I pre-ordered this for my wife mostly to use as a Kindle E-reader as I figured the tablet would be slow and the display would be less than impressive. I was wrong. What a bargain this little beauty is! This model cost $49.00 but it comes with ad's displayed on the lock screen when your tablet is dormant. Once your screen times out, they disappear. You can pay $15.00 up front to get an ad free version so I assumed to unlock the tablet I'd have to spend 15 to 30 seconds looking at an ad for Amazon Prime, or a product from the daily specials section of Amazon.com I abstained from paying for Ad removal and was pleasantly surprised to find that the ads are only on the lock screen and that as soon as I unlock the tablet they disappear immediately.
Here are my pros and cons thus far.
PRO:
Perfect size for Ebooks, and web surfing to alleviate strain on the eyes from my 5" phone display
nice sturdy casing that gives it a nice heft but still weighs in as one of the lighter tablets on the market
Child Accounts- Amazon allows you to set up this tablet with age restricted access for kids making this a low cost piece of tech that is perfect for school kids and allows mom and dad to ration the amount of time lil Johnny can play Clash of Clans and how much he can hit the ol' Visa card for.
Battery life thus far; wife was on it for about 5 hours last night and battery was at about 46%
Kindle Integration -this goes without saying but having my ebooks and audible books synced to the tablet is awesome and my Kindle books look great
Price - it's a $50.00 tablet that looks and performs as well as ipad mini gen1
CON:
Screen resolution - if you're looking for a premium screen res on par with your latest smart phone or HD tablet look elsewhere. I'd say the resolution is on par with an Iphone 3G or the original Kindle Fire gen 1
Web browser
The built in "Silk" web browser isn't very nice and the interface is reminiscent of IE on mobile devices. I searched the APP store for Google Chrome or fire fox but apparently those aren't available.
Camera
This has a camera in the strictest sense but it's 2MP camera is slow to load and it's nowhere near on par with the 10MP most mobile devices are boasting these days
The weak ass speaker
OK. So I wasn't expecting a Bose sound out of this thing but the on board speaker is just not very good. Poor sound quality, and weak. My wife was attempting to listen to our Amazon Music library the other night and was underwhelmed with the quality. I haven't attempted this yet, but I'll be paring this to our SONOS bar or my Bluetooth headphones for music or ebooks.
SO there you have it. Despite some of the flaws in the design this is just a fantastic deal for $50.00. SO much so that I ordered a second one for myself and plan on purchasing a 6 pack as Holiday Presents next month for my nieces and nephews. If you are new to tech and want to familiarize yourself without spending a heft sum to get into the game, or if you're looking for a durable yet inexpensive piece of tech for your kids, or if you LOVE e-books then this is the unit for you.
PRICING/CONFIG: I prefer this tablet with ads and no accessories to keep the costs down. You have the option to spend more money, but I recommend against it. You can easily see the specs online, so I won’t do you the discourtesy of simply cutting and pasting those here. Here is the price breakdown:
• 49.99 base price – what an incredible price point! Or buy 5 and get a sixth one free! This puts it into reach of schools and non-profits.
• No sponsored screensaver ($15) – big deal that each time you turn it on it shows you something interesting you might want.
• MicroSD card ($19.99 for 32GB) – you probably already have one laying around somewhere. Beyond that, there is memory in the device, and you are using the cloud for storage mostly anyway. If you end up needing this, just buy one off Amazon, it certainly won’t be more expensive. Also, the SD is likely less useful than you might think, since it is currently a bit limited in what can be stored on it.
• Amazon Fire Case (24.99) – it is supposed to be 2x the durability of an iPad. No case needed.
• Accident Protection (9.99) – who wants to spend 9.99 to insure a $49 device? During your install, they will give you another chance, and you can get the two year for 15.99 if you like. But to me, insurance is for catastrophic things, not a <$50 tablet. UPDATE - after looking into the accident protection, if I were giving it to kids, I might get the insurance. You can get a 1 year pretty cheap as long as you are in the US, and it covers everything from dropping it off a building, running it over with the car, or accidentally hitting it with a baseball bat. As long as you have the pieces, you are good, and there are no back and forth shipping charges to pay.
