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Kindle Fire isn't an iPad killer

But the new Kindle is a decent e-reader and a good value - and it has potential.

December 1, 2011 at 10:31PM

Amazon could sell 5 million Kindle Fire tablets by year’s end. (Colleen Kelly — Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

If you compare the Kindle Fire to an iPad, you're going to be disappointed. But if you treat it like an e-reader with a lot more bells and whistles, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Amazon's first entry into the tablet market arrived with much fanfare last month. It didn't take long for some in the tech world to dub it an "iPad killer," especially given the $199 price tag. And the device has flown off the virtual shelves; 5 million could be sold by year's end, according to estimates.

But an iPad killer? Not by a long shot.

The iPad -- and especially the iPad 2 -- has capabilities the Kindle Fire could only dream about (cameras for Skype, just for starters). Plus, it operates on Apple's rock-solid operating system.

But video chatting with my grandmother or gazing at the solar system wasn't what interested me about the Kindle Fire. I wanted to check e-mail, browse the Web and read e-books -- you know, about 80 percent of what people want to do when they use a tablet.

On those fronts, the Kindle Fire doesn't disappoint. You can check e-mail, get on Facebook, listen to Pandora and watch a movie on Netflix.

Some have criticized the Kindle Fire as being nothing more than an expensive storefront for Amazon, but there are plenty of third-party options available.

One of the most celebrated features of the Kindle Fire is its Silk browser, which is supposed to offer super-fast Web browsing, but I wasn't impressed. Web pages felt slow to load and looked cramped on the Kindle Fire's 7-inch screen. Load times were faster than on a smartphone, but nowhere near what a beefier tablet could manage.

You can say similar things about the Amazon app store. Since the Kindle runs on a modified version of Google's Android operating system, you get access to some Android apps. But that's the catch -- you only get some of the apps. Amazon's offerings are limited, and there are still basic apps missing -- no Dropbox (the popular file-sharing app) and no Google app suite.

This will change in time. For now, you'll have to live with the pain of being an early adopter.

As for the e-reading capabilities, which are at the heart of the Kindle, the Fire doesn't offer the pure reading experience of its low-tech brothers.

That's because the Fire, which is a backlit device, doesn't have the realistic e-ink display that is so beloved in other Kindles. Now, it feels a lot more like reading off a computer screen.

It's not bad, per se, but it doesn't feel like a Kindle.

All that being said, the Kindle Fire is a great deal for the price. For under $200, you can surf the Web, listen to music, watch a movie on Netflix and read a book.

For that price, it's a pretty good value.

If you like shopping on Amazon, there's no better device to consume Amazon's content. Users get a free month of Amazon Prime, which offers streaming movies, TV shows and books. Plus, the Amazon storefront on the device is a fluid, integrated thing of beauty.

For a first foray into the tablet market, the Kindle Fire isn't bad. It delivers on most of its promises, and the drawbacks aren't deal-breakers.

There is already talk of Amazon working on a 10-inch tablet. If the company learns from its mistakes, Amazon might have a real iPad killer on its hands.