Reviews of Kindle Fire Are a Mixed Bag 381
MrSeb writes "Ahead of tomorrow's full-scale launch of Amazon's new wunderkind, panacea, and lynch-pin of its continuing distribution domination, initial reviews of the Kindle Fire are starting to trickle in... and they're not as fantastic as we had hoped. Unsurprisingly, not a single review is denying that the bright screen, solid construction, and $200 price point make for a perfect holiday season outing — but to actually win the hearts of consumers, to steal those throbbing, Cupertino-captivated organs away from the iPad, the Kindle Fire has to be amazing... and it isn't. Throughout almost every review, one particularly telling observation rears its ugly head: the Kindle Fire can be sluggish. Page turns can lag. Menus can be slow to load. Screen touches can be unresponsive. For a device that is entirely about media consumption, the Fire will live or die depending on its perceived alacrity. If an E Ink Kindle or Nook is better for reading books, and a smartphone or iPad is better for watching movies or listening to music, what space is there for the Fire?"
Surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Shockingly, lower price means cheaper experience (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:We are getting one (Score:4, Insightful)
battery life, most likely. it's the main reason i got a sony reader a few years back. sure, the screen's nice to read from but it's the battery life that's a massive benefit.
It's for filling the fad for the less wealthy (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying tablets are a "fad"- they will be around for the foresable future. However, the public's response to tablets at the moment is "fadish".
It's the cool thing to have- especially for anyone wanting to look yuppyish and in the in-crowd. Not saying they don't have function for many people (although most people would still be more practically served by a netbook).
So someone needs to fill the niche for the majority of people for whom Apple and other quality tablets are just too expensive.
So regardless of whether kindle fire is any good- it will sell because there is a need for less wealthy people to feel "with it".
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I think the concept is great... (Score:5, Insightful)
$500 vs $200 (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they suggesting a $500 item might be better than a $200 item? I'm shocked!
The fact that a $200 item is competitive feature wise with a $500 item should make it the better value, no?
Futon of readers/tablets? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Shockingly, lower price means cheaper experienc (Score:5, Insightful)
People were probably hoping that Amazon was selling the Fire at a loss and that they were actually getting a $500 tablet.
Re:We are getting one (Score:3, Insightful)
> If those are its strengths, then why not just use a notebook computer?
Same strengths as the iPad, though. A "laptop that's not quite a laptop which never goes outdoors".
I just read both the reviews linked to, and the sluggishness was about the only negative thing, and as someone else just pointed out here, most people don't notice that sort of thing. You dragged the screen left, and the screen scrolled left. That's not something you usually get on the phone to customer services about.
It's a $200 tablet which looks like it compares pretty favourably with tablets costing 2 or 3 times as much money, with some minor disadvantages. I think that's a pretty good deal.
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Donotwant (Score:4, Insightful)
I have no use for any locked-down toy computers. I disregard any such devices once I learn of their nature, although sometimes I take an interest again if they can be hacked (like the Nook Color).
Re:We are getting one (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously? You can't hold a laptop in one hand, and flick it on and within seconds you're on a web page and passing it around to your friends.
Laptops are unwieldy devices, not meant to be pop on, pop off for quick info bites. Or sitting on a train doing something. I mean, it's possible, but its a huge PITA and not very fun. $200 is the perfect price point for these devices. Apple will have to play ball if they want to keep the market.
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Re:It's for filling the fad for the less wealthy (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason netbooks got it so badly is because most people are NOT better served by them.
So what's a netbook? Netbooks were sold as a category, but they really weren't any different than what had come before. Atom processor instead of Core processor, check -- so they have lousy performance. Otherwise all the components were exactly the same as a laptop. It was never much of a stretch to just drop the Atom and build a regular laptop with cheap build quality (which is pretty much what you see in Best Buy now).
Most people want a portable device to read, watch videos, browse the web, play games and perhaps write an occasional email or Facebook post. A tablet does all of those better except perhaps writing.
