Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For starters let me preface that Amazon tablets are not my daily driver as I have another Android tablet for that. I only intend to use Amazon tablets to consume Amazon based content and is my secondary tablet at home. I'm going to compare this product to the Kindle Fire HD 7 2012 model since this is the one I'm upgrading (?) from. For comparison reasons I'll use 'Fire 7' for the product I'm reviewing and 'Fire 2012' for the Kindle Fire HD 7 2012 The Fire 7 operating system is vastly improved and easier to navigate. The swiping speed is the same Display is similar and I do not notice much difference Size wise the Fire 7 not as wide making it comfortable to hold in the hand. The actual screen size is the same, but the Fire 2012 has larger bezels. The Fire 7 has similar width to the Kindle Paper white. If you ever owned or held a Nexus 7, it has a similar form factor Now included in the Fire 7 is a back facing camera where the Fire 2012 only has a front. The back facing camera is very low quality, so if you have a current smart phone with a back camera you may be very disappointed. I see you only using the Fire 7 back camera in case of emergency pics/video for when you have to take a quick shot and you don't have your smartphone around or it has low battery. Front facing camera is great for video conferencing but not much for selfies. The audio on the Fire 7 is not very good. Hearing both products side by side you tend to appreciate the Dolby speakers in the Fire 2012. It's okay for watching vlogs, commentary, documentaries and stand-up but for watching HD movies and listening to music is sub-par. You can plug speakers in or link it to a bluetooth speaker but that's just an extra step you have worry about Reading e-books on the on the Fire 7 is very enjoyable (assuming you're not in direct sunlight). You get more screen real-estate than the paper white and turning pages is much quicker. Also the weight is about the same. The only difference is that you do not get the slick paper like texture you see on the paper white. Best feature I'd say about the Fire 7 is the expandable storage. Which is great if you purchase HD movies from Prime Video: No more deleting files on the device and uploading them from the cloud every time you want to go back to your movie library. Also great if you have music/photos outside of the Amazon ecosystem. Overall I'm impressed with this product especially priced at $50 MSRP. The only draw back compared to the Fire 2012 is the speakers, other than that the Fire 7 beats (expandable memory, slimmer design, operating system, front facing camera?) or matches the Fire 2012 in every way. So if audio is important to you than this may be a deal breaker(?). I still intend to use both tablets to consume Amazon content, but may switch back and forth depending if I want to listen to music or watch HD movies with high depth sound.