• That is a total of $119.97, or almost triple the price. If you’re buying this device, you’re probably a bit price sensitive – if you aren’t, you’re buying a different device and this review is somewhat irrelevant.
GETTING STARTED: Here is some timing for me to get started with this device:
• 1 minute – open box and read instructions
• 18 minutes – download and update to latest Fire software. If you are giving it as a gift, it is simply good form to turn it on first to get the updates done, even if you are not setting it up under your own name.
• Battery started at 65%, so I had plenty of time to connect, download, and play around with the device.
• I ordered it without my account being integrated, just as if I were buying it as a gift, unregistered. However, it came pre-configured with all of my information. If you are giving them away, I would double check this.
• Tutorials are super simple and quick, and well worth doing if you are unfamiliar with the Fire interface. It is really nice that they integrate your own data into the tutorials.
• HINT: While setting up, go to settings, select security, and take care of adding a passcode to your device. If you ever lose it, someone can cause some havoc if you don’t.
APPSTORE: Appstore Underground is fantastic. Simple to use, lots of great apps. Nice to know I won’t get gouged here for other fees since everything is included. I have not yet explored the quality of apps available here, so more on that in a later update. Had all my critical apps – LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Skype, etc. However, as noted, you cant use apps from the Android store, so you have to wait for them via Amazon. Not too big of a deal for me, but others might find it a problem.
EMAIL: Email setup was a breeze. In less than 3 minutes, I had my Office 365 account, yahoo account and gmail all set up and flowing perfectly. The interface for switching accounts is one of the easiest I have ever used.
CAMERA: The camera and video functionality were easily accessible, and I liked the quality. Not quite the same experience as using the iPhone, perhaps, but it may be that I also don’t have the apps yet installed that make it look so great, so more on that later as I experiment. The camera is 2MP, and the video is 720 HD. If you need something higher res, the Fire HD has 5 MP camera and 1080 HD. But then you don’t have a $49.99 tablet ' Same goes for the added speaker and lack of Dolby sound – this is a single speaker that sounds OK, but it is certainly not the same as the Fire 8 or an iPad. UPDATE: Have played around with the camera a bit more, and added a composite image - the first picture you'll see that it does a very poor job in low light conditions. As the light increases, you get some more detail, and brightly lit is not a bad picture at all, with good detail. This is not the same level of camera you will get on an iPhone or Lumia, so don't expect that, it is fine for casual photo, selfie, Skype, etc.
OS: The new OS is fantastic. It is simple to use, even for my fat fingers, and makes sense. Just as advertised, it puts the things you are likely to want to do front and center, makes it easily accessible to find new TV shows and the like, and just overall is a super clean and simple interface. Rotation responsiveness is immediate, unlike many other tablets, and I found the Silk browser on this to be quite snappy in performance. Watching video I found absolutely no lag when I streamed my Prime TV shows.
FORM FACTOR: This is light and easy to hold, with smooth, rounded corners that don’t dig into your hands if help for extended periods. It is heavier than a kindle – if you are used to reading on a Kindle, it is not a replacement for that. Given the lower resolution on this device at 171ppi, I will DEFINITELY keep my Paperwhite for extended reading sessions, and would not recommend this tablet if your primary purpose is reading books, and you do quite a bit of that. I included a screenshot, along with comparison to one of our phones, and you can definitely tell a big difference when looking at fine print, and brightness does not compare. I did enjoy the fact that during several hours of use, I never accidentally hit any buttons, something that always drives me nuts on other devices, so button placement is one of the most convenient out there.
SD CARD: Note that I saw in another review that you can have all of your music on an SD card, you just have to download it through your laptop first. I have not personally tried this, but I imagine that several things with the SD card will change in future updates to make it more broadly valuable, and Amazon has said this in support interactions. I don't have any view of when that update might be coming, however.
OTHER: Have to love all the kid-friendly (or rather, parent-friendly features) that this comes with. Again, buying a pack of these things for the fam is definitely a no-brainer. Charging is not fast - I ran it to zero, then charged for exactly 30 minutes, which brought it to 11%. Doing the math, you're looking at somewhere in the 4.5 - 5 hour range to fully charge.
