Amazon - Fire 16GB (5th Gen, 2015 Release) - Black

I bought the 16 gig Fire 7 tablet and added the 64 gig sim card before I went on a trip to Iceland. My plan was to use it to read kindle books I had in my library, but also to use it to read email on the 7 day trip. Since it was a wifi only device, I was dependent on the hotels I stayed in to have wifi. No problem there, they all had free wifi. (This was great since I had tried to use my old kindle to access the internet and it never really worked, and no email was happening.) There were three bonuses: Internet access, games (solitare, sodoko, etc.) and movies on the plane, and when it was too rainy to get out my SLR to take pictures, I could use my camera on the Fire 7 and easily wipe the rain off of the screen. The fire was small enough that it was easy to put in my carry on and I didn't have to take it out for TSA screening. All in all, it was perfect for the trip, oh yes, I had subscribed to the Washington Post before I left and that meant I could keep up with the political news and hurricane Matthew circling back across the atlantic to hit Iceland and bite us. Only bad thing, not fire7's fault, was that because of matthew's rain, we didn't see any northern lights. Good thing I had my own personal entertainment system--Fire 7 tablet.

I ordered this online on black Friday, I live about 30 miles from nearest store and I saw the special on their website, so why not I thought. Came in yesterday. Maybe it's just because I'm not familiar with this product; I'm used to Android tablets that have you set up with your Google account. This one you set up with your Amazon account. OK, no big deal I thought, at first. Then I found it very difficult to install the free 6 month Webroot it came with. I went to Google Play as instructed, it says installed, but there is no Open button to click to continue the process, as instructed. When I contacted Amazon customer support, I was told I can't use Google Play on it and to use the app store instead. I was given a link for Webroot installation but it didn't help. I downloaded Google Chrome but can't find it on the device. No youtube, facebook, gmail apps; won't install. Again, maybe I'm just not used to the product but if I can't use Google apps on it, I won't like this. It's actually for my son and even though teens are often smarter than we adults when it comes to gadgets, LOL, I don't think he will like this either. So I'm returning this; hopefully can find an Android tablet I like (and affordable) at Best Buy.

Here are my pros and cons thus far. PRO: Perfect size for Ebooks, and web surfing to alleviate strain on the eyes from my 5" phone display nice sturdy casing that gives it a nice heft but still weighs in as one of the lighter tablets on the market Child Accounts- Amazon allows you to set up this tablet with age restricted access for kids making this a low cost piece of tech that is perfect for school kids and allows mom and dad to ration the amount of time lil Johnny can play Clash of Clans and how much he can hit the ol' Visa card for. Battery life thus far; wife was on it for about 5 hours last night and battery was at about 46% Kindle Integration -this goes without saying but having my ebooks and audible books synced to the tablet is awesome and my Kindle books look great

This is a great tablet if you have reasonable expectations. And you should definitely pay the extra $20 (for a total of $69) and get the 16 GB tablet. Is it the fastest tablet out there? Definitely not. Does it quickly do all sorts of business spreadsheets applications, etc? No. Does it do everything that an i-pad etc can do? No. But at this price point it can't be beat. People say that you can't download chrome and the google playstore. They are WRONG. I have both on this tablet and my other fire, without rooting them. And with the ability to add a 128 GB card it's a no brainer if you want to play games, watch movies/tv, surf the net, email etc. I know there are a lot of people who dislike Amazon and their products, but I am obviously not one of them.

I read a huge number of books in Kindle format. This Kindle Fire is perfect for that. It's just the right balance between screen size and easy carrying. It also is great for Audible users (you will want to install a micro SD card, though). You can also use it to watch Netflix and the like, although I don't. As a tablet, it leaves a lot to be desired. If you are looking for a tablet, give this a pass. It has a lot of system lag, and Wifi reception is terrible even in areas where other devices show a strong signal! Also, you should know that you can't access any apps on the Google Play store; it's locked into Amazon. None of that bothers me because like I said, I only use it to read/listen to Kindle books, and this device works perfectly for that. Bottom line: if you just want a Kindle reading platform with some extra functionality, this will work well for you. If you're looking for the full Android tablet experience, look elsewhere.

Positives:Not overpriced and extremely user-friendly OS. Recommend that users purchase an Amazon Prime membership if purchasing this item as there are always a ton of free TV shows, movies, books, and games included in the subscription. Prices for items are also reduced. If not, there are occasional free and reduced price items; however, you have to look for them. Negatives: If you do not charge the battery on a consistent basis, there is a chance that the Kindle's internal battery will not charge anymore. This will require the user to return the item and purchase another. If the user keeps too many apps open, the performance drops significantly. The display has a low resolution and the touchscreen does not always respond as quickly as a tablet would.

I was worried that it would have lag, but it didn't. I got this to replace my Kindle paperwhite (Which I still LOVE), because I wanted to be able to listen to the audio on the books as well. IT's a great little tablet that does so much of what I wanted it to do. The stand by time and play time are better than I thought they would be as well. I LOVE the blue light filter, although that takes time to get used to it if your not already accustomed to that sort of thing. The only other thing I really don't care for is the fact you can not easily add Google play store.

The Kindle will NEVER take the place of an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab but they cost very little. Perfect for kids and adults alike. Especially good for those who don't want to spend six weeks learning to use it. It's very simple to set up right out of the box. It works great with the Prime membership. If you want to watch movies or Hulu/Netflix, the iPad is superior for quality of picture. Again, you pay a hefty price for this quality. If you just want something simple and hard to break (think young kids or teens) this is definitely the best option.