7-inch tablet wars: Amazon Kindle Fire vs. BlackBerry PlayBook vs. Toshiba Thrive

The challenge

Amazon has just showed up its media-frenzied Kindle Fire 7-inch Android tablet to the public. Amazon Kindle Fire advances up into the brewing battle of 7-inch tablets from various technology makers. We can see nearly a dozen of 7-inchers in the crowded tablet market from companies like Samsung, RIM, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo and Acer and so on. Here we compare Amazon Kindle Fire with two well-accepted 7-inch tablets of the time, BlackBerry PlayBook and Toshiba Thrive.

Amazon Kindle Fire vs. BlackBerry PlayBook vs. Toshiba Thrive

Comparison attributes

1. Dimensions

Amazon Kindle Fire is to come up with a dimension of 7.5 x 4.7 x 0.45 inches. Both the BlackBerry PlayBook and Toshiba Thrive are slightly bigger than Amazon Kindle Fire respectively, with a dimension of 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches and 7.44 x 5.04 x 0.47 inches.

Winner: Amazon Kindle

2. Weight

Weight is another crucial factor that either attracts or turns away a costumer from a tablet. Customers often show less interest to a tablet with more weight. Amazon Kindle Fire weighs 14.6 ounces. BlackBerry PlayBook is relatively less heavy with a weight of 14.4 ounces, and Toshiba Thrive weighs 14.8 ounces.

Winner: RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook

3. Display

All of Amazon Kindle Fire, Toshiba Thrive and BlackBerry PlayBook have highly competitive displays. Kindle Fire is up with an IPS Gorilla Glass display that has a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. PlayBook’s display also has the same pixel resolution. But it looks like that Toshiba Thrive with a display of better resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and high definition, simply wins over the others.

Winner: Toshiba Thrive is the winner because its 7-inch display is a high resolution one.

4. Processor

All tablets mount high performing dual core processors. Amazon Kindle Fire sports a 1GHz TI OMAP dual core processor. BlackBerry PlayBook and Toshiba Thrive also feature almost identically powered processors, respectively a 1GHz OMAP 4430 processor and an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor.

Winner: Most of new products come up with the advanced processors available in stores. So it is not easy to find a winner out of these three tablets, as all have the advanced and dual core processors.

5. Storage

When the discussion is about internal storage capacity, Amazon Kindle Fire with an inferior 8GB flash memory will fail in front of others. BlackBerry PlayBook has a 16GB internal storage capacity. But Toshiba Thrive is more competent with a 16GB internal storage and an expandable microSD card.

Winner: Toshiba Thrive is the irrefutable winner with a 16GB internal storage and microSD card.

6. RAM

In order to price it cheaper, Amazon has slotted in a 512 RAM inside its Kindle Fire. Meanwhile, both PlayBook and Thrive are powered with 1GB RAMs.

Winner: Toshiba Thrive and BlackBerry PlayBook beat Amazon Kindle here.

7. OS

Amazon Kindle is to play on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The company has not exposed whether the device will be compatible with the upcoming Android version, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. PlayBook is obviously up with the RIM’s BlackBerry OS. But Toshiba Thrive is the advanced tablet as it plays on Android’s tablet customized version Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Winner: Toshiba Thrive that is up with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb is capable to blow away its rivals.

8. Ports

The Amazon tablet has only a microUSB port. Toshiba Thrive and BlackBerry PlayBook offer both microUSB and microHDMI ports for smoother experience.

Winner: Toshiba Thrive and PlayBook are winners over Amazon Kindle Fire in number of ports.

9. Cameras

Amazon Kindle Fire is astonishingly coming with no cameras both in the front and rear panels. Meanwhile, PlayBook mounts a 5-megapixel camera in the rear panel and a 3-megapixel camera in the front. Toshiba Thrive is to come out with a 5-megapixel camera in the back, but a 2-megapixel camera in the front for video chatting.

Winner: BlackBerry PlayBook is the winner with more advanced cameras in the front and back panels.

10. Battery Life

Amazon Kindle Fire will provide a battery life of eight hours for moderate use. But RIM claims its BlackBerry PlayBook provides 10 hours of battery life and Toshiba offers 11 hours of battery life.

Winner: Toshiba Thrive with a battery life of 11 hours stands out from its rivals.

11. Price

Price of a tablet is more important for many customers than anything else. Even if they want more competent components and features, customers prefer a device with cheaper price. Here, Amazon Kindle with a price of just $199 is to make a big revolution in the tablet market. BlackBerry PlayBook is priced in between $299-$499 and Toshiba Thrive in a range between $379 and $399.

Winner: Amazon Kindle beats down all its rivals with a lower price.

The verdict:

Amazon has been in active presence in e-book reading market with its Kindle e-book for last four years. But the online retail giant has now entered into the foray of media tablets with a Kindle Fire. The Android tablet has been much awaited for by technology geeks since there have been rumors over its possible arrival. Being a 7-inch tablet, Amazon Kindle Fire faces grit challenges from lots of products including BlackBerry PlayBook and Toshiba Thrive. BlackBerry PlayBook has been in shelves since April this year. Amazon Kindle Fire and Toshiba Thrive are slated to get official releases in November this year. We'll have to wait and see how Amazon manages to make its content-rich tablet a success in the market.