SUMMARY: There is plenty more to say about this, but basic summary is this is an amazing product for the price, and delivers much more than $50 value, especially if you have a Prime account. I have absolutely no hesitation recommending this enjoyable product. This is my go to tablet for just carrying around in my car. I will still keep my Paperwhite for reading, and I have another more expensive tablet for really watching movies, doing actual work, extended email sessions, etc. But this makes a great 3rd device, and I far prefer it vs trying to do similar activities on a phone. It is perfect for Skype, games, Facebook, browsing, watching videos, emergency reading, etc. There is tremendous value in this device.
NOTE: There are 3 attached pictures/videos. First is one of the Fire next to my cat to show the nice size. Yes, the cat is huge and I only had seconds before he covered it with his massive body - why do cats do that? The second is a screenshot comparison between the Fire and my phone - big difference in text clarity. The Third is a video showing my 3rd drop test, with no cracks, fractures or other damage. I am now done dropping it, rest assured, it seems quite durable.
The short/summed up version: it's the new budget king in the 6-8" size. It's screen is a little lower in resolution but still pleasant to look at, it has enough power for most of the typical tablet tasks, and it shares many of the same features as its higher priced brothers such as front and back cameras, b/g/n wifi, and good overall battery life (minus an hour) My favorite size tablet is 8", so if you're looking at the amazon fire lineup, i would take this over the 6" for sure, and would have a hard time picking the 8" fire at 3x the price. If you're not a prime member, it's still a good tablet, if you are a prime member: it's a great tablet. Possible quality control issue: Mine had two dead pixels (not very noticeable, but still will exchange) You can load APKs(enable unknown sources), i loaded antutu and panasonic image app, both work properly.
Just some background, i currently own 5 tablets not including this new one, ranging from a nook color, a samsung tab pro 8.4, LG g pad x8.3, an old acer a500 and an off brand 10.1". Suffice it to say: i know my tablets!
Main Cons:
-2 dead pixels
-Front and rear cameras are low resolution, mostly good for video calls only
-1 speaker, sounds tinny like a small laptop, Gets decently loud, use headphones!
-Text not very crisp (but still decent to read)
The rest are overall Positives:
-7-8" is my favorite tablet size, 6" is just a bit too tiny, and 9+ can be cumbersome
-Uses a slightly slower quad core 1.3ghz processor, for most tasks you won't notice a difference
-Screen resolution is OK at 171 pixels per inch, at this price point it's totally satisfactory
-Screen uses an IPS panel, meaning good viewing angles and color
-The OS/interface overall is a smooth an intuitive experience, very simplified
-Advertisements are there, but don't bother me much ($50 version only)
-Fit and finish are very good, feels solid in the hand
-Comes with 8gb, expandable to 128gb (and cards are cheap!)
-A little less battery life than the rest of its brothers (7 instead of 8)
-Mostly worth it if you're an amazon prime subscriber (lots of access)
-Readability for books is overall good, but still pales in comparison to an e-ink reader such as kindle
-Movies look overall great, but look better on my other higher end tablets(of course)
-Tested with Panasonic Image app with GH4 wifi control and it works well, very little lag
Preface: Let's always keep in mind that this is a $50 tablet, i may be using my $200+ tablets for comparison, but i by no means expect a $200 tablet out of this $50 tablet.
The screen:
It's a lower resolution, but the important factor is how many pixels per inch are there (PPI), at 171, it's not exciting, but for most people it will be a fine experience, if you put it side by side with a higher resolution screen it's a fairly clear difference, but as someone who owns both, i'm fine with both and expect this at this price. Also realize that some of the larger fire tablets have a comparable PPI. The brightness is good, and the viewing angles are good thanks to it being an IPS panel.
The Processor:
It downgrades from its brothers to a 1.3ghz quad, which in practice doesn't mean much, it's only when you want to use high intensive games or higher resolution video where you may see some issues. Again, this is a $50 tablet, and at that price it's a very capable processor to have.
The overall quality is up to amazon's standards, which is to say: Very good. It's obviously very difficult for other manufactures to match amazon's price/performance/quality, as seen by their overall tablet success. My main quality issue are those two stuck pixels mine has, and it's annoying but simple enough to do a return/exchange to fix that.
