Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1: Tablet Specs and Features Comparison

Amazon's Kindle Fire is set to be released Nov. 15, but pre-orders for the hot new tablet have already soared. The newest addition to the tablet wars sold over 95,000 in pre-orders on the day of its announcement and has been selling approximately 20,000 a day since then (according to email-monitoring firm eDataSource).

Tech pundits claim the Kindle Fire could start a video revolution and might be this holiday season's hottest selling gadget. We take a look at the two most popular tablets, Apple's iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and compare their features and specs with the highly anticipated Amazon Kindle Fire.

Display

The Amazon Kindle Fire sports a color 7-inch touchscreen 1024 x 600 (169 ppi) display. The color depth has up to 16.2 million colors.

The Apple iPad 2 has a 9.7 in. IPS TFT active matrix with an LED backlight. It has is touch-screen with a 1024 x 768 (132 ppi) display resolution. The display is fingerprint-resistant with oleophobic coating and supports multiple languages and characters simultaneously.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 10.1 in. TFT active matrix touch-screen 1280 X 800 (149 ppi) display.

Size & Weight

The Kindle Fire is 7.5 in. x 4.7 in. x 0.45 in. and weighs 14.6 ounces.

The Apple iPad 2 is 7.3 in. x 9.5 in. x 0.4 in. and weighs 21.2 ounces.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is 6.71 in. x 9.69 in. x 0.43 in. and weighs 19.9 ounces.

Operating System

The Kindle Fire will be an Android tablet. It has not yet been announced whether it will run on the newest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Apple iPad 2 runs Apple iOS 5.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 runs Android 3.1 (Honeycomb).

Software

The Kindle Fire comes with preloaded software, including e-mail and Amazon Silk browser. Apps can be downloaded onto the tablet.

The Apple iPad 2 comes preloaded with YouTube, camera, iBooks, iTunes, maps, Game Center, Photo Booth, FaceTime, videos, Safari, Find My iPad, Photos, App Store, iPod, Mail, Notes, Calendar and Contacts.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes preloaded with YouTube, Gmail, wallpaper, Google Talk, camera, Android market, gallery, e-mail, Google Places, Google Search, calendar, contacts, music hub, Samsung apps, clock, web browser and a calculator.

Storage

The Kindle Fire has 8 GB integrated memory, which Amazon claims can hold 80 apps, plus 10 movies or 800 songs or 6,000 books.

The Apple iPad 2 comes with either 16 GB, 32GB, or 64GB of flash memory.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has 16 GB flash memory, 1 GB RAM, and 16 GM ROM.

Cloud Storage

The Kindle Fire comes with free cloud storage for all Amazon content.

The Apple iPad 2 comes with iCloud, which allows users to store music, photos, documents, apps and more and seamlessly sync all Apple devices. It is the newest Apple update in cloud computing and allows users to effortlessly switch between computers, cell phones, tablets and any other devices.

Processor

The Kindle Fire has a dual core processor.

The Apple iPad 2 sports a 1GHx dual-core Apple A5 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a NVidia Tegra 2 1 GHz processor.

Battery Life

The Kindle Fire takes four hours to fully recharge and allows for up to eight hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off. Battery life is affected by wireless usage.

The Apple iPad 2 has a lithium polymer 25 Wh battery with up to 10 hours of run time (web browsing, video playback or audio playback).

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes with a lithium polymer 7000 mAH battery. It supports up to nine hours of video use and 72 hours of music, according to the company's website.

Wi-Fi Connectivity

The Kindle Fire has a 802. 11b/g/n wireless connectivity with security features of WPA2, WEP, WPA, and 802.1x.

The Apple iPad 2 comes with a 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless connectivity and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless connectivity and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR.

Multi-Media (Audio and Video)

The Kindle Fire supports MPEG-4 digital video formats and AAC, WAV, OGG, MP3, and MIDI digital audio formats. It has stereo speakers.

The Apple iPad 2 supports MPEG-4 SP (up to 640x480), H.264 Main Profile Level 3.1 (up to 720p) and Motion JPEG (up to 1280x720) digital video formats. It also supports AAC, WAV, AIFF, Protected AAC, MP3, Apple Lossless and Audible digital audio formats. The iPad 2 comes with a microphone and speakers.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 supports WMV, ASF, H.263, MPEG-4, AVI, 3GP, XciD, H.264 and VC-1 digital video formats. It supports eAAC+, WMA, AAC, AAC+, WAV, OGG, IMY, RTTTL/RTX, AMR< OTA, Vorbis, MP3 and MIDI digital audio formats. It has a microphone and stereo speakers.

E-Book Content Formats

The Kindle Fire supports text formats: AZW, PRC (Mobipocket), PDF, DOC, TXT and DOCX. It supports still image formats: PNG, JPEG, BMP and GIF.

The Apple iPad 2 supports text formats including: DOCX, HTML, PDF, DOC, RTF and TXT. It supports still image formats, such as: PPT, TIFF, JPEG, GIF and PPTX.

GPS

While the Apple iPad 2 does not come with GPS navigation, the 3G Apple iPad 2 does come with assisted GPS, but requires a network carrier.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is equipped with a GPS receiver than can be used with the included Google Maps software.

Camera

The Apple iPad 2 has a VGA front-facing camera and a back camera with a 5 digital zoom, 720p HD video recording and controls for video vs. stills.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a rear-facing 3 megapixel camera with an automatic focus, flash, and a video recording option. It also has a 2 megapixel front-facing camera.

Price

The Kindle Fire costs $199.00. Amazon is accepting pre-orders now, but the Kindle Fire will not be shipped until Nov. 15, 2011.

The Apple iPad 2 is sold from $499.00 to $1,050.00. It was released on Mar. 11, 2011.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 costs $499.00 to $554.98. It was released June 8, 2011.

The Ultimate Break-Down

The Kindle Fire is expected to shake-up the tablet world by offering a low-cost highly-accessible gadget. Amazon's newest tablet that builds off its top-selling Kindle e-Reader is extremely competitive with the new Amazon Silk Browser and access to the Amazon online store. The Kindle Fire user can access 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines and books. Amazon Prime members will also have access to unlimited, instant streaming of over 100,000 movies and TV shows.

The Apple iPad 2 is easy to use, boasts a large and growing Apple App Store, and has a long-lasting battery. With its sleek look and cool brand, the Apple iPad 2 has earned its name as one of the top-selling tablets. Still, the Kindle Fire looks to be a fierce competitor as its half as cheap in price as the Apple iPad 2.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is light, sleek, and the coolest alternative to the Apple iPad 2. It has lots of cool features, but can it compete with the Kindle Fire's price and Amazon's online store?