Today Amazon pulled the veil off the worst kept secret of the year, the Kindle Fire tablet.
The Kindle Fire has a 7″ multi-touch IPS screen and runs a customized version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The big surprise is that it will cost just a shade under 2 Benjamins. It starts shipping November 15th.
To reach that low price Amazon decided to go without a camera, microphone, and memory card slot (it has free cloud storage instead). It comes with WiFi but no 3G. Also included is a free 30-day trial for Amazon Prime. Membership costs $79 a year for Amazon Prime and comes with perks like free two-day shipping, access to Amazon’s video-streaming service, and the soon to launch Prime eBooks rental service.
Kindle Fire Specs and Features
- 7″ IPS screen
- Multi-touch
- Gorilla Glass
- 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi, 16 million colors
- 8GB internal memory
- Dual core TI OMAP4 processor
- Wi-Fi
- USB 2.0 (mini port)
- Whispersync
- Amazon Silk – fast web browser
- Free Cloud storage
- Battery life 8 hours, 7.5 video playback.
- Size: 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″
- Weight: 14.6 ounces
- Price: $199
- Release date: November 15th
Here’s the Kindle Fire commercial…
Not that I’m an expert or anything but sounds pretty good to me. 🙂 The price is definately right.
The performance specs look great, but the lack of any kind of memory card slot is a deal breaker for me. So is the device’s dependence on Amazon to be fully functional. I refuse to be tied down to any single company. The same criteria also keep me from considering an iPad.
From where I sit, the Kindle Fire has nothing on the Nook Color.
To many strings attached and fabricated limitations.
I know I sound like a dumb noodle but what is cloud storage anyway?
I have just bought a new kindle and I have done a lot of research in the UK, however, I have not seen any UK website that mentions Kindle Fire, is this very new and is it only for the US market?
To add to the negativity, in addition to being bound to Amazon, this tablet is US only, which is lame for those who live elsewhere… and the world is big!
@Beruda: cloud storage is that you can save data on Amazon’s servers (ie, not physically saved in the non-existing memory card)
I agree with previous poster “Jim” in every way. This “Fire” is not a IPad killer, it seems to “try” and be a Nook Color “Killer”.. NO WAY… I bought a refurbished NC for $161 (w/10% off coup & free ship) a N2 Root card for $35 and it nocks the socks off this “Fire” for about the same price.
Now that i’ve thought about it for a while………I think my Pocketbook IQ with Launcher pro + and all the tid bits I’ve picked up on this site to be able to read ANY book no matter what format, is what I want. Yeah, it’s slower than a double core, but it does what I want it to.
I agree with Jim.
I have a NC and a nook touch and I am free to shop everywhere and even to borrow books from my library.
Amazon doesn’t seel video digital contents outside US so it definitely launchs the Kindle fire as a Nook color-killer as the tablet isn’t really useful outside US.
Sorry folks. I do believe I forgot to mention that the Kindle Fire is only available in the US at this time.
If this drives down the price of the Nook color, than everyone makes out, I think : )
Quick Question….What OS does the “Fire” have…why doesn’t anybody know which “Android” it is? (And with dual processor, can it be rooted?)
It runs Android 2.3 and will be open to rooting, according to this article at PC World. Sideloading APKs will work too, even non-rooted.
Does anyone know if text-to-speech is enabled on this device??