Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Before I start my review, I want to be clear that I'm basing my review on two things. First, I am a novice when it comes to tablets. Second, I am basing my rating mostly on my disappointment with the device, versus my (apparently) high expectations. For those who understand better the limitations of these devices, and how they operate will probably not find this review helpful. I'm writing this from the perspective of someone brand new to these devices, and had certain levels of expectations, for nearly 400 bucks. I bought this device to easily be able to take with me and be able to do basic internet/email/apps/computing things, plus be able to use it offline for movies/music/e-reading. Obviously I wasn't expecting the same performance as a high-end desktop PC or laptop, but more or less the same operation, minus the attached keyboard. I know...that's my fault for not understanding the limitations of this device, but in the end I was disappointed with what performance and functionality it didn't have. First of all, in the box is the device, and a usb cord. That's it. Now, I wasn't expecting a giant paper-wasting manual to be included, but there was literally nothing in the box. When I turned it on, it did automatically start giving me tips and tricks on how to access things or whatever, but not a real instuction manual. Yes, I found a tutorial buried in the device later on, but I wasn't impressed with it, and I found it difficult to both read the tutorial, and navigate the screens it was trying to teach me at the same time. Again, if you already know how to use a tablet and navigate around, this is not a big deal, but for me, I found it difficult. After fiddling with it for a while, I tried using the internet browser to see how it would do. I tried maybe 5 or 6 webpages, and on at least half of them, I kept getting an error message on the Kindle. "Tab not responding. The tab has stopped working and has to be terminated. Do you wish to try and restore?" No = browser crashes, Yes = page tries to reload, only to run into the same error message. Sometimes after reloading a few times, the pages would actually work, but they seemed slow and buggy. The overall load time of certain pages was very slow, even ones that didn't seem to have a lot of graphics or extraneous stuff on them. Moving around and zooming on certain sites was very slow, and there seemed to be a delay between "clicking" on a link and something loading. Also, some pages looked different than the version I see on my laptop. Again, if you are familiar with tablets, and have tempered expectations of internet surfing, and how pages load and can be viewed, you probably would not be as disappointed as I was trying to use the internet. Next, I tried loading a few apps. Only got to about 3, because the first two didn't work or were not available for this device, and the third one (cable channel stream) did not work because my provider was not on the list of available providers for the streaming service. Yup...not the fault of the device, I know, but again, I tried a few apps, and none of them worked, for whatever reason. My expectations versus what reality was, was disappointing. Another reason I bought this was to use it offline to watch movies that I could store on the device. Well, apparently it's very difficult to take an older DVD or Blu Ray and simply load them onto this thing. Yes, I Googled how to do this, and tried several third party software programs that were supposed to "rip" movies from the physical disc and convert them to a digital format to load onto the device. None of them worked. I did get one file converted, but it took FOREVER and was 10GB. It would not work on my laptop, but I still tried to load it to the Kindle, in hopes it would work. After 30-40 minutes of transfering, it didn't even register on the device. I had to go through several menus to find the storage folders on the Kindle to find a gray square which I assume was my 10GB waste of space only to find it would not open. I don't know why it took so long to load the file...often times I move several 4-5GB files to and from my computer and it normally takes 5 minuts or so to move this amount of data. Again, I assumed, before I bought this, that I could relatively easily transfer movie files to this, in a short amount of time. But I guess I'd have to find the right combination of third party programs to create movie files, and have hours to sit and wait for them to transfer. Expectations vs reality...very disappointing. There were also several nit-picky things I didn't like. I really do not like these touchscreens. I can't stand smartphones with a touchscreen, and even this larger screen, I found it very frustrating to use. Several times I thougth I "tapped" a button, only to be waiting for something to happen, when apparently I didn't tap it hard enough. Other times, I would tap a button, only to realize there was a delay between hitting it and something happening on the screen. This problem mainly occured when trying to tap on internet links. Also, it took a very long time to charge this device. I paid extra for the "fast" charger, but it still took probably 3 hours to charge. Part of the time I was using it plugged in, so maybe that accounts for the slow charge time, but if it takes several hours to charge with the "fast" charger, how long would it take otherwise? Another small thing was the length of the USB cord was somewhat short. If I was at a coffee shop or restaurant and wanted to use it plugged in, I would have to be very close to a power outlet...I mean like push the table up against the wall close. I'm glad it doesn't have a bulky power cord like a laptop does, but at least those give you some freedom to move around when plugged in. I could go on, but this is already a very long review which will probably be buried by fanboys calling this "unhelpful", so I'll leave it at that. It's my own fault for making "crazy" assumptions about where the technology is on these devices, and how practical and functional they are. Maybe if I was experienced with ipads and nooks and the Google tablets, etc...I'd have a better appreciation and understanding of how this one compares. But for someone with limited experience and knowledge, it was a pretty big letdown. I am returning this product.