Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This device is a breathtaking movie watching device, but falls short in other areas. Some will feel like "nits," but I wanted to mention them, since they were surprising to me, and they are things you should know: Screen: Gorgeous. Movies are breathtaking, full of depth. Movie watching: While watching a movie (streaming or downloaded), you can tap the screen, hold the progress bar, and scroll forward/backward in the film with a preview screen which shows you exactly where you'll land when you release your touch on the screen. Great! XRay for movies is also a nice feature, and in some cases, gives you "goofs", so you can check out the filming mistakes on your own! Sound: Incredible. For movie viewing, this is really like having a mini theater in your lap. I stand the device in an old Kindle Fire cover so that the sound is projected towards the front by the folded back cover. It feels like you are in a theater. This is the first device I've ever used (been satisfied with the sound) without headphones, and if you aim the sound toward you, it's stunning. I've watched about four films, and I wouldn't think of using headphones with this device. Mayday: Great feature. I used it twice. I had an agent available in less than a minute, and they stuck with me until the issues were resolved. Setup/Glitches: I had one hang up/reboot. Your device will do a software update while booting for the first time, which takes at least 10 minutes. Note: I have some video enhanced Kindle books. They would not run on this device, however, they ran on my older Kindle Fire, hence one of my calls to Mayday. I expect there will be some inconsistency in older/newer generation devices with some materials. Storage: 16G is really 10.6G, so expect it to go quickly. I would order the 32G if I were ordering again. Downloads: A nice feature. I downloaded a couple of short television episodes in order to test this. The downloads took longer than expected, however, based on my service and typical download times. Why I didn't give it five stars: The high definition of the device makes some text and images too small to see/read, so this is not a viable web browsing device for me. Integration/Intrusion: Great for Amazon, not so great for the user/device owner. I'm very disappointed in one thing: When you download a book sample and try to read it, there is a yellow button in the bottom third of the screen that says: Buy Now. When you purchase a book, a bar/box appears across the bottom third of the screen (when reading) asking you to try the audiobook (similar button)...and the audiobook sample is already downloaded to your device! This is: 1. very intrusive to the reading experience. The bar/box blocks a portion of the book's text (the bottom third of the page). You have to tap the screen to remove it. Also, if each time you download a book, you are downloading an Audible sample, this is simply a sales tactic at the expense of unnecessary bloat to the storage on your device. This is really disappointing from a company that understands exactly what the purity of a reading device should be. I find these sales pitches in the middle of my reading experience to be annoying! Reading: Not great on this device. There is a purplish border around the screen when reading which I find fatigues my eyes. I read easily on my iPad, Kindle Fire Gen 2, even the new Paperwhite. This will not be my first choice for a reading device. Form factor: Very nice, and easy to hold, except for one thing: the micro USB plug is at an angle to the device. It is very difficult to insert the plug on my device, and also difficult to remove. I'm not sure about the viability of that connector in light of the force needed to insert and remove it. No Battery Indicator light: This may seem like a small thing, but I find it very annoying. When you plug in the device, there is no indicator light to tell you when the battery is charged. I couldn't believe it! In order to know if the device is charged, you have to turn on the device, and check the screen. I called Mayday to confirm this, since I simply thought I was missing it. Now when I plug the device in, I check to see when the plug loses its heat to know that it's charged. Seems ridiculous to me. Overall: It really depends on what you want to use this device for. As a pure movie absorbing device, it's 6 stars! I recommend ordering with more memory. I was going to order the Kindle Fire HD with 16G of storage. Then, I realized that the price difference after upgrading the memory in the low end device was only $60 to the 7 inch HDX with 16G, so I decided to go with it, in light of the many other differences in the specs. I think that was the right decision, but I don't expect the memory to go very far in light of the other issues I've mentioned. I need to do more reading, and check the device connector, and keep an eye on the memory before deciding whether or not to keep the device. I'll update this review, as I learn more. Enjoy!