I'm thinking about buying a Kindle Fire

[Tabasco_Dave]

i have a little extra money this month, just enough to buy the 8GB model. I just want it for surfing the web, reading e-books/magazines and listening to music. What are your experiences?

[Recursion]

1. Either get an e-reader or a tablet, IMO

I had one, and it never quite worked for me. Too much of an e-reader to be a tablet, and too much of a tablet to be an e-reader.

Honestly, for the same price, you could get a plain Kindle and an entry-level Android tablet, and each of those is better at their basic mission than the kindle fire is at either.

Currently, I'm on a Kindle Paperwhite (best e-reader ever), and an ASUS tablet. That combination is a little pricier than a Fire HD, but honestly not much.

[alarimer]

11. I concur with this.

Except mine was a Nook Tablet. It runs some version of Android, but didn't have access to all the apps in the Play store. It was good as a reader or for viewing Netflix, but lousy for webstuff.

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and it is much better for web stuff. And I loaded the Nook app onto it and can read my books. It's decent as a reader, not too big or heavy. I've pretty much abandoned the Nook.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. I have the KF and really like it. I can read, surf, email, etc. from bed!

Yes, I know a tablet is more fully featured but I bought this from Amazon on special for about $129 I think?? I just checked and the reg. price is $159. The 'special offers' is nothing but a nice graphic on the lock screen, usually advertising something. Just unlock the screen and it goes away. No big deal.

[pipi_k]

3. After a year

of having mine, I can say that I love it.

I can download movies, listen to all my music from my Cloud, go online, and reading books is more interesting if they happen to have video attached to them (like "Vooks&quot .

It's a bit heavier than my regular Kindle, and needs to be charged more often, but the charge time is usually only 4 hours or less depending on how low the battery is.

I bought a Marware leather case, which sets up to make the device like a free-standing little screen viewed sideways.

The only thing I miss from my old Kindle is the ability to put books into different categories, like books I've read, recipe books, mysteries, etc.

There's a cool "carousel" that lets you flip through the books, and you can delete them from the carousel but if you look at the list, they're still all there and they're automatically sorted by "recent", "author", and "title".

Really glad I bought it

[graywarrior]

4. I spend more time reading on my KF than I do here, so I love it!

[MineralMan]

5. I have that model. I like it.

I use it for web browsing, mainly. I prefer reading on the older Kindle without the backlight.

DU looks find on the Kindle Fire, in full screen mode. Links are a little tricky to tap, and a stylus helps. Battery life is an issue, but turning off wifi helps a lot. When you're just reading, I strongly suggest shutting wifi down by going into airplane mode.

My use is limited, but it's a dandy little tablet. I just don't use all of its features.

Note: if you're stuck without a stylus and need to tap tiny links, just use two fingers on the screen, swiped outward from the center to enlarge what you're looking at. That helps a lot. Swipe back inward to return to the normal zoom setting.

Another tip: If you're going to put the Fire away for more than a few hours, shut it down by holding the power button down. Sleep mode still uses some battery power.

[pipi_k]

7. Oh yeah, Wi Fi...

uses up battery quickly.

I leave mine off unless I'm actively doing something on the net.

In fact, when I get books from places like Pixel of Ink, etc., I wait until I have two or three, then turn on wireless and download all to my device at the same time.

[MineralMan]

8. I use mine in the evening to browse DU.

I just plug in the charger while I'm using it. It doesn't charge, really, but it keeps the battery up.

I do dislike the virtual keyboard, though. Not enough punctuation characters on the alphabetical screen. So, when I want to type an apostrophe, I have to switch. That sucks.

I also turned off the automatic spell-checker substitution feature. It kept screwing up. That was hard to find, and required using the manual that's on the machine.

I still prefer the old Kindle 2 for reading, though. It's much easier, too, for downloading books from gutenberg.org.

[sarge43]

6. I'll give up my Kindle Fire when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

In case I didn't mention, I love it. I'm still geeked out about this stuff. Having a library, movie theater, tv set and symphony orchestra in my purse -

[tabbycat31]

9. I have a Kindle Fire HD

So far I love it. I didn't know this at the time when I bought it, but I don't do much web surfing on there at all (I prefer my laptop). I use mine for mostly reading (ebooks and the news as I have the Huffington Post and Politico apps on there), streaming video (I have Netflix and Prime), and the occasional game.

I have an iPod that I listen to my music on so I can't speak for that.

[UTUSN]

10. I have the Fire HD, can't compare it because have only had Kindle, but to my instinct

it's always had a clunky, mechanical feel to it. I use it for the lighted screen in bed. The old Kindle required a light on or the little inadequate reading light on it. I'm finicky about touchscreens, so I encased it in an Otterbox, which (not good) increases the weight and bulk something like threefold, but I can swipe the screen secure that the HD's own real screen inside is pristine. But the Otterbox is a two piece BOX that separates, and when lying in bed with the whole apparatus on a pillow (or stomach), it is always on the brink of tottering off.

Problem is when I irresistibly want to Reply on DU and have to use the screen keyboard pecking. Stylus is not needed, text/link size most of the time can be enlarged.

Without other (androids/tablets?) for me to compare to, I don't whether my gripes are specific to this thing. It just seems that navigation, especially on the old Kindle, was a really mechanical clunky thing, literally with forward and backward buttons.

On the old Kindle the keyboard lettering wore off really soon without heavy use and on the HD the charging cord just stopped working. Amazon replaced the things immediately without a hassle.

I don't really take gadgets anywhere, just use them at home, so I should just stick to a laptops (as long as they're still around) or try the whaddayacallum Apple.

[Tabasco_Dave]

12. I ordered it today!

Thanks for the input.