Friday I picked up my Kindle fire 7. My first android type device. I'm a long time apple guy, but haven't bought a new iPad since my first iPad 1st gen and iPad mini 1st gen. I had one app I wanted controlling media (music) on an attached usb storage drive on a blu ray player. No iPad app available, left with only android as an option.
I read exclusively on my kindle voyage, iPad mini, and iPhone 7s plus. My only option for that app was android and the cheapest solution was a kindle fire 7. I picked one up at Staples Friday for 49.99. 8 GB version. I have need for that app though and I'll use it a lot, so I went for it.
Looked at amazon for book deal of the day today and noticed advertising that the kindle was on sale 39.99. I checked Staples and they had marked it down as well. Fortunately they have a 14 day policy of honoring markdowns, so I took my receipt back and got another 10 + tax back.
My impressions? It's not bad. Apps, even on my old iPads are a bit zippier, but they have old wi-fi (n, I'm guessing and probably not dual band) and are horrendously slow using safari. The kindle surfs the web quicker. Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised. It seems to work well though, and I haven't had any hiccups. I installed my blu ray player media app, HP42S scientific calculator emulator (HP42s Free), and Netflix. That's probably all I'll ever put on it. The only downside is the kIndle offers ever time you start it up. It takes about three actions to get to the home screen, as opposed to my voyage which takes one. I may have to pay the 15 bucks to get rid of 'offers', it's annoying. Note to amazon: I have yet to buy any thing on special offers just out of spite, in fact I try to totally ignore them on purpose.
Staples also had the amazon Kindle 7 case on closeout for 10 bucks, so I picked that up, it's sturdy, but I wish it had a locking feature, but it will suffice. So for a grand total of a Grant, I'm pleasantly surprised. I used the 10 bucks I got back and picked up a 16 gb micro sd card. I can envision downloading a couple of downloadable movies from netflix to have on hand during travel.