games and listen to Spotify, which is an average load. The wait time, meanwhile, shows excellent results, the tablet only lost five percent of its charge overnight.
Be warned, however, the tablet does not offer dedicated battery modes, which is disappointing given that power-saving modes are quickly becoming an important part of new mobile devices. For travelers and other users, this is probably a pretty good score.
Wi-Fi, memory and keyboard
We found that the Amazon Fire tablet achieved acceptable Wi-Fi speeds quite consistently. Decent reception was provided even in areas that were questionable for a clear signal.
Users who spend a lot of time in the car should remember that, like any tablet without SIM support, the tablet does not have built-in GPS, so they cannot use it as a cheap navigator.
The tablet also offers only 8 GB and not all of them are available to the user. This makes the MicroSD card an essential add-on for those planning to install more than a few apps or download music to their Amazon tablet.
The sound of the speakers remains quite adequate. Although it's a mono speaker located on the back, it sounds loud enough, but the tinny sound could not be avoided. However, given that Amazon offers Dolby Surround Sound in expensive tablets, it's disappointing that Amazon hasn't made more efforts in this direction.
Amazon's keyboard remains mediocre. This also applies to the Silk browser, which is a bit like Chrome for Android, but lacks all the most interesting features, it only has basic options as opposed to more advanced browsers. Since the keyboard and browser are Amazon's own solution, you cannot change or replace them.
Amazon Fire Camera (2015)
Despite constant calls not to use tablets for photography, many users are increasingly turning to their tablets for photography, so a tablet camera is becoming a must-have feature today.
But I'll say it again: Don't worry about tablet photography - and especially not the Amazon Fire.
With its 2MP main camera and front-facing VGA camera, Fire has no plans to offer you serious shots, you shouldn't wait for the camera quality of the Samsung Galaxy S6 or LG G4.
Not surprisingly, the results obtained with these two sensors are extremely poor, in particular, the front camera leaves a terrible impression. Photos look like oil paintings with washed out details, poor color rendering and a lot of noise.
At least the Amazon camera app makes the process of capturing images as easy as possible. Focusing requires one tap on the screen, after which the shutter button will take a photo. Pressing the red Record button starts video recording.
Everything is presented very cleanly and mostly intuitive. This extends to the settings as well, the only concession in terms of user control is the inclusion of HDR mode.
Summing up ...
Amazon Fire (2015) Review and Its practical use leave two conflicting impressions. Despite the hardware and overall quality of the tablet, performance is lacking due to the lack of some basic applications and the strange design of the user interface.
We liked:
Solid build, a variety of cases and accessories, and it's a tablet you won't worry about. A decently bright screen, reasonably loud sound, and battery life even longer than we expected.
Performance also came out on top for the entry-level Fire tablet, as it handled Amazon-Android and most of the games I fed it during my review. Did I mention that the tablet only costs 5,000 rubles?
We didn't like:
Considering the low resolution of the screen, watching videos or reading text for more than ten minutes, especially black text on a white background, is nowhere near as enjoyable as it is with good resolution.
And while the Amazon tablet offers robust and innovative features for the family, Amazon's version of Android seems confusing and too forceful to sell products to the user. Removing ads on the lock screen will cost you about $ 15 (1,000 rubles), which reduces the price advantage of the tablet relative to its closest competitors.
Final word
Amazon sells Fire for 5,000 rubles. For this price, the tablet can be recommended to almost everyone, but we will not do that.
Given the consistent fall in tablet prices over the past year or so, this means that there are a number of strong Android-based competitors offering the best performance-to-price ratio.
When you include the need to disable ads on your lock screen, the Amazon Fire 7 has a similar price tag but boasts better performance and an attractive screen. Is it worth reminding you of potentially more apps?
If this is your first tablet, you are parents looking for useful control levers for their children, and for those who have been investing in the Amazon ecosystem for a long time, the Fire 7 is becoming a comparatively meaningful purchase. But for the general public, it just isn't worth the money, sometimes it’s worth spending a little more, but it’s worth it.
Amazon's new Kindle Fire is the company's first mobile device to go beyond the black-and-white e-reader format, offering users access to apps, music, video and online publishing. color touch screen.
Fire is a threat to iTunes, not iPad
The new Fire follows in the footsteps of the Apple iPad, but is a somewhat "simplified" version of a tablet device (it lacks some of the original iPad's features, such as a camera) with a price tag of half to three times less than half of the tablets on the market. The Fire's $ 199 price tag is half the price of the "junior" Apple iPad, but in the race to keep the device low, Amazon sacrificed some of its important features, which significantly reduced its overall appeal.
While many industry experts see Amazon's new tablet as a challenge to the popular Apple iPad (and even see it as proof that Amazon's next step will be to enter the smartphone market, offering the same budget price and willingness to take a loss), it was actually created with the purpose of drawing attention to the Amazon online store, music and video services, applications and cloud storage of the company. Amazon does not offer iPads in its range to help promote the competitive retail services iTunes, iCloud, etc.
