28 September, 2011
By Adnan
Earlier this week we reported that Amazon was going to reveal its new tablet at a press conference on September 28 and we also promised to bring you all of the updates from that event. Amazon’s new tablet, the supposed iPad killer, is a 7-inch Android 2.3 running tablet called Kindle Fire priced at only $199. Finer details about Amazon’s new Android tablet and how it stacks up against the iPad, after the break.
Taking a first look at the device it is quite evident that Kindle Fire tablet looks rather similar to RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook. Actually, it was PlayBook’s manufacturer that made the Kindle Fire as well hence the striking resemblance. The device only has one button located to its side. Powering the Kindle Fire is a Texas Instruments dual-core processor on top of which runs Android 2.3. Kindle Fire does not have a camera either on the front or back so you can say taking pictures or video conferencing using this tablet good bye. The tablet only comes in 8GB variant however Amazon states that users will have access to unlimited storage on their cloud services. Kindle Fire is a Wi-Fi only tablet.
If you use any Android phone or tablet straight away you’ll notice that the Kindle Fire does not look like any Android device in the market. Sure its running Android 2.3, but Amazon has slapped on a whole new UI in which you get a carousel on the main screen giving you access to any or all content stored on the device or accessible via cloud. Probably the best thing about Kindle Fire is Amazon Silk, a browser for this tablet that Amazon have themselves made. Amazon Silk browser is said to greatly improve browsing speeds on the Kindle Fire, the best part is that Amazon Silk fully supports Flash. Amazon has also said that they plan on releasing a native email client for the Kindle Fire.
At a $199 price point, the 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire tablet may prove to be appealing to those who have less use for an iPad and don’t want to spend $499 at the very least. However it might not prove to be an iPad killer after all. The 7-inch screen of the Kindle Fire can prove to be a turn off for many people, not to mention the fact that when it comes to apps, need for greater storage, improved performance and even the status symbol, there’s no beating the iPad. Nevertheless for those who don’t prefer to spend that much on a tablet, the Kindle Fire can be a perfect replacement as it does essential tasks quite perfectly. So as it turns out, Amazon Kindle Fire might not be an iPad killer, but it just might be able to carve its own niche in the otherwise burgeoning tablet market. The Kindle Fire starts shipping November 21 for $199.
