The Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire - from amazon.co.uk

We recently bought a Kindle Fire specifically for downloading children's stories for Grandson. We have plenty of traditional children's books, but we thought the Kindle was worthwhile as we get on with the earlier devices so well ourselves.

It's basically a colour tablet computer with a back-lit LCD touch screen strongly linked to Amazon content. Very easy to set up, especially if you are already familiar with the Kindle. The display is crisp and easy to read and the pictures in children's books display well. All in all we're very satisfied and think it is reasonably good value for what we want.

But...

If you are interested in the Kindle for your own use, I strongly suggest you try before you buy. The e-ink shades of grey display on the traditional Kindle is lit by ambient light and in my view far more easy on the eye than the Kindle Fire. It's more like reading a book.

Kindle Keyboard - from amazon.co.uk

The Kindle Fire is okay for reading stories to children, but for a good long read I'm not so sure I'd get on with it. I certainly won't be using it myself. I manage to trash my Kindle I'll get another e-ink version.

It may be an age thing of course - younger people with younger eyes may not bother about the difference between the two types of screen. My eyes tend to tire after a long blogging session on the laptop, but not after a long read on my Kindle.

Even so, try before you buy is my advice.