Amazon hardly had the opportunity to release a full-featured, full-size iPad-like tablet for the same price as the iPad. Much more experienced manufacturers, from Motorola to Samsung, have already tried to do this this year by launching their Android tablets and making sure they are not competitive. It turned out that after the release of the iPad, most of the consumers of the tablet market are not interested in tablets from other manufacturers (the same situation has developed after the release of iPods, which are still in great demand compared to other manufacturers).
Under all the circumstances, Amazon is ready to sell the created Fire tablets at a loss in order to "pull" its potential consumers out of the competitive iTunes environment. This approach is very close to the strategies of Xbox and PlayStation: willingness to lose on sales of equipment in order to strengthen their positions in the software market. Apple's approach is the opposite: the company sells its elegant multifunctional devices at a bargain price, offering its customers the opportunity to use free or low-cost software and cloud services.
Kindle Fire and how it works
The Kindle Fire is sold in a simple packaging that reveals the device and micro-USB power adapter when you open it. The kit does not include headphones and a micro-USB cable for connecting to a PC (the power adapter is built into the cable), but Amazon instead of syncing with a PC via USB offers the ability to work in cloud online services for using various content. The box contains a quick guide to getting started on the tablet: press a button, wait for loading and swipe across the screen (similar to Apple touch devices).
Fire installations have little to do with mobile apple devices; they are closer to the traditional PC. Amazon does not have a direct equivalent to iTunes, the company offers a "no PC" installation method, similar to the latest versions of devices running iOS 5. Unlike Apple, Amazon immediately prompts the user to connect via WiFi and immediately use the Amazon account to make purchases. It's easier and more convenient than Apple's system that requires you to enter your personal Apple ID.
The user has the ability to "unlink" the account received when purchasing the Fire, and create (or continue to use) a separate account at Amazon (unlike previous Kindle, strictly linked to an account at Amazon). To set up Fire, you need an Amazon account (and an attached credit card to pay for purchases), only after that the user can download any content, whether paid or free. In this regard, there are no differences from Apple iOS and iTunes.
After setting up the general configurations, the Kindle Fire informs (without asking the user for permission) to download updates and reboot further, and recommends connecting to the network until it finishes installing updates. The installation process is generally not difficult, but not as flawless as in iOS. It should be borne in mind that for the Kindle Fire operating system this is version 1.0, unlike Apple with the fifth generation of iOS.
Amazon is finding a way to offer more for less.
Verdict: Amazon Fire HD 10 directs its energy to the right places. You won't find a better deal with a new large screen tablet.
- pros: Cheap | FHD display | Alexa is helpful;
- Minuses: Amazon Fire OS | Plastic design | Bad cameras;
It's no secret that the tablet market is in decline. People don't have to buy a new tablet every two years like phones do.
And while Apple and Microsoft are trying to spark renewed interest in tablets by offering a flurry of laptop replacements, Amazon is working on the opposite price spectrum with a series of reliable, discreet tablets.
Improvements have been gradual, but the 2017 Amazon Fire HD 10 model offers an FHD display, performance enhancements, and a convenient Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon's biggest achievement with the new tablets is the price cut. This year, the Fire HD is not only better than its predecessor, but also cheaper: $ 150 / 9.000 rubles.
You can buy many small tablets for a low price, however, it is much more difficult to find large screen tablets at such a reasonable price.
AmazonFireHD 10 (2017): Price and release date
- Amazon Fire HD 10 costs $ 150/9000 rubles.
- You can pay $ 15 extra to get rid of ads on your lock screen.
The good news is that Amazon has shaved off a significant chunk of the price with the latest Fire HD 10, and raised resolution and performance. The bad news is the tablet remains plastic.
Pricing for Amazon's new 10-inch tablet starts at RUR 9,000 for the "With Special Offers" model, which means you get ads for a variety of content on your device's lock screen. If this decision offends you, pay an additional $ 15 / 1,000 rubles and you can get the Fire HD 10 (2017) ad-free. It's also worth noting that you can pay this amount at any time in the future to disable ads on your device.
Amazon Fire HD 10 64GB costs 190 dollars or 11,500 rubles. Both tablet models come with a convenient microSD card slot, up to 256GB.
Talk to your tablet
- Hands-free functionAlexa can be very helpful;
- To get the best out of this tablet, you needAmazonPrime;
The Amazon Echo came as a surprise blow, captivating many users with its Alexa. Possibility to request songs, get a short news feed, or play a round of the intellectual game "Isn't it?" (Would You Rather?) Users like it.
If you are thrilled with the prospect of having Alexa on your tablet, now you can.
Using Alexa on the Fire HD 10 (2017) is as easy as using the Echo, just say her name and then ask a question or give a command. You can search the Internet, open apps, get a weather forecast, or simply use Alexa to pause a movie you're watching.
Since Alexa has a 10.1-inch display, the assistant's responses are complemented by visuals. For example, weather forecasts show the next few hours and days, while a quick check of a schedule is followed by a calendar division.
We've found that hands-free commands are much more useful on a tablet. Imagine your Fire HD 10 tablet is out of reach and you want to pause your movie for a short break - just tell Alexa.
If you are cooking in the kitchen and want to check the recipe - ask Alexa and get a timely response without washing your hands.
