Amazon Kindle Fire

In an attempt to leverage its experience in eBook readers, Amazon has produced the Kindle Fire for release in late 2011. Back orders for the Kindle Fire have been much reported in the media and with a selling price of $175 to $200 in combination with the Amazon name, it’s easy to see why.

Unfortunately, the Amazon Kindle Fire is short on memory space and available apps; even more stunningly, the effect of the excellent low-glare screens of the Kindle eBook readers is gone with the move up to a touchscreen for the device. Though while the screen might not be quite as reader-friendly as it should, the high-density display is impressive and video looks great.

On the plus side, this tablet is a boon for video watchers and eBook buyers. Ordering, downloading and watching movies and TV programs have literally never been simpler (It should be noted, however, that the proprietary video software only plays Amazon or Amazon-connected files.) And since Amazon touts cloud storage, downloading from the cloud is incredibly fast and easy.

Memory space remains a serious problem with the Kindle Fire: At just 8 GB with expansion not possible, users will be limited to saving about 20 full-length movies on this tablet – or using the cloud often. Another advantage, i.e. direct-linking to the Amazon Appstore, has drawbacks as well in that this outlet will stock only about 5% of the 200,000-plus apps available in the Android Market.