What it all comes down to though is just one question; Are you and amazon prime subscriber? If the answer is no, and you never intend to be, than it's still a good tablet, but if the answer is yes, than it's a great tablet. Amazon has been seriously beefing up its prime offerings. It's quite insane(in a good way) how many feature you get access to. I've been a prime member for something like 3 years, and yes i've totally drank the coolaid and am a devote believer in its value.
Summed up: i could nitpick the crappy front facing camera, or the thick bezel, or the advertisements, but would have to eventually come back to the fact that this is the least expensive tablet of its kind on the market. They scaled it down expertly to be just enough tablet to appeal to a very broad market while keeping the overall quality top notch. Call me impressed and satisfied
If you have any questions or comments, please do use the comments section and i'll response as best i can :)
Antutu Benchmark results:
Overall: 23628 (about half the score of a Galaxy note 4, it used the phone scale instead of tablet scale for some reason)
UX: Multitask: 3011
UX: Runtime: 1896
CPU Integer: 1658
CPU float-point: 1731
CPU single thread integer: 1187
CPU single thread float point: 975
RAM operation: 1423
RAM Speed: 1929
GPU 2D: 1637
GPU 3D: 6407
Storage I/O: 1114
Database I/O 660
Wow. I'm really impressed with this tablet! I'm an Apple fan boy and have never touched an Android or Android-based device before, but I bought the Fire because I use a lot of Amazon services and just wanted a new gadget to play with. If you want a budget, cost-effective tablet, this is for you. If you want to compare this to an iPad, you'd probably be disappointed -- the screen quality is lower and the apps respond more slowly than on an iPad.
PROS:
-- Price -- I see a lot of generic, off-brand tablets advertised at this price that have specs that are inferior to this.
-- Build quality -- nothing seems cheap or flimsy here. I haven't dropped it (yet), but I'd expect it to hold up well if I did.
-- Amazon integration -- if you use Amazon services (Kindle books, music, Prime Video, etc.) then this is perfect for you because the links are built into the operating system
-- Expandable storage -- one thing that Apple products are missing. 8GB will fill up fast, but you can cheaply and easily add more with a microSD
-- Size -- if you want something for reading books or to use while traveling, this is nice. The form factor is easier to use with one hand versus an iPad mini
-- Everything you'd expect in a tablet -- for the price, I thought that maybe corners would be cut or major features would be missing but that isn't the case. This has front and back cameras, decent speakers and Bluetooth.
CONS:
-- Honestly, when you consider that this costs just $50, I can't think of any reason NOT to buy this tablet. If you compare to an iPad, you'll probably see lots of places where the Fire is inferior. For example, the battery life isn't as good as my iPad mini, and the Fire display won't impress you if you're used to an iPad but it is perfectly good at this price point. The camera is usable but not great. Apps respond a bit slower than on my iPad, and the touch-screen isn't as precise. However, you'd really never notice any of those things if you don't regularly use a higher-priced tablet like an iPad.
-- If you don't want to be locked into the Amazon ecosystem, this may not be for you. Although the OS is Andriod-based, you can't customize this as much as you can with a pure Android system. That isn't a problem for me because I do use Amazon services quite a bit.
I was a little concerned that the "special offers" would be annoying, but they aren't a big deal at all. They only display on the lock screen and aren't intrusive. No big deal.
Overall, I highly recommend this. If you need a budget tablet or if you're a first time tablet user, this would work very well for you. If you've already got an iPad and you want a second/backup tablet to use at work or for travel (which is how I'm using this) or as a dedicated Kindle device (which is how I thought I'd use this until I realized it can do much more), then you can't go wrong with this. The only reason not to buy it is if you're planning to use this as your main device and you want a high performance tablet like an iPad -- in that case, buy an iPad.
The good:
1. Cheap
2. Works well for the purpose
3. Easy to mod
4. Nice enough screen
5. Dual cams
6. Has some weight and girth without being too fat
7. Good battery life
8. Comparatively rugged
The bad:
1. Cams could be better
2. Could Amazon stop pretending this is not Android based and just give us the Play Store?
3. Needs a blue filter for night time
4. Mono speaker
While the tablet is not perfect it is quite an amazing device. Even if the price is not taken into account it is still pretty solid and can hold up to any competing product.
