Last week Amazon unveiled to the world what they have planned for the future of their Kindle. The Kindle Fire, from the looks of it is a tablet that will look to try and compete with the runaway success of the iPad.
Last week we took a long hard look at what the Fire can't do. Today we take a slightly more optimistic look at what the Kindle Fire can do.
Unfortunately there's no plans for a UK release date as yet, which does seem a little short sighted, and looks as if the plans for Fire aren't as quite set in stone as we were led to believe. If Amazon is so confident surely a worldwide release is necessary and in the pipeline?Anyway, here’s what the Fire does have to offer.
Design
The Kindle Fire is one of a few new tablets that seems to be turning their back on the standard 10-inch size and is going down the route of 7-inch form factor. Now we don't see this a problem, but for us personally - a thin 10-inch tab should be the de facto size. But for the $199 (£130) asking price Amazon wouldn't be able to make something of that size – so 7-inches is what they have decided on.
The Fire measures 119 by 190 by 11mm - so it's a far bigger prospect than the current Kindle eBook, but it will still sit comfortably in the your hand. You'd probably even get it to fit in a large pocket.
Unfortunatley the Kindle has added some weight compared to its inked cousin; weighing in at 413g - so its light, but nowhere what the original Kindle can offer when it comes to super-portable tablet computing.
Specs
Under the plastic you'll find a workhorse in the shape of a dual-core processor, but at the time of writing no one really knows how fast this stallion really is. It's not going to challenge an iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab, but from the demo we've seen it's no slouch. Amazon has decided to do away with any form of camera, and to be honest we agree with this decision. You're never going to use a tablet as a camera - end of - yes, you might use it for video calls, but again that's so niche - it's not worth losing sleep over.
The Fire offers a paltry 8GB of storage, but Amazon argues that there's no need for masses of storage if everything is hosted in their South American cloud. Yes the cloud is coming, but we’re not there just yet. But ultimately they’re right. When it comes to selling a tablet - admitting it has less memory than some calculators isn't a smart move. But it's not a deal breaker for the price.
It looks as if Amazon wants to be the hub for all you media needs, so you'll be expected to buy books, stream videos and music through there media eco-system. If it does make it to the UK then Amazon might need to get some of these services to blighty or this tablet just won't work.
Software
As you may know the Kindle Fire is running a version of Android, but not the tablet version, it’s the mobile phone iteration; Gingerbread 2.3. So when you fire it up it's not going to look like a Android tablet. It's a sleek, clean, simple interface - which considering its target market might well be a stroke genius. We've got a Honeycomb Tab - yes it amazing, but it's so complicated and after 6 months of use we’re still unsure how it all works.
The web browser comes from Amazon itself and is called Silk, using clever tracking software it's being billed as a intelligent browser - so after a few weeks it will automagically know what sites you may visit and will cache them so you get a super-fast surfing experience. Quite how this works remains to be seen, but if it does work it will be great. After all, your average internet user is a creature of habit and in time the Fire should know you better than you know yourself (scary, we know).
One of the major stumbling blocks for the Fire seems to be Amazon's decision to let the Fire only access its own Amazon App store. But this actually might be a good idea. If you've got a Honeycomb tab you'll probably know what we're about to say. The Android Marketplace is awful; it's full of apps that don't work, some only work on some phones, most are often viruses or aren't even meant to be available in this country. It's a right old mess. So it's no surprise that Amazon wants to make is own little application nirvana - will it succeed? Quite possibly.
Screen
Unlike its cousins the Fire will not be coming with the same ink screen that has come before, but will be a traditional colour screen, with a resolution of 1024×600 - so, yes you've spotted it, a non-HD screen. There's no way to sugar coat what is a pretty lackluster screen. There's no real silver lining, but for the price, you can’t expect too much. So it's not too bad, but won't be something you'll be braggin' to your mates about.
From what we’ve seen, the Fire’s screen looks pretty bright. We’re looking forward to having a proper eyes-on session with some good-quality video content. We’re hoping that the capacitive touchscreen is responsive too – it’s no fun swiping around on a tablet that won’t properly register any of your movements.
No Cameras
Unlike pretty much any tablet you can buy at the moment - the kindle Fire - does not have any cameras. But honesty if it did for the money you'd be getting something that comes somewhere between a grainy CCTV camera or one of those throw away cameras. It's a bit of a disappointment, but this again for the price it’s not the end of the world.
Considering what you do get it does seem that the accountants have been given permission to run riot over the Fire. Yes. its being sold at a loss, but the list of what it hasn't got is far longer that the list of what it does have. At the moment that list contains the word; Kindle. There are plenty of apps that rely on built-in cameras, not just for taking snaps, but also for fun things such as augmented reality. The lack of a front-facing camera is also likely to be a problem for those of you who’ve grown used to video calling your friends and family.
Conclusion
The Amazon Kindle Fire doesn’t offer the same features as a premium tablet and certainly won’t offer the same powerful performance. But, with a considerably lower price tag and the already established Kindle name behind it, the Fire could be a strong seller. We’ll have to just wait and see if it ever hits UK shelves.