Amazon unveils $199 Kindle Fire tablet, Kindle Touch for $99

September 28, 2011 By Andrew Couts

Amazon's newly announced Kindle Fire tablet measures 7-inches, runs a modified version of Android and will cost $199 – less than half the price of an iPad 2. Unfortunately, 3G connectivity and a camera are not included.

Amazon announced today its new Kindle Fire, a 7-inch Android-based tablet that will cost $199. In addition, the e-commerce giant also unveiled the the Kindle Touch, which will run $99 and a standard Kindle for the reduced price of $79.

The Fire has an IPS display with 169 pixels-per-inch resolution. Super-tough Gorilla Glass protects the screen, which can support the display of 16 million colors. Inside, the Fire comes loaded with a dual-core processor, and the device weighs just 14.6 ounces. As expected, the Fire closely resembles the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Software-wise, the Kindle Fire runs Android, but a heavily modified version. Kindle Fire customers will receive a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, which gives subscribers access to the company’s movie and TV streaming library and free two-day shipping on products purchased through Amazon.com. Amazon has also loaded the device with a custom “Amazon Silk” browser, which CEO Jeff Bezos calls a “split” browser, meaning it gets half its computing power from the device, and the other half from Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing servers.

Widely touted as an ‘iPad killer,’ the Kindle Fire can connect to the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection, but it does not have 3G connectivity, nor does it have a camera – two features available on most tablets, including a variety of iPad models. Despite the lack of these features, the Kindle Fire costs less than half the price of the least expensive iPad 2, which runs $499 and does not have 3G connectivity either.

The Kindle Touch is a touchscreen e-reader, and has Amazon’s traditional E-Ink display. A Wi-Fi-only version will sell for $99. A second model, called the Kindle Touch 3G, which of course includes 3G connectivity, will cost $149.

Pre-order for the Kindle Fire starts today, with deliveries of the device to begin on November 15.

To recap: Kindle Fire (no 3G) for $199; Kindle Touch (no 3G) for $99; Kindle Touch 3G for $149; Kindle for $79.

Our own Jeffrey Van Camp is at the Amazon event in New York City, which is still ongoing, and will be updating us with the latest information, so check back here for more details about the Kindle Fire soon. We will also have some in-person pictures and video of the Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch shortly.

Update 1: The Fire comes with 8GB internal storage, and no SD card slot for additional storage. Stereo speakers are embedded on top of the device.

Update 2: Kindle Fire customers will also have access to Amazon’s full library, including magazines. All content on the device will be backed up to Amazon’s cloud.

For more pictures of Amazon’s new Kindle lineup check out our hands-on photos or our official press photo gallery.

Showing 12 comments

sunshine3 at 10:44am 10th January 2012 Do we have to join a book club from amasone if I buy a kindle fire?Is there anything added to it like,games music etc.?
springhoney at 5:35pm 27th December 2011 if i purchase a kindle touch screen and do not have access to wi fi or cordless router, will i need to purchase a router for home to download books,etc.
Mike Dunn at 9:53am 28th September 2011 An $80 Kindle is pretty awesome, and it's taking almost all of my will power to not buy one. If the Fire is able to view Amazon Prime content and my current Android tablet can't going to get a little worked up. As a Prime member for two years i still haven't watched a single show/movie purely because I can't do so on any of my TVs or phones/tablet.
Greg Johnson at 4:29pm 28th September 2011 Not aimed head-on at the iPad. But there may be a decent market for inexpensive Android tablets, just as for inexpensive Android phones. If I sold Nooks, though, I'd be worried....
Luis Lauranzon at 4:07pm 28th September 2011 Already have an iPad. But I am upgrading to the kindle touch from the current kindle. Kindle fire does look amazing though.
Matthew Turk Turkelton at 4:02pm 28th September 2011 Finally!
tdaloisio at 8:09am 28th September 2011 "How is this an iPad competitor? Isn't it really just a Nook competitor? Just like no MP3 player could knock the iPod down, iPad plays in a different market than all the other tablets."
1. Andrew Couts at 8:11am 28th September 2011 You're right, I think, it's not an iPad competitor as many expected. It's definitely a Nook competitor.
  1. tdaloisio at 8:24am 28th September 2011 Starting to wonder if Android tablets can really compete with the iPad or if the market fragmentation of Android hardware and the stronghold of iOS developers that Apple commands will keep iPad on it's own playing field. Much like software titles fueled PC adoption over Mac back in the day, I think it's playing out that way again -- with Apple having learned it's lesson and building the software advantage via developers, apps, and distribution via app store. For someone to compete, they need to swing the developers over first. That said -- if I were looking at an eReader +, the Fire is nice and the hooks into Prime (if it can grow it's streaming title license base past Netflix's current instant library) are a differentiator.
    Ian Bell at 9:40am 28th September 2011 Sometimes its a bad idea to be a "jack of all trades, and the master of none". Microsoft learned this lesson the hard way with the Zune. People love the Kindle or Nook because they only do a few things, and they do them well.
    tdaloisio at 9:47am 28th September 2011 Totally agree Ian -- I think the Nook and Kindle lines serve the eReader/content consumption world very well and have a Kindle for just that purpose. It's interesting, for all the talk of hardware consolidation to a single device over the past few years, I think the iPhone is as close as we will get to that "single device world". Now we see that doing one thing very well has a place in this tech world.I do think that too often there is the need to compare any tablet-like device to the iPad as a competitor wherein there really isn't a good one yet (i.e. Galaxy Tab, Playbook, TouchPad, {insert any other Android running tablet here}).
    Ian Bell at 9:51am 28th September 2011 Agreed!