Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

i was attracted to this tablet for 2 main reason: size & ability to download prime video for playing in non WiFi situations. the size for me is perfect - this can slip in a pocket or a purse and travel easily. at first you will notice the weight of 10+ oz but it is not too heavy to hold for a period of time. it fits in my hand nicely and the thickness is not a negative but rather helps for holding. it def is solid and build quality was a priority for amazon. i wish the back had a rubber like feel - it can be a tad slippery in your hand since it's all hard plastic shell. power button & charge port is on top. volume on upper left side. note: you are locked out of google play services such as maps, google music, google drive - even if you sideload them, they will not work. i was aware before purchase, you should be too. amazon's mail app handles gmail well (i have 3 accts) and works similar to kit kat with slide out from the left. overall the os is nice and clean, though the carousel is silly imho, but you can swipe up and see your apps like you would on your phone. it can print emails and docs by searching for a wifi enabled hp printer connected to the same network as the tablet - it worked fine & was easy. i can not speak to other models of printers. i did not use the cameras and have no need or want to - my nexus 5 rocks in that dept. overdrive is not available for this model even though it is in amazon's app store. you have to download es file explorer, then use silk browser go to app.overdrive.com, choose download for android 4.0+, choose es file explorer when prompted, wait for download and install. it works fine and i was able to get a book and an audio book with it. now to video: the screen is nice and clear and bright. all videos i played looked very crisp and colors were nice and balanced. the one speaker is good and loud but note i listened in a quiet room. i have a pair of blue tooth headphones which paired and worked very well, in fact stereo with excellent sound. i have hulu plus and it played great on this unit and a plus is you can fling it to your chromecast! i have hbogo & starz - both worked well, looked great, sounded great - impressive. note: showtime app is not available for this unit :( i have amazon prime video which plays well also including the handy option to download onto the unit for playback without wifi. i downloaded a few items to test file size & time to download. you have 3 options: good, better, best. once done, i put it on airplane mode and chose episode 1 of Extant which gave me a pop up that said "you have 3 days to use this video w/o wifi, after 3 days you will need to connect to wifi to watch longer". i got a similar message for an episode of dr who but that gave me 75 days. i'm sure content providers dictate that. some examples: dr who season 7 episode 1 (48mins) on good mode took 10mins to dl and used 289 mb. the same episode on better mode took 30 mins & 899 mb. episode 1 of Extant (42mins) on best mode took 45 mins & 1.253 GB. movie selection is non exsistant, about 30 i saw but the tv selections are vast. 13 assassins ( a movie with running time of 2hr 10 mins) took 26 mins on good mode (the lowest) & 694 mb. for me good mode works fine, good pic, no noticeable loss on sound and much quicker dl times. note about 1000 mb = 1 gb. with only 4.5 GB available on the 8 gb version, there isnt a lot of room to do much with. i will be returning to staples to get the 16gb when avaialbe. the storage limitation should be something you give give extra thought to. needs vary and the 8 gb wont cut it. i am very happy with this and as i said before impressed - it is a solid very affordable tablet that cheap no names tablets can't touch. just be aware of it's limitations and decide what your needs are. if you're not a prime member, i'm not sure if this would suit but for the same money this has so much more to offer than the paperwhite.