I've been an iPad user since the original came out. I also have an iPad 3. I have worked in IT for the past few years so I would say I am pretty good with technology and fancy new devices. With that introduction out of the way, I will be reviewing key points that I have seen touched upon in other reviews. Here goes...BUILD
The device feels nice and solid. I'm a little surprised at how heavy it is, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The rubberized backing is always nice for added grip. It's not as nice as say unibody aluminum, but it's not $500 either.
SCREEN
The screen is fantastic. But my problem is the same as when iPad got Retina Display, other than the OS, most apps look rather pixelated. A lot of the games I tried are not high definition, at least not high enough to look smooth on this screen. Hopefully apps get updated to higher resolutions.
LOCK SCREEN ADS
Yeah there are ads on my lock screen. I'm not sure why this is such a big deal. How much time do people really spend looking at the lock screen? The first thing I thought when I saw the ads is WOW the pictures are really crisp! The ads are there to subsidize some of the $200 price tag. I might pay the $15 to get rid of them so I can customize it, but I might not. I feel like this has been blown out of proportion by other customers.
SOUND
The sound from the speakers is great. Much better than you would get from more expensive devices, very crisp and clean. I have the official Amazon case on and it has not affected the sound at all. Nothing much else to say, I doubt anyone will complain about this.
CRASHING
I've had two apps crash on opening. I don't know if it is the app or the OS. It's probably somewhere in the middle. Again, not a big deal for me. If it crashes, then I just tap it again and it works. I've also watched a few movies using the built in player as well as Netflix and Amazon Prime. No crashes for me at all. I'm sure OS stability will be improved as time goes on.
OVERALL SATISFACTION
Compared to my iPad 3, obviously the Fire HD is not as "good" so to speak. I mainly got it because I wanted something smaller. I also mainly used the iPad to surf the web, watch videos, and play some simple games. The Fire HD accomplishes this and does so much more. If you are expecting an iPad killer, or a desktop replacement, or a productivity machine, then you should look elsewhere.
I bought this to be a media device, and I believe that is what Amazon meant this to be. In this regard, I think this is a great device. In fact, I decided to keep this and sell my iPad 3, which will give me another $200+ to spend on other things. Just remember, this device is not for everyone. If you want a media device, you will be happy with this. Do not expect an iPad for $200.
UPDATE 9/18/12
Just wanted to add a few more things I have noticed over the past 24 hours.
Power/Volume Buttons: There are a bit hard to press, which is somewhat alleviated by having the official case. Maybe it's because I'm a longtime iPad user, but this will definitely take some getting used to.
Screen Glare: It took me a little while to notice, but I was playing a Seek & Find game while on Caltrain, with the bright Palo Alto sun shining right on me, and didn't have any trouble seeing the screen. I remembered that Amazon mentioned how the screen was changed to reduce glare, and they did an amazing job.
UPDATE 9/20/12
Two days later and I am still very happy with the device. Here are some more thoughts from me:
BATTERY LIFE
I have been playing Enigmatis (a hidden object game) for about an hour and a half each day on my commute. This drains about 15 20% of the battery with the screen brightness almost at the highest setting. Again, not iPad gold standard, but still very good.
SYNCING MUSIC
I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and used an app called Easy Phone Transfer to get all my music from iTunes onto the phone. It transferred everything, including album covers, and I was hoping to find something like that for this device. I tried iSyncr, a $3 app, which did the job, but did not sync over album covers. I uploaded all my music into the Cloud, then downloaded it from Amazon, which increased the audio quality for a lot of my songs and added artwork, but this still did not show up on the device.
I got very frustrated getting all the album artwork over and eventually just gave up. It's not a big deal but I am kind of anal about those kinds of things. Just a heads up if anyone else out there is crazy about it like I am.
UPDATE 09/21/12
I got a call from Amazon Customer Service about this review, which surprised me very much. They advised me the best way to get the artwork to show up is have the songs in both the Cloud Player as well as the device, which I know does work fine. I was hoping to have the artwork show without needing things in the Cloud, but not a big deal any more.