You can turn the speakerphone on and off, which is great if you're worried about Alexa always listening to its surroundings. This may be because we're used to the Echo's assistant, but we've used Alexa quite often on the Fire HD 10 (2017), more than ever using Siri on the iPad.
This is a great feature for a budget tablet and only gets better with Alexa's growing library of skills, along with fun games, and integration into all kinds of services.
Design and display
- Simple plastic assembly;
- 10.1-inch display (1920 x 1200);
Let's be honest - the Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) is a simple tablet. Some may even call him ugly. It has a thick plastic body that's curved to fit the glass front, which is covered with a large bezel.
It measures 262 x 159 x 9.8 mm and weighs 500 grams. By comparison, Apple's iPad (2017) measures 240 x 169.5 x 7.5mm and weighs 469 grams.
The Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) feels sturdy and comfortable to hold, although it's a fairly heavy tablet and you'll want to invest a little money in a stand or case that can support it on a desk.
Since the edges are made in curved plastic, the tablet slides easily, so trying to secure it by leaning against something is a challenge.
On the back, you'll find the camera lens as well as the Amazon logo. Expand it to landscape orientation, with the metal volume keys at the top and the power button at the bottom of the tablet.
In between, you'll find a Micro-USB charging port, microphone, and 3.5mm headphone jack.
There are stereo speakers at the top, one on each side of the top rib. There is a small flap on the bottom edge that hides the microSD card slot.
The Fire HD 10 (2017) comes in black, Amazon tried to spice up the tablet in vibrant reds and blues, but you're not going to buy this tablet for the design.
Since the screen has long been one of the main caveats in any Fire tablet recommendation, it was great to see Amazon implement the new Fire HD 10 (2017).
It is 10.1 inch touch screen IPS LCD with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. This gives us 224 pixels per inch (PPI). In comparison, Apple's new iPad has a 9.7-inch display that's only slightly sharper (264 PPI).
While the goal is to browse the web, TV shows, favorite TV series and play some games, we found the display to be a pleasant surprise. It is sharp and very bright. You don't tend to pull up the tablet screen as closely as you do with your phone, so the tablet feels sharp enough.
The display panel seems a little reflective, the blacks are far from the depth of OLED panels, but this is a big improvement over the old Fire HD 10 (1280 x 800) pixels.
Battery life
- Up to 10 hours of mixed use on a single charge;
- Requires about five hours of charging from zero to 100%;
Amazon boasts that the Fire HD 10 (2017) offers impressive battery life, around 10 hours of mixed use. We found the result to be within the stated time, but obviously depends on what you are doing.
After a full day of watching three episodes of the series, flipping through some pages and immersing ourselves in a couple of games, the tablet left a decent amount of energy. In 20 minutes of Star Wars playback, the tablet lost only 4% of the battery.
Our 90-minute HD video test with brightness and volume turned up dropped the battery level from 100% to 84%, meaning the Fire HD 10 lost 16% of its charge. lost about 30% in the same test, while the iPad (2017) lost only 15%, and the compact lost 17%.
The Amazon Fire HD 10 has excellent battery life considering it has a 10.1-inch screen.
We were much less impressed with the charging times. The tablet is charged via Micro-USB, which means you inevitably try to connect your tablet to a charger at any time available, since it takes about five hours to fully charge a tablet from scratch. Please use a different cable and adapter and it may take even longer.
Camera
- Extremely low quality cameras;
- VGA front camera and 2MP main camera;
We can see use for the front camera if you are using a tablet for video chats, but the camera on the back seems overkill.
The public agreed that anyone who takes pictures with a tablet in public should be avoided, but every tablet maker is forced to include such a camera.
Amazon does offer a minimum minimum in this department. The tablet offers a terrible front-facing VGA camera that will serve you for video chats if you want to hide your identity.
The main camera is represented by a 2 megapixel sensor. In less than ideal lighting conditions, the camera produces blurry, grainy images that we removed ten years ago.
Surprisingly, the camera has an HDR mode, however you will have to wait a long time if you want to use it. Press the shutter and you can go for a cup of tea, by the time you return the tablet may have taken a picture. Unless you're using a tripod or positioning the Fire HD 10 in a comfortable position, you should expect terrible results.
If you're going to offer such bad cameras, why bother at all? Everyone understands that this is a cheap tablet. We would like Amazon to just remove the cameras and lower the price a little more.
Sample photos
The photo in the room is too noisy and uneven.
Even a photo in great lighting conditions looks terrible.
Interface and reliability
- InterfaceFireOS is easy to use;
- The focus is on contentAmazon;
Navigating Amazon Fire OS is a pretty enjoyable experience. operating system designed as a showcase of available content, so you'll find must-have tabs with movies, games, music and more.
There is also a "For You" tab that tries to combine everything you might want into one page, where you will find recently used services along with offers.
The downside is that the Amazon app store lacks many of the games and apps available from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Here you will not be offered office suite Microsoft applications. Google apps are also missing, so you won't have YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, or worst of all, Chrome.
Which means you need to use the built-in Silk web browser powered by the Bing search engine.
Everything works, but Google's software is head and shoulders above, so Android users will experience the limitations of Fire OS. It's worth noting that you can get around these drawbacks by downloading a bunch of apps and google servicesbut it will take some research and hassle, which will leave less tech-savvy users thinking.
