Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is my third Kindle device which I got on an impulse purchase. Don't really need ANOTHER Kindle, but this lured me with the amazing screen quality which I find to be on-par or better than the iPad 2 Air. However, this Kindle produces the most lock-ups that require a hard reboot than any other Kindle device I've owned. When working, the screen is phenomenal looking while playing Amazon content. In the middle of a movie, the device will stop. It's not my wireless as other devices will work flawlessly at the same time the Kindle screen locks. In the middle of using any App, the screen will freeze which is very frustrating. Nothing else until I reboot or perform a device hard reset. I feel this product needs more software/firmware updates before it makes it to the five star level. I'll stick with an iPad Air 2 for now; although, I really, really love Amazon and want to love this device. However, I cannot recommend until glitches are fixed. Moreover, the device houses the speakers on the rear which I find annoying and less than optimal. Would rather have the speakers on the front for better listening without headphones. Some don't like reading three star reviews and just want to rate the less-than five star reviews as being helpful. I don't see it this way. I'd want someone to be honest with me before spending over $500 of hard-earned money on a product that's so frustrating to use! For now, I recommend waiting until Amazon Developers fix the lock-up problem I and others report. My hopes are that Amazon hardware and software Developers and Testers read this and get to the root problem which causes frustrating lock-ups. I'll update as more firmware/software updates become available and hopefully fix the locking problem. For now the three star rating of "It's OK" stands. Edit 2/17/2015 - Original Review remains above, unaltered. Since writing this, Amazon finally updated the device with firmware/software updates. It seems to run with less lock-ups now. Also, as a bonus, Amazon Kindle now includes The Washington Post unlimited for six months. Makes sense since Jeff Bezos owns both The Post and Amazon. "Amazon will load the app into new Fire devices and offered current owners free software updates for the new app beginning Thursday. For six months, access to The Post will be free. For the following six months, readers would have to pay $1, and after that, they would have to pay monthly." Source: Washington Post - November 20, 2014. Strange since my Kindle Fire just updated firmware/software and the article was posted in November, 2014. So, there may be others reading this that don't have the Kindle update yet. Perhaps there are rolling updates that don't make it to everyone at the same time. My hopes are that if you don't have the updates, this will help you. Updated review from the original three to the new four stars. Speakers are still on the back of the device which is annoying; hence, the deduction of one star remains. I'd really love, love, love this device if the speakers were on the front and didn't muffle sound.