The features are solid and the CPU snappy enough to handle anything you throw at it.
I think I have bought about 20 of these devices since it launched. Evertime someone sees one in action they want one.
Family and friends all have Fire Tablets from me!
Pictures taken are also not 1/2 bad when one needs a simple point and shoot to preserve memories. The fact that it has expandable storage is quite the plus.
The tablet has also done what other devices have not: made me actually get back into reading. I never thought I'd like the screen over paper, but it has turned me.
All in all not a bad device. A must have if you must have a tablet. So far none I have bought have failed. Even if they do the max use has already been gained for the price!
If you need a tablet this is the one I'd suggest you get!
Feature Product
- Beautiful 7" IPS display and 1.3 GHz quad-core processor. Available in four colors.
- Now with the Alexa cloud-based voice service - just press and ask
- Enjoy millions of movies, TV shows, songs, Kindle e-books, apps and games
- 8 or 16 GB of internal storage and a microSD slot for up to 200 GB of expandable storage
- Prime members get unlimited access to a huge selection of songs, books, videos and more
- Up to 7 hours of battery life
Description
Powerful, full-featured Fire tablet—with beautiful 7" IPS display, fast 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, rear and front facing cameras, and up to 200 GB of expandable storage.
Tiny price. Big Fun.
Fast and responsive
The fast quad-core processor consists of four high-performance 1.3 GHz cores, for quick app launch times, smooth games and videos, and great overall performance.
Beautiful 7" IPS display
Fire features a 1024 x 600 IPS display with 171 ppi for a bright display with vivid colors and whiter whites. Enjoy a great viewing experience at all angles through a combination of IPS (in-plane switching) technology and an advanced polarizing filter.
No more worrying about storage space
Keep photos, movies, and compatible apps and games with you using a microSD card slot to expand your tablet’s storage by up to 200 GB. Plus enjoy free unlimited cloud storage for all your Amazon content and photos taken with your Fire device.
Power when you need it
Don't be tethered to an outlet — with up to 7 hours of mixed use battery life.
Capture life's moments
Fire features a 2 MP rear-facing camera for taking photos or recording 720p HD video. The VGA front-facing camera is perfect for Skype calls with friends and family.
Stands up to everyday life
Amazon engineers Fire tablets to hold up against everyday life. As measured in tumble tests, Fire is almost 2x more durable than the iPad Air 2.
Designed for Entertainment
Read
Choose from millions of Kindle e-book and magazine titles. Connect with the largest online community of book lovers on Goodreads. Discover over a million titles with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. Also, listen to your favorite books with Audible.
Watch
Enjoy all your favorite movies and TV shows on Amazon Video, Netflix, HBO NOW, and more. Discover hundreds of thousands of TV episodes and movies, plus fling Amazon Video content to your TV using Second Screen.
Play
Over 300,000 apps including favorites like Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify. Plus Amazon Underground, a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over 2,000 apps, games, and even in-app items are 100% free. Play great titles like Frozen Free Fall, Angry Birds Slingshot Stella, and Sonic Dash from developers like Disney, Gameloft, Rovio Entertainment, and more.
Meet Alexa
Alexa comes to Fire Tablets
Alexa provides quick access to the entertainment you want, including music, games, audiobooks, and more. You can also ask Alexa questions, check your calendar, get news, find sports scores, and even control your smart home. All you have to do is press and ask. Alexa will be available via a free over-the-air software update in the coming months.
One Press. Millions of Possibilities.
When connected to Wi-Fi simply press the home button for 2 seconds then ask. Alexa will respond to you and will even show visual responses to certain questions.
Everyday tasks made easier
Alexa on Fire tablets helps make the everyday easier. Just press and ask to set alarms and timers, check traffic, your calendar, to-do or shopping lists, and more.
Be Entertained
Whether you’re looking for your favorite playlist on Spotify or need a quick joke, you can ask Alexa. Just press and ask for a song, artist or genre, and stream directly over Wi-Fi. Alexa also provides voice control for Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, IHeartRadio, and more.
