Tech – the kindle fire

Whilst not exactly a new gadget, The Gentleman’s Journal has long been intrigued by the mysterious tablet that is the Kindle Fire. This is partly because we didn’t quite know what to make of it. We are ashamed to say that we went into full Gollum mode when looking at amazon, scratching our head going ‘what is it precious?’.

This confusion stems from the fact that finding a Kindle Fire is a bit like looking for a bargain at M&S: you know it’s there but hidden by the tricksy tax-dodging management. This makes reviewing it very difficult unless you buy one. Now, before shelling out £129 we want to at least give it a go before final purchase. So when one turned up with some of TGJ’s friends for a weekend it was time for a test drive.

First things first: the screen. When not fighting HMRC in court, Amazon has made a lot of noise about this and we can see why. It’s rather crisp and certainly an improvement over the slightly gameboy graphics the original Kindle had. Indeed, when placed side by side with an new iPad there wasn’t really a difference in terms of sharpness. However, where Apple tech has a slight blue hue to it, the Kindle Fire has a warmer yellow which might take a bit of time to adjust to.

The second impressive feature was the media library. Enormous doesn’t even get close. The Kindle Fire’s library is to iTunes as Mont Blanc is to Ben Nevis. Basically you have access to ALL of Amazon’s stuff – and that is a lot. The thinness of the Kindle Fire is very nice as well. It fits very snugly in you hand when compared to androids or iPads. In short this was built for entertainment. It’s not a serious machine (don’t ever let it out of wifi range…. Seriously don’t. It changes from Professor Brian Cox to Forest Gump in a manner Jekyll and Hyde would be proud of). All in all it’s a great machine and if you want to have fun then this will provide you with it.

The Kindle Fire costs £129 from amazon.co.uk

By Edward Hambro Rabben

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