We experienced no interface issues during our review of the Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017). Fire OS is like an old version of Android - in fact, the interface is built on a base that is now three years old. Apparently, Fire OS 6, based on, should go to release very soon, so we look forward to an update for Fire HD 10 (2017).
Ultimately, the Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) is shamelessly focused on entertainment consumption, and its interface does its best to help that end.
Movies, music and games
- Large diagonal for watching movies and playing games;
- Dual stereo speakersDolbyAtmos promises decent sound;
- Most games run smoothly;
If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, you have access to a wide library of movies, TV shows, books, and music. You can always download Netflix or other streaming services, but the most you get with the Fire HD 10 comes from the Amazon ecosystem.
As we mentioned earlier, your content is divided into themed tabs, including games, movies, and music. It's super easy to find things to do with the Fire HD 10 (2017) tablet. Streaming from Amazon or Netflix runs smoothly at 1080p.
The combination of an FHD (1080p) screen and stereo speakers makes it great. The picture quality is excellent and the speakers can offer impressive volume. Speaking of which, the speakers are good enough that you can go without headphones, but just in case the manufacturer offers a headphone jack.
Music doesn't feel too shabby after playing on the Fire HD 10, but the tablet won't be able to compete with external speakers. Alexa sound through the Sonos Fire HD 10 speakers was perfect.
We played various games on the Fire HD 10 and the tablet did a great job. A full immersion in Star Wars: Commander revealed no performance issues, although you'll have to wait for the game to load. More graphically demanding games like Injustice: Gods Among Us occasionally stuttered and dropped frames.
Want to imagine the perfect scenario for your Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017) tablet? Easy: Curled up under a blanket on the couch on a lazy Sunday morning, it is the perfect companion for reading, TV shows and movies. It is also great for casual players.
Performance and benchmarks
- 4-core 1.8 GHz chipset and 2 GB of RAM;
- High performance for a budget tablet;
The Fire HD 10 is powered by a 4-core MediaTek chipset backed by 2GB of RAM. Amazon claims it is 30% faster than its predecessor, and our review of the Fire HD 10 (2017) found that the tablet stays pretty fast most of the time.
Navigation was smooth, and we were able to get in and out of apps / games without any lag, although loading times were not the fastest in the segment. We think the Fire HD 10 is a decent performance for most users, but as it gets older and more demanding for games and apps, it may feel slower.
We ran Geekbench 3 on the Amazon Fire HD 10 three times, getting an average single-core score of 1501 and a 3021 multi-core score.
This is decent. The Apple iPad (2017) returned a multicore score of 4351, while the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017) only scored 1887.
Summing up
If you have an Amazon Prime subscription and need a large but mobile screen For watching movies and other media content, as well as reading or playing games, the Fire HD 10 is a great option. If you're on a budget for a new tablet, the Fire HD 10 is again your best bet.
We don't know of a better quality tablet than this in a 10-inch budget tablet. There are obvious downsides like the plastic design and useless cameras, but at its price point, they are understandable.
Amazon has compromised the previous Fire series tablets too much in the areas that really matter - screen and performance - but that's not the case with the Fire HD 10 (2017).
For whomAmazonFireHD 10?
Budget and Amazon Premier members looking for a new tablet. On the other hand, the Fire HD 10 is a tablet for everyone.
Parents who don't want to splurge on a fragile iPad for quality, users looking for an affordable gift that can satisfy their grandma's needs, anyone looking for a large screen in a mobile form factor should consider the Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017).
Worth buyingAmazonFireHD 10?
Yes, you must buy it. The Amazon Fire HD 10 offers important improvements over its predecessors, none of its weaknesses hinder the enjoyment of a tablet.
Of course, even the new Fire HD 10 isn't complete without worthy competitors, some of which are below.
Apple iPad (2017)
The company's flagship tablet, suggesting you're not going to spend a lot on a premium product - Apple's new iPad. It has a sleek design, a beautiful screen and a headroom of performance under the hood. It also has great battery life, an endless library of tablet-optimized games and apps, and a decent camera.
The price tag of $ 329 / 20,000 rubles becomes a pitfall, which makes it twice the price of the Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017). It is definitely in the market, but you need deep pockets.
ASUS ZenPad 3S 10
Another top-rated tablet that also shares the best budget tablets is the ASUS ZenPad 3S 10. It is also significantly more expensive than the Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017), which costs about $ 270 / 16,000 rubles, but you get a stunning display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels and high performance for a relatively modest amount. The tablet has Google Play Store and others google apps installed by default.
If you're outside the Apple camp and are willing to spend a little more on extra tablet quality, the ASUS ZenPad 3S 10 should be on your list.
More details: .
Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017)
8 Overall Score
Verdict:
Amazon Fire HD 10 directs its energy to the right places. You won't find a better deal with a new large screen tablet.
The first tablet from Amazon made a lot of noise even at the time of the announcement - a set of a gigahertz dual-core processor, a high-quality 7-inch IPS-screen and Android OS was offered for only $ 199. This is practically for nothing, fans of the brand exclaimed, the number of pre-orders exceeded all expectations, but is Fire good enough to give your hard-earned money for it, without even holding it in your hands?
