I give it 8 or 9 overall.
Reading
I primarily bought it for reading, and I give that a solid 9. Amazon definitely needs to refine the reader app a bit, but they are closer on the Fire than ever before, and compared to stock reader apps from other manufacturers it is pretty darn good. But they need to offer things like:
- Two-page landscape mode
- Bottom status bar needs to show chapter/section divisions
- Posting book quotes to Facebook and Twitter
This remains true, but I want to point out that it is fairly easy to add 3rd party reader apps like Mantano thus giving you ePub reading ability too. This is a huge plus and makes the reading capabilities of the KFire even better.
Apps
I give it a 7 or 8 because it is somewhat limited. For example, I would like to be able to sync with my Google Calendars but this is problematic due to the inability to set up Google accounts/services.
I would now give this a 8 or 9 as it is fairly easy to sideload apps and there are apps which will allow you to get around the lack of Google services.
Interface
I give it a 6 or 7. The Carousel is the absolute most useless feature they could have, at least as it is currently implemented. This need to be modified or perhaps completely deleted. I cannot imagine how cluttered and useless it will be when you have thousands of books, songs, videos, et cetera. At the very least, allow it to be toggled on/off and give it categories (collections).
I understand why they dumbed down the interface so people could learn it more quickly, but it would be nice to have fuller access to the Android settings.
The Carousel needs to have viewing options added to limit what we want to have displayed. Good news is that alternative launchers work with the KFire, so there is hope that 3rd party launchers will some day greatly improve usability if Amazon doesn't.
Web Browsing
I give it a 7. It is a small screen device so I understand there will be limitations. However I had to turn off the browsing acceleration as the Amazon servers seemed to drag down performance, often causing pages to refuse to load. With acceleration off, ironically, the browser works much better but it is still not great by any means. Opera Mini loaded and works a bit better in some cases.
After 3 days of reading and implementing browser hints from MR members I have greatly improved my browsing experience in the stock browser. Additionally I have added Opera Mini, though I like the stock browser best now that I have it set up to work better. I now give browsing a 9 or 10.
Music, Video, Games
No comment as I don't do these on my Fire, at least not yet.
Build Quality
I give it a 10 as this is a solidly built, well designed device. And it is priced below what it is worth.
Overall
It has a few faults, but nothing that cannot be overcome with time. Since it works out well for all the tasks I use it for, I give it a 9 overall. I hope to sell my iPad as the Fire is much more to my liking as far as size and weight, but time will tell. If after a few weeks I realize I no longer pick up the iPad much, then I will sell it. I do think the Fire has a good chance of filling in for everything I use my iPad for, but again only time will tell.
I have indeed decided to sell my iPad as everything I do on it can be done on my KFire, and I like the KFire's smaller size and lighter weight which make it much more portable and much more comfortable to hold and use.