I am more impressed with the fact that Amazon called me to give me advice on how to remedy the situation and ask if there were any other questions I had on the Kindle. The representative said he wanted to make sure I was happy with the Fire HD. This is one of the big reasons I went with the Kindle, and with Amazon in general. I have had great experiences with their customer service, who have always been able to handle my issues quickly and efficiently. No need to set up an appointment days later with a wannabe IT guy with a hugely overstated job title.
So this update is not really for the device itself, but sometimes it's not just the device, it's the company that offers it that makes a difference. This is why I no longer have any Apple devices, as cool as they may be. But it's not 100% gravy, as I have noticed lately that the keyboard keeps popping up randomly on screens where there is nowhere to enter text, ie. while playing a game. I just have to press the Back arrow to get rid of it, but maybe a bug the Amazon engineers want to take a look at.
UPDATE 10/05/12
So I don't know if it was always there, but over this past weekend I noticed a dead pixel on my Kindle's screen. I called Kindle Support and after a short 5 minute call, they sent me a new Kindle, no questions asked. So once again, very happy with Amazon customer service. I am still very happy with the device, and have some more thoughts on it:
HDMI CONNECTION
I bought an HDMI cable to hook up the Fire to my 46" Samsung and was quite impressed with the results. The quality was very good, not Bluray quality of course, but better than SDTV on an HD screen. You actually see every single thing you do on the big screen, like you are using a giant Kindle.
GOOGLE PLAY APPS
One of the main drawbacks in my opinion is, or should I say was, the lack of all the Google Play apps available on the Kindle. With a little research, I found out how to add apps that are not available in the Amazon store. It is pretty easy to do and works very well with the apps I tried. This greatly improves my opinion of the Fire HD.
PLASTIC AROUND THE SCREEN
The outer most edges of the Kindle are plastic. I noticed some kind of discoloration on the corner of mine, and just thought it was some dirt to scratch off. So I rubbed my thumb nail on the area, and noticed there were visible marks on the plastic. It appears this plastic can scratch some what easily, but I think this is just cosmetic as not of the plastic actually flaked. If you are not very anal about how your stuff looks, you probably won't notice it.
OS CHANGES
Here are two small gripes I have with the OS that I'm sure could be fixed with an OS update:
Battery Meter: It would be nice if the battery meter could show percentage instead of just a graphic bar. Some people have mentioned Battery HD, but you still have to swipe down to see the percentage, so this makes it easier but does not solve the issue I had.
Personal Videos: The mp4 videos I put on the device are located in the "Personal Videos" app, which shows screen shots of all the videos I put in. The problem is, all that is shown are the screen shots. You can get more info by holding your finger down on each video, but when you have multiple seasons of a show on the Kindle, it can get confusing. Ideally we should be able to look at videos in a list like our music.
UPDATE 11/15/12
Still very happy with the device. Here are some more thoughts:
LEFT HAND MODE
I did't think this would be a problem until I played a Solitaire game that DID have a left-handed mode. As a lefty who usually uses the Fire in landscape, I often have to reach across the screen to access the Settings or Home button in the menu. It's a small grievance, but can be really annoying when watching a movie or reading something. If there was an option for a left-handed layout with the menus on the left side of the device, that would be great.
PERSONAL VIDEOS APP
I had earlier complained about this app, as it did not list my movies and crashed playing a pair of them. I recently drove down to LA from SF, and put 5 movies on device, only to find that 4 of them would not play! I was pretty mad, until I remembered a simple solution, download another app. I downloaded Avia Media Player, which is not the greatest either, but it played all the movies I put on the Kindle. My faith was restored.
GOOGLE PLAY APPS
A lot of people have asked how to do this. If you are not having luck with Google searches, try this:
I already own an Ipad and did not feel the need to own a Fire, since I believe they duplicated the same purpose. I did however place an order for the Paperwhite, but after thinking about it, why not own a full functional device that is more than just an ereader.