Stay Informed
Now you can ask Alexa a question and get an immediate voice response. When you press and ask, Alexa can pull up your flash briefing, Wikipedia articles, news, sports scores, and more.
Control your smart home
Alexa works with devices such as lights, switches, thermostats, and more from WeMo, Philips Hue, SmartThings, Insteon, Nest, ecobee, and Wink. Switch on the lamp before getting out of bed, turn on the fan or change the temperature on your thermostat while reading in your favorite chair, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie—all voice controlled from your tablet.
Fire OS
Fire OS 5.4 - coming soon
In addition to Alexa, our next Fire OS update will also allow you to quickly access great game play directly from the Games tab with Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers. Fire tablet owners will also have easy access to over 65,000 recommendations from ComiXology, which provides an unrivaled library of comic books, graphic novels, manga and more.
Find the things you love easier
Fire OS is the best entertainment experience on a tablet with quick access to the things you do most. The home screen includes dedicated content pages for books, games, and apps, video, music, audiobooks, and Newsstand, making it quick to pick up right where you left off. Powered by Amazon’s recommendations engine, you can quickly browse books, movies, TV shows, music, apps, and games suggested just for you.
Apps that are actually free with Amazon Underground
Fire tablet owners have access to a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over 2,000 apps, games, and even in-app items are 100% free. Experience titles from top developers including Disney, Rovio Entertainment, Gameloft, Zeptolab, and Sega of America without ever having to pay for the app or in-app purchases.
Share content with Family Library
Family Library links your Amazon account to that of your spouse or partner so you can easily share apps, games, audiobooks, and books, and it now allows Prime members to share their Prime Video content. Access your family's content across devices—both Amazon devices and free Amazon apps for other platforms, including iOS and Android.
No more waiting
With ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction), Amazon movies and TV episodes are ready for you to watch instantly. ASAP dynamically adapts to your viewing habits.
On Deck automatically downloads Prime Video (for Prime members) and the first episodes of Amazon Original Series while your device isn’t in use, ensuring that there is always something new to enjoy instantly, even when offline.
Integrated on-device tech support
Screen Sharing brings Mayday-powered customer service to Fire tablets. Simply call customer service and Amazon experts can connect to your Fire tablet to co-pilot through features by drawing on your screen, walking you through how to do something yourself, or doing it for you—whatever works best.
Odd as it might sound, VoiceView is one of my favorite features for the newer Kindle Fires. Since VoiceView hasn't been mentioned much in the various reviews, I thought I'd focus on that:
First of all, I like to write (Science Fiction), but if you write a lot, proof reading the material can be difficult. Text-to-speech (aka VoiceView) is a terrific proof-reading tool-- especially with the very natural sounding voices that it provides (via IVONA's award-winning natural language text-to-speech voices). I tend to like hearing my stories read with a woman's voice, e.g., Salli (USA), and sometimes with a British woman's voice, e.g., Amy (GBR). If you do a lot of writing and haven't tried proofing it that way, give it a try; it's amazing the mistakes you can find that you miss any other way.
Second: Just some tips. Rather than having everything in one place, like you'd want, the controls are a little bit spread around. If you just want VoiceView to read books aloud, don't turn on TTS in accessibility-- That reads everything aloud-- menus, home screens, etc. Instead, go into settings->keyboard & language->text-to-speech. There you can set the default voice, and download additional ones that you might want to switch between (such as British, etc.). Within the book, it you tap on it to bring up the top and bottom toolbars, the bottom one allows you to control reading speed and play or pause. (Also within the top toolbar->menu control->additional settings, make sure "Text-to-speech" is turned on).
Third, I wanted to point out one shortcoming I've noticed with the VoiceView feature: It doesn't provide much granularity in the options for reading speed. You can have it read at 0.7x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x, and 4x. Most other TTS systems allow much more granularity. When you're proofing your own material, sometimes 1.5x can be too slow and 2x, too fast. This seems like an odd limitation for an otherwise superior system.
