Amazon sets things afire. Meet Kindle Fire
by Robert Stevens | October 17, 2011
 This month a new tablet has joined the tablet market, entering the competition against iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Motorola Xoom. Of course that I'm talking about no other than Kindle Fire. With a $199 price tag, (less than half the price of an iPad 2), Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, wants to prove that technology doesn't necessarily come at a high price, and that he can offer his users an affordable tablet together with the advantages of the Amazon marketplace.
Running Android 2.3, having a display size of 7 inch, and coming with its own browser - Amazon Silk, Kindle Fire is ready to offer Kindle fans and not only, a smooth tablet experience at the right price. Although it doesn't have a camera, a microphone and other top notch sensors (accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, ambient light), it does have an USB port and the battery life is said to last more than 8 hours.
Also, those who like durable gadgets will be happy to know that Kindle Fire comes with a display which is resistant to scratches and knocks, thanks to the so called "Gorilla" glass, from which the display is manufactured. Actually, this is a glass which has been chemically strengthened to be 30 times harder and almost 20 times stiffer than plastic. (TuvaBox team applauds this innovation!)
Gamers will be pleased to find out that Kindle Fire also supports Adobe Flash, so they'll be able to enjoy all the games and and websites which use Flash. On the other hand, heavy Internet users will not be so happy to know that the Amazon tablet doesn't support 3G, and that it has a storage capacity of only 8GB. Although, this may be a slight drawback, Fire makes it up by offering a 1 month free trial of Amazon Prime, which means that you can access unlimited streaming for more than 10,000 TV shows and films. Also, Fire supports Amazon Whispersync, which means that you can pause a movie on Fire, and resume it on your TV from exactly the place you left it.
Kindle Fire is an excellent multimedia tablet for the ones who want to experience all the fun things, at a great value for money. Even if a comparison between iPad and Fire is pointless, as both target different type of users, for sure that many have hurried to put the two tablets face to face. Also, although Amazon Fire doesn't aim directly at iPad, I bet that Apple, together with all the tablets on the market, is a little bit intimidated by the features and most of all by the price tag Kindle Fire has to offer.
From this point on companies will have to do better and most of all cheaper in order to win over the crowds, and this can only be a good thing for us, users. Can't wait to see who'll venture to next release a new tablet on the market - aren't you?
$199: 7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45 inch
: 7 inch
: Android 2.3
: Amazon Silk
: Amazon Appstore (for Android)
: TI OMAP dual core/ 1 GHz
: 8GB
: 512
: No
: No
: No
: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
: USB
: 8 hours
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