Is This Really the Tablet Everyone’s Talking About? →
Jon Phillips, concluding Wired’s review of the Kindle Fire:
At the end of the day, the Fire must be judged by how well it executes in terms of its Newsstand, Books, Video, Apps and Web features. It does nothing very well, save video playback, running various Android apps, and making the business of Amazon shopping alarmingly fun and easy.
All of the reviews seem to agree on the main points: the Kindle Fire is best at video playback, not very good for reading, mediocre at web browsing, and acceptable for playing a handful of Android games.
Given its strength as a video-playback device, though, Amazon really should have given it more storage. One of the most common use-cases for watching video on tablets is on airplanes or while commuting, neither of which reliably offer Wi-Fi fast enough for streaming video. Ask any iPad owner who watches a lot of video if 6 GB would be enough storage.
My Kindle Fire is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I’ll review it once I’ve had a chance to use it a bit.