As I sit here watching Hard Target on the Netflix, I decided it was time to write about my experience with the Kindle Fire so far. Free time wasn’t the main reason, but I’m pretty sick and tired of hearing the poor reviews.

I’m an iPad owner myself, so I can see where the Apple faithful can hold it to such a high standard. Marco Arment’s review is a standout. I’m a huge Apple fanboy myself, but I’m able to see past the haze and make some regular folk statements.

TL;DR version: The Kindle Fire is an amazing product. It’s a great device for reading books, comics, and playing games.

The Kindle Fire sits now at the top of the Kindle line of e-reading devices. I really feel that its main demographic are Kindle owners, folks that were thinking of getting a Kindle, or folks that don’t see the need to spend nearly $500 or more for an iPad.

That’s just where you’ll find my wife, the Kindle Fire owner of our family. She was pretty tired of fighting for my iPad to read The Walking Dead, and various eBooks about pregnancy, parenting, and the like. She loves to play Plants vs Zombie, Angry Birds, and occasionally will need to look something up on the web. She is a great photographer, but prefer to review those things on her laptop.

When the Kindle Fire was announced at $199, we both instantly knew this was the thing for her. I don’t care how you swing it, that price is unbeatable for reading books, comics, and playing games. End of discussion.

She’s had it now for a few days, and I’ve had time to goof around with it myself. Reading comics on this thing is very enjoyable. The colors really pop on-screen. Double-page spreads aren’t very ideal because of the 7’ screen as well as the resolution, but the Guided View technology really comes in handy. Reading books is great as well: it’s smooth and very easy on the eyes.

I also really enjoy the Carousal/Bookshelf design for the overall user interface. The same old grid-style of icons can get a bit boring.

Now, of course, when reviewing the speed of scrolling, navigating through the device, you can only really compare it to the best of the bunch: the iPad 2.

Scrolling on this isn’t quite as buttery as that $500 device. Who would have thought?

Also, there is no HD video to be had on this device. My question - is the Kindle owner that has no iPad really going to care about not having HD video? Or even the 8GB HDD? Or even a quality email client? I really don’t think so.

If you want an iPad just go freaking get an iPad.

Every time I read a negative review, I feel like they left out a line resembling something like, “It’s nice and all, but it really isn’t as good as another tablet that is nearly 3x more expensive. So I’m going to grade it poorly.”

Get outa here with that.

My wife hasn’t stopped reading on hers since she got it. She really digs it.

That’s a win in my book.