Kindle Fire HD 7", Dolby Audio, Wi-Fi

tl;dr - The Kindle Fire HD is exactly what I was looking for: a thin-&-light Android tablet that lets me access digital content and surf the web/check email/entertain myself while NOT sitting at my desk. I had some initial concerns based on some of the reviews, but between a little googling, software patches, using the right apps, and some creativity, all of them were resolved. (Scroll to **** for my list of fumbles fixed.) Overall, I think the KFHD is a brilliant little device. I like how it looks and feels. I like what you get for the price you pay. It does what I want it to do. Is it perfect? Of course not. I fully expect the one next year to make this one look like last year's Fire. OH WAIT. =D What I like: 1. OMG the speakers are a million times better than the original Fire's. For the size and distance between speaker grilles, you can actually hear the stereo-ness of it. 2. The screen! so clear and bright and pretty! 3. Video out port. I cannot tell you how much I LOVE THAT HDMI OUT. 4. The WiFi really is able to pick up signals from a wider area. Side-by-side compare with my OF shows me about 8 more networks in my area, and two that are 1-bar on the OF are full bar on the KFHD. 5. Integration with my Amazon content is seamless. 6. If you have Prime and use Prime Video (some only use it for shipping, go figure ;) you'd be crazy not to pair it with a KFHD. If you do NOT have Prime and expect to get a free month of Prime, be aware that you are not eligible for the trial month if you signed up for the free trial in the last 12-13 months (dates approximate). 7. The larger size is a bit of a stretch (hah! literally for smaller hands!) but it turns out I like the wider border because it gives my hands/fingers something to hold on to and lessen the need to stretch at all. NEW! 8. Gamecircle - normally, I hate 'socializing' my games, leaderboards, achievements, all that nonsense, BUT! Gamecircle makes a Steam-like experience for game progress between OF and KFHD. If, for example, you have tri-ducked a lot of Where's My Water, and don't want to do it over again on your new tablet, Gamecircle is for you! If you can't (or won't) root/copy game files/transfer manually, Gamecircle allowed me to continue playing on the KFHD where I was last on the OF with no effort (other than enabling Gamecircle to begin with). What I DISlike (but not a dealbreaker): 1. Orientation - flips at the slightest shift. Thankfully, I can lock the screen to my preferred landscape. FIXED IN 7.2.2! - Keyboard - WHY is there no CAPSLOCK? And give us more longpress options; it seems stupid to have to switch to SYM or +> "keyboards" when a longpress on the alpha keys should have the basic special characters. I'm not even asking for Swype, so what gives? And why so much space between keys? When typing on webforms, autocapitalize and autocomplete suggestions do not appear, even when I made sure the settings were correct. Very weird. 3. Silk Reading View - if it is supposed to feel like a book, why are we scrolling like it is a website instead of getting tap/swipe to next page/screen? NEW!! 4. Silk crashing - on long websurfing sessions, Silk will occasionally freeze and crash, no idea why. Thankfully, it manages to restore the tabs with no problems, but it is irksome that it crashes at all. FIXED IN 7.2.2 (at least for me) - "Zombie" carousel (where stuff removed from carousel keep coming back) - I actually have not experienced this yet, but I remember how irritating it was when we weren't able to remove anything from the original Fire's carousel. Amazon patched it then, so hopefully I won't get hit before it gets patched now. Special note: Considering the events of hurricane Sandy, I was SHOCKED that my KFHD arrived exactly on time. It sat in delivery depot starting Oct 27, and I was resigned to getting it late due to flooding in NJ--then Nov 2 it turns up in my mailbox, exactly as estimated on the order page. Color me impressed, Amazon/FedEx! **** **** **** Reminder: I have the Original Fire (OF) and the Fire HD (KFHD), so any comparisons I make will be to the OF. I'm going to list the problems I've been hearing about in user reviews while waiting for my KFHD and giving my 5 cents now that I have my own for testing. **** **** **** Major Complaints (**items are my own): 1. Prime Video only works in USA - unfortunately (though understandably) a vast majority of the video offerings of Amazon are only available if you are located in the USA. Due to the mess that is international intellectual property protections, Amazon actually DOES NOT HAVE PERMISSION to sell or stream a lot of media outside the US. Blame the studios/countries. It sucks for non-US buyers, honestly, but until international law is settled, we are going to have to live with regional/locality barriers. WORKAROUND: get yourself a VPN with a US IP address. 2. KFHD does not ship with a charger, just a USB cord - Considering that: (a) most users *already have* USB chargers - the OF charger works on the KFHD, as does my cellphone's, and heck, if you have an iDevice, the plug head for those should work with your USB cord! How much e-waste do you really want anyway? (b) if you read the complete product description (which you should ALWAYS do when spending money!) it was clear in the 'what's in the box' section near the bottom that it was only a USB cord, no charger. (c) on the order page, under the 'add to cart' button, Amazon recommends a powerfast charger for $10 and spells out that this is not included with the KFHD--I'm shocked that people were shocked that there was no charger in the box. NON-ISSUE (but YMMV if you didn't notice, don't have any other USB-powered devices, and can't spare the cash) 3. Special Offers - this sucks, but it is also easily ignored. How long do you stare at the lockscreen anyway? And they didn't spring it on buyers as a surprise... it's on the product description, and based on the trend with the e-ink Kindles, it was inevitable. I actually consider it to be typical corporate money-gouging behavior to charge to get rid of them. ALL businesses will find a way to get more money out of you, I promise; its kind of the whole point of