• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, November 14, 2011

Has Amazon actually produced a tablet that can loosen Apple’s iron grip on the market? While it’s up to consumers decide, expert reviews are trickling in and telling a (highly-conflicting) story of their own.

“The Kindle Fire is quite an achievement at $200,” deems Engadget. “It's a perfectly usable tablet … and perhaps the best, tightest integration of digital content acquisition into a mobile device that we've yet seen.”

Yet, “When stacked up against other popular tablets, the Fire can't compete,” Engadget adds. “Its performance is a occasionally sluggish, its interface often clunky, its storage too slight, its functionality a bit restricted and its 7-inch screen too limiting if you were hoping to convert all your paper magazine subscriptions into the digital ones.”

"Most problematic … the Fire does not have anything like the polish or speed of an iPad,” slams The New York Times’ self-professed Apple addict David Pogue. “You feel that $200 price tag with every swipe of your finger.” Ouch.

“Amazon’s Kindle Fire will challenge Apple’s iPad and other tablets in that space, but adoption by companies as a business device could prove a nonstarter,” according to eWeek.

Still, "In our first look, the Amazon Kindle Fire was a fine performer, especially if your priority is to get Amazon content including movies, TV shows, music, and books,” writes Consumer Reports. “The display is smaller than the iPad's, and the app market is more limited, but for $200 you're getting a full-featured tablet that performs well."

What’s more, “Though it lacks the tech specs found on more-expensive Apple and Android tablets, the $199 Kindle Fire is an outstanding entertainment value that prizes simplicity over techno-wizardry,” writes CNet.

“Make no mistake about it -- the Fire is a proper tablet, with many (though not all) of the capabilities of something like an iPad,” The Verge makes clear. “But the focus on this product is most certainly on lean-back experiences, and that's reflected in the price, too.”

Furthermore, "The Kindle Fire takes Amazon's wildly popular services and presents them in a solid piece of hardware with a responsive, easy-to-understand interface that works,” concludes Fortune. No, “It doesn't have the iPad’s extra layer of polish and sheen, but with the Amazon brand, a wide ecosystem of services at its disposal, and that $199 price point, it doesn't really need it. In that sense, Apple's tablet just met its first real competitor."