Walt Christmas
I had to switch to Mozilla Firefox browser for Android because Silk browser was painfully slow. Might have been because of the wireless router settings, but I can't easily change those as I'm using Comcast router. Switching was easy. Pull down top of screen to access settings, security, and turn on Apps from unknown sources. Then go to this link to download and install Firefox: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mobile/releases/latest/android-api-11/en-US/
Without decent web browsing, I would have sent this back, but Firefox is a great browser and very fast. This device links to and lets you maximize your prime account features. It's a decent reader, I prefer my paper white, and prime video and music apps are wonderful
If you are buying this for a child and want to know how to make the new kindle completely kid-friendly, here is a step by step process. It will take about an hour, but at least you won't have to guess your way through the process now: My only complaint (besides it being an ordeal to set up) is that the video quality is not as nice as I'd like. I'm upgrading the kids from Nooks and feel like the old Nooks are maybe 10% better at video playback due to pixel issues. Still, fantastic for apps and ok for shows. Side note: If you want your kid to access Amazon Prime videos, you'll need to leave their Wi-Fi on. Also, don't expect to download movies to the kindle as they take up too much space.
Once you’ve bought a kindle for your child, go to Amazon.com, sign in to your account. Use your mouse to *hover* over the “Hello, ___ Your Account” and when the drop down box appears, go click on “Manage Digital Content and Devices”. Then, click on the tab for Settings. Scroll down to Household and Family library. Go through the process of setting this up AND adding your child to it (Add a child profile). It is entirely worth it. Doing this allows you to maintain 100% of your privacy so that your child can not see ANY thing you use your own kindle for, while still allowing you to hand pick every item that goes on the child’s kindle. They won’t be able to access anything unless you put it on their device.
Once you have set up your Family account, just remember that when you shop on Amazon.com to buy Kindle books/apps, etc.. you need to download them (at the time of purchase) to the cloud. This will allow you to manually upload (and easily remove) each item from your child’s kindle, as you see fit. It is especially helpful when you have multiple kid kindles on your account.
Now, how to set up the kindle:
1. Plug it in
2. When the Welcome screen comes up, hit continue for English
3. Select wi-fi service and enter your Wi-Fi password
4. It will begin downloading software – takes about 20 minutes
5. Register your Fire (this is your Amazon.com username and password)
a. At this point, I recommend signing into your Amazon account from your home computer. Go to Manage Digital Content and Devices, click on the Devices tab, and find the new kindle (it may say, “Your 3rd Kindle” or something). Rename it to be your child’s name – it will make things less confusing later.
6. Import Profiles. (This is what you did when you created the Family Account and created your child’s profile). Select your child’s profile to add to this device and uncheck any other people IF you don’t want them to share the kindle.
7. Set Lock Screen PIN – This prevents your child from using their new kindle to access YOUR kindle and amazon content. Set a PIN (or password) to keep your portion of the account private.
8. Enable Location Services: No Thanks
9. Back Up and Autosave: To turn off a feature, TAP the slider button so it turns grey.
10. Connect Social Networks: I ignore and continue.
11. Protect your Fire: No thanks
Welcome!
1. Take the Tutorial.
2. Once you exit the tutorial, Put your finger at the top of the kindle screen (near the clock) and swipe downward. You will see that you are currently logged in. Switch the user by tapping on your grren circle icon, then select your child’s name.
3. Swipe upward from the bottom, center of the screen to unlock the screen saver. You are now seeing what your child sees when s/he turns on their Kindle. (**The previous screen was what you see when you swipe down from the clock and log yourself into your child’s kindle – swiping down FROM THE CLOCK is how you switch users on the device).
4. A pop-up Share Your Content box will appear on your child’s home screen indicating that it needs content. The kindle may automatically suggest some of your account kid-friendly content to install. If it doesn’t, you can put previously purchased Amazon apps/videos/books onto the device by doing the following:
a. Go to your Amazon Account, hover your cursor over the “Hello, ___! You’re Account”. A drop down box will appear. Half way down the list is “Manage your Content and Devices”. Click on that.
b. Click on the tab titled “Content”
c. There is another small drop down box on the left where you can pick what TYPE of content you want to view: books/apps/videos, etc… Select the category you want and all your previously purchased items will be there.
d. In the Action column there will be a “…” next to each item. Click on it.
e. In the new pop up box, click “Manage Family Library” and select your child’s kindle. You can then close that window. (This is also how you remove items from the kindle).
