Let me start off by saying that I am a huge fan of Amazon and their products. The first e-reader I purchased was the Kindle 2nd generation. When the third generation Kindle came out, I purchased that and gave my older Kindle to my mom. When the Kindle Fire first came out, I purchased that because of all the features it had to offer. It was cheaper than an iPad and I had been pleased with Amazon’s products up to that point so I continued with the trend.
The Kindle Fire didn’t disappoint, but as time went on, and other products came on the market, I began looking into other products. My mom was in the market for a tablet and started looking at the new Kindle Fire HD when we stumbled upon the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 at Best Buy.
It was a hard decision to make. Both have apps such as Netflix and various games for entertainment value. Both are reasonably priced for what you’re getting (other than my iPod, I’m not an Apple kind of girl as I prefer Android systems). After more research, my mom ended up purchasing the Galaxy tablet for herself and also purchased another one for me as a gift. I was very grateful for the present she gave me, and to this day I am still pleased with it.
The Kindle Fire is a great product, don’t get me wrong, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 offers me more than what the Kindle Fire did. I can still read all of my Kindle books on the Galaxy tablet through the Kindle app which was one of the major deciding factors for me wanting the tablet. I love to read and do not mind reading from an electronic device. I do still like printed books from time to time, but having this device is more practical. (My main selling point to the hubby about purchasing an e-reader is that it would mean less clutter in the house since I wouldn’t be buying printed books–he was sold)
Another thing that I like about the Galaxy tablet is it runs off the Android system. I’m able to customize my home screens with the Galaxy tablet which I wasn’t able to do with complete freedom on the Kindle Fire. Up until a week ago, I had an LG phone that used the Android system so I’m able to sync all of my appointments, notes, etc. between both devices effortlessly. Now my husband and I have Samsung Galaxy phones so everything syncs flawlessly. My phone recognized the apps that were already on my tablet and synced them all without me having to individually install all of them on the new phone.
Also, I like the Polaris Office that is available on the Galaxy tablet (the program I’m actually using now to type this article). I can create documents that I wouldn’t be able to create on the Kindle Fire. I know a few people who do not like Polaris since it’s not Microsoft Office, but I haven’t had any issues with viewing/editing documents from either Office Suite. In the beginning, I was having trouble with Microsoft Word not properly wrapping the text from the Polaris documents (it would cut words in half at the end of the line instead of wrapping the whole word to a new line). After quick research, though, I found that the solution to the problem was going under Change Styles in Microsoft and setting it as the default. It’s a little bit more work, but the time saved by being able to use my tablet to create documents is worth the extra couple of seconds. Besides, this isn’t always an issue-sometimes the document formats correctly the first time.
Overall, I am pleased with my gift of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. The Kindle Fire is a good purchase for someone who wants an e-reader with a couple extra bells and whistles. If you want something more, though, the Galaxy tablet is a great choice that is still reasonably priced.
