If it's a direct money conversion (£130) then it will tick a lot of boxes.
Plus whats the betting it will be rooted within weeks. making it very good value.
From what I've read it's basically the Rim Playbook with a slightly slower cpu and an extra layer on top of the android OS.

Have been waiting for a decent entry level device, this might be the one. Will have to wait and see.

Not much point releasing it here until Amazon have a film and TV streaming service in place and all the other cloud stuff. I guess they'll use LoveFilm for that stuff eventually. It has very limited connectivity, so there is little point buying one, apart from reading your books in colour, until we catch up with the US.

At least we'll get version 2 or 3 by then and let the people in the US sort out all the problems .

Are you kidding youself, direct money conversion, lol

I seriously doubt this is going to much under £200 and we will probably not have the premium services that the US do.

What type of touch screen on the archos? Capacitative? multi touch?

No gorilla glass?

Kindle fire wins upto now.

Is this the one release where people dont have to queue outside a shop from 03:00 am??

For that reason alone it gets my vote

The new Kindle e-book reader is a similar price to the US model once you take into account VAT

If it comes out at £180-190 I could be very tempted even without 3G and GPS.

The Apple fanclub are going to be saying that it isn't as good as the iPad, but that's not the point, A Nissan Micra isn't as good as a Mercedes but they are designed for totally different markets.

If you use kindle keyboard 3G as a comparison. $190 in US, £150 in the UK. So the absolute best price I could see the Fire being is £160 however being a new product I expect there will be a mark up for the UK if they can get away with it (and they will be able to). My guess is £180 at best and we won't have all the same back end services they do in the US.

Archos is a capacitive screen with multi-touch. As is the hanspree and the Advent vega. And they all have a 10" screen I believe.

Reality is that fire is in the same market as iPad. People who want something that works out of the box and are willing to pay a premium for a lower specification device.

People who are willing to install custom ROM's will continue to buy android tablet which offer more bangs for the bucks but require more knowledge to get the best out of them.

As I said, I don't think this is going to dent android tablet sales, more likely to effect iPad sales.

I can only dream, you're probably right though

Not a major problem if indeed it is any good as I'm bound to know someone going to the USA every now and then.

Anyone know the approximate battery life? The best things for me from the original kindle were e-ink display and long battery life.

edit: Nevermind found it :

Up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as web browsing and downloading content.

The first port of call is to actually read the thread.



And yes I'm a hypocrite.

It'll never be a direct money conversion from USD to GBP as US prices never include VAT which varies from state to state.

A direct conversion for us would be convert to GBP and then add 20%

As I will be buying a new phone shortly, I don't really want to shell out a lot of cash for a tablet just yet so I've been looking at the cheaper options, that will allow me to see if I find one useful before I spend more when/if I upgrade in a couple of years. I have been researching the Hannspad and Vega with a mind to updating the OS but the new Archos G9s are looking more attractive each day. The Kindle Fire was something that I was looking out for but I don't think I'll be buying one; apart from the probability the UK release date will be too late for me, the non-expandable 8GB is a big minus especially when I may not have access to the web everywhere I'll go.

The Archos 80 G9 is not gorilla glass, but for me that is the only thing the Fire wins on. Maybe people would prefer the widescreen Fire to the 4:3 G9.....but then the iPad seems to do well with the old square ratio.

Why do I think the Archos is a better bet given they are roughly the same cost? Content. With the Archos you can have Amazon and Google (and anybody else that sells to Android). With the Fire you only get Amazon.

Add in the GPS, cameras, expandable storage, option for 3G to the Archos and the Fire is no competition!

Although I am with you with your choice of Tablet (I will see what offers are on after christmas but the Archos looks nice) I think you have missed it the point here. People buy the ebook kindle because of the content linked to Amazon. The Fire is going to look very attractive to peole who want a tablet at a cheap price that will "just work" like the ebook reader. The Amazon name will shift it and they wont even care about Google and wont even realise that other Android tablets can also use Amazon content.. It will absolutely fly off the shelves, just wait. But I don't think I will be one.

Totally agree.

The Kindle Fire will be vastly more popular than the Archos, so will be rooted quickly and custom ROMs will come fast and furious.

I'm expecting to see CyanogenMod available on the Kindle Fire by the end of the year.

Next year a Kindle Fire 2 (with camera and mic) with Ice Cream Sandwich-based CyanogenMod might even tempt me, and i don't even see the point of tablets.

No 3G, no point.

When i first heard about this i thought it was going to be a proper tablet to compete with the ipad and all but im not sure it is. Think ill save my money and go for a samsung.

Makes me laugh as seen this -

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/new...html#yourviews

and rather create another forum added to this one -

This is the most pointless query/question/poll i've seen in a long time and frankly kinda suprised and disappointed in DS even ran the article as its a non-story in my view.

The ipad2 is one thing and the kindle fire will be another ,. just because there tablets doesnt mean they should be compared... So far we have no proper reviews ... nothing..

So how can you judge them together .. and frankly comparing a tablet thats £200 to an ipad2 is stupid.. they will always fail...

I have a advent vega running vegacomb 3.2 build 9 and it flys .. its brilliant for what i need it for... but would i buy one if i had the money for an ipad2 .. unlikely...

So i'd wait until a fully working model of the kindle fire i can play with and test .. and even then i certainly wont compare it to an ipad... i'd put it against the hannspad/ vega/ playbook the lower spec tablets... but i still think this fire is a jumped up touchpad e reader

Its standard media news story making so I can't blame them for it.
And it seems to use exactly the same walled garden principals of the iPad so that is certainly where its main competition lies.

However it is no fashion icon so it is priced for people to use. Amazons direct marketing certainly means very decent profits are in that price too.

Daft poll!

I'm not really seeing this as a proper Android tablet anyway. I'm seeing it as a device that enables Amazon to shove their media products at you!

That's the whole point. It's not an Android tablet, it's an Amazon tablet. Amazon version of Android, Amazon app store, Amazon book store, Amazon music store, Amazon video store, Amazon cloud storage...

Agreed, I've just treated myself to a Bose SoundDock 10, in the US it would've been less than half the price!!!