Kindle Fire in the UK versus iPad

 Finally, Amazon will be realising their Kindle Fire in the UK. It took the company a while to set up the licences for their app store and other media content in Europe, but the tablet is now released in the UK and other European countries. Although we had to wait for a year for the Kindle Fire to arrive here, we do benefit from some improvements since the introduction in the US. For example,

 Amazon has boosted the memory from 512 MB to 1 GB and has upped the processing speed to 1.2 GHZ (from 1 GHZ). Also, there are two versions available, the Kindle Fire and the HD, the latter will come with either 16 or 32 GB storage (the basic has 8GB). Amazon took quite a risk entering the already crowded tablet market, but given its huge ecosystem of 18m books, films, magazines, music etc, it started with a great advantage compared to other non-Apple devices already.

The app store has less choice than the Apple app store, but with more than 30,000 apps customers are unlikely to feel deprived. The screen resolution of the Kindle Fire is comparable to the iPad 2, which is great. If that is not enough, the HD offers a resolution that is on par with the new iPad. Other strengths of the Kindle Fire include stereo speakers, full compatibility with Adobe Flash Player, a responsive and hardened touch screen. Best of all is of course the price – the Kindle Fire retails for £129, the HD for £159 (16GB) or £199 (32GB). Compare that to the basic version of the new iPad for £399 and the decision may be quite easy… For less than half the price of the iPad, the Kindle Fire does obviously have a few weaknesses in comparison: It does not come with a 3G option, therefore it does not have maps for example. It does not have a camera or a microphone, so one cannot make video calls with Skype or similar. Some people have also complained about the lack of hardware buttons for volume control, so the volume has to be adjusted via the screen. But given that Amazon’s tablet costs less than half of the iPad, it is easy to forgive these little weaknesses. And the Kindle Fire certainly beats most other tablets out there! Kindle Fire tablet review