If you altered your holiday?wish list after Amazon announced the Kindle Fire, we don't blame you. At $199 per unit, it's easily one of the most enticing devices slated to be on offer before the year ends. Unlike the other Kindle devices announced last week, the Fire is a full-fledged tablet with features that go beyond those of an e-reader. With the tablet market dominated by the Apple iPad, you might be inclined to ask: How does the Kindle Fire compare?Display size and portability
With an 11.4mm depth, the Amazon Kindle Fire is just a tad thicker than Apple iPad 2's 8.8mm. However, when it comes to tablet size, the screen's dimensions are what really matters. If portability is of utmost importance to you, then the 7" Kindle Fire obviously has an advantage. If you think you need more screen real estate, though, the iPad with its 9.7" display is the better choice. Not to say a 10" tablet isn't portable ? it is. But if you're looking for something that fits in small purses or even large pockets, it's clear you need a smaller tablet.
Both the iPad and Amazon Kindle Fire have multi-touch displays, but the latter is limited to input from two fingers at a time. In comparison, the Apple iPad's true multi-touch capability can recognize input from all 10 fingers simultaneously.
Books, magazines, movies, music, and third-party apps
You can access millions of songs, movies, TV shows, and ebooks on iTunes using the iPad. But Amazon is also known for the content it offers, and you can rent, buy, or preview pretty much any digital product Amazon sells from the Kindle Fire. In fact, content is front and center on the Kindle Fire. On top of the original Android operating system is a user interface that looks nothing like any Android device's software to date.
The Kindle Fire's home screen is designed to look like a bookshelf with a search function for content and direct links to Newsstand (magazines), Books, Music, Video, Docs, Apps, and Web at the menu on the top. And happily, a free one-month trial of?Amazon Prime?comes with a new Kindle tablet. Amazon Prime gives you free two day shipping for?$79 per year, as well as access to Prime Instant Videos, which you can use to instantly stream any of the 10,000 movies and TV shows in its archive.
When it comes to third-party apps, though, the iPad is the landslide winner. Apple has always had an immense archive of third-party apps for its devices. And while the 140,000 apps customized for the iPad is but a fraction of the more than 500,000 overall items on the iTunes App Store, it's still a sizable number compared to what's available on Amazon. The Amazon Appstore first launched as an app for Android devices with 3,800 items on offer. It sells Android apps, but unlike the official Android Market, it's a lot more curated and more comparable to the Apple App Store when it comes quality checking.
Storage capacity and cloud reliance
At 16GB, the iPad's lowest storage capacity is twice that of Kindle Fire's 8GB, restricting Amazon's device to storing approximately 80 apps, 10 movies, 800 songs, or 6,000 ebooks on the device. But if you think you need more storage than that, it's not really an issue ? the Kindle Fire is designed to rely heavily on the cloud. The Amazon Cloud Drive stores your music and video on the web, and Kindle Fire owners get free storage for all Amazon-bought content.
Nevertheless, iPad also has its own cloud storage in the form of iCloud, although it works differently from Amazon's Cloud Drive. Whereas the Amazon Cloud Drive streams music and videos directly to your device on the internet, iCloud stores your files and lets you download them using any of your Apple devices.
Connectivity and Silk browser
Apple offers both wifi with 3G and wifi-only iPad units ? the latter, of course, considerably cheaper than the former. If you need constant connection on the go, it's the iPad that can deliver ? Kindle Fire only has wifi, limiting your mobility unless you have a 3G-enabled device that can act as a mobile hotspot.
But when Amazon's tablet is connected, the proprietary browser called Amazon Silk enables fast loading of websites.?Silk remembers your previous browsing habits and searches. Whenever you go to a particular website, it uses predictive technology to pre-fetch content you usually access for faster navigation. For Silk to be able to do so, it has to log URLs and other details on the Amazon cloud. Understandably, that has prompted some privacy concerns, but Amazon claims that any data it logs remains anonymous.
Mic, camera, and battery life
If you're looking forward to using your tablet to take pictures or do video calls, the Kindle Fire is not for you. Amazon has not included a camera or a microphone in its tablet. The iPad 2, on the other hand, comes replete with a microphone, a 0.3-megapixel, front-facing camera for video calls, and a 0.7-megapixel rear camera for photography and video recording.
Planning to bring your tablet everywhere with you? In terms of battery life, the iPad 2 comes out on top. It can last up to nine hours connected to a 3G network, up to 10 hours on wifi, or up to 10 hours streaming video and music. The Kindle Fire, on the other hand, promises eight hours of continuous reading or seven and a half hours of video playback.
Pricing and availability
Now that you know the important features to consider when choosing between the iPad and the Kindle Fire, all that remains to compare is the impact on your wallet. If you're going for maximum affordability, the Kindle Fire (priced at $199) is poised to make the smallest dent on your budget in terms of a tablet purchase.
The cheapest iPad 2 with 16GB storage and wifi-only connectivity costs $499 ? that's a full $300 more. Granted, the $199 Kindle Fire comes with ads that Amazon calls Special Offers; the ads-free version costs only $40 more. If you're in a very immediate need of a tablet, though, you'll have to settle with Apple; the Amazon Kindle Fire isn't shipping until November 15.
Choosing between the iPad and the Kindle Fire
While Amazon's first tablet is obviously tons cheaper than any iPad, it's also light on features. If you think you need a tablet only for surfing the web, listening to music, watching videos, and reading books or periodicals, then the Kindle Fire can do the job. But if you need anything more than that, then perhaps investing in the more expensive Apple iPad is the better option. Everyone has different needs ? assess yours when choosing between the iPad and the Kindle Fire, and get the one that gives you more bang for your buck.
Source: http://www.tecca.com/columns/kindle-fire-vs-ipad/
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