Difference Between Asus EeePad MeMO (ME370T) and Amazon Kindle Fire

Asus EeePad MeMO (ME370T) vs Amazon Kindle Fire | Speed, Performance and Features Reviewed | Full Specs Compared
 

Tablets have evolved a long way from a single core to dual core to quad core and branched in order to target a wide range of niche markets, as well. Initial tablets were high end and addressed the needs of a closed market because of their high price. Then came mid-range tablets and Barnes and Noble introduced budget tablets. The development of the tablets was further motivated by Android as the operating system and ARM based processors. When Amazon released Kindle Fire, it was truly a decent budget tablet that served the needs of any average user. Kindle fire was integral in convincing the customers that a Budget tablet is not just another sloppy tablet, but has decent performance because Amazon believed in nor decreasing performance nor display. With the introduction of the tablet we are going to talk about today, Asus takes that initiative way further and proves that even some of the cutting edge tablets can be given at a budget cost.

There were many announcements made at the CES 2012 about new products of various manufacturers. All of them have been more or less interesting although some of the products were simple redesigns of already existing products. Some consumers even blamed the vendors for coming up with products that exactly resembles with their predecessor and only changes by name and some minor features. But amongst all that hype, Asus Eee Pad MeMO ME370T was one of the best announcements we laid our eyes upon at the CES 2012 because it will mark the dawn of a new era of budget tablets. We will talk about how MeMO differentiates itself from the other such tablets when we compare it with the king of the current budget tablets, Amazon Kindle Fire. We will observe whether MeMO would threaten the sales of Amazon Kindle Fire.

Asus Eee Pad MeMO (ME370T)

We have long waited for a tablet of this kind that will be an instant hit in the market. Asus Eee Pad MeMO is a tablet that integrates all the cutting edge features to a single slate with an economical price. Asus has announced that the tablet would be on sale for a price of $249 although the release date is yet to be known. Now that, we have revealed the price, you might think this is another low-end, good for nothing tablet, but hold that thought till you hear this. It comes with a quad core processor on top of Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset. We don’t have information about the clock speed, but we can guarantee that it would perform faster than the dual core tablets out there in the market. It is to have 768MB of RAM although there hasn’t been any official indication. We don’t reckon Asus would jeopardize this amazing slate by reducing the RAM, so we’ll go with 768MB, and if you’re lucky, it will have 1GB of RAM. This setup is controlled by Android OS v4.0 IceCreaSandwich, and the best thing is you will get a Vanilla Android IceCreamSandwich to enjoy, because Asus will not port the tablet with any customization to the interface. That is why it has been a tablet that was highly anticipated among Android fans.

This budget tablet has 7 inch IPS capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The resolution is equivalent to one of the best resolutions in the market except 1920 x 1200 pixels, and the display panel is just awesome too because it has vivid viewing angles. We are extremely happy about the panel Asus has included in this economical device. It is also said to have 8MP camera and hopefully that can record 1080p videos too. It also has a front facing camera for video calls. Asus Eee Pad MeMO defines its connectivity through Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and we don’t blame Asus for not including GSM connectivity in such an economical device. We are assuming a 8GB or 16GB of internal storage and hopefully it would come with the option to expand the storage with a microSD card. We have no information about the battery life, although we think it would work well for at least 6 hours given the past experience with Asus. We are waiting for the release of this tablet that is expected in the second quarter of 2012.

Amazon Kindle Fire

Amazon Kindle Fire is a device that promotes the economical tablet range with moderate performance that serves the purpose. It actually is boosted by the reputation Amazon has. Kindle fire comes with a minimalistic design and comes in Black without much styling. It is measured to be 190 x 120 x 11.4 mm, which feels comfortable in your hands. It is slightly on the hefty side since it weighs 413g. It has a 7 inch multi touch display with IPS and anti-reflective treatment. This makes sure that you can use the tablet in direct day light without much problem. Kindle Fire comes with a generic resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels and a pixel density of 169ppi. While this is not the state of the art specs, it’s more than acceptable for a tablet in this price range. We can’t complain because Kindle will produce quality images and text in a competitive manner. The screen is also chemically strengthened to be stiffer and harder than plastic, which is just great.

It comes with a 1GHz Cortex A9 dual core processor on top of TI OMAP4 Chipset. The operating system is Android v2.3 Gingerbread. It also has 512MB RAM and internal storage of 8GB which is not expandable. While the processing power is good, the internal capacity may cause a problem since 8GB of storage space just isn’t enough to fulfill your media needs. It’s disappointing that Amazon doesn’t feature higher capacity editions of Kindle Fire. We got to say, if you are a user with the need to keep a lot of multimedia content at hand, Kindle Fire may well disappoint in you in that context. What Amazon has done to compensate this is enabling the use of their cloud storage at any time. That is, you can download the content that you bought over and over again whenever you want. While this is highly advantageous, you still have to download the content to use it which can be a hassle.

Kindle Fire is basically a reader and a browser with extended capabilities to fulfill the needs of the user. It features a heavily modified version of Android OS v 2.3 and sometimes you wonder whether that’s Android at all. But rest assured, it is. The difference is that Amazon has made sure to tweak the OS to fit into the hardware for a smooth operation. Fire can still run all of Android Apps, but it can only access the content from Amazon App store for Android. If you want an app from Android Market, you have to side load it and install it. The primary difference you’ll see in the UI is the home screen that looks like a book shelf. This is where everything is, and your only way to access the application launcher. It has the Amazon Silk browser, which is fast and promises good user experience, but there are some ambiguities involved in that, as well. For instance, it’s observed that the Amazon’s accelerated page loading in Silk Browser indeed yields a worse results than normal. Thus, we need to keep a close tab on it and optimize it ourselves. It also supports adobe Flash content. The only blowback is that Kindle only supports Wi-Fi via 802.11 b/g/n and no GSM connectivity. On the context of reading, Kindle has added a lot of value. It has included Amazon Whispersync, which can automatically sync your library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across your devices. On Kindle Fire, Whispersync also syncs video, which is quite awesome.

Kindle Fire does not come with a camera, which is justifiable for the price, but the Bluetooth connectivity would have been very much appreciated. Amazon claims that Kindle enables you a continuous read of 8 hours and 7.5 hours of video playback.

Conclusion

As you may have clearly decided, the dawn of a new era for tablets is coming. Asus Eee Pad MeMO ME370T is way better than Amazon Kindle Fire for an extension of $50 because the capability it provides is limitless. In a nutshell, Amazon Kindle Fire is a reader with extended capabilities to make it a tablet while Asus Eee Pad MeMO ME370T is a fully fledged tablet. To elaborate on the point, Asus Eee Pad MeMO has a better processor, and the newest OS to utilize the resources optimally. It also has the clean Vanilla Android Stock UI without any customization that has been a long-wished feature in a tablet. MeMO can also use the Android Market, which gives it the possibility to try out various applications that increase the productivity, while Kindle Fire users have to limit their choice inside the Amazon App market. Further, the Eee Pad MeMO features a better resolution that has become the norm for tablets in 2012 although the display panel is same on both tablets. Making it a full tablet, Asus has also included 8MP camera in the MeMO and declared war against Kindle Fire. What we have to say on behalf of the Kindle Fire is that it is an awesome e-reader and a device you can buy today. If you intend to wait some more time for a tablet, then Asus Eee Pad MeMO ME370T is definitely going to be your choice if Amazon or any other manufacturer doesn’t come up with a solid competition for this device at this price range.