The kindle fire - good/bad or indifferent?

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Dead_pool, Feb 21, 2016.

  1. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    So Amazon are selling off their kindle fires dirt cheap at the moment,

    Has anyone got one?

    Are they're any good or bad points I should consider?

    I mostly use them to look at legally downloaded music/BJJ/Judo/MMA instructionals, write training notes, and continue writing notes for a few side projects Im working on.

    cheers!
     
  2. Dean Winchester

    Dean Winchester Valued Member

    I have a 3rd gen HDX and it's pretty good.


    The big let down is that the app store is utter rubbish. For books and watching Netflix and Amazon it's great for the price.

    My wife has one of the new ones and it's not a patch on mine. It's a 5th gen HD 8 and whilst the screen is very nice the speakers aren't as good as mine. Plus is uses an sd card which sounds like a good idea until you realise that some of the apps won't bloody install, Knights of the Old Republic being one example.
     
  3. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    I think i'll need to compare models etc, their entry level models 50 quid at the moment, but its got worse specs then my current tablet, with the added drawback of drunk kindle purchases!
     
  4. raaeoh

    raaeoh never tell me the odds

    Just pay the shipping and I will send you all 3 I bought f or my kids.
    You get what you pay for.
     
  5. EmptyHandGuy

    EmptyHandGuy Valued Member

    I've read you can sideload google play store onto the latest version of their firmware, though not tried it, I just download the apps I want onto my mobile and then sideload them across onto my kids Fires.
     
  6. holyheadjch

    holyheadjch Valued Member

    Worst consumer electronics device I've ever purchased.

    My kindle was my pride and joy and after it died I thought I'd stay loyal to the kindle ecosystem and buy a Fire. We all make mistakes.
     
  7. Chimpcheng

    Chimpcheng Yup... Giant cow head... Supporter

    I bought a first generation Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 64GB WiFi for dirt cheap as Selfridges were chucking them away.

    If you're after iPad levels of "it just works" then don't buy it. If you're after the awesomeness of an Android environment then don't buy this. If you've bought into the whole Amazon ecosystem then maybe you might buy it.

    The Fire HDX only comes into its own if you're a Prime member. I use the tablet for Kindle books (I also have a real Kindle), Prime movies and TV (X-ray on it is pretty good), Prime Music, and general comic booking.

    Sure, you can do all of these on other/better tablets but if you can get one for cheap and you're a big Amazon user (I can't stress this enough) then it's a "maybe" purchase.

    Google Play can be sideloaded as can all kinds of other, erm, stuff that lets say are mired in somewhat of a grey area, ahem...

    Despite mine being years old the screen still holds up and I feel that my iPad Air 2 only just beats it for screen quality. Speaker wise it's okay at best (though later generations are no doubt better). Plus, as mentioned, the Amazon App Store is a dud, it offers rubbish and a highly curated offering from Google.
     
  8. Dean Winchester

    Dean Winchester Valued Member

    Bit of a necro.

    I've recently rooted my Kindle and stuck a custom ROM on there. Its now running a slightly modified version of Kitkat 4.4.4 and it is a massive improvement. Access to Google Play store and what seems like rather decent performance increase without all the Amazon rubbish on.
     
  9. Mitch

    Mitch Lord Mitch of MAP Admin

    My daugher's Fire appears to be broken, it currently only plays Taylor Swift.

    Mitch
     
  10. Chimpcheng

    Chimpcheng Yup... Giant cow head... Supporter

    Weird. I was looking into rooting my Fire HDX just last night. I've been side loading Apps but some of those suckers don't work properly, plus it's a bit of a pain doing so.
     

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