The Kindle Fire uses the older Android 2.3 kernel (Gingerbread), intended for smartphones. Although Amazon did a great job enhancing Google's generic interface, the Kindle Fire isn't as intuitive to navigate as tablets that leverage Honeycomb (3.x). First off, Gingerbread lacks dedicated navigation buttons. That isn't a problem for smartphones, since they have physical buttons. The Kindle Fire doesn't, though.
Like competing tablets, you have to unlock the Fire's screen to use it. Just slide the orange bar to the left and you're ready to go.
Interestingly, the unlock screen only presents itself in a portrait orientation. With other tablets, the display automatically adapts to reflect the way you're holding them.
Once you get past the lock screen, the accelerometer automatically adjusts orientation, just as you'd expect. However, the layout of Amazon's operating environment is notably different from other tablets. Gone is the icon-filled desktop. Instead, you get a digital bookshelf.
The top tier saves a record of your most recently-used programs, so it functions similarly to Android's multitasking switcher. Selecting an app is as easy as flipping through the stack and double-tapping on an icon.
Shelves below the first row are used for apps designated as "Favorites," though the Facebook icon is actually a URL shortcut to the Web browser, and not its own piece of software.
Amazon divides everything up based on media type: Newsstand, Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps, and Web. Like other tablets, the search field allows you to quickly locate an app, which is helpful if you have a large library. But it's also useful for searching the Web.
Whenever you navigate away from the main screen, the Kindle Fire displays a row of buttons at the bottom.
- Home button: instantly takes you to home screen
- Back button: move to a previous screen or App
- Menu button: access different viewing modes or additional options for an App
- Search button: instantly takes you to the search screen
Notifications don't pop up like they do in Honeycomb's system tray. Instead, there's a small counter in the upper left-hand corner that logs when you get an email or a download finishes. Meanwhile, the Fire's various settings are accessed by tapping the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner.
The keyboard is generic to Android, similar to Motorola's Xoom. Typing in portrait mode is more difficult, though, because the smaller screen results in smaller keys.
- Meet Amazon's Kindle Fire
- Quick Navigation Tour
- Books And Documents: Not Quite An e-Book Reader...
- Video And Music: Amazon Prime Members Rejoice
- Amazon Appstore Is Not Android Market
- The Shopping Experience: All About Amazon
- Amazon Silk: Assisted Web Browsing (Sort Of)
- Web Browsing: The Same Old Android Restrictions
- TI's OMAP 4430: CPU And GPU Performance
- An Experiment: Gaming Performance, Tegra 2-Porting
- Storage Performance: Slightly Faster Than USB 1.0?!
- Display Performance: IPS Confirmed
- Display Performance Examined: Very Bright, So-So Gamut
- Benchmark Results: Battery Life And Recharge Time
- Benchmark Results: Real-World Performance
- Benchmark Results: Wireless Performance
- Awesome For Amazon Addicts
- Appendix A: Background Information On Our Benchmarks
- Appendix B: Notes For Kindle Fire Owners















Ummm.... what?
Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com
Ummm.... what?
Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com
Just give him the 6990, the poor fellow just wants to play BF3.
Ever heard of bots? There're tons of those on Tom's nowadays.
A GPU of a 560 Ti level maxes it out @ 1080p, no need for a 6990.
Back to topic...
ROFL, and who needs a tablet without all that? That's right, Amazon fanboys. That company is an utter POS that is not unlike Apple, designing underpowered useless products and delivering them as "innovative". The only "innovative" thing here is a complete dependency on the company's online services... oops, nevermind, Apple did it first
And do not say "ya, but you can root it!!!". That's nice, people can jailbreak their iPads. You cannot include rooting and jailbreaking when you talk about something being open
The Fire doesn't have either of those things. Not going to work. You should check out the specs of the Fire first.
Oh yeah? You bought a Fire?
Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com
This article is a big fail.. they should have included it to compare.
Just sayin...
You can say the same thing with the Ipad and the Itunes store. Except for the fact that Amazon isn't making money with just selling the Kindle Fire alone.
Still though I like both the Ipad and Kindle Fire.
Also, I want to elaborate on the GPU. The OMAP 4430's SGX540 runs at 300MHz, not 200MHz, so those figures are a little misleading.
It seems like a good product from Amazon, but for my expected use, it isn't sufficient. I mainly use my iPod touch to read comics in JPEG format, so not being able to install many apps + having limited space really hurts.
Glad you liked it! Most of the time I cringe when the table discussion turns to tablets. A lot of tech reviewers aren't even really technies. They come from a Communication background, which is why the Fire is always pitted in a iPad 2 fight. Plus, the investors want the Apple fight cause they only see things in terms of units sold.
The engineers and consumers want a comparison based on features and usability. And the executives and PR people want a comparison based on demographics.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle. For me, this tablet is very attractive, but then again, I like amazon. If you're not part of that crowd, it's a harder purchase to justify in the long run.
Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com