The Fire has been receiving a lot of press and for good reason. It's the first and likely only tablet that might rival Apple's iPad in the tablet market. But to be clear, it is not an iPad killer, not even close to that. But that's not what it was supposed to be. In my mind, it was designed to consume Amazon content, eBooks, music and video. It does that very well. It's a nice e-reader, it plays video nicely and I assume music too. But it wasn't designed to do all the iPad does. The iPad does much more and costs much more. Is it worth it? That depends on what you want it for and how much money you have to spend. If you can afford it, the iPad is the clear winner. But if all you want to do is the three main things listed above then the Fire works just fine. It does some other stuff, like games, email and web surfing, but not as good as the iPad. It is good for looking up something you just saw on TV while sitting on the couch. But web surfing is not it's strong suit.
If you are an iPhone or iPad user, you will find the Fire comes up short in many frustrating ways too numerous to mention. I assume that in time Amazon will fix these shortcomings or try too, but right now you won't think it's ready for prime time.
If you are not a iPhone or iPad user then it will be fine, you won't know what you are missing and it will seem great. If you are an Android phone user then you are used to the shortcomings and rough edges of Android and it will be great for you too.
Plus it only costs $199 or $149 as I showed in a post below. I almost sent it back because I am an iPhone user and have used iPads a lot. I decided that because it does what I originally wanted it for, reading and proofing my eBooks, that I would keep it. I have managed to sideload (loading apps and data via USB) the B&N Nook app and a lot of other stuff and I think I might one day be able to sideload epub format eBooks for proofing too. I haven't pursued that yet.
The old adage is true, you do indeed get what you pay for.
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