Kindle Fire HD 7″ Review

After a lot of consideration of eink vs. tablet, I ended up getting a Kindle Fire HD 7″. I LOVE IT! I am so happy that I decided to bite the bullet and stray from the eink. Believe me it was a really hard decision. The only reason that I gave it a try is that Staples has a 14 day electronics return policy. I purchased my Kindle Fire and kept my pre-order of my Kindle Paperwhite in place just in case. It took a little bit to find the right screen settings but it all worked out in the end. I think the best way to present the pros and cons is to just list them out with my opinions. I’d really like to know your thoughts on them!

Pros:

*LCD Screen – This screen has such a pretty picture. I can easily see myself watching movies on this. In fact I have watched an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on Hulu Plus and it was crisp and crystal clear. I love it. The screen is not eink so it isn’t ideal to read on but if I have it on Sepia and the brightness level backed off a bit, it doesn’t bother me for long reading sessions.

*Great WiFi – Seriously, if you are tech minded at all the wifi reception is awesome. I was sitting outside my husband’s workplace one night waiting for him to get off work and from across five lanes of traffic I was able to pick up the local car dealership’s guest wifi network. As a side note, I love the names that some people give their wireless networks. They make me giggle.

*Sound – My husband had the original Kindle Fire and I was not impressed with it pretty much at all. The sound on the Kindle Fire HD is amazing. It’s hard to believe that all that noise is coming through two tiny little speakers. I have no problem whatsoever hearing what the people in a video are saying. The background sounds are also great! You can really hear everything.

*Casual Gaming – One title and one title only: Plants Vs. Zombies! I swear yesterday I looked down for three minutes to play a round and looked up two hours later and couldn’t believe that much time had passed. As I’m typing this I want to go grab my Fire and play a few rounds….it’s not a good idea. I also love the Oregon Trail: American Settler game. Lisa got me hooked on it back around a year ago. I ended up uninstalling it because I became obsessed with making sure my pioneers were safe. It doesn’t seem quite as obsession inducing this time.

*Misc Pros (Things that are great but don’t need a whole category) – The Kindle Fire HD is multi-purpose and I can easily justify the money that I have spent on it where I was struggling with the $200.00 price tag for the Paperwhite that I wanted. I can also easily access my social networking sites from one device. At the end of the night I can update my progress on GoodReads without having to reach for my phone. The two biggest pros for me for the Kindle Fire over the Paperwhite are the covers and the fonts! I really like being able to see the covers and not only being able to see it but to see it in all it’s beautimous colors. Also, a bonus that I wasn’t really including is that the Kindle Fire has the same font options as the Paperwhite.

Cons:

*Wifi Only – I wish that Amazon had made the 7″ HDs with a 3G function. Right now, I can access wifi from home. My work’s wifi is password protected and I wouldn’t use it anyway. Work is also situated in a residential area so the only open wifi spots are those owned by people who are too stupid to lock down their wifi or by people who have guest networks. Either way, I would not use those spots anyway. For the most part this isn’t a huge problem as I do have 16GB of storage. Just something I wish I could have had the option of.

*Fingerprint/Dust Magnet – That nice crisp screen that I love? It will pick up fingerprints and dust like you would not believe!! I have learned to keep a stylus and a microfiber cloth with me at all times. This helps to keep the OCD at bay. Lol.

*Weight – The Kindle Fire HD 7″ weighs just shy of 14 oz. While that is pretty chunky for an ereader, it’s about average for a tablet. It still weighs less than a hardcover but it does weigh more than your average paperback. It can get heavy trying to read one handed especially in bed. I generally just lay it against the bed and hold it from the side that is opposite the bed to hold it in place. I will still say that this experience is above and beyond trying to hold a book and light and read comfortably.

*No Time to Read Function – I’m really bummed that this feature is not available on the Fire line. Perhaps this can be changed with a software update?

Overall, I am pleased with the decision that I have made. I may still end up with a Paperwhite but for now I am quite happy. Have you purchased either device? What do you think of them? I would love to hear your opinions!