After purchasing the Apple iPad 2 a month ago and the Kindle Fire a week back, I thought I would surf the net and see what others say about both the devices. I was astonished to find that majority users prefer the iPad to the Kindle because I personally love my Kindle more and tend to depend on it all the time. In fact, I am now thinking of getting rid of my Apple tablet gifting it to my Dad who never has tried a tablet before. Here is why I prefer Fire over Apples!
Apple iPad 2
Apple may have revolutionized the world of touchscreen handhelds the moment it launched the iPhone in 2007 and subsequently the iPad in 2010 but its latest offering, the iPad 3, does not sway me one bit. Why? See what I faced with the iPad 2.
My Biggest Concern With Apple I Pad 2
Nobody told me that Apple does not have flash compatibility before I purchased it. This is a big problem for me because I love browsing websites with a lot of interactive content. Maybe it’s just me but no flash meant that I was left with mostly text and picture mode browsing on the iPad. For reading and pictures, why should I be paying nearly $400?
Another thing that bugged me a lot was that my tablet kept lossing connection to the WiFi network all of a sudden and the worst thing is that if I was in the middle of watching a movie on it, I would never realize this. While, I do not face this situation frequently, for some reason, it keeps happening every time I download a lot of data on it. Maybe the OS needs an upgrade.
The final problem that I have with it is the weight. Why does it have to weigh so much? I am not a frail person but I like things that I can carry around easily.
What I Adore About The I Pad 2
Apple iPad 2 Safari browser is definitely the fastest among tablets with pages loading as fast as 3 to 5 seconds. This helps a lot if I am in a desperate hurry to find a local restaurant number from the internet.
Another excellent feature of the iPad is its touchscreen. Apple really knows how to make touchscreens responsive to the slightest pressure. The large screen does help a lot. Because of the touchscreen I find it easier to navigate through my music files, videos and magazines. Oh! before I forget, the magazine reader is one of the best I have seen in tablets but it does take sometimes a little longer to load these applications even though they are inbuilt.
Processor speed and a fine tuned OS are probably the biggest plus for the iPad 2 but all the above pros for the iPad still does not justify spending so much on a tablet that I mostly use indoors or as a book reader.
Note: I have no qualms with the camera as a tablet is not even designed for taking pictures. If you complain about its camera then you should not even be looking at a tablet. Spend that money instead on a good DSLR and click yourself onto Flickr. Also, the screen does bloat a bit with grains but this is to be expected since it is a touchscreen.
Amazon Kindle Fire
Ok, I must say that before I purchased the Kindle, I had no wish for another tablet because I was perfectly happy with my iPad, however, its low cost (I spent just Rs. 10,000, approximately $200 on it) swayed me into buying it. The moment I started using the Kindle Fire, I felt many things missing but the more I started delving deeper into the tablet, I found it a better deal than the iPad.
My Biggest Concerns With the Kindle Fire
Getting on with this comparison, I found hardly anything wrong with this device. For me the screen was, not small, rather cosy because now I had something that I can carry around without feeling burdened. Moreover, lack of full HD is not an issue because with just 7 inches and 1024 X 600 resolution, any movie, even in mkv format, looks amazing. Plus, this saves a lot of battery power for me. Nevertheless, there were two problems that irritated the hell out of me.
First, the touch interface is obviously lacking. Amazon had to cut costs somewhere to get it down to $200 and it shows with the touchscreen as it constantly nags me saying, “That was a small swipe. Do you mean to tap? Try Again”. When in a hurry to pull up a file, it tends to increase. Now that I have had it for a week, I have learnt how to get around it.
Second, the browser speed is slow even with Amazon’s heuristic reading protocol that is supposed to read cloud results for global Kindle searches and speed up my browser loading time. Maybe, it is the fact that flash player support is enabled in the Kindle but its still not as fast as I would like it to be.
What I Adore About the Kindle Fire
Again, the weight, size and compactness are what make it simply adorable for me. The Kindle Fire may be lacking in speed, processing power and space but it more than makes up by providing a good enough media service. I do not understand why people keep saying that the online store from Amazon is crap because I loved the huge collection of apps found there.
Another thing that I cannot stress enough on is the way it reads ebooks. Its size makes it easier to flip through pages, read and search ebooks. After all, isn’t that the reason why one would get a tablet?
Movies are great to watch on it and even though it lacks external volume controls, I found that once I got used to the internal controls and menus, things started to clear up.
Note: I have no qualms about the pre-installed software that Amazon hardwires into the device such as Facebook, IMDB etc, because for me they hardly take up any space and I tend to use them a lot. Moreover, lack of proper parental control does not bother me as I am still single! The WiFi connection sometimes breaks off unexpectedly and requires a manual reboot of the interface but it happens much less than with the iPad, so no worries here.
Final Words
The price of the Amazon Kindle obviously means that shortcuts were taken but for the cost of procuring the Fire, it sure does pack hell of a punch. The iPad 2 is obviously better in many respects but only if you depend on it for your livelihood. Business users shall appreciate the functionality of the iPad but for home users like me the Fire is cheaper, smaller, lighter and better.
Author Name : Maino (That's the name I go by on all guest blogs)
Author Description: Maino loves writing about tips, tutorials and news on Android tablets
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