I received the Kindle Fire in the mail on Wednesday and wanted to share my first impressions.
I’ve been excited about the Kindle Fire because it gives me a chance to take all the Amazon content I own with me wherever I go. Also, I’m a cheap/frugal dude – as much as I want an iPad, I haven’t been able to justify the cost. I have found that the iPhone serves most needs I’d use an iPad for… Except when it comes to accessing my media library (that is mostly stored with Amazon). When Jeff Bezos announced the Kindle Fire I couldn’t have been more excited.
So here are some first impressions about the new device:
- It’s heavier than I thought it would be. Not too heavy to hold in one hand, but I imagined it being a little lighter. Perhaps the weight is a good thing, as it doesn’t feel “cheap”
- I recommend a case. The screen size is 7 inches, so it’s not the biggest thing in the world, nor the smallest. But it has that “small enough to get away from you” feeling
- 1-click purchases is default setting, I turned this off. Not because I feel that will keep me from buying things, but because I don’t want to accidently buy something. I don’t mind the extra step of confirming purchases
- Home screen is neat, it has a “carousel” with all of your content on top (looks like iTunes library on iPhone/iPod Touch) and a “favorites” section below it. I just added the apps/stuff I use most frequently to the favorites shelf and essentially ignore the carousel
- Music section is solid. Press music on the top and it takes you right to your cloud. If you want to download an album/artist/song to the device (up to 8GB storage), just press and hold the image of what you want to transfer and click “download”
- You can queue up multiple downloads, as I’m downloading an album to the local storage, I also queued up a few apps to be downloaded as well
- App Store looks nice, but there isn’t a “free” section. I like that about iTunes where there is “top paid/top free”. Not here. The apps are all categorized by topic (games, news, utilities, etc)
- Their ‘Free app of the day’ does appear at the top of the app store
- The video section is excellent – the library looks very similar to the iOS Netflix store
- If you buy or rent a movie, you can store locally. Prime Instant Videos cannot be stored locally, only streamed
- Screen resolution is pretty darn good – I thought it would lack a bit in quality but I was wrong
- Swiping screen to screen isn’t as crisp as an iPad
- Sometimes you have to tap two or three times to get a button to work. Maybe I’m not pushing hard enough as I’m being gentle with it since it’s new, but it only happens sometimes, not always
- The browser/web surfing experience is good, not great. A little slower than I expected it would be. It might speed up as Silk learns to pre-render pages quicker, but I can’t complain
- Reading magazines isn’t the best user experience. You have to “double tab” to zoom. Pinching doesn’t work always work in this section. Magazines might not work on a screen this size. They’ll figure it out
- Books section is excellent like the video/music sections. I probably won’t read many books on this device, I’ll save that for the Kindle Keyboard which is easier on the eyes
- Couldn’t find the volume control in the Netflix app. Spent five minutes looking. (Note: to access volume in Amazon’s native video section just tap the screen) Volume control is difficult to find in most non-Amazon apps, so it keep the whole device on mute until I need the sound for music/movies
- No volume control on outside of hardware, either
- Flash works like a charm in the browser
So after my first 24 hours with the device, I have to admit, I like it! But it’s not for everyone. If you house your media content (music/movies/tv shows) and want a way to access those on the go. Get a Kindle Fire. You’ll love it. If I had to give the Kindle Fire a score based on Amazon’s rating system, I’d give it 4/5 stars.
If you’re interested in specific functionality and have a question about it, let me know in the comments and I’ll let you know!
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