I love the eInk displays and how light the regular Kindles are. One of my main gripes about tables are that they are heavier and you cant read the screen in bright daylight. I'm not really sure why the daylight is such a big deal for me, since I probably only read outside when I'm on vacation (2x a year).
Anyway, I cancelled the Paperwhite and ordered the Fire HD. I love it. It is portable, I never take my Ipad anywhere, just too big. I uploaded my entire music library from Itunes to Amazon Cloud, (so much for being locked down Apple!) and of course all of my books are on it. I regularly borrow books from my local library and was often frustrated that when I was away from home I could not search for books on my regular Kindle, becuase the experimental browser was just not functional enough.
The sound is amazing as everyone has said, as well as the display. No need to go into detail about what everyone else said. My only gripe is that the touch screen is not really as responsive as I would like, but it still works fine. The display does cut the reflection and you can read out doors. That is not to say there is no glare, it's just not an unreadable LCD screen any longer.
As far as the ads go, I don't find them obtrusive. I like knowing what other people bought or may have looked at. What's the big deal? If your friends recommend something to you, do you get mad? Same thing here to me.
I like that I can sync my email and now, actually use the Prime streaming video service. Yes, I know I could use the app on my Ipad, but like I said, I like it all packaged neatly here.
My only question is how many HD movies/TV shows can you download to the device? I like to download them when I travel and delete when I get home.
If you are an Amazon user, you should know that this tablet is no different that any other device (Apple?) that tries to get you completely integrated into their system. Should not really be a surprise to anyway that all of the shopping experiences point to Amazon.
I am pleased to have a tablet that is portable and easy to use.
Great job Amazon.
My word to the rest of the "reviewers" don't actually own the product, but write reviews on products that you don't own, to grip about a feature you read about. It's silly and clutters the reviews for those of us that actually like reading what other people are saying about a product.
**Update 10/1/2012**
After having my fire for a few weeks I still have very few complaints. I pretty much carry it with me whenever I am out of the house. I love having the option to read or if there way available wi-fi watch a movie. I wish it came with 4G but I bet it would make the price out of line with other small tablets.
The only cons I have is the typing experiences. It seems there is not predicitive text for the Silk browser which makes typing a little tough. I hear though there will be an update.
I dislike fingerprints on the screen when reading, but easily remedied with s soft cloth.
I have read 3 books and I am on my 4th and the screen is no issue whatsoever. This was my biggest concern before purchasing. I have no issue whatsoever. Just so you know, I read a lot and love the Eink Kindles, so this was an experiment to see if I could read for long periods of time with no eyestrain. Not an issue at all.
All in all I still love it. I have not used my Ipad since getting my fire.I purchased the original Kindle Fire on release day last year. It served me pretty well but was extremely glitchy. It would freeze, restart and stutter while playing games. For what it was, an entry level device, it wasnt bad.
So when the Kindle Fire HD was released, I decided I might as well give it a go as well. So far the Kindle HD looks to be twice the machine the original was. I am gonna keep this short and sweet and just create a pros and cons list for you guys. I dont want to be too long winded, but if you have questions you post in the comments, I will try to respond to them for a little while today.
PROS:
1. Vibrant Screen
2. Much more responsive to the Touch than the original Kindle ever was.
3. Games that stuttered on the Original, play flawlessly on the HD.
4. The speakers are awesome, Loud, clear and crisp. No need for the Volume + app like on the original fire.
5. The device is slim, sleek and sexy. Really like the curves on the back and the styling.
6. Front facing camera works great for SKYPE. Quality was better than that on my SIII phone.
7. Wifi seems a bit faster, but not by much. Silk still isnt an optimal browser though. I have 65Mbps Download and 15Mbps Upload subscribed service.
