The Kindle Fire Review You Didn't Ask For

PRE-RAMBLE

I’m not really an early adopter. Don’t get me wrong. I’d like to be. I’m kind of a gadget guy, and I’m easily enamored with the latest shiny thing. But The Man, with all his wanting me to pay money for stuff, simply doesn’t allow it.

However, things changed when Amazon announced the Kindle Fire’s sub-$200 price tag. (Hey $1 is $1.) I ordered one a few hours after the announcement. My sorta-impulse decision was driven by Amazon’s excellent track record with the Kindle, and their under-publicized status as a major innovator in the tech world.

I also finally came to the realization that I wanted a tablet.

See, when the iPad came out, I played around with one at the Apple store and I wasn’t that intrigued. Over the last couple years dinked around with some friends’ iPad 2s and still wasn’t that intrigued.
But, I realized that my wife and I do most of our Web surfing on the couch, while simultaneously watching TV after the kids go to bed. (OK, I really do most of my Web surfing at work, but…) I know you’re probably jealous of our glamorous life. What can I say? Haters gonna hate.

Then, one night, as the fan on my wife’s two-year-old HP laptop relentlessly clattered away, and I became increasingly frustrated by surfing several websites on my iPhone [Review within the review: That’s just about the only bad thing I can say about my new 4S], the benefits of a tablet finally clicked in. Still, $500 for an iPad2 seemed a little steep.

So, anyway, last week the Kindle Fire finally hit my desk. Here are my Day 7 impressions:

INTERFACE: A GLITCHY DIGITAL BOOKSHELF

If you haven’t seen the Fire’s interface, the home screen is essentially a mash-up of iTunes Coverflow and a digital bookshelf that scrolls infinitely downward where you can pin your favorite apps. There are also a number of tabs up top that automatically categorize your books, magazines & newspapers, documents, streaming movies, streaming music, Web bookmarks…well, you get the idea.

I actually think I like this format better than Apple’s iOS. The coverflow portion is quick way to access your recently and, subsequently, most often used apps. And the tabs offer a quicker way to get to specific things on your device.

However, the touch responsiveness leaves a bit to be desired. Often times the coverflow won’t register your touch. Or it will, then will hiccup and completely reset itself. Last night it took me four attempts to open the
Wired magazine app from the coverflow section.

Also, in general, the scrolling, pinching, and zooming performance are way behind iOS. It’s really juttery and even seems inconsistent. Not having used an Android phone, I’m not sure if this is the fault of the Android foundation, or the veneer that Amazon has put on top.

I’ve also read several reviews that lamented the lack of a physical home button. I agree. It would make navigation a bit quicker.

WEB: SLOW AS A SILK WORM

Amazon touted its cloud-streamlined Silk browser as one of the Fire’s killer apps. Well, it’s not bad. It definitely beats the iOS Safari browser in terms of functionality (and not only because it supports Flash).
Still, it’s not nearly as fast as Chrome running on our laptop. It’s not even as fast as Safari on my iPhone.
In the promo video for Silk they talked about how it uses its cloud-magic to download smaller-size image files to help speed things up. That’s all well and good, except when you want to zoom in on the image a pair of shoes at Zappos that are now too pixelated to get a good look.
They claim that the more people use Silk, the faster it will get, but it has a ways to go. Seeing as Web surfing is the main reason I wanted a tablet, I’m a bit disappointed.

WEB PART II: TWEET THIS, JERKS

The worst aspect of the Fire Web experience for me so far isn’t a Silk-related problem. It’s the damn twitters. Despite all my efforts, and defaulting the browser to the “desktop” settin, twitter.com forces me to use the mobile version of the site. And I hate it, you have to refresh manually, and the scrolling locks up all the time.

I really like twitter’s iPhone app, but they don’t have one for the Fire yet. And all the third-party twitter apps available for the Fire, pardon my French, buuhhlowwww.

I’ve actually come to the point where I’m setting aside the Fire to check twitter on my iPhone.

MAGAZINES: THE PERIODICAL IS NOT DEAD

One of the pleasant surprises has been the magazines that are available on the Fire. Specifically Conde Nast has a free three-month subscription to a number of magazines that are optimized for the device. These include my personal favorites: Wired, Golf Digest and, of course, Brides. The interactivity of these apps make reading magazines fun again. Plus, they make you scroll through interactive versions of print ads. (Yay for my job security!)

However, there are also magazines that are not formatted specifically for the Fire. These are essentially .pdfs of the standard print versions. These totally suck to read on the Fire. Too much zooming, panning and scanning are required.

BOOKS: THE ORIGINAL KINDLE IS NOT DEAD, EITHER

When the iPad came out and they announced the Apple Bookstore, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that e-ink was superior to backlit LED for long-form reading. He was, and still is, correct.

VIDEO: I NO LONGER HAVE TO LEAVE THE TV ROOM WHEN GOSSIP GIRL (OR YO GABBA GABBA) COMES ON.

The video streaming works really well. The best experience is, not surprisingly, the ever-improving Amazon Prime. A click on the tab and you’ve got easy access to their growing catalog of streaming titles. The movies load up quickly and the quality is good.

I was also pleased (and surprised: Netflix and Amazon Prime are competitors after all) that one of the Fire-optimized apps at launch was Netflix. This app works well, pretty much just like the app on my iPhone. The only advantage of the iPhone is the Retina display is definitely sharper. But the Fire is (obviously) larger. So, advantage Fire (until the Retina screen iPad 3 comes out).

On Saturday, the kids wanted to watch a TV show, but I wanted to watch the Oregon vs. USC college football game. So, I figured I would try to stream espn3.com over the Fire. It worked pretty well. I was one bar short on the “quality” gauge compared to the same game streaming on our laptop. But, it was acceptable. And streaming espn3.com is something I can’t do on my iPhone.

It’s no replacement for my HDTV. But it does give me a decent option when someone else in the house has control of the remote.

THE VERDICT: THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER’S iPAD 3.

Ok, Ok. Of course it’s not an iPad 3. I figured there would be some shortcomings with the $199 price tag. Still, I’m a little underwhelmed. The performance of the browser is the main culprit.
I also think I’d probably enjoy it a bit more if it were bigger. I know Steve Jobs rejected 7” tablets as too small. He was probably right, as usual. I guess I’m gonna start saving now for that iPad 3.
But, until then, this isn’t the worst $199 I’ve spent. That was a drunken night in Carson City, NV when… I’ve said too much.

RATING YOU DIDN’T ASK FOR, BUT: ★★★

(Note: This review you didn't ask for was originally posted on 11/22/11 at my original site you didn't ask for: http://notthatanyoneaskedbut.tumblr.com/) Not that you asked or anything.