Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7in Android tablet review
Carl Jung once wrote that a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment. And so it is with Amazon's long awaited (it's been a year) British release of its Kindle Fire 7in tablets. Having pre-ordered the top-end 32GB Fire HD model, I was thrilled when I found it waiting for me at home and excited as I tore open the box, but grew …
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While not having another tablet to compare it to, I'm quite happy with my Kindle Fire HD.
The reason for this is probably because I have rooted it, loaded google play store, and have broken free of the restrictions which the reviewer rightly had a downer on.
From several peoples comments I guess I would probably want to compare it to the Nexus 7 but as I am unable to do so, I will continue loading all the apps I want onto my Kindle Fire HD.
ps Yeah it's a lot heavier than the e-ink Kindle and this has caused me to drop it while reading in bed, so a case is a must!
Hey
I've bought one of these for my girlfriend for Christmas. She will use it for reading, browsing the web and a few other things (maybe Skype). She's unlikely to want to do anything other than that, ever. For the price it seems excellent value. I have an iPad (the £700 64GB) and I've got to say it was a complete waste of money when I think what I actually use it for compared to what I imagined I'd use it for when I bought it.
It's no good reviewing something as if the target market was a tech-head or nerdy type who comes to El Reg, when it's about as far away from that as possible.
Re: Hey
Your £700 iPad is no comparison - you may as well tell us you bought a £70k Porsche but only ever pop to the shops.
The competitors for this are the Nexus 7 (for about the same price) or the iPad Mini for about £90-100 more. So you have to choose do you want iOS / better support / more apps or a cheaper, but more capable (than the Fire) Android tablet.
It's fair to critisise something that needs to be rooted - we buy these or get asked about them from friends and family - you buy the iPad and it's easy, Nexus probably quite easy - the FIre and it's a whole world of pain unless they have sold their soul to Amazon and swear never to want anything else.
Re: Hey
Guess she can always send it back or may be too late by then.
Re: Hey
I never needed to root a device in my life. Yes, if you need or want to do that, the Fire is almost certainly the wrong product. When it comes to reviewing the device for what it's designed to do and for the kind of people it's designed to be used by however, I think this review is more honest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00tmliWHDZw
Okay, so this is a review of all the things you can't do with a Kindle, now can we have one that tells you all the things you can do?
I've been lumbered with one for xmas (got an early heads-up) which I can't return (wanted the Nexus 7), so I was hoping this article would tell me the easiest options for sideloading and the risks of rooting since the rest of the web is pretty light on details (Looks like I am best off downloading an app onto my phone, then extracting the apk using airdroid, copying onto the Kindle and installing it using the file explorer - but that's just my best guess).
Even better, I could be the awesome uncle who turns up on xmas and makes my neice's sucky tablet into something much more capable, but it looks like I'll have to wait until I get my own hands on it
if you want to spend your christmas faffing with a tablet that should have worked properly outta 'da box then that's not the sort of christmas I'm imagining.
It'll be beyond the return date by the time I get it.
I'm not too bothered, I'm sure it will be fine for 95% of what I want , but I was hoping an article on a decent tech site would tell me the best way to achieve things I hadn't even thought about.
Re: Okay, so this is a review of all the things you can't do with a Kindle
>> I was hoping this article would tell me the easiest options for sideloading and the risks of rooting
It's an 800-word review, not a user manual.
What an appalling review.
Redolent of slavering apple/google fanboi-ism, disgracefuly poorly researched and utterly misleading.
Lovefilm only? rubbish, simply install the apps for what you want, Netflix and iplayer were the ones I wanted and both work absolutely perfectly, as has EVERY other app I've needed. The matt finish on the rear is excellent for grip, nowhere near as slippy as some others like my iPad. The sound quality is spectacular, the screen is excellent, wifi performance is outstanding, and as for your fumbling incompetence in working out how to hold it (not difficult by any means, button and camera locations are kind of a giveaway) then maybe like most people you would put yours in a case which eliminates the (nonexistent) issue. I confess, I half expected to want to root it, but as it turns out it has proved completely competent without the need for any such shenanigans, and it has proved a worthwhile purchase. For me choice was this or the Nexus, but the reported screen delamination issues on the nexus tipped it to the Kindle, though they're clearly both excellent kit for the money. However, this review is neither credible or worthy of the register at all...
