Why just those as choices? I just got my 85+ year old mother a Samsung Galaxy tablet, and she loves that. It’s quick, nice to look at, and pretty simple.
I wouldn’t go with Apple at all, too much price for the same as anywhere else, and while I like the Kindle readers, and have two Fires as well, I’d go for a generic Android tablet any day now.
My cousin had one when she vacationed with us, and said that it was painfully slow, so I ruled it out.
I just got my second Kindle Fire (I have a first generation one, and now the newest). I also have had multiple iPads.
My initial thought was the Kindle Fire would be sufficient BUT last night I was trying to do email and post on SDMB, and I realized that the typing functionality just doesn’t compare.
I would say the Fire is fine for apps, reading, and media (movies, TV) but if they want to use it for anything else (Facebook, email, etc), the iPad is a much better choice.
You can find slightly older iPads on eBay or with electronic outlets for very reasonable prices. My kids are still happy with Gen2, for example.
Having never used an iPad, I’m curious: what makes it better for typing on?
The Fire is fine for reading email, Facebook, etc. For writing anything very long, personally I’d be frustrated trying to do so on anything but an actual keyboard.
The iPad has a bigger virtual keyboard. It’s also configured slightly differently, so that the experience is more like a traditional keyboard. I do most of my online activities from the iPad these days, which works out to a fair amount of typing. I wouldn’t write a novel on it, but it’s relatively easy to use for typing.
After a few minutes with the Fire I was ready to save some activities for another device. It felt like learning to type all over again (or something - just very painful and slow).
That appears to be correct- only the latest 5th generation Kindle Fires support the latest Fire OS 5.1.1 (which means their current OS is a version behind Android 6 from which it is forked).
That makes it unlike Apple’s support of the iPad, in which every iPad except the first generation iPad supports the latest iOS 9.2.
Recently got a new Fire HDX 8.9 to replace my Kindle Fire HDX 7. Amazing. I got a free 1-month Prime subscription and am loving the free Prime movie downloads. The battery life is excellent. Watching a full movie on battery mode doesn’t seem to drain the battery all that much. I think the ipad is overrated and overpriced. Sure, Amazon doesn’t have a big app library compared to Apple or Android, but it offers many of the major apps that people use.
I’m giving my HDX 7 to my 4-year-old niece for Christmas. It’s in like-new condition, and I still have the original box and stuff. She’s already familiar with it since she likes to play games on it. A few days ago I factory reset it, and registered it under her name, then downloaded some games onto it. I have an Otter case that will fully encapsulated the device to protect it from little hands. She’s gonna love it!
Instead of a Kindle of any variety, I would suggest the Samsung Tab. Last year my wife upgraded to the latest and greatest Kindle Fire, I bought me a Tab 10.1. Within a few weeks she returned the Fire and exchanged it for a Tab like mine. She claims it is much easier to use than the Fire.
Then she is weird. The Fire uses a custom version of the Android OS that doesn’t vary much more from basic Android than Samsung’s custom version (other than the missing Google standard apps).