f. When you turn your kindle back on swipe up from the bottom of the device to unlock it.
g. Once you’ve sent content from Amazon.com to the kindle, and after you unlock the kindle screen saver, you will click “continue” to the Share Your Content popup box. You will need to enter your PIN (or password) to access YOUR Amazon account. This allows the device to download and update what you transferred. It will then begin “Loading” it all. Don’t be surprised if you have to do a hard shut down and reboot the device to get all content properly downloaded.
h. This is not a straight forward process. Sometimes the kindle will appear stuck in the “loading” mode. I will suggest you give it a good 15 minutes before doing a hard reboot. If you do a hard reboot, then log back into your child’s profile (on the kindle) and you may see some of the downloads are only grey boxes. That means they are in the process of downloading. If they aren’t grey, you still have to tap on each one (while still connected to the internet) to install them. (I suggest doing one at a time). Be patient. If the kindle locks up, do a hard re-boot by holding down the power button to turn it off; wait 20 seconds; then turn it back on by holding the power button in for about 15 seconds.
5. When all your downloads are done, you may want to turn off the wi-fi (saves battery life). To turn it off, swipe down (from the clock). Find your wi-fi, click it, enter your password for the kindle, click the Wi-Fi You are connected, then tap the orange button to turn it off.
Great apps to get are: unblock me, minecraft pocket edition, temple run, hill climb racing, flow free, pipe puzzle.
First of all, I've had problems with same-day delivery in Maryland. So if you live around and you're going to buy it, choose either amazon prime now or two-day delivery.
The tablet is very nice, it's beautiful. Some pictures might make you think its too thick: it's not. I was expecting for a tablet that would freeze a lot, but it's not like that. It's slow for some stuff, yes (for downloading apps, updating and changing the settings), but it works perfectly and smoothly once you're in the app (browser, facebook, twitter, pinterest). The offers do not bother as much as I expected.
It also has a micro sd slot, which is good (the HD6 does not). Battery didn't disappoint me up to now (it's not a very good one, but i was expecting something worse). I like the OS design, the packaging isn't too big or too small, comes with wall charger and USB cable.
Don't count on the cameras, you better not use them unless you are really desperate.
Screen quality isn't amazing, but it's not bad (unless you want to take a picture of a picture on your tablet you shouldn't notice much), however amazon wallpapers might bother you at first, their resolution is too high for the screen. Touch is very responsive, it's not a burden to type on this tablet (i've had some that i'd rather go to the computer) or to change screens.
If you buy it on amazon prime, you can get it for $29 like I did (10 off on amazon site + 10 off first order on amazon prime now), so yes, I actually bought it for $30 bucks and even if I had paid more I feel like it'd still be worth it.
I am a graphic designer. I hate taglines. I hate writing them. Because more often than not they're misleading, corny and outright lies. Amazon's $50 tablet tagline "A whole new standard"....is actually true. I bought this tablet as a device on the cheap for a cousin, the thought was a quad core processor (which processor we still don't know) 1gb of RAM and a much lighter Fire OS skin over android couldn't be too bad, especially for the price. Plus after the Fire Phone lessons have been learned and another well advertised flop by a big name like Amazon...they wouldn't let it happen right? They didn't. No lag under regular use, mobile games run swimmingly, its my first time using the Amazon app store and you can actually find most of what you want in 2015. Plus as tech person who prefers everything I ave with me and not the cloud it as expandable storage. In a year where phones are still coming out with 16gb non expandable storage and most don't go beyond 32gb all together,the $50 tablet goes to 128gb. The screen is decent, but has a certain clarity, and the OS feels like a better experience than Samsung's Touchwiz, so its a skin that gets a pass from a stock user. For the tablet needs it does everything you didn't know you deserved for $50. And I'll be buying one for myself. Having a 10" tablet for reading graphic novels and comics as well as media and heavy use, and a 5" smartphone for the day to day everything else its difficult to justify a 7" tablet for better book and manga reading and a slightly lighter daily load by leaving the larger tablet at home. Don't. at $50 you don't have to justify a thing. Enjoy it. Embrace it. Its that little bit that take life from a 9.8 to a 10.
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