The tablet comes in a typical family Kindlea sharpened box made of recycled cardboard, but its dimensions are noticeably larger than necessary to pack a 7-inch device. Inside there is a plastic tray with a recess in which charger with "American" plug and non-removable micro-USB cable. So if you still haven't got the appropriate cable, then it's time to do it, otherwise you won't be able to write anything to the tablet's memory. By the way, the lack of a penny wire in the delivery set may indicate not only savings, but also be a transparent hint of Amazon's "cloudy" circumstances - the company stores all legally acquired content on its servers free of charge.
The brief operating instructions are made in the form of a miniature cardboard card, complete with in electronic format (451 pages!) Is pre-installed in the device itself. Amazon Kindle Fire packed in a transparent bag and securely clamped between two plastic elements of the tray, you should not worry about its safety during transportation. A case for this model will have to be purchased separately (from $ 29 and up), but the tablet is so well cut and tightly knocked down that many can do without it. However, in addition to protection, such a cover can serve as a convenient stand for watching videos, so there is still a point in additional spending. By the way, be sure to visit the accessories section on the off-site - there you can choose a cover, an envelope or a set of stickers for the front and back panels for every taste. In addition to the standard charger, a compact car charger is also available from the cigarette lighter socket.
Amazon Kindle Fire design
At the first glance at the Kindle Fire, one cannot shake the thought that he has already seen something similar somewhere. The suspicions are absolutely justified, because Amazon used the infamous BlackBerry PlayBook as a source of inspiration and quite logically gave the contract for the production of its tablet to the same Quanta Computer, which had previously assembled the model for RIM. The latter is noticeably more interesting in technical terms, but the uncertainty with the further development of the software platform has led to the fact that the PlayBook never became popular, and now it is sold out at all almost at a loss.
Describing the appearance of the Kindle Fire is easy and simple - all its features are clearly visible in the photographs. This is exactly the case when the chief designer was wise enough not to introduce artistic features (for example, a carbine) for the sake of art and increasing recognition.
The front panel is made in the form of a rectangle with rounded corners and is completely covered with Gorilla Glass. The matrix border is minimal on all sides, except for the bottom - here it is slightly wider.
There are no buttons or a company logo on the front panel, so people around you are unlikely to be able to find out what kind of model you are in your hands until you turn it on. The bezel trimmed with glossy plastic around the front panel goes to the side of the sides, its area is so small that prints on it are simply not visible.
The base of the case, including the back side and part of the sidewalls, is made of practical rubberized material. In its lower part, a barely noticeable gray paint is applied service information, and just above the center flaunts a large Kindle logo.
Amazon Kindle Fire screen
Tablet screen is one of its main advantages, for many a reason to buy Kindle Fire sounds exactly like "quality IPS-screen for $ 200". The device uses a 7-inch matrix manufactured by LG with a resolution of 600 by 1024 pixels, a refresh rate of 68 Hz and 16 million displayable colors. The pixel density per inch is 169 ppi (for example, for the Apple iPad this parameter is 132 ppi, for the Samsung Galaxy Note 285 ppi and for Apple iPhone 4S - 326 ppi).
The viewing angles are traditionally good for IPS technology, the picture is clear and pleasant, especially against the background of inexpensive TFT tablets. In direct comparison with Apple iPad colors Fireturns out to be slightly colder and less saturated, this difference is especially visible when displaying blue (water and sky) and yellow (sand, buildings) shades. At the same time, the picture on the Kindle Fire display looks sharper, but less naturalistic, each of the options is good in its own way.
The brightness of the backlight is adjusted smoothly with the help of the corresponding slider, the minimum level is 25 cd / m2, the maximum is 265 cd / m2. In the first version of the firmware Amazon Kindle Fire there was also an auto-correction of brightness based on the light sensor, but with the arrival of update 6.1 (by the way, the file size for downloading is 205 MB), for some unknown reason, this option disappeared. At maximum brightness in a dark room, uneven illumination along the long sides of the matrix is \u200b\u200bnoticeable. Its character can be changed by clicking on the edges of the edging, which means that the degree of this very unevenness will depend on the build quality of a particular instance.
The matrix is \u200b\u200bcovered with a glossy Gorilla Glass, which successfully resists minor scratches, but not fingerprints. Experience shows that it is not worth considering it a panacea for all troubles; if you wish, it can be easily scratched and even broken (it is clearly not worth dropping the Kindle Fire from a meter height onto the asphalt). Under a certain angle and with the right lighting on the screen, you can see the diagonal grid of the capacitive sensor, under normal conditions it is not noticeable. The panel supports multitouch, but unfortunately there are only two simultaneous touches, so you will have to forget about support for advanced gestures.
Connectors, controls Amazon Kindle Fire
In this section, you will not particularly roam, because the Kindle Fire has only two connectors, and there is only one hardware buttons, and all these elements are located in one place - on the bottom edge of the case.
A standard micro-USB port is located in the center of the contact pad; it is used for data transfer and battery charging. To the left of it is the 3.5 mm audio output, to the right is the tablet power / lock button. It is equipped with a two-color indicator that shines through the transparent outline of the power icon.
