After months of anticipation, Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire started shipping yesterday, but even since its unveiling critics have been labeling it a worthy iPad competitor. Its pocket-pleasing price tag coupled with its terrific user interface could make it the first tablet to really give the iPad something to worry about.
But how does it stack up to Apple’s device in terms of performance? Well, at less than $200, none of us expected the Kindle Fire to really match the iPad 2’s speed, but as you’ll see in this video comparison, it does a fantastic job of keeping up while browsing the web, and it’s significantly quicker and streaming Netflix videos.
The video was put together by our friend Jeff over at iDownloadBlog, and while it’s in no way scientific, it does demonstrate the Kindle Fire’s abilities. Jeff compared both devices’ boot-up times, web browsing speeds, and Netflix streaming performance, and I think you’ll be pretty impressed by the iPad’s newest rival.
As you can see, the iPad does leave the Kindle Fire way behind in boot-up times, but when it comes to web browsing, Amazon’s debut slate does a great job of keeping up — likely thanks to that new Amazon Silk web browser. As Jeff mentioned, it’s also worth noting that the Kindle Fire is loading Flash, whereas the iPad isn’t (obviously). I bet with Flash disabled, the Kindle Fire would be even faster.
When it comes to Netflix video streaming, the Kindle Fire is significantly quicker at loading up the movie. But again, it’s worth noting that the device is running the latest Netflix app — with the new user interface — which could improve its speed. The iPad 2 is still running the old Netflix app.
Personally, I’m very impressed by the Kindle Fire. I don’t think the boot-up times will be much of an issue, because who really turns off their tablet completely? I know it won’t compete with the iPad when it comes to gaming and running power hungry apps, but it does the basics incredibly well.
