Amazon Kindle Fire (Dual-core Processor 1GHz; 7-inch display)

The bottom line: Although it lacks the tech specs found on more expensive Apple and Android tablets, the US$199 Kindle Fire is an outstanding entertainment value that prizes simplicity over techno-wizardry.

The world of tablets

In the world of tablets, there are great products and there are cheap products, however very few great, cheap products. Fortunately, for those of you unwilling to shell out US$500 for an Apple iPad 2, and wary of buying a piece of junk, Amazon's US$199 Kindle Fire tablet should be at the top of your wish list.

The Kindle Fire is not the best tablet we've seen this year, however we have to give credit to Amazon for seeing something that no other manufacturer--not even Apple--was able to grasp. When you look at the gap between what tablets are capable of doing, and what people in fact use them for, you'll find that most people just want to be entertained.

With it, you can read e-books using Amazon's popular Kindle software, download Android apps and games using Amazon's Appstore, purchase music using Amazon's MP3 store, and watch videos using Amazon's video on-demand and download services. The common thread here is that Amazon's digital stores and services are all loaded and ready to go out of the box. To tell the truth, there's no getting around them since they're baked into the home screen navigation.

Many basic features are covered, as so then. You can browse the Web, email your friends, read common document files, view photos, and listen to locally stored music files, without any hiccups. A common micro-USB connection on the bottom of the Kindle Fire allows you to easily connect to any Mac or PC to transfer any content you want to take along. During you're down there, you'll find a headphone jack and the Kindle's power button. Flip it over and you'll find two adequately powered speakers sitting on the top edge. You'll have a tough time not covering up the speakers with your hand during watching videos in landscape view, nevertheless it's not impossible.

Benevolent dictatorship

It's a benevolent dictatorship, even though, and to be fair Apple runs its tablet the same way. Just like the iPad, Amazon seems open to the idea that offering competing services, just as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Rhapsody, Pandora, comiXology, and others. To see what apps are available, just head over to Amazon's online app store and poke around.

Under the browser's settings, Amazon includes the ability to force Web pages to either a mobile view or desktop view, which is handy if you abhor mobile-optimized sites, or if you're willing to sacrifice beauty for faster page loads. You'll as well find a setting for disabling Amazon's accelerated page-loading innovation, if you're creeped out by the idea of Amazon's computers predicting your browsing habits. On that same note, there's no private browsing mode on the Kindle Fire like the one found on both the iPad 2 and Google's Honeycomb browser.

We are as well a little surprised to see that Amazon hasn't included much in the way of parental controls on the Kindle Fire. Users are given a password option for the screen lock, and a password lockout option for the Wi-Fi connection, nevertheless there are no detailed controls for limiting playback of locally stored age-restricted material, or mature game content. Apple has done an exceptional job implementing these sorts of controls on its iOS products, and it's the sort of thing that would make the Kindle Fire much easier to recommend for children and teens.

Key component to the Kindle Fire experience

Amazon's cloud research adds a key component to the Kindle Fire experience. Like Apple, Amazon will back up any digital media you purchase and serve it back down to you at your convenience. Being able to have instant access to your archived media content as well makes up somewhat for the limited storage on the device. Just in case to archiving your purchased content, Amazon's included Cloud Drive service offers another 5GB of storage for any additional content you want to access.

Amazon's vast server farms are good for more than just storage. A in a class by itself Web browser called Silk is included on the Kindle Fire; it splits the work of loading Web pages between the device and Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud system. The result, in theory, leads to faster page loads, as then as some predictive loading of content and sites you access often. No other tablet on the market has a feature like this--not even Apple.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast a page loads, browsing the Web on a 7-inch tablet is inherently disappointing. It's just not a screen size that lends itself to the Web. When you're not dealing with mobile-optimized sites that read like large-print versions of your smartphone, you're stuck scrolling and zooming around pages designed for screens that are 10 inches or above. It's the curse of the 7-inch tablet, and all the Amazon cloud power in the world can't correct it. 

You can't make a US$199 tablet without cutting some corners--and Amazon cut plenty of them. Fortunately, the company used a scalpel instead of a chainsaw. The visual makeover is so complete that you never as a matter of fact glimpse the disfigured Android Oz behind the curtain.

Some omissions are obvious. There's no GPS, no maps, no Bluetooth audio or keyboard support, no cameras, no microphone, no killer gaming graphics engine, no video output, no compass, no gyro sensor, no chatting, no calendar, and no card slot for extra memory. If there's a deal breaker in there, so be it. There are dozens of qualified tablets out there looking for a good home. 

Silver lining to all of these feature sacrifices

But there is a silver lining to all of these feature sacrifices. It turns out that when you throw out the GPS, the 3G connection, the Google Mobile apps and Market, you as well throw out annoyances like clicking through Terms of Service agreements or Privacy Statements. Having tested a few dozen Android tablets over the past two years, we can say without reservation that the Kindle Fire has the most hassle-free setup we've experienced. As a matter of fact, if you order the tablet from Amazon, connecting to a Wi-Fi network and setting up your email are as a matter of fact the only hassles you'll encounter afterwards taking it out of the box. Just like any other Kindle, your Amazon account info and before purchased digital content will be set up right out of the gate.

We as well have to give a nod to the Kindle Fire's audio quality. Amazon doesn't include any headphones with the Kindle Fire, so you might not trip across the Kindle's audio quality on the spur of the moment. Most budget-priced Android tablets are plagued with a noisy headphone amp stage. The Kindle doesn't offer any high-tech sound enhancements or EQ settings, however the fact that they managed to pull off a clean, quiet headphone output is a rare accomplishment at this price. More tablet testing results can be found here.

The Kindle Fire marks an important milestone in the history of tablets. During the industry has been competing with Apple for the claim of the fastest, thinnest, or most feature-packed tablet, Amazon started in spontaneously slow race to make the first "good enough" tablet at a game-changing price. If you remember what Netbooks did to the laptop industry, this probably feels like deja vu.

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