Well, so far I've gone tablet crazy in my holiday shopping this year.
I bought my wife a Kindle Fire ($199)
My dad a Vizio Tablet ($189.99)
And a Blackberry Playbook 16gb for me ($199)
All three tablets are quality devices, and you can't really go wrong with any of them. It just depends on your needs, since the prices are all so close. Here is how I would rank them:
Screen Quality:
1. Blackberry Playbook
2. Kindle Fire (Just slightly below the BP)
3. Vizio (In landscape mode, the viewing angles are not that great, but not terrible) ***I bought my dad the Vizio because his vision isn't great, and the 8" 4:3 screen makes surfing the web easier than a 7" 16:9 form factor (Note: I couldn't afford one with a 10.1 screen)
Interface/UI:
1. Blackberry Playbook (The bezel gestures are fun)
2. Kindle Fire (Love the Amazon integration and sharp looks)
3. Vizio (The launcher is simple, which is exactly what I wanted for my dad. I think Honeycomb would have confused him.)
Apps:
1. Vizio Tablet (Google Market, Amazon app store, etc.)
2. Kindle Fire (Sideloading isn't too difficult)
3. Blackberry Playbook (A distant 3rd! Until this thing gets updated in February and has native email, contacts, calendar, and the android player, it is very limited.)
Reading:
1. Kindle Fire (Amazon + sideloaded alternate readers and a nice size/weight for reading)
2. Vizio (Lots of choices: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc. but the size and weight make it not as comfortable as the KF. The screen quality while reading also lacks compared with the other two)
3. Blackberry Playbook (Stuck with Kobo and a few generic epub readers right now. The size and weight are nice though.)
Storage:
1. Vizio ( 4gbs with only about 2 usable, but the micro sd card slot makes up for it)
2. Blackberry Playbook (16 gbs, but no sd card slot)
3. Kindle Fire (8gb with only 6.5 usable + unlimited Amazon content + 5gb free cloud storage, no sd card slot)
Web Browsing:
1. Blackberry Playbook (Best flash implementation)
2. Kindle Fire (Once Silk gets going, it may surpass the BP)
3. Vizio (It's actually on par with the KF when using Opera Mobile, but still stuck on Flash 10.3 for some reason. I put the KF ahead on potential. The 8" 4:3 screen does make web browsing easier.)
Hardware:
1. Blackberry Playbook (2 cameras, GPS, Dual Core Processor, Microphone, Bluetooth, HDMI)
2. Kindle Fire (IPS Screen, Gorilla Glass, Dual Core Processor)
3. Vizio (Single core processor, Front Facing Camera, Bluetooth, IR Blaster, GPS, Microphone, HDMI)
I've been having fun messing around with all of the tablets (I even threw my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 into the mix) and comparing them side by side. All of this is just my humble opinion, so take it for what you will.