Kindle Fire HD Reviews: Critics vs. Consumers' Opinion

The verdict on Amazon's new Kindle Fire HD tablet is in, and one of the most popular gifts for the holiday season has its share of both fans and detractors.

Harris Newman of News Simplified.com writes that the price for the Kindle Fire, listed at $199, is a very affordable price to pay for a tablet, "especially considering that the basic iPad Mini is is priced at $329." And the HD display, he says, is "Miles ahead" pf the iPad Mini.

But primarily, Amazon's product has its strongest feature in content, which Newman says gives the tablet a leg up on its competition.

"A tablet without good content is like Christmas without Santa! You can have the most powerful hardware, but without the ebooks, the magazines, the audiobooks, the games, the apps, the movies, the TV shows and the music.... a tablet is worthless," Newman writes.

Joe Procopio of Exit Event writes that the Kindle Fire's price is hard to beat, but the lack of a Bluetooth, no Google Play store available and the absence of other features make it an ideal tablet-for some users.

"If you're Amazon Prime or a big Kindle user or kind of a technophobe, the Fire is truly a great device, it's the Rolls Royce of eReaders and a decent entry-level tablet computer," Procopio writes.

"Otherwise, get a Nexus 7," he concludes." I really, really want one now and I didn't feel this way after a couple weeks with the original Galaxy Tab."

David Allen of PolicyMic.com says the Kindle Fire HD is perfect for apps, games and videos, while also good for parents, who can enable parent controls on the Kindle whenever children use it, while the new tablet also has an HD camera, an anti-glare improved screen, dual antanna Wi-Fi, and a better processor.

All in all, Allen "highly recommends" that buyers get a Kindle HD Fire. "After a year of using my Kindle Fire I have encountered no problems and I don't have any reason anyone would with the Kindle Fire HD either. Convenience and fun is a good combination and the Kindle Fire has it," he writes.

Kyle Wagner of Gizmodo.com writes that the Kindle Fire's size and build make it an ideal tablet, while adding that the sound is as strong on the Fire HD as it is on the 7-inch, its 1920x1200 254ppi IPS display is on par with the iPad, while its ecosystem is still "the best this side of Apple."

However, the software is still a problem for Wagner, while the text is smaller on the Kindle Fire than its competitors. Overall, Wagner says, the $400 jellybean 4.2 Nexus 10 is a better full-sized tablet, but "if you're specifically looking for something to read comic books or magazines, and that's more or less it, then holy crap, this is an amazing deal and you should get one immediately."

Here's what consumers have to say:

"I would also recommend the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" over the 7" Fire, as I feel the increased size has a dramatic effect on the tablet experience," writes user Scott on Amazon.com.

Amazon user JJCEO also gives his thumbs up to the Kindle Fire, writing, "Web browsing is extremely fast. I loaded up a dozen sites that I go to with complex screens and they took 2 to 3 seconds to load. The people who are complaining should fix their WIFI instead of complaining about the Kindle Fire. I see no problem and the speed on the sites I tested is comparable to the iPad 2."

However, Amazon user waetherman is not as impressed, writing that while he wants to love it as a longtime Kindle fan, he just can't, due to numerous issues he has with the hardware of the Kindle HD.

"If you upload folders of work documents to the Cloud, they should be available to browse and download from the Fire's Doc tab. But that's not the way it works," he writes." For whatever reason, the Fire's using a Frankenstein mix of the Cloud, Kindle digital library, the app store, and local storage to handle content needs. It just isn't quite ready for prime time, and it isn't what people are expecting when they pick up the Fire."