Fire HD 6, 6" HD Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black

CUSTOMER REVIEW



If you read my Fire TV review you know that I am tough on Amazon when it comes to their own items. It needs to deliver quality for the price point to earn stars from me. Please take the time to read my entire review and feel free to ask questions. I will do my best to respond to them as I can and update the review to reflect those answers and other things I discover along the way.

First my background. I own many Amazon Kindles (b&w, Fire gen2, Fire gen3) as well as Apple Ipad (gen 4), Samsung Note 3 and have an LG G2 smartphone (had a Samsung S4 before that), notebooks, chromebooks, etc. I have also used many other products including the Fire HDX line. I have a solid computer background as well but honestly I am more of a casual user when it comes to tablets like this one.

Amazon has changed many things over the life of the Fire product line. Adding and removing features (like cameras--the first generation had one but the second generation removed them but not they are back).

They are all useful devices but each one has its own niche so to speak so make sure whatever you get has the features that are important to you.

Now to this model. This is like a big smartphone--which is a big difference from past kindles. It is more compact, lighter and yet still very usable. In fact for me, the shrinking of size increases the usefulness. I find that I use my smartphone way more than my tablets--even the smaller Fire HD and Samsung Note tablets so I am expecting this to replace more of that "on the couch" usage which is great since it so much less expensive than most smartphones. That means you can feel less bad about scratches that might occur or the accidental drops. (I am guilty of both.)

The screen is very good--certainly not the top of the line but nice even if you factor paying twice the retail for it. It is bright, sharp with the same resolution as past

Comparing past Kindle Fires:

1st Generation 7 inch--1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi
2nd Generation 7 inch--1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi
3rd Generation 7 inch--1280 x 800 resolution at 216 ppi (the first step up in resolution)
4th Generation 7 inch--1280 x 800 (216 ppi) (This is the twin to this model and was just released)

Whereas this 6 inch model has 1280 x 800 (252 ppi). That makes this display higher or the same resolution than any of the past Kindle Fires with the exception of the more expensive HDX. It makes it sharper with more detail per inch than any of the past Kindle Fires of this smaller size (again except for the HDX). Yet this is the cheapest Fire yet which is quite impressive.

Now while Amazon may love my giving this 6 inch fire a 5 star rating, they wouldn't like this next sentence. There is absolutely no reason to even consider the newly released 7 inch fire. $40 more gets you a less "sharp/detailed" screen, more weight, more bulk (look at the extra space on the sides next to the screen of the new 6 inch and the new 7 inch) and the only improvements is a second speaker and a larger screen.

In my opinion you should consider this 6 inch Fire or consider spending twice as much to step up to the Fire HDX with many improvements (Mayday button, higher resolution, faster processor, dual-band, dual antenna (MIMO) Wi-Fi, and longer battery life). The HDX has some issues with a blue halo around the screen so read reviews of that before jumping.

So now that I have talked you out of the Fire 7 and covered some of the reasons for considering the Fire 7 HDX, lets talk more about the Fire 6.

Performance/Apps--It is quick (but I am never happy enough, lol), responsive and like Apple products--it just works. Now one plus and minus with all Kindles/Fires are that you can not use any app from Google's app store. That means you have to wait for apps to be brought into Amazon's app store which seems to be slow at getting new releases and new updates. This is really an issue for Amazon and one that still needs to be fixed. The plus to this is that Amazon keeps some of the junky apps out of the system and once they make it to Amazon's app store, they are proven safe and generally work better than the "fresh" apps because bugs have been worked out.

Amazon's own apps are very well integrated into this and past Fires. They keep improving them and adding features without adding cost. If you have Prime, you get streaming TV and Movies, free ebooks and now Prime Music. If you have Prime, the added free content you get on the Fire makes it a real standout against everything else.

I use my Fire 6 for reading emails, surfing the internet, watching videos (some of the time) and playing some games/apps like IMDB. I have found that it meets or exceeds what I have come to expect from these things in terms of performance and reliability. Are there bugs or glitches? Yes but less than my LG smartphone has and less than my Samsung Tab has.

Size--about the size of the new "large" phones is very nice--not too big but not too small. It is more portable feeling than the 7 inch tablets and it is easy to hold. It is fun to be part of the "cool club" without dropping 5-6 times as much or signing a 2 year contract.

Quality--Amazon has proven overtime that they can make quality products and this is no exception. At under a hundred dollars there is pretty much nothing else that is this feature packed with this finish quality. I have experienced no quality issues and do not expect anything given Amazon's solid history.

Battery Life--So far so good. I was able to stream video and surf the internet for well over 7 hours without any hiccups. From a device this compact with such a large screen that seems quite impressive.

Sound--Decent but Apple products are cleaner sounding to me. Volume is usable in most situations but not necessarily in noisy outside situations.

I am sure I have forgotten something so please feel free to ask questions. This is my own opinion and while I don't know everything, I do my best to deliver honest reviews since reviews help me so much when I shop.

If you are in the market for a little tablet and have prime, you have to decide between this Fire 6 or the 7 inch HDX for twice the cost. This 6 inch adds the rear camera and most of the performance while being smaller, lighter at half the price.