Amazon has officially dipped its toes into the tablet market, making their Kindle e-reader a full-scale tablet powered by Android. The Amazon Kindle Fire is the hottest handheld of the moment, a 7-inch multi-touch tablet with an Amazon databank and the aforementioned Android heartbeat. It’s powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU, it packs 512MB of RAM and includes 8GB of internal storage. While the specs are adequate, it’s the price of the Kindle Fire that is so exciting– Amazon will begin shipping the Kindle Fire on November 15th for just $199. There’s no need for a data contract, as Amazon has skipped the 3G route to opt instead for wifi-only connections.
While the Kindle Fire is an Android device, Amazon has done an excellent job styling the OS up a bit. The OS feels unique to this device, as does its browser. Amazon has designed its own browser called Amazon Silk, which takes advantage of cloud processing and storage to make the speed and access of its browser all the better.
Some may lament that the Kindle Fire doesn’t have a 3G option or a digital camera, but if your mobile phone doesn’t at least provide a 4G wireless hotspot and a 5MP digital camera, you might want to upgrade there before buying a Kindle Fire. For us, we’re glad those aren’t included in this device and we can just stick to the basics of good books and better browsing. November 15th can’t come soon enough… [preorder: $199 at Amazon]
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Amazon Kindle Fire Gallery
[main image via dailymail]
