==== ==== Don't buy a new Kindle Fire until you've read these reviews. http://tinyurl.com/order-kindle-fire ==== ====
The Amazon Kindle Fire has already become a tablet to be reckoned with since its introduction on Sept. 28. In just one month (Sept. 28-Oct. 28) Amazon is rumored to have collected 500,000 preorders for the new tablet, with possibly another million or more pre-sales made through retail partners such as Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. What makes the Kindle Fire so popular? How does it compare with other tablets on the market? Here's the low-down. The 5 Best Features Price-- Price is undoubtedly the most attractive feature. At $199, the Kindle Fire is less than half the price of most other tablets; its nearest cost competitor is the Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble at $249. To achieve this cost advantage, Amazon has likely adopted a loss-leader strategy and priced its tablet below cost, anticipating that it will create more sales for Amazon down the line. In addition, the device forgoes many of the frills offered by other tablets. For example, it has no camera/video, no GPS, no microphone, and no Bluetooth or 3G wireless connectivity. (More on that below.) Portability -- The 7-in. touchscreen makes the Kindle Fire more portable than larger tablets such as Apple's iPad2 and HP's TouchPad. The whole tablet is less than half an inch thick and slightly smaller than a mid-sized paperback book in width and height. It weighs just 14.6 oz. Of course, size is a classic Goldilocks dilemma when it comes to tablets. Too big, too small, and just right depend on how you use it. If you do mostly Web browsing, then a 7-in. screen is usually too small for the typical Web page. You'd be doing a lot of scrolling around. But if you like to watch streaming video or movies, play games, listen to music, or read an e-book, then a 7-in. screen is usually just right. The device is clearly designed as a portable content-delivery device, particularly for Amazon content (but not exclusively). The 7-in., 1024 x 600-pixel display works well for streamed or downloaded visual media and delivers crisp, bright, vibrant images. Seamless Access to Amazon Portal -- When you order the Kindle Fire from Amazon's online store, it will be delivered with pre-links to all your favorite Amazon accounts, such as Apps, Games, Kindle eBooks, Cloud Player and Kindle Prime. The media can be bought or rented and then streamed or downloaded to the tablet from the vast server farms of Amazon Web Services (AWS). If you have other devices for streaming media, Amazon's Whispersync technology keeps them all