Kindle Fire-any good?

[diddl]

Am thinking of one for use when travelling/at airports to Mn/FB/watch a film.

So attracted by price/portability/easy to hold.

But is the screen really big enough??

You can MN/FB/watch films better on a Nexus 7.

I suppose it´s more than 99GBP??

Yes.

£159.

Comparable to Kindle Fire HD when they're not doing an offer.

Not too bad-under 200 anyway!

Don´t want to spend too much due to probably not using much.

dd1 is desperate for one. She has offered to sell almost everything she owns to go towards the cost of buying one. She assures me they are excellent for surfing the web - although I think she is more interested in getting on Moshi Monsters and YouTube than MN. Apparently they are great for LoveFilm too and she can share content with my android device and the XBox.

AFAIK dd1's only experience of the kindle fire is watching the advert on TV and she does not know what an android device.

The Kindle Fire is quite locked down by Amazon - you can only buy books from Amazon, movies from Amazon, apps from Amazon.

You also gets ads on the lock screen (this annoys me a lot).

The Nexus 7 can get all of those things, but you can also get everything that is available from Google Play, which has a much wider range of apps and books and movies.

I only started think about it because of Black Friday!

Don´t need one & probably wouldn´t use it that often, just fancy one

I often watch through Movie2k-wouldn´t that work on the KF?

I use mine almost exclusivly for surfing mumsnet

the screen is a bit small, but I dont watch films anyway. I also listen to music and have discovered the fun of downloading apps for the first time. it is wonderfully portable, DH is a bit annoyed because he bought it for me to read books, but I prefer real books and all I do is post on mumsnet!

its true you do get ads on the lockscreen, it annoyed me at first but I'm used to it now.

Black Friday is the only reason we are considering getting dd1 one, that and her offer to give us her DS Lite, her old, broken DS Lite, her MP4 player, her leli kelly shoes, her ipig speaker, all of her ds games, a few xbox games and my old laptop to sell.

We are only taking the DS Lites - she is allowed to keep the rest of her things.

I'd definitely prefer to MN on a Nexus rather than KF - I want to be able to choose what browser to use (and what keyboard to type on).

Being tied in to buying the Amazon stuff wouldn´t bother me, but if I can´t watch online stuff for free then it would be pointless to me.

I've been looking at the Kindle versus Nexus choice and one more thing in favour of a Nexus seems to be that you can't watch iPlayer, or presumably 4od or anything like that with Kindle?? Is that right? And will I be able to use those services with a Nexus? I adore iPlayer.

Also, reading books will be a big reason for getting a tablet, and I'm worried about the compromise involved in having a tablet screen that isn't optimised for reading books. Presumably you can't read books outside in the sunshine with a tablet? Is the quality of the book reading experience on a tablet good enough overall? One reason for making the move to e-reading books is that I have awful middle-age deterioration in my eyesight and I need excellent sharpness etc for comfort.

(Sorry for hijack: I didn't want to start yet another thread on the Kindle question as I guess it is helpful to have as much discussion as poss in one place.)

That´s what I can´t figure out either tbh.

I watch a lot of stuff through Movie2k-old TV series & also use it to catch up & watch Homeland some stuff before the UK broadcast.

It´s all free-well the cost of the internet iyswim & that´s something I´m particularly interested in.

And once the Black Friday offer ends the Kindle Fire is about 130GBP anyway?

I´ve already got a Kindle 4 which I love & use mainly for travelling-so maybe I need to just stick to that & carry on browsing & watching on the laptop!

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bbc.iplayer.android iPlayer for Android

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.ITVMobilePlayer&feature=related_apps ITV Player

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gzero.tv An app that says it does 4OD etc

I don't know if those are availabl in the Amazon store or not.

The best thing for reading books is a proper e-ink traditional Kindle.

I've sent them shirty feed back about the ads on my lock screen.

I'm getting good at flicking it without seeing the ads

I can´t see a Nexus 7 for kess than 170GBP!

You can get iplayer on the Kindle, I downloaded it this week for my dad. You can get ITV player butt you have to sideload some software to get it - doesn't look too complicated. You can get it without the adds but it costs more.

Thanks very much trills. Am coming around to the view that perhaps the best thing is to get a nexus AND a Kindle e-reader. The most basic kindle is only about 69 and that's cheaper than a decent pair of glasses for my tired eyes.

Oh,Englishgirl: that is interesting, that you can get iplayer on kindle fire after all. Hmm . Seems though that only the lower cost of kindle fire is ultimately in its favour.

I think it depends what you want it to do tbh. I've ordered one at £99 because while I want a tablet I know I won't use it enough to justify spending any more. I've played with one and it meets my needs so at the price I think it's great for me, if I was someone planning to use it daily then I would probably get something different. I'm also a LoveFilm member already so being able to stream tv series and movies from them makes it perfect for me.

Having said that I'll probably still use my normal Kindle for reading. The magazines are very pretty on the Fire though!

Just because Amazon & LoveFilm have a deal, though-would that block you from watching stuff for free?

Afterall, Amazon still want to sell as many as possible, don´t they?