8. Cloud sync worked like a charm, almost everything from my old fire is now on my new Fire HD.
9. The device feels sturdy and well built.
CONS:
1. The "Customers Also Bought" on the bottom of the home screen is terrible. I can care less about what others bought. The advertisements on the Lock Screen are fine and understandable, they really dont bother me at all or with the function of the device. The CAB on the home screen take away from having your favorites immediately accessible and are extremely intrusive with no option to remove it. I would gladly keep the ads on the lockscreen and pay 15 bucks to get rid of the CAB on the homescreen. Enough on that.
2. I work in a hospital and I know 11 people including my wife who now is a proud owner of a Fire HD. One thing we have all noticed is that sometimes when you unlock your device, the speakers will make a popping sound, sort of like a static or feedback. Hopefully this gets fixed.
3. Compared to the Original fire, there is a noticeable delay when clicking on apps or games. It seems more prevalent on certain apps but the same apps have no issue on the original Fire. More prevalent on the HD than on the original.
4. Magic books. For some odd reason, things I remove from the carousel magically reappear to irritate me constantly. I am a bit OCD and only want what I use to be on my carousel and nothing more. Hopefully this will be fixed as well.
5. Certain apps that were available on the Kindle Fire, are not available on the Kindle Fire HD. Accuweather for example is no longer a free app on the HD neither is ScreenDim.
6. I do not understand why we cannot use a different keyboard like Swiftkey. That would be a massive upgrade over the stock keyboard.
NON ISSUES:
1. Flash Player It isnt so hard to get this to be a flash device. First you need a browser that allows flash to operate. Download a browser like Dolphin 8.8.1 to begin with. Not only does Dolphin perform better than Silk, it is more intuitive as well. Next download Flash Player 11.1 for ICS, make sure its for ICS. Once both are sideloaded, install, and flash should be working. It works on mine. CHECK MY COMMENTS FOR A STEP BY STEP
2. Charger not included Again, in this day and age, most cellphones and other electronic devices use a mini usb charger. Just use the same plug for the Fire HD. I use my old Fire charger just fine.
3. Carousel While most agree customization of the carousel skins would of been a nice touch, it still isnt a deal breaker and I didnt buy it to stare at the carousel.
I probably have over 20 hours on the Fire HD right now. From my memory that is all I can recall. If I remember anything or run across anything, new I will just edit in an update below. Any questions just ask in the comments. Overall, this device seems like a great deal. It should be much stronger once a patch is released to fix some bugs, but what doesnt need a patch these days once a product is released. Overall great showing by Amazon. Good Luck
Update #1 9-17-2012
So this is the second time that I have come home from work and the wifi on my Kindle Fire HD is acting wonky. It worked fine at work, then I got home and if I wasnt in the same room as the router, I couldnt get a page to load even though I had full bars of wifi. A reset of the Kindle HD completely fixed this and now I am outside on my front porch, far far away from my router. Hopefully an update will fix the wifi steadiness. Not sure if its because I switched to a different network or what, but I am gonna submit feedback to amazon regarding the issue.
Update #2 09-19-2012
So the issue occurred again. My Fire HD wifi worked this morning at home. I went to work, it hooked up to the public wifi at work no problems. I get home and unless I am right next to my router, pages will not load. Instead of restarting the entire FIRE HD, I went to options, turned off wifi and turned it back on. Problem was solved. Everything then worked as it should. I am not sure why I am having these issues with Wifi as I am a gaming geek and have brand new equipment and top of the line router and modem. I have the Asus RT-N66U router and Motorola SB6121 DOCSIS 3.0 modem. All other devices and the original FIRE work fine, no issues. If anyone else has these issues try turning wifi off then on again.
Update #3 09-20-2012
So it occurred again. I emailed Kindle Feedback with the issue to hopefully have them fix it in an update. By the way, if you guys want to report issues with your kindle fire, email: kindle-feedback@amazon.com
09-22-2012
So it has been a full work week of use for the Kindle Fire HD. I have probably used the device now for about 50-60 hours of web browsing, shopping, posting on forums, playing games, skyping, watching movies and reading. What is nice is one of those Advertisements on the lock screen that so many people complain about gave me a free 5 dollar credit to rent a movie on Amazon Instant Video for nothing at all. How could they? LOL. Overall the Kindle Fire HD has been a superb device for me. Only a few apps have forced closed on me during this time, just as often as on any other device. I am used to the "Customers also bought" section on the homepage already, I dont even notice it anymore. Like I said before, the advertisements are really a non issue, and actually have paid me by giving me free MP3 credits and free movie credits. Wifi speed is good, picture clarity is great, sound is in a class of itself for tablets.