Boy, here I really disagree. I have an Android tablet and I rarely pull it out for anything. Most Web sites are still designed for a pointing device rather than a touch UI. Anything that requires typing, from word processing to Facebook to Slashdot, works better on a device with a keyboard. Tablets work great for Angry Birds, but otherwise I'm just not sure what they're good for.
Re:$500 vs $200 (Score:3, Insightful)
For what it is worth, iOS devices aren't always fast and snappy. I wait on my iPhone to respond all the time.
Tablets aren't carried around in pockets in most cases. A tenth of an inch in thickness shouldn't even mean anything to anyone.
I wipe my iPhone several times a day to remove fingerprints. Supposedly it is finger print resistant but I just don't see it. If the feature worked as advertised, I'd consider it a plus.
Amazon created a tablet that is primarily there to digest media. You can listen to music, watch movies, read books and surf the web. I think that covers most use cases for most people. The iPad2 does have more features, but is a camera worth an extra $300 when you have a camera in your phone?
False metric (Score:4, Insightful)
"For a device that is entirely about media consumption, the Fire will live or die depending on its perceived alacrity."
No, not at all.
That's the measure about whether it's an iPad.
It's not.
The fact is that (I believe) many people will be happy to save $hundred$ in exchange for a little menu-lag. The Fire will live or die depending on its perceived VALUE.
HP Touchpads failed as a market product, but FLEW off the shelves at a lower pricepoint. That has NOTHING to do with how 'quickly' it displayed stuff....that didn't change between the earlier and later sell-rates.
Capitalism 101, for those of you in academia.
Re:We are getting one (Score:2, Insightful)
We got some iPads here at work to eval for use in various places. I was very underwhelmed. OTOH - My family and I really enjoy our Asus Transformer tablet. Whenever my kids are home for my weekends, a common question from my wife is "Where's the tablet?" I am very happy about not being tied to iTunes either. There's only one iPod left in the house, and it's a nightmare of support when she has problems.
I'm gonna disagree. You make it sound like you're being impartial but you're not. You didn't elaborate on the usage you tried in the office. Would the Asus Transformer have held up any better? You didn't specify. Has your family ever used an iPad or are they just trained in the usage of the Asus tablet / Android? Then you point out some unrelated issue about nightmare and an iPod.
If you don't like Apple / iOS, just say so.
Re:Stock roms, lawl (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if it can be rooted, that will not make it succeed. How many people can actually root a device?
I think the 90% (maybe more) of the people that buys a Kindle (or any tablet) do not even know about what rooting a device is.
Re:We are getting one (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not sure what this has to do with fire, and beside it is mainly just name calling. Underwhelmed by what? Enjoyed the Asus why? Would rather not be tied to iTunes because? A nightmare of support because?
You aren't actually saying anything.
Re:And your definition of "fad?" (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Stock roms, lawl (Score:5, Insightful)
This.
The whole story is partisan trash; I invite anyone to go to the articles source and browse the archives. They literally have a "why this is going to fail" article for every major Android product release, obscure "experts" decrying the benefit of any tech not found in iPhones (quad-core processors, newer nVidia chips, etc.), talk about how new Android versions "won't save them"; they do have a (very few) positive articles about Android features, but the overwhelming majority of content on their site is anti-Android and pro-Apple. There are valid complaints to have with Android, but it's top in marketshare, and it looks just a little fishy when 90% of stories are so heavily critical of Android.
That's without getting to the meat of the matter, though. They make a lot of talk in the article about the poor reviews, about problems rearing their "ugly heads" throughout "almost every review," and then at the end they link two -- one of which calls the Kindle Fire "revolutionary" and gives it their first Editor's Choice for small tablets, and the other stating it's unquestionably a terrific value. Neither is anything but enthusiastic. So one has to wonder where, exactly, the conclusion in TFA comes from?
This is just more Apple dittohead speak. Apple makes quality products. I wish they made quality users.