Call it the Kid Fire. The new Amazon Kindle Fire ($159 direct) has been slightly updated from last year's model, with the price pulled down to make it more appealing. But even though it's just as capable as last year's Editors' Choice
Design and Interface
Externally, the 2012 Kindle Fire is absolutely identical to last year's model. It's the same black rectangle with rounded edges and a slightly grippy, soft-touch back, with the same 1,024-by-600 LCD. At 7.5 by 4.7 by .45 inches (HWD) and 14.1 ounces, it's the same size and weight as the previous Kindle Fire and a little smaller than the new $199 Kindle Fire HD. The Power button is still awkwardly placed on the bottom panel, and hardware volume controls are still missing, both of which Amazon corrected on the Kindle Fire HD.
Turn on the tablet, and you see a somewhat different interface than last year's model. For one thing, the Lock screen now has an ad on it. It's all part of Amazon's infamous "offers." Just like with the Kindle Fire HD, you can pay $15 to kill them.
Swipe past the ad, and the Kindle Fire's virtual shelves are gone. The screen is still dominated by a carousel of recently used items and apps, but below that there's now a suggestion of more things to buy rather than a list of favorites. (You can pop up four favorite items from the bottom of the screen, though.)
The Kindle Fire's simple menu used to be contained on one screen, but now it spills over into a scrolling bar: Shop, Games, Apps, Books, Music, Videos, Newsstand, Audiobooks, Web, Photos, Docs, and Offers. With ads appearing on the lock screen of new Kindle Fires and "shop" and "offers" bracketing the main menu, Amazon's sell is harder here than it was before.
The interface is still easy to use, and programs still putter if not zip along. I didn't have any problems playing action games or using painting programs, although the Kindle Fire HD's brighter, higher-resolution screen offers a better experience. Take a look at our?Kindle Fire HD review for a deeper dive into the Fire's interface and content offerings.
Like all Kindle Fires, this unit is tied to Amazon's stores, including its 30,000-plus-app Appstore, and its book and movie stores. You can sideload other Android apps by dragging them over from your PC via a USB cable, but you can't get the Google Play store on this tablet without seriously hacking it.
Having apps and sideloading available means that you aren't completely tied to Amazon's content ecosystem, even if Amazon content will always be the easiest to use here. For video, Netflix, Hulu+, and HBO GO are all in the Amazon store, and you can load your own music and videos onto the device as long as they fit into the tight 5.5GB of available storage. (You get free unlimited cloud storage for all of your Amazon content.) The tablet played our MP3 and AAC music and MPEG4 video test files, but not other video formats.
The OS is Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but it also isn't. I've been calling it "Amdroid," Amazon's highly simplified version of Android. The easy interface has been successful for Amazon so far, as it makes very clear what the tablet should be used for and how to get started.
I'm recommending this tablet for children, but the biggest kids' feature hasn't arrived yet: According to Amazon, FreeTime parental controls will come later this month in a software update. When I saw it in a demo, I was impressed by how it lets parents set up multiple childrens' accounts with flexible restrictions on different activities; you can read all the books you want, but only play games an hour a day, for instance. That's more flexible than Fuhu's parental controls on the kid-geared Nabi 2 tablet. You can also download the free Zoodles Kid Mode, an alternate parental-control setup with simple, restricted apps.
Next page: Performance and Conclusions
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