The Kindle Fire is 2011's tablet offering by the retail giant Amazon, and it's considered by many a great alternative to Apple's iPad 2. If you are considering including it on your Christmas gift list take a look at the following before you decide if the Kindle Fire is a good iPad alternative or not.
Pricing
There's no doubt here, the Fire is a much cheaper alternative to Apple's flagship table, even on its most basic model. This makes the Fire a good iPad alternative if you are concerned about pricing, but of course it affects its feature list.
Screen Size And Weight
With a 7 inches screen and 14.6 ounces, Amazon's Kindle Fire is smaller and lighter than the iPad 2, which weights 1.3 pounds with a 9.7-inch display. However, the Kindle is slightly thicker than the iPad, at 0.45 inches vs 0.34 inches.
Software
Apple's iPad runs iOS proprietary software, and it's quite limited in terms of what the user can change or install on the machine. The Kindle Fire offers more versatility, as it uses the open source operative system Android. If you are looking for gifts for somebody who likes Linux and Android, the Kindle Fire is a great candidate.
Storage
The iPad offers from 16GB to 64GB internal storage, compared with the 8GB offered by the Kindle. However, since both offer Wi-Fi connectivity it's relatively easy to offset this by just storing your files elsewhere.The Fire is heavily tailored towards using Amazon Cloud offering, clearly offsetting the reduced storage space compared with the iPad.
Battery Life
Both devices can go for days without charging, and the Amazon Kindle offers up to 8h battery while reading. This is more than enough for most users, even in long trips.
Games and Apps
The iPad has been on the market for longer, and so it has a large following of loyal developers that have created apps for about anything you can dream off. On the other hand, the Kindle is tailored to consuming Amazon content, either music, videos or books, and it delivers just fine on that. Considering that Amazon is one of the largest marketplaces for this kind of consumer items, Fire owners aren't going to run out of things to read or see any time soon.
So, is the Kindle Fire A Good iPad Alternative?
Considering the price, the Kindle Fire is a great alternative to the iPad for people who don't feel like spending a lot of money, or want a very portable device to access their music, videos and books on the go. Compared with the Kindle Fire, the iPad 2 feels bulky and heavy, despite being one of the lightest tablets in the market. However, if you expect to use the tablet as a replacement for your netbook, the iPad may be a better choice.
