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Amazon has officially (FINALLY) announced their 7 inch Android tablet – the Kindle Fire. Keeping up with Amazon’s reputation of affordable devices (and prices all around) they’ve committed to debuting the Kindle Fire at $200. At this price point, they look to undercut a ton of competition. The name alone will drive interest but is the product going to be as revolutionary as the original Kindle was?
Well, for starters, this one doesn’t have any cameras, a microphone or 3G connectivity. The Kindle is to Amazon what the NOOKcolor is to Barnes & Noble. This one probably won’t be seeing Honeycomb anytime soon. Android 2.x (most likely Froyo or Gingerbread) is installed but the Android OS has been completely transformed to Amazon’s liking.
The device is designed to surround many of Amazon’s services, including eBook, music downloads, video rentals, purchases and streaming, apps from their Android appstore and more.
The Kindle Fire will weigh 14.6 ounces and it also has a dual-core processor! Much faster than what we imagined it would have as this one isn’t being marketed as a beast-like powerhouse.
Touching more on the media side of things Amazon is making a big deal out of Whispersync, as they should. Not only is Whispersync already integrated into the Kindle Reader application, but also into movie and TV show rentals. If you find your way to a television in the middle of a show you can continue where you left off on the big screen.
Unfortunately, this thing isn’t your traditional Android tablet. There is no “home screen” to speak of, no widgets or anything that would remind you of Android. If we didn’t know any better, we wouldn’t know what this is.
That’s not to say that the interface doesn’t look good, but if you were hoping for this to be your next everyday tablet you may need to look elsewhere – this one is designed for users who are deeply involved in the Amazon ecosystem. Amazon provides an elegant interface to access all of your content through them – really, it’s exactly how we imagined an Amazon device would look.
Amazon also announced a new Browser technology and the first implementation will be on the Kindle Fire itself. They’re calling it Amazon Split and it’s essentially a two-part browser – Amazon’s EC2 super computer cluster loads and processes intense webpage images and code on Amazon servers, while the browser on the tablet is left to do much smaller tasks. Gizmodo provides us with this image from the event:
Silk will preload certain pages that you visit often, meaning you’ll be able to load Phandroid.com’s new content in only a fraction of the time it currently takes you on other browsers! Amazon can also store your cache on the EC2 servers, meaning you have virtually unlimited cache. This is how cloud-based browsing should be done and we’re very excited to see Amazon put everything into play on the Fire.
The Kindle Fire is a very interesting device to behold, but we’re still a bit of time away from its official launch – November 15th. No, we can’t wait either. You can preorder one starting from today at Amazon.com.
If this thing can be rooted, and dipped in Honeycomb sauce…..well, then you’ve got something. Otherwise, it’s just another Nook.
Agreed. I want my next tablet to run Ice Cream Sandwich (has some nice new features) and have access to Android Marketplace and all other Google services. This Amazon Fire is priced decently, but if it only locks me into Amazon, I won’t buy it. I had an opportunity to buy the HP Touchpad at $100, and I decided to skip because it’ll take a while to get Android to run reliably on it.
Any word on specs?
seems no other than dual core (which IS pretty awesome!)
Looks like we have them now. :) I will definitely buy one of these.
Yup, rooting makes it 10 times more interesting. Especially at that price.
So basically, it’s a US-bound low-grade tablet.
I wouldn’t say low grade. This thing has a dual-core processor inside. Unfortunately this is not your traditional Android experience.
which i can totally handle. very similar to nook, think amazon will do it better though. plus if it sells well you know devs are gonna tear it apart
I think it will be really interesting to see what goes forward due to this.
love to see all specs… even if its just an upgraded nook (which it is cause of the dual core) i’m still happy… cant wait to get one in my hands to play with!
This may be aimed more at the Nook, but it obliterates most of the reasons why most people would even consider buying both a Kindle and an iPad/Android tab.
seriously, I love android like crazy, but snag a Touchpad… This is how a tablet is suppose to be.
My big question is what kind of screen does it have?
They only mentioned it was a 7 inch IPS display
Amazon does know how to respond to market’s message well.
Tablets should be priced like this!!!
If it has an HDMI out and can be rooted to put Ice Cream on it, I will get it. Assuming, Ice Cream has Google TV built in. Great pricing! Hopefully other manufacturers will take note.
It has a TI OMAP4 in side so it is more powerful then most of the Terga 2 out there depending on the RAM too.
As someone who is in the market for primarily an e-reader such as myself, this is exactly what I’m looking for. Around $200, good specs, don’t need the full tablet experience. Some apps for games, etc. but primarily use it for reading
This is such a mediocre entry. I know it will be followed up by something much more impressive, but this is like going home to a surprise dinner you knew was coming. Walking in and smelling the awesome goodness then finding out you’re missing all the essentials and all you get is a piece of chicken and a glass of water! No side dishes, no real drink! I am disappoint!
It’s a 200.00 dual core tablet. Whats out there at that price thats better? The single core HTC Flyer is still selling for $500.00. If you want more, pay for more, but this is a bargain.
Wanna know if it has GPS
Doubtful, it’s supposed to be more of an eReader/media device. There isn’t much need for GPS in something of that nature.
This device has no local memoey nor does it have a Micro SD slot. That is a deal breaker for me and unless you want to live on the Amazon cloud I think you should consider this issue.