The Tech-pert: Is the Kindle Fire the Best Tablet Computer for Under $200?

If you have $200 in your pocket and a tablet on your mind, you've probably been eyeballing the Amazon Kindle Fire. And with good cause: it's a sexy little number.

But, wait, what's this? RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook is now selling for $199.99 at stores like Best Buy? And, hold on, Lenovo's new IdeaPad A1 is also priced at $199.99. Now what?

On paper, or at least in photos, these three tablets look remarkably similar. They all have 7-inch screens surrounded by glossy black bezels, and they all promise an app-tacular experience. So here's the $200 question: Which tablet is worth your $200?

To me this is an easy decision, but allow me to explain my reasoning, starting with the Kindle (see image above). It's aimed at heavy consumers of media: books, movies, music, and so on. Of course, to make the most of the Fire's Amazon-powered media libraries, you need a subscription to Amazon Prime--which costs $79 annually.

Take that out of the equation and you're left with a tablet that's good, but not great. The Fire has just 8GB of storage, with only about 6GB actually available.

That leaves you precious little space to store things like music and movies; the device is really intended to stream content from Amazon, Netflix, Pandora, and the like. Plus, it has no memory-card slot, so you can't expand the storage.



The BlackBerry PlayBook, which sold for $499(!) when it debuted earlier this year, is kind of an odd duck. It offers numerous features the Fire lacks, including front and rear cameras and built-in Bluetooth, but it's also built around a proprietary operating system--meaning app selection will be limited.

What's more, RIM's future is a bit up-in-the-air at the moment, as the company is hemorrhaging market share. If it tanks, the already-small pool of app and accessory developers will shrink even more and eventually disappear. Sure, the tablet will still function for things like e-mail and Web browsing, but ultimately you'll be left with the 7-inch equivalent of HP's doomed TouchPad.



That leaves the Lenovo IdeaPad A1, which I consider the smartest buy of the three. For starters, it wins the day on features alone, with Bluetooth, front and rear cameras, a microSD card slot, and built-in GPS . It's even available in your choice of four colors.

Just as importantly, the IdeaPad runs the Android operating system, meaning you'll never go hungry for apps. The only downside is that it's Android 2.3 (a.k.a. Gingerbread), not the newer 3.2 version that's designed for tablets.

Even so, this is by far the most versatile of the three tablets, able to run video-streaming apps like Hulu and Netflix, e-book apps like Kindle and Nook, every game under the sun, and much more. It is, in my opinion, the single best $199 tablet you can buy (so far).

If you're buying a tablet this holiday season, you'll also want to take Linsey's post on tablet specs and recipient needs into consideration.

That's my take--what's yours? Do you agree with my recommendation? Let's hear from you in the comments!

Self-proclaimed cheapskate Rick Broida has been a technology writer for over 20 years. He has authored over a dozen books, including, most recently, "How to Do Everything: Palm Pre." Currently he writes the Cheapskate blog.