We don’t know when (or even if) we’ll be getting the Amazon Kindle Fire in the UK, but its success or failure in the US is of huge interest nonetheless. Here is a device with the genuine potential to change the tablet game and give the iPad 2 a bloody nose. With its launch imminent, what do the early reviews say?
The Verge
Over on The Verge, the reviewer calls the Amazon Kindle Fire out for its “incredibly unoriginal” design. It’s a simple black slab that bares more than a whiff of the BlackBerry PlayBook, upon which it’s almost certainly based.
Still, the review claims that the 7-inch tablet hits the size-to-functionality sweet spot, and makes the iPad 2 seem bulky and unwieldy. Overall, the review feels the Kindle Fire to be “a really terrific tablet for its price”, but that it’s not the all-round iPad rival many had hoped it would be.
Engadget
The Engadget review agrees on many of these points, but takes a more negative view in many respects. The reviewer finds the Kindle Fire to be “occasionally sluggish, its interface often clunky, its storage too slight, its functionality a bit restricted and its 7-inch screen too limiting”.
The overall view is that the Kindle Fire is a decent way to experience media content, but is outclassed in general usage by bigger, more powerful tablets like the iPad 2 and Android Honeycomb equivalents.
YOU SHOULD READ — Amazon Kindle Fire – would you buy one?
Gizmodo
Gizmodo agrees that the Amazon Kindle Fire is a little too laggy for its own good, but rather than the hardware it seems to be pointing the finger at the Amazon 2.3 OS buried deep within. Like the other reviews, it also points out the strange decision on Amazon’s part to not include a dedicated Home button. Rather, you have to tap on on the screen in a rather counter-intuitive manner.
On the positive side, the reviewer digs the Kindle Fire’s simple, elegant homescreen that takes you straight to your media content. Overall, “it’s a terrific, compact little friend, and… the best Android tablet to date.”
Wired
The Wired peeps come down on the negative side of the Amazon Kindle Fire debate. After decent initial impressions, the review states that you’ll find the performance to be sluggish and the screen to be “too small for many key tablet activities”.
Away from the underwhelming hardware, the reviewer found the Kindle FIre’s software to be pretty decent. They claim that the Kindle Fire “elegantly repackages and streamlines every phase of the familiar Amazon purchasing experience”. Even if you have $200 burning a hole in your pocket the reviewer reckons you should “wait longer before pulling the trigger on a tablet”.