During the charging process, the button glows orange, and when pressed once, it briefly blinks green. Long-term holding of this key causes the tablet shutdown dialog or "forced" reboot if the system hangs.
Two loudspeakers are placed on the short top edge, covered with a fine-mesh metal mesh. Their maximum volume is quite sufficient for listening even in a noisy room, although in such conditions it is still better to use headphones. As you can see from the photos, Amazon Kindle Fire there is no usual rocker key for volume control. To change the sound level, you have to go to the corresponding menu, while the running application (game, video player), as a rule, automatically goes into pause mode.
Amazon Kindle Fire interface
The tablet Amazon Kindle Fire runs Android OS 2.3.4 Gingerbread, very carefully hidden under a proprietary shell created specifically for this model. The interface is quite interesting and at the same time simple, its main feature is the rejection of hardware buttons - all actions are performed exclusively by touching the screen (the tablet was simply created for "buttonless" Android OS 4.0). If necessary, a set of four standard buttons Home, Back, Menu and Search pops up from the bottom edge of the screen, folding into a thin strip in passive mode.
The system boots up for about 45 seconds, after which a lock window appears with a cute wallpaper (alternating with each lock), the current time and date. Pulling the orange slider to the left will take you to the main one, which is also the only desktop that cannot be swiped left-right.
In its upper part there is a service panel, just below the search window and seven tabs of the sections “News”, “Books”, “Music”, “Video”, “Documents”, “Applications” and “Browser”.
All sections look similar - cloud / local storage is opened first, content in which can be sorted by title / author / last opened item, or found using the search bar. If the book or application is in the cloud, then there is a small arrow on its icon, by clicking which you will download it to your local device. We especially note that such a scheme works only for content officially downloaded from the Amazon Appstore, everything that you recorded into the device is not uploaded to the cloud on its own. From each section, you can go to the Amazon branded store, most of the content of which is not available for residents of Ukraine (details below).
The middle part is given to the "Carousel" - a stylishly animated leaflet, which automatically displays links to the last actions you have taken - a running application, an open book or a read web page (in the latter case, you will see a screenshot of the browser screen).
We have several complaints about this element. Firstly, you cannot control this history of events in any way, the last launched application will always be the leftmost one in this pile. A long press on an item will only allow you to add it to the Favorites section or completely remove it from the device. Secondly, the icons of self-installed applications look just awful due to scaling, which they simply were not designed for. And finally, the third and most important complaint is that despite the solid size of the icons, it is very difficult to get to the right one the first time, more often you just turn over this list to the side, which can infuriate the most calm user.
At the bottom of the main window are “shelves” for favorites, which are added as needed. Here the user is allowed a little more than in the "Carousel", by a long tap you can delete the application from the section or from the device memory, as well as move it to the desired shelf (without scrolling on the main screen, only the top shelf of the Favorites section is visible, and in landscape orientation and none at all).
Service panel is called by touching the right top corner the usual Android swipe gesture from the top border of the window does not work.
The first item allows you to lock the screen in any of four possible positions. By default, the item "Volume" with a slider opens, if at the moment you are listening to music, then the mini-controller for playback will also be available here. The brightness is adjusted in the same way, followed by the items for controlling Wi-Fi networks, starting synchronization and a button to go to the settings menu. The menu structure is familiar to Android users, Amazon Kindle Fire you see a seriously stripped down version of it.
The experience of the tablet interface is mixed, it is cute and easy for beginners to learn, but sometimes it just doesn't respond to user actions. Future owners have to be patient and hope for the release of firmware updates, in which these problems will be solved.
Amazon Kindle Fire Browser
During the announcement of the tablet, the company paid a lot of attention to the Amazon Silk cloud browser, which transfers a significant part of its work to the company's servers. For those who want to understand the peculiarities of its work, we recommend viewing short video from its creators , well, we will tell you about its capabilities literally in a nutshell.
We did not notice much faster page loading compared to other tablets. Bookmarks, file uploads, multitouch scaling and flash content are supported, while our video reviews play without problems, but the Kindle Fire could not work with a well-known domestic resource for online video viewing due to the access of the proxy used.
Books on Amazon Kindle Fire
It would be strange if a member of the Kindle family did not have a convenient built-in program for reading books. The shell is very similar to the one used in Amazon's e-ink-based models, it supports a very rich set of text formatting in MOBI and PDF formats, if that doesn't seem enough to you, then the omnivorous FBreader is at your service.
Videos on Amazon Kindle Fire
The video recorded in the memory of the Kindle Fire should be searched not in the section of the same name (only videos purchased from Amazon are placed there), but in the "Gallery". The built-in player plays only MP4 and VP8 files, but for Android there are more than enough alternative players for popular AVI and MKV, and the hardware platform theoretically allows you to digest HD videos without problems.
When choosing a specific application, pay special attention to the ability to change the volume without leaving the player (remember, there are no hardware keys here). The screenshots show a native player with a volume slider when you touch the screen; omnivorous RockPlayer (unfortunately, does not have this feature) and MoboPlayer, the volume of which can be adjusted with a simple swipe along the right edge of the image.
