Amazon's Kindle Fire - Where Content And Price Are King - Computers - Hardware

Amazon's Kindle Fire is 'rekindling' and 'firing' up the eReader market! From the Kindle's roots as a dedicated e-book reader, Amazon's new eReader is no longer just that. It is now a full-blown multimedia tablet designed to compete alongside the top competitors such as the Apple iPad. Announced in September 2011 by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, the Kindle Fire is scheduled to go on sale on November 15th just in time for Christmas. But will it really 'fire' up Christmas shoppers? Has it really sparked a change in the crowded tablet market? Can it compete against the ultimate market leader Apple iPad? Let's take a closer look at the Amazon's newest eReader to see how it stacks up.

Screen size versus portability

The Kindle Fire packs a 7-inch touchscreen and includes multi-touch capabilities. With this compact size, it is easier to hold in one hand than the much larger iPad and this is what e-book readers prefer over tablets, but screen size is clearly a matter of preference and a necessary trade-off between screen viewing and portability. The question is: will a tablet reader except this trade-off?

How does the screen quality compare?

The Kindle Fire screen uses a new technology known as IPS (in-plane-switching), which is also found in the iPad to allow extra wide-angle viewing. One key highlight is its screen resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, which yields an image quality of 169 pixels per inch (ppi). It is interesting to know that this beats the iPad 2 which only sports 132 ppi. The display of the Kindle Fire is made of Gorilla Glass, which is a chemically strengthened glass said to be 20-30 times harder than plastic, which is a nice addition for durability.

What about performance?

Weighing in at only 14.6 ounces, it is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and 512MB RAM, putting it on quite equal par with the iPad 2 in terms of speed and performance.

And Web-browsing and Storage?

Internet browsing on the Kindle Fire is no less inferior thanks to its Amazon Silk browser. Silk enables "split browser" technology that makes the most of Amazon cloud storage and the latest dual-core processor on board. Though the internal storage of the Kindle Fire is only 8GB versus the options of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB on the Apple iPad 2, Amazon overcomes this shortcoming by making full use of its cloud storage. So users of the Kindle Fire are able to store and backup many e-books and files online in the 'cloud' as well, similar to iCloud in the iPad's latest iOS 5.

And Connectivity?

Although Amazon's new eReader still does not include 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi is reliable at 802.11n with USB 2.0 connectivity as well. It is powered by a modified version of the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, which allows users access to the Amazon App Store.

And this is where Kindle starts to blaze! Content!

It really is all about content at Amazon. Though somewhat limited here to only about 10,000+ apps out of the 230,000 available on the Android marketplace, versus the 90,000 iPad apps from the 500,000+ apps in the Apple App Store, the Kindle Fire's strongest selling point is its seamless integration and access to Amazon's vast repertoire of content and online storefronts. Users have a visually-appealing and convenient access to Amazon content online, be it e-books, movies, music, magazines, games or even TV shows.

And Kindle Fire simply blows the roof off on price!

Best of all, the Kindle Fire is priced very competitively at only $199, versus the $499-$829 of the iPad 2, which makes it very affordable to a much larger market, both young and old alike. Although not as strong as the iPad 2 in some features and specs, it still packs enough punch in the package of content that it offers at great value for money.To read more about Kindle Fire and Prebuy for Christmas Click Here.

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