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Amazon Kindle Fire hands-on! [video]

Published Sep 28th, 2011 11:26AM EDT
BGR

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We just saw the Amazon Kindle Fire in person, and it really is about as close as it comes to a BlackBerry PlayBook as far as the exterior goes. It’s nearly identical save for the Amazon branding, and the lack of a camera and microphone. The touch panel and screen are the same, and the exterior casing is almost an exact replica. As far as the software, Amazon’s heavily-customized Android OS looks to be just perfect for what Amazon intend for users to do with this tablet — watch movies, read books, play music, browse the web and spend money on Amazon services. We saw games being played, movies being watched, and the web browser in use, and while it was mostly smooth, there were notable hiccups and stutters when switching between apps and tasks. All in all, at $199, it’s an incredibly compelling offer, though the new Kindle or Kindle touch for $79 and $99, respectively, seem more attractive to us in addition to an iPad or Android tablet. Check the gallery below for our hands-on images and check out the video after the break!

Jonathan S. Geller
Jonathan Geller Founder, President & Editor-in-chief

Jonathan S. Geller founded Boy Genius Report, now known as BGR, in 2006. It became the biggest mobile news destination in the world by the end of 2009, and BGR was acquired by leading digital media company PMC in April 2010.

Jonathan is President of BGR Media, LLC., and Editor-in-chief of the BGR website.

What started as a side project at the age of 16, quickly transpired into 24-hour days and nights of sharing exclusive and breaking news about the mobile communications industry. BGR now reaches up to 100 million readers a month through the website, syndication partners, and additional channels.