# Kindle Fire



## kindle10 (Jan 22, 2012)

Howis the fire differ from regular kindles?


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## love2read (Nov 23, 2008)

The Kindle Fire is more like a tablet device with a backlit screen, like your computer. With the Fire you can play games, watch movies and read books with a screen that looks as nice as your computer. 

All the other Kindles are e-ink (black and white only). You would need a light to read on them any place you would need a light for a regular book. You can play some games but these devices are mostly used for reading.

Both are very nice. It depends on what you are looking for.

I have both and love both but my Kindle Fire goes everywhere I go. It's wonderful


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## ireadbooks (Jan 11, 2011)

Welcome to KB, kindle10.

The other (e-ink) Kindles are best for reading, IMO. If you're looking for a device to easily read, highlight, and categorize your books, they're the way to go.

The Fire is more for media consumption. You can surf the Web, play music, send email, watch videos, etc. You can do these things on the e-ink Kindles also, but they're not made for that, and are cumbersome.

You can also read books on the Fire, of course, but to me it's not optimized for reading. 

Good luck with your decision.


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## n4uau (Nov 26, 2011)

ireadbooks said:


> Welcome to KB, kindle10.
> 
> The other (e-ink) Kindles are best for reading, IMO.


I on the other hand have both a Touch and a Fire and much prefer to read books on the Fire. My wife prefers the Touch. So I guess it is individual taste. I also love to watch the free (to Prime) movies on the Fire which she can't do with the Touch and I like to access the web sometimes while reading (like: where is the town they are talking about - I'll look it up on Google Maps) which my wife can't do on the Touch.


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## MicroBeta (Jun 9, 2009)

The Kindle Fire is an Android based tablet. The Fire has an LCD touch screen while the other Kindles are e-ink displays (Link).

Unlike the other Kindle models, the Fire can play video. The Amazon Cloud has movies, and TV shows that you can stream. Additionally, being an Android device, the Fire can run Android apps which the others cannot.

It may be an Android but it was designed to a Kindle e-reader. It wasn't designed to be an everyday, full blown tablet. However, IMHO it does its job very well. I have a Kindle Fire and a DX. The DX is now for reading in those situations where the backlit LCD on the Fire just won't do, such as the beach or on my back deck but the Fire is my daily use reader for all other situations. Although, I will say the Fire has done better in bright light than I had expected it to do. 

Mike


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## teralpar (May 18, 2010)

MicroBeta said:


> It may be an Android but it was designed to a Kindle e-reader. It wasn't designed to be an everyday, full blown tablet. However, IMHO it does its job very well.


I agree. I always tell people that the Kindle Fire is an *ebook reader * _with tablet capabilities_.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hmmm....having three other ereaders (Kindles), I'm not sure I would say it was an ereader primarily?    But with my only other tablet experience being an iPad, I'm not sure I can speak to what it would have to have to be considered a tablet by someone else.  It does almost everthing my iPad does, certainly everything I want it to do.

Betsy


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## BTackitt (Dec 15, 2008)

I don't know if I would class it primarily as an e-reader either. It's kind of a Jack-of-all-trades-Master-of-none. You CAN read on it, and if LCD doesn't bother you then it's a great device, but for those that the LCD bothers, well, it's not so great. You can listen to audio books on it, you can use it to stream music from the internet radio stations, from your Amazon cloud, and from apps like IheartRadio. You can stream movies from places like Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, and places like ABC/NBC/CBS/SYFY/USA etc. This is one of my biggest uses. It can also be loaded with movies and music to listen to/watch when not in wifi range.

It can surf the 'net if it has a wifi connection. the screen's a bit small, but it does do pinch zoom/expand.

Then there are apps. games, productivity... I don't think I would try to write a research paper on it, but, I suppose if one were dedicated enough, one might. 

It does read magazines pretty well. Better than a normal e-ink Kindle if your magazine has pictures. Doesn't work well for the magazines I like though because for quilting you need the patterns and stuff, that just don't work for any e-format.


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## reallyrob (Nov 18, 2011)

I tell all of my friends that it is an Amazon.com media device. Sort of a tablet, but optimized for Amazon content.


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