First there were the wars of the Desktops. Dell vs. Gateway was the biggest PC war that I remember. Our first PC with decent gaming graphics was a Gateway e2000, the cow box won out. After desktops, came laptops that were lighter, and faster with each newer model. After that, more battles with music players and cell phone wars, external hard drives, and now we have tablet wars. The latest rumbling in this new go-between is the Amazon Kindle Fire, a 7″ tablet with a dual core processor, and cloud based browser acceleration, all sported at a price of just $199. The real prize here in my opinion is the price. At $199, bundled with the $90 Amazon Prime Service, gives you access to Amazon’s large streaming library, featuring, 18,000 movie titles and counting. The Ipad 2 WiFi 16GB model sells for $499, with many awesome features, but it also comes with a price $210 higher than the Kindle fire.
Kindle Fire Touch and Feel
At Best buy I recently had the opportunity to pick up and feel this unit, and it has a very solid, high quality feel. The seven inch screen size fits a lot nicer into my large Columbia winter coat pocket, or my khaki side knee pockets, even with an optional carrying case. The device itself has a rubbery feel, and feels much heavier compared to other kindle models. The screen is solid, full of vibrant color. I could watch a movie on this unit, but I don’t think I could utilize the unit as a blogging machine. Another Key Limitation is the lack of blue tooth support, which means no bluetooth keyboard can come along for the ride when typing large documents. The Unit Unfortunately also lacks any form of Video Out Support, so I couldn’t hook up the Kindle Fire to my 50” LG Plasma TV. Comparing that to the iPad, which can be hooked up and stream content to any TV with an HDMI port when working with the Apple TV.
Fire Limitations
When comparing the iPad to the Kindle Fire, the biggest difference in my opinion is the optional 3G service, which allows data access while on the road. I see a device like this being a true solution for entertainment for kids or adults in the car or on an airplane except it doesn’t have 3G data to stream movies or audio books to the devices. If I take my wife and daughter to Florida to go to Disney World, for example, the Fire would be limited by the local storage on the device, except when stopping at a Starbucks with WiFi. Likewise a trip down to see my wife’s father who lives in Southern Illinois 10 hours away would go a lot smoother with my 2 year old holding a device with limitless entertainment possibilities.
Conclusion
The Apple iPad 2 has a larger application library, more connectivity options with WiFi, bluetooth, and 3G (optional) services, so the iPad 2 is more of a business friendly and productivity device, where the less expensive, smaller Amazon Kindle Fire is more suited for games, movies and entertainment. Ultimately it comes down to what you need, and right now, I’m honestly just fine with my Sprint EVO 4G and my dream machine i7 MacBook Pro.
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