Note that it was possible to achieve high-quality playback of files in HD 720p quality only with the help of a native player, in other cases picture twitching and sound lag were observed. But files in SD quality are played by third-party players without any problems.
Installing Third-Party Apps on Amazon Kindle Fire
Recall that the Kindle Fire is officially available only in the United States, which is fraught with at least two problems - the lack of interface localization and the branded application store that does not work in other countries (Amazon Appstore instead of the usual Android Market).
In the corresponding section, there is simply no way to change the method of entering characters, even if you have installed a third-party keyboard. Thus, you can only communicate in e-mail or social networks using transliteration, which is not very convenient. The most unpleasant thing is that there is no hope for official localization, we can only hope for local enthusiasts and custom firmware (the first news about the successful installation of the Cyrillic keyboard has already appeared, but this process cannot be called simple).
But with the installation of the software, everything turned out to be much easier. To begin with, we tried to go the official route, but the Amazon Appstore refused to download even free apps without credit card details.
Having received the coveted set of numbers, the store allowed to walk a couple of points further along the path of purchase, but as a result issued a message that it does not work in our country yet. The same situation arose when trying to download a free trailer, except that the refusal was expressed in a milder form, and only the attempt to buy the book ended successfully. Apparently, Amazon keeps track of the territoriality of your IP address and the country of issue of your credit card, including restrictions on one or two parameters at once.
Despite a number of notable program constraints, in the settings menu Amazon Kindle Fire there is an item "Allow installation of applications from third-party sources", which means that the software can be easily installed manually by downloading the required * .adb file, writing it to the device memory and running it for execution. But how to do this if the tablet does not have a preinstalled file manager and the app store is not working? After searching, we found this very manager as part of the preinstalled office suite Quickoffice, and then everything turned out to be a matter of technique.
Especially for advanced Android users - yes, we know that Amazon Kindle Fire root access has already been obtained, Android Market has already been installed on it, and applications can be installed from using adb tool from the Android SDK. However, for those who do not want to dig into the insides of the tablet, the simple ability to install applications without jailbreaking the device will be quite enough.
Amazon Kindle Fire functionality
Detailed specifications Amazon Kindle Fire are given in the table, with the help of which you can also compare the parameters of the hero of our review with the predecessor BlackBerry PlayBook and the main competitor Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet. As you can see, all three models are built on the same hardware platform, this is a TI OMAP 4430 dual-core gigahertz ARMv7 processor with PowerVR SGX 540 graphics.
But then the differences begin, primarily related to the budget nature of the tablet from Amazon. Firstly, the amount of RAM is 512 MB, and the size of the built-in storage is only 8 GB, which is at least half the size of most current models. Moreover, the tablet's settings indicate that 6.54 GB of memory is available to you, but when connected to a PC, you will see that in fact there is exactly 5 GB of free space. It is this space that should be guided by those users who are going to select content for the tablet on their own, and not buy it from Amazon.
By the way, not everything is so rosy with the main competitor of the hero of our review, the NOOK Tablet, despite the fact that it is equipped with a card reader. The fact is that a memory card will have to be purchased in any case, since only 1 GB (!) Of 16 GB of internal storage is available to the user, while 12 GB is reserved for purchases in the branded content store.
Above are the benchmark results, in the Quadrant the Kindle Fire model scored 2200 points, in Vellamo - 870 points, in AnTuTu - more than 5000 points. The results of the NOOK Tablet promise to be higher due to twice the amount of RAM, whether or not we will find out as soon as the model from Barnes & Noble falls into our hands.
We will also be able to find out how true the claims of this company about the battery life, judging by which the NOOK Tablet should play video for an hour and a half longer, despite the fact that its battery capacity is 10% less.
Using the Amazon Kindle Fire
Impressions of a live meeting with Amazon Kindle Fire extremely positive, he is so good that you just don't want to let go of him. The rubberized back panel allows you not to worry about the tablet slipping out of your hands, and Gorilla Glass on the front - from the fact that you pick up random scratches, placing the device on the table with the screen down. The glossy screen naturally picks up prints, but they can be easily removed with a soft cloth, but the marks from wet hands on the back are more corrosive, so try not to get too nervous when using it.
The dimensions of the tablet are just perfect for a device for every day, just wide enough for the device to easily fit into an inner pocket of a jacket or jacket. The tablet weighs just over 400 grams, that is, according to this parameter, it is approximately in the middle between 200-gram electronic readers and 600-gram 10-inch tablets. In the hands it lies like a glove, does not strive to slip out of the hands thanks to the rubberized base and, most importantly, it has the correct mass. That is, it is not so weighty as to seem unnecessarily heavy, but at the same time it is not so "airy" as to doubt whether there is a battery inside.
In landscape orientation, care should be taken not to overlap the speakers placed on one of the short sidewalls. In a two-handed grip, this is simply inevitable; the BlackBerry PlayBook version with acoustics on the front panel is more convenient in this regard.