10-27-12
Update 7.2.1 finally enables us to get rid of the pesky "Customers Also Bought" that many of us were complaining about. Now we have just our normal carousel without anyone trying to get us to buy something that we do not want. The patch still did nothing for the popping noise that the speakers make randomly while using the tablet. I have now noticed it makes a popping noise sometimes even during games, not only when sliding the open bar on the lock screen. This doesnt happen often, but when it does, it is annoying. There are still instances where the wifi drops out or says it is connected and doesnt allow you to surf the web. You must then turn wifi off then back on again on the kindle fire and everything is fine. Amazon says they are working on a fix and I have sent my data log files to them on numerous occasions to help with this issue.
I really dont think you can beat this at its price range at all especially if you are an avid Amazon shopper. The Amazon Prime subscription ($79.00 a year) basically gives you a subscription to a "netflix-like" streaming service (netflix is $96.00 a year for streaming), access to tons of books and free 2 day shipping on most amazon purchases. That benefit right there is what seals the deal, no other tablet provider can lump together all those services at a low price like Amazon. I am really happy with my choice, but sure there are things I would love to have on this tablet, but I knew that before buying it. If anyone has questions just post them in the comments. I do my best to answer them. Also if you see a question on there you feel you can answer, by all means please do. Its nice to help others get the full potential out of their purchases. Have a good one.
I will continue to update this thread with all my findings and hope to help people make an informed decision. Thanks
Read Best Reviews of Kindle Fire HD Here
HelloThis is taken from the perspective of a very dire hard Apple/iPad fan. Here goes.First, this product is absolutely incredible. I really went into it expecting to dislike it. I even tried to cancel my order, but I was too late and it was delivered. Thus, I opened the package expecting to have nothing but complaints compared to my iPad3 (or whatever its called).
Pros:
Image quality is stunning. Really really terrific
Build quality is, I think, actually better than the iPad (which shocked me)The reason is that I HATE holding aluminum in my hands for a long time. It doesn't breath and when I'm on a hot airplane, I really hate it.
Form factor is FAR FAR better than the iPad. Keep in mind, I travel to China and back all the time, so I really want something that is very portable. The form factor is 100% perfect for traveling.
Flawless integration with Amazon's ecosystemThis is really the reason I bought it (and size). I actually sit there and smile when I use this to get to movies, tv, and all my books and magazines. SMOKES the iPad.
Usability it terrific. I just turn it on and it works.
Why only 4 stars?
5 stars to me means 100% perfect. This is not 100% perfect, but its pretty darn close
No charger? Really? C'mon. It takes hours to charge via usb. I just sort of feel short changed a little. I just used my iPad's USB charging plug and it works great.
I've had to restart it 2 times in 4 days. It seems to just sort of get confused when I'm really hammering on it. Restarts take about 30seconds so its no biggie.
Amazon needs more apps, badly. Granted, all I want is books, video, web browsing, email, and calendar. It does all this perfectly. But more choices would be nice.
Overall, I'm guessing my iPad will make its way to the kids now over time. If you travel a lot, want your amazon content, and do basic email/web/calendar, etc... this device smokes the iPad. I can't believe I'm saying this.
Hope this helps.First: I love it. It's almost too much fun. I go to read, but wind up watching a movie. There are so many choices, I get distracted. For the money, for its intended purposes, assuming you understand what it does and doesn't do, it's the best deal you can get. It's an entire entertainment system in one affordable compact package. As a reader, it's great, although adjusting it to the level of brightness that suits you is a bit of trial and error. It's easy to adjust, but my eyes are picky. For just plain reading, my older 2nd gen Kindle is easier.