Re: What an appalling review.
Yup, the Netflix app is supported. Loved the "fumbling incompetence" line, by the way.
Re: What an appalling review.
True
I've bought one for my mum for Xmas and have just set up an e-mail account on it for etc. Easy as pie, the e-mail client is very nice, better than the stock Android client certainly. As has been said, Netflix works a treat, ditto Skype and the excellent speakers make Skype calling without headphones a cinch.
It's a bit weak when it comes to supporting other ebook formats / readers, but it's a Kindle so what the hell do you expect?
While clearly not a Nexus 7 the easy interface, excellent battery life (I got 10 hours of video with the screen at max brightness) and quality screen / speakers make it a great media consumption / comms device which is pretty much what I wanted for the old dear. As for it being hard to work out which way to hold it, what utter tripe.
Steve Hillage
Wow, Steve Hillage .... Must dig out the old Gong / Planet Gong vinyl, there's no way it would have made it to digital ....
Kobo ARC
How does the kobo arc compare to this thing (or with the Nexus 7)?
I have to say I think this review came at the device from the wrong angle...
It reviewed the Kindle as an Android tablet that has close ties to the Amazon ecosystem.
If viewed as an Amazon Kindle that has some Android'y extras but doesn't aim to be an Android tablet, then I think the conclusion would be somewhat different.
Basical usability of the hardware aside (which I agree sounds like aesthetics have won out over function) It shouldn't be compared to other Android tablets and all the things you can do with them that you can't do with the Fire, but rather with the eInk Kindles and what you can do with the Fire that you can't do with those.
See ?
Re: I have to say I think this review came at the device from the wrong angle...
w.r.t "Android'y extras", what I meant to suggest was think of it this way: eInk Kindles use Linux as their OS, but no review of a Kindle Touch complains about not being able to install and run Gnome or KDE or GIMP or Apache like on any other decent Linux system etc etc...
Re: I have to say I think this review came at the device from the wrong angle...
I would expect to be able to install Netflix and Angry Birds on any Android tablet.
These are the relevant analogs to kdenlive or GIMP.
Re: I have to say I think this review came at the device from the wrong angle...
Well you'll be delighted to know you can install and use both direct from the Amazon App Store then, with no issue at all.
Once again, a review of something marketed and sold only as an e-reader/amazon consumption device as though it should be a tablet. It's pretty excellent at the former, and not great at the latter. But it's not sold as the latter, is it?
according to Amazon, its the Worlds Most Advanced 7inch Tablet.......
And, Like Its Predecessor...
Root and ROM, start having fun, "immersive" er...tranquility, Android style --Just not Amazon sheep-model style.
Picked one up in Waterstone - It had a dead battery and staff had no idea what to do with it... has Waterstones become PC World?
Very plastic to hold and I was very happy to give Apple my money for the iPad Mini instead
Tablet caters for a different maket
Whilst the walled garden is exactly what turns reg readers off this tablet, it is also their strongest selling point to the public. Restrict app's that dont work, ensure some kind of quality control and provide integration to those already in its ecosystem, in real terms are the main benefit of this device.
As much as I hate the restrictions of apple devices (even more having to use itunes) for many technophobes (like my nan) giving them choice to is a bad idea. This tablet is aimed at those who want the "security" of being Amazon infrastructure, but dont want to pay an extra £100 on an Ipad.
For the rest of us there are better options.
Want a high quality device on budget get a Playbook for £100 at Currys - (Sideload apps just like Kindle)
Want a powerful device with more access to apps get the Nexus for £170
Want high quality device with high usability go for the ipad for £250
It all depends on your needs and what you use your tablet for.
