Amazon Kindle Fire 2 Pro Reviews

While the entry-level Kindle Fire is a price leader at $159, it doesn't quite measure up to this year's crop of $199 tablets.

If you're looking for a tablet in general, you'll want to first check out the iPad, the Transformer Infinity, or Nexus 7. These are full-fledged tablets with complete, uncurated app stores and allow for much more customization, especially in the case of the two Android tablets. The iPad and Infinity start at $499, but Google's 7-inch device sits at just $199. The Kindle Fire HD is your next stop if you're a heavy media consumer or an Amazon Prime member, or looking for a small, cheap device. Also, keep an eye out for the soon-to-be-released Nook HD. Each of those start at $200 and provide very curated and focused experiences. The new 2012 Kindle Fire does not do HD video, does not have an HDMI port, or expandable memory, a camera, or even volume buttons. What it does have is one of the best value ratios out there. At $159, it's the cheapest mainstream 7-inch tablet. If your eyes can stomach SD video, you don't mind some its form-factor limitations, and you are an Amazon Prime member, the Kindle Fire is a great tablet value. It's definitely not the best tablet out there, but is certainly worth a look.

Amazon seems like they're playing with fire with this tablet, mainly because it's competing in the space as its more prestigious offering in the Kindle Fire HD. Consumers will no doubt take notice of the Kindle Fire 2's $159 price point for a new tablet, but considering that it's only $40 less than the superiorly equipped Kindle Fire HD, we don't see much value or reason to pay less to stick with the non-HD Kindle Fire. In all honesty, you're better off just spending the extra moolah to move up to either the Kindle Fire HD or Google Nexus 7 running unpersonalized Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.