The sound is very good. Hard to believe you can get that much sound out of such tiny speakers. Impressive. The quality of the video is superb, much better than I expected. I find that I actually do watch movies in bed with my little 7" Fire HD. Because I was already a Prime member, they have so much available for free it will be a long time before I feel I need to buy anyhthing more. I have a huge library for Kindle which I can use either unit or any of my three computers. These migrate automatically.
The new Kindle HD links to the older of my 2 Audible accounts. They cannot yet link an Audible account that isn't under the same email address as your Amazon account NOR have they the technology to link multiple Audible accounts, period. IF you have mulitple Audible account under the same email address as your Amazon account, they can consolidate the libraries, but it will be one single account. They said they are working on this ... and you have to call Audible for this help, though Audible is very good about tech help and always have been, even before Amazon bought them. Audibleis working on solving this, but don't hold your breath.
The device is great for listening to audiobooks, far better for me than an MP3 player because I hate earphones. The Kindle is small enough to carry in a purse and not heavy.
Issues: 16GB is plenty ... unless you want to download HD movies. Streaming them (what I have so far done) uses no memory, so no problem. Regular "print" books are small; you can carry a whole library with you if you want. It's when you get to music and audiobooks (or the aforementioned HD movies) that you realize there's a a bit of a problem. You cannot stream audiobooks: you have to download them to the device. Nor is there any way to add memory. Kindle has no slot for an SD chip or port for a flash drive. Why not? Wouldn't it have been a no-brainer to include a port or slot for a card or flash drive? That, in my opinion, was a bad mistake. You cannot expand beyond the device's embedded memory. Period. No options. Buying the 32 GB version moves the wall, but doesn't remove it. Amazon should add a port for memory, either flash or a card. They should address this issue soon.
You need to understand the limits of the device, what the advertisements don't explain.
Audiobooks can be large. A really long book takes up quite a bit a space. You can load a few books at a time if they are normal-length books, but not 57 hours of "Lord of the Rings," for example. After you listen to a book, delete it. Then download the next. Unlike when you download to your computer from Audible, you cannot download a multi part book in sections. It's all or nothing. A book that is in your Audible library in several parts, which these days is any book longer than 11 hours, will download in a single piece to the Kindle. If the book you want to load is LOTR or Winds of War, make sure you have enough room.
You can store everything you aren't actively listening to, watching, or reading on Amazon's (free) cloud servers, so deleting content isn't losing it, just moving it off the device. This is well and good as long as you have WiFi. It gets stickier if you are on the road and WiFi connections are not available. If you travel a great deal, road warriors may want to wait and get the version that comes with 3G (available in late November I believe). If you are mainly looking to use it on the road, get the 3G. I have 3G on my older Kindle; it's great when you want a book, but don't have a WiFi connection. It will automatically switch to 3G in the absence of a WiFi network. But older Kindles don't do all the other cool stuff. They are strictly e-book readers. Very good ones, but dedicated to a single purpose.
You can pretty much whatever you want to do on your new Kindle (not writing or editing beyond email length), but you can't store everything on the device. You can't download your whole Audible library to your Kindle or download lots of HD or other movies plus miscellaneous other content. One or two movies, max, a few audiobooks, plenty of regular books ... and other content as needed ... but not everything. It's not meant for that anymore than is an iPad, which has similar space limits. If you are in range of a WiFi connections, it's no problem. At home, it's a non-issue. When/if we are traveling, I will have to choose what I want to take with me.