being a business. Do I like being charged for it? No, but at least it is a nominal $15, which is certainly affordable to most buyers. The $30 for e-ink Kindles is a lot harder to swallow, IMHO. NON-ISSUE (but YMMV) **4. Customers Also Bought - I nearly cancelled my preorder because of this. I really didn't want to concede the screen space for that crap, but then Amazon promised a software update so I decided to wait, and return the KFHD if it wasn't fixed. Lo and behold! Version 7.2.1 is out, and the CAB is now user-controlled. NON-ISSUE (after update) 5. My kid can see XYZ! - um, if you didn't install Kids Place or lock WiFi or password your Fire (or create *and control* one Amazon account specifically for the kid with their own Fire), you're not even TRYING to manage things. You can't hold a corporation responsible for what your kid does when the tools exist for YOU to take control. And hey, look! FreeTime has rolled out on KFHD so: NON-ISSUE, particularly after update. 6. Flash not supported - OK, this one is seriously not Amazon's fault. When the owner of Flash (Adobe) announces end-of-life for mobile OS with Flash as of 08/15/2012, it is actually recommended business best practice to NOT offer technology that is on the way out. As for not seeing the content you are used to, Amazon has no control over non-Amazon sites! YES it is inconvenient, but you should be giving the dinosaur websites you are visiting the stinkeye for not having mobile-friendly versions... Or maybe they do--have you tried using "m.whatever" instead of "[...]"? You might be surprised. Besides, there are several googleable workarounds (sideloading browsers, apps) so: NON-ISSUE Minor Griping (based on reviews (**items are my own): 1. Power button is invisible/impossible to find - I *really* don't get this one. I bought one of the wake/sleep covers to make it easier, but I didn't actually need it for that. If you run your finger along the side of the KFHD you can feel a gap/edge with 2 short extrusions in a row (volume rocker) then a smooth section, another gap/edge (power), another smooth section and then the speaker grille. You don't need to see the buttons to press them, and no matter how difficult you personally find it, there is a trivial amount of time needed to make it feel normal. Beyond all that, it is approximately in the middle of the short edge of the KFHD, so just feeling in the area you will find the invisible button. NON-ISSUE **2. Battery indicator gone - I get that a LED on the button (OF) just won't work anymore for engineering/aesthetic reasons, but it was a really convenient way to see if the OF was in fact charging. WORKAROUND: install Battery HD. 3. No official access to GooglePlay - Of *course* a content provider will make it easier for you to buy the competition's content. After all, they are only selling products out of the goodness of their hearts right? There's no profit motive at all! YEAH NO. And note that there is no *official* access--the KFHD (and the OF) is completely able to access 3rd party sites and allow sideloading if you feel very strongly about the app you need being not available in the Amazon appstore. NON-ISSUE 3a. which leads to: Fewer apps in Amazon Appstore than GooglePlay - really? this is a thing now? How many cut-the-rope clones do you really need? The major apps are available on both stores. If you can't find your app, and sideloading doesn't work, and no decent alternative can be found, and you *absolutely MUST* have it, why not ask the developers to create a KFHD version? Surprisingly, Amazon does not control which apps have KFHD versions. Shocking, I know. NON-ISSUE 3b. which leads to: WhateverApp looks ugly/does not work right on the Fire - yes, OF COURSE Amazon is responsible for how a developer designs their apps. ::eye-rolling:: NON-ISSUE (unless it is an Amazon app because that ain't right ;) 4. Amazon cases overpriced - I sort of agree with this one. The official cases aren't THAT much higher on the quality scale than others available, but then again, I'm sure this is all part of their marketing/brand position. Whatever the reason, there ARE other brands available that are just as functional, so NON-ISSUE 5. No SD memory slot - until the Nook Tablet HD (or whatever they're calling it) came out, there was NO major brand 7" Android tablet with a memory slot. To be honest, everyone is trying to get you married to their cloud so I doubt the major producers (Amazon, Google, Samsung, Apple) will ever offer an SD slot. Considering I haven't actually filled up my 8GB OF yet, I suspect my 32GB KFHD is going to last a while. NON-ISSUE (and if you care for rooting purposes, you're more techie than the target audience for this device anyway. The Nexus 7 seems more your speed ;) 6. "only" front-facing camera - I'm betting most users would rather have their cellphone or actual cameras for pictures as they are easier to hold, are always on hand AND have decent cameras. The one on the KFHD is meant for use with Skype, and it does that job very well. Besides, you'd look pretty nutso holding up a (relatively) gigantic tablet in a sea of cellphones. The ability to switch Skype video calling from front to rear view is a nice to have but not mission critical. NON-ISSUE **plus Amazon added a camera app in 7.2.2 so no more complaints, yeah? 7. No 3G/4G/LTE on the KFHD7 - I don't get this one. I suppose it is nice to have connectivity wherever you go, but to be honest the only time I am out of a WiFi zone is if I am driving around. When I'm sitting down with my tablet at home, in a cafe, in a park, in a friend's house, I will either use the available WiFi or tether to my phone. I don't want to pay for a second data plan, after all. Furthermore, I believe the price of the data plan for the KFHD8.9 is more than $50 in your second year. NON-ISSUE (but YMMV if WiFi not available in areas you frequent) 8. No turn-by-turn navigation/GPS - I don't get this one at all. The car/cellphone GPS is better for that purpose. I'm not paying for a second data plan, when all I get out of it is a super-sized GPS I have to leave in my lap or the seat beside because mounting a 7-inch tablet on the dash would kill visibility. NON-ISSUE