Just what I needed to know
Thanks for that, it's exactly what I needed to know and with the appropriate warning too. I was contemplating getting one for my father but I'll stick with the basic Kindle as it's less likely to end up broken (as he's a former engineer it's never whether or not something gets hit with a hammer but where and how hard that's the question!)
Fire HD v iPad mini
Couldn't agree more with this article. I may be biased as I've used macs and have had an iPad since they first came out but I found the fire HD to be absolutely infuriating. I preordered it and duly received it on its release. It came already registered to me so all of my account details were there. I use iCloud normally but had to phone tech support to get my email to work. I lasted a couple of hours the evening I received it. Discovered it was frankly useless compared to my ipad1 despite its size so packed it up and returned it the next day. Also preordered an iPad mini which, despite being 3 times the price, is a dream to use. Perhaps I was never going to be the target market for the fire HD but if that is what android is about then I'll stay firmly locked into iOS. Bizarrely the experience reminded me of the very first pc I bought years ago. EVERYTHING had to be installed manually. I was expected to be a bit of an IT wizard. Whatever is said about apple at least you take their kit out of the box and email, photos, Internet etc are all their and reasonably intuitive. I had thought about buying one for the parents but there is no chance.
Re: Fire HD v iPad mini
As several commentators have said, this is NOT what Android is about. It's an Amazon tablet that only uses Android as it's underlying OS. Sign into an Android tablet and all your mail, books, documents, photos (and from next week for us Brits, music) are there immediately. Sign into a Kindle and your Amazon stuff is there. Two wholly different things despite the common underpinning OS. The Kindle is more of a large connected-PMP than a fully fledged tablet.
It will be interesting to see how well it sells - the first Kindle Fire didn't have the Nexus 7 to contend with.
As for having to call Amazon to get your e-mail working, is that really true? I set up my mums Gmail and Yahoo accounts on an HD in a couple of minutes.
In short the Kindle Fire HD really is not aimed at anyone who has used an iPad or a Google-approved Android tablet, rather it''s a media player for people who buy their books and music from Amazon and who want a large screen media player with a good screen, good speakers and decent battery life.
Fire HD - decent hardware, but really needs to be rooted/ROM'ed...Amazon App Store is awful
I'm sorry, but if you see a colour 7" tablet nowadays (and the Fire HD is exclusively marketed as a tablet by Amazon UK - the word "tablet" is mentioned 7 times in its product description and not once is the word "e-reader" used - so anyone claiming otherwise...as a few have here...is simply wrong), you expect to be able to run a load of apps on it.
Sadly, this is where the Fire HD falls crippingly down - the Amazon App Store is nothing short of a disgusting experience if the Fire HD store experience is anything like the dreadful Amazon App Store app I've run on my Nexus 7. It's got horrible navigation, it's extremely slow to update any pages, on the Nexus 7 it has no soft menu button (bizarrely it does on my HP TouchPad) so I can't actually use the My Apps feature to list the bleeding apps I've installed (or have in the "Cloud") and I probably can't update them on the N7 because of that too.
The App Store also infuriatingly sends me a "purchase" e-mail with every free download I do in the app store - no idea if that stupid e-mail can be disabled (I only need purchase e-mails for downloads that actually cost me money). And of course, don't forget that there's a fraction of the apps compared to the full Google Play store, which further darkens my mood about Amazon's App Store. I only keep the app on for the Free App of the Day stuff, only to find that a) most of them are awful and b) you can't run them without having the Amazon App Store app installed!
So the solution is an obvious one - at the very least root your Fire HD and put the Google Apps on (including Google Play). Personally, I'd go one step further and install CyanogenMod 10 (gets you a better launcher, loads of config options and Jelly Bean smoothness). Without the Google Apps (and preferably CM10), the Fire HD is a total non-starter, IMHO. Heck, I even put CM10 on my N7, I like it that much.
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