Before I had my Kindle Fire I bought the the Apple iTouch4....the apps beat the heck out of Android apps that run on the Kindle Fire, but obviously the small screen, even with the text enlarged to maximum, is difficult to read. Enter the Kindle Fire, which I purchased in March of 2012. The screen is perfect for eBooks, about the size of a paperback. Best features are the ability to change type faces, background color, text size and brightness...this really comes in handy when your a geezer and read late at night! I don't play video games, so there are none...the news apps, weather, etc that I use daily on the iTouch aren't even available in android (WHY?) The Fire does play video well and Netflix works great, as well as MLB.TV....no it's not "Retina Display", so clear on the iTouch4 that you can see the baseball in a pop fly, even though the small screen.
Still, I made "trade UP" to the 7" iPad when it comes out...can still download eBooks, hopefully it will have a Retina Display" also. Meanwhile I enjoy ready the Free Kindle Books available...there are hundreds, I store them in "The Cloud), not on my device! Downloads take only seconds...less than 5!