How Does The Kindle Fire Stack Up To The iPad 2?

By Roberto Sedycias

Comparing any tablet to an Apple tablet (in this case, the iPad 2) was, up to this point, pretty much a waste of time. Even with other brands offering reduced prices, none have even come close to the iPad or iPad 2. Meet the first to be able to do so – the Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire is smaller than the iPad 2 – seven-inch screen compared to 9.7-inches. Screen resolution is about the same at 1024 X 600 for the Kindle and 1024 X 768 for the Apple´s screen. However, the Fire´s price is much smaller to at an unheard of release of $199. In today´s economy, this is quite a big draw. The iPad 2 starts at $499. Not many single moms or students who usually have access to that large amount of cash. That has often been what has lead many to search for an Apple alternative.

A big difference is also the cameras or lack thereof. The iPad 2 wins here, as it has two cameras, while the Amazon Kindle Fire has none. One camera is for still photos and the other is for video chat. Many people do not use their tablet to take photos, but if they do video chat a lot, then this could be a drawback. The iPad 2 also has a microphone obviously, while the Fire does not.

Storage and memory are things that electronics consumers really look at. The iPad 2 offers a choice of memory options – 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. Amazon´s device only has 8GB, yet they are offering unlimited Cloud storage on Amazon servers. The Fire does have a microSD slot. IPad 2 operates in WiFi or 3G. The Fire must have WiFi access in order to use all of its features and to stay connected. If it´s the apps that offer the most appeal on a tablet device, then the iPad 2 may be the way to go as it offers access to about 90,000 apps. The Fire offers access to around 17,000. Yet, there is the incomparable access to tons of Kindle books and Amazon´s huge library of streaming movies and TV shows. Greater portability is offered with Amazon´s tablet at a featherweight 14.6 oz compared to Apple´s at 1.33 lbs. The Fire does not offer GPS service, mostly due to the WiFi issue.

Battery life is relatively the same: Fire – 8 hours, iPad2 – 10 hours. The Kindle Silk browser on the Fire is super fast as it runs the most taxing loading parts of a webpage and loads them on the Amazon Cloud servers.

When it comes to the battle in deciding which tablet to choose, the Kindle Fire or the iPad 2, it may simply come down to price, size, and portability. They both offer numerous choices and options when it comes to apps, streaming, reading, etc. But one is slightly bigger and much heavier, one is cheaper and one is quite expensive, and one offers dual cameras that include photo and video options while the other does not.

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