The screen unlock button on the bottom is not the most ergonomic solution, but consider this a critical drawback Amazon Kindle Fire it is impossible. Sooner or later you get used to everything, but if this does not happen, then nothing prevents you from turning the tablet upside down, moving the button and connectors to the upper edge according to the scheme familiar for smartphones (fortunately, the edging that is almost identical around the entire perimeter allows you to do this without abuse of aesthetics). But the hardware volume rocker is really not enough, even if you pick up a convenient music and video player with software sliders, you will not be able to quickly change the volume in the same toy.
Note that the bundled charger delivers a current of 1.8 A, while the tablet charges up to 100% in about four hours - calculate for yourself how long it will take you to fully charge your Kindle Fire from a regular USB, which provides a charge current only 0.5 A (0.9 A for USB 3.0, 1.1 A for Apple MacBook). With an average display backlight level, the tablet worked for about 6 hours in video playback mode. During charging and difficult games, the back panel heats up a little at the bottom, but the temperature does not go beyond the bounds of decency.
It is too early to assess the durability of Kindle Fire coatings in real-world use, but we will definitely return to this topic in a few months when writing the operating experience.
Results and characteristics of Amazon Kindle Fire
Main problem Amazon Kindle Fire is that it is tailored exclusively for the US market. Using a tablet anywhere else in the world is fraught with noticeable difficulties, in such conditions the device simply cannot reveal its potential. Accordingly, the main target audience of this model in Ukraine is enthusiasts who will spare no time and effort to bring it to mind (localization, Android Market, a selected set of software, etc.). The second group of potential owners of the Kindle Fire are undemanding newcomers who will be attracted by the technical characteristics, workmanship and the low cost of this model even in our country. And do not forget about the Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet, which surpasses the hero of our review in a number of parameters - soon we plan to conduct a comparative test of these two tablets to finally determine the best budget 7-inch tablet.
Liked
- very low cost for a product of this kind;
- high-quality IPS-matrix with Gorilla Glass protective coating;
- modern hardware platform with a dual-core gigahertz processor and graphics accelerator;
- monolithic rubberized body with a minimalist design;
- the ability to install applications without hacking the device;
- the prospect of installing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Did not like
- lack of keyboard and interface localization;
- most Amazon services, including Appstore in Ukraine, do not work;
- the minimum amount of internal memory and the absence of a card reader;
- lack of hardware volume keys;
- slowdowns and ergonomics of the interface (accuracy of selection of items in the "Carousel", display of non-optimized icons);
- no 3G modification
| Model | Amazon Kindle Fire | Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet | BlackBerry PlayBook |
| US cost | $199 | $249 | $249 / $299 / $399 |
| Cost in Ukraine | $299 | $350 | $490 / $620 / $650 |
| OS | Android OS 2.3.4 (Amazon UI) | Android OS 2.x (B&N UI) | BlackBerry Tablet OS (QNX Neutrino) |
| Display | 7 ”(1024 × 600) IPS, 169 PPI, Capacitive, Glossy, Gorilla Glass | 7 "(1024 × 600) IPS, 169 PPI, capacitive, glossy | |
| Display brightness | 25/265 cd / m2 (automatic adjustment) | — | 40/400 cd / m2 (automatic adjustment) |
| CPU | TI OMAP 4430 (2 × ARM Cortex-A9, 1 GHz) | TI OMAP 4430 (2 × ARM Cortex-A9, 1 GHz) | |
| Graphics | PowerVR SGX 540 (304 MHz) | PowerVR SGX 540 (304 MHz) | PowerVR SGX 540 (304 MHz) |
| Memory (RAM) | 512 MB RAM | 1 GB RAM | 1 GB RAM |
| Storage | 8 GB Flash (6.54 GB OS available, 5 GB user available) | 16GB Flash (13GB OS available, 1 GB is available to the user, 12 GB reserved for purchases from B&N Store) | 16/32/64 GB Flash |
| Card reader | no | microSD (up to 32GB) | no |
| Connectors | micro-USB, 3.5mm audio | micro-USB, 3.5mm audio | micro-USB, micro-HDMI, 3.5mm audio |
| Communications | Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n | Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n | Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (optional 4G (WiMax / LTE / HSPA +)) |
| Camera (main / additional) | no | no | 5 Mp / 3 Mp |
| Microphone | no | yes | yes |
| Acoustics | 2 speakers | 1 speaker | 2 speakers |
| Keys | power button | power button, home button, volume rocker | power button, two separate volume buttons, Play / Pause button |
| Battery | 4400mAh, 3.7V (16.3Wh) | 4000 mAh, 3.7 V (14.8 Wh) | 5300mAh, 3.7V (19.6Wh) |
| Declared autonomy | 8 hours of reading, 7.5 hours of video playback | 11.5 hours reading, 9 hours video playback | 6 hours of browsing with Wi-Fi on, 8 hours of video playback |
| Dimensions and weight | 190 x 120 x 11.4 mm, 413 g | 205 x 128 x 12.2mm, 400g | 194 x 130 x 10 mm, 425 g |
| Additionally | accelerometer, light sensor, Amazon Appstore, Amazon Silk browser | accelerometer, NOOK Apps store, Flash browser | accelerometer, 6-axis gyroscope, digital compass (magnetometer), GPS |
| Equipment | charger | charger, USB cable | charger, USB cable, neoprene case |
