It was expected that Amazon this week would announce a tablet-based Kindle, but the company surprised everyone by revamping its entire line-up. For starters, there’s a brand-new entry-level model simply called “Kindle”, priced at $79. It features a 6″ ink pearl screen and supports WiFi, but has a rather paltry 2GB of on-board memory.
Unlike previous Kindles, the latest ones do not feature a physical keyboard, but rather on-screen variants. The entry-level kindle isn’t touch-based, so the keyboard will have to be navigated with a knob. The Kindle Touch models, as the name implies, has touch-enabled keyboards. Those boost the storage to 4GB and have a double-capacity battery, but retain most other specs.
The surprise of the bevvy of announcements would be the Kindle Fire – not because it’s a tablet, but because it’s a tablet that costs $199. In a market where most tablets kick off at $499, this price-point is sure to result in the model flying off the shelves.
Featuring a 7″ IPS screen, the Kindle Fire includes 8GB of on-board memory, and runs on Android. It’s not quite clear at this point how unrestricted the OS will be compared to other Android tablets, but it appears that at least the regular Android Marketplace will be usable.
The tablet as a whole looks quite amazing, I admit. The screen is great, and it’s more for just books. You can play games, use Android apps and also watch movies. For $199, it seems like a steal. Nothing can be perfect though – there’s no SD card slot. While I think I could survive on 8GB, not having the option to expand hurts a lot.
Still, all of the latest Kindles look quite appetizing, and look to be priced-right. How often is that the case?