The manual is poorly written and incomplete. As a professional tech writer, I will say straight out that they need to hire a professional and do it right. There's no excuse for not having at least the basic information available in the online manual. If the device was more intuitive, if the menus (such as they are) were logically arranged, they might not need it, but as it stands, they definitely do need a manual. Most things are very easy to do, but finding the menu that does it or the information on how to do it is NOT easy. Yes, Amazon has great customer and tech support. Real life peoople who really know the device and will stay on the phone with you until your battery runs out ... but who wants to have to call customer service to figure out how to delete a book or movie? Or for that matter, turn the unit on? It's stupidly simple to do all this stuff, assuming you can find the manual at all (I had to call for that, too), you will not find any listing under the words "delete," "remove", "turn on," etcetera. It's the first rule of tech writing to explain the basic stuff up front without having to search for it, and certainly should not need to call a hotline for this information. Just hire a competent tech writer. We work cheap, really. Give employment to someone who needs it!
I'm still figuring out where various functions are and how to make them work. They do work, but the figuring them out is anti-intuitive.
I bought the $199 version that has advertising. I'm not finding them intrusive. You can get rid of them, even after you've bought it, for $15 if they annoy you, but they only show up as an offers menu or on the splash screen before you open to the contents.
If you already are a member of the Amazon community, if you have Prime, already have a Kindle library, and/or an Audible account, it's the best deal in town.
I have yet to want something that Amazon doesn't have, usually cheaper than anyone else, so for me, it was ideal. Absolutely no reason for me to look elsewhere, though I did actually look at everything else before I bought this. If you want everything, spend some much bigger money and get a tablet. Go for broke and get an iPad. They're cool.
But remember: if your primary issue is READING, a tablet computer is not as good for reading as any reader is. Tablets are shinier and more reflective; they are useless in the sun. Any Kindle, is better for reading. Decide what you want to do. Many people have a tablet AND a Kindle (or other reader). One size may not "fit all" for you. The Fire is not a iPad, but it's pretty close and a heck of a lot less money.
If you want to read, watch a movie or TV show, listen to audio, do email, see what's happening on Twitter or Facebook -or any website, really -it will do that and more. You can transfer content directly to the Kindle USB cable from your computer or store it in Amazon's cloud, then move it to your Kindle. I've got three computers: laptop, desktop, and mini, so I am not going to worry about storing documents and photographs on my Kindle, though I may take them up on using some of their storage space. Photographs are another thing that can overload a small device fast. Be sensible and reasonable in your expectations.
It's a fine device, esecially for the price. It really does 95% of what Amazon promises, though not necessarily quite the way you expected. Plan on calling at least once or twice, if only because the menus and manual are inadequate. This problem is NOT unique to Kindle. I have some expensive cameras I still can't fully use because the manual is useless and they don't have friendly 24/7 service.
Thumbs up for quality, sound, video, speed (download and delete speeds are breathtakingly fast). It's also a nice looking device, compact and the accessories, finally, are affordable, even cheap. You will NOT have to pay $50 for a case this time. You can find nice ones for as little as $4 or $5 dollars. Buy the Quick Charger ($9.99). Worth it. Whether or not you'll need a stylus? I bought some inexpensive ones, but I never use them. The touch screen is sensitive (sometimes too sensitive) and easier with fingers than a stylus. If you have big hands, the stylus might be easier for you. It's a personal thing. Try it before you make a big investment. A cheap stylus will work just as well as an expensive one.
Fingerprints: not bad. I got lens wipes at Walmart. They are great for the Kindle, my camera, my computer AND my eyeglasses. Protective screen? There goes your HD and the sensitivity of the touchcreen. I can send you a bunch free; they came with other things and are pointless. Don't bother.
Absolutely do get a case for protection if nothing else. I recommend one that turns into an easel so you can watch movies or TV hands free and prefereably, also turns it on when you open it, turns it off when you close it. The on-off button is small and hard to find. My $8 case turns the whole unit on and off and is a standing easel. Problem fixed. It cost $7.99. The Kindle wakes instantly; a zero second startup.
The touchscreen is sensitive and I often find that I've started downloading when all I was trying to do was navigate. Amazon needs to address this. It's annoying. Getting information about a book or movie is tricky and to avoid the issue, I go to the Amazon store and look it up there. They need more and better menus.
And it's still the best deal in town!
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