( CNN ) -- If you take Jeff Bezos ' word for it , Amazon 's new Kindle Fire HD is `` the best tablet at any price . '' Bold claim . And it 's an obvious reaction to the reviews of last year 's first-generation Kindle Fire , which praised the $ 199 price but made it clear you 're getting the substandard tablet experience you just paid next to nothing for . This year , Amazon has a new Kindle Fire called the Kindle Fire HD that 's a noticeable improvement over the original . But is it the `` best tablet at any price '' ? Nope . If you read the reviews , including mine , you 'll quickly learn Bezos seems to have adopted the `` reality distortion field '' that Steve Jobs was famous for . Does that mean the Kindle Fire HD is horrible ? No . Not at all . In fact , it 's still a decent option if you do n't want to shell out $ 500 or more on an iPad . But how is Amazon able to make a good tablet at such a cheap price ? Simple . Like Amazon.com , the Kindle Fire HD is built to find ways to sell you more stuff . First , and most annoyingly of all , the Kindle Fire HD displays full-color ads on its lock screen . That means every time you switch the device on , you see an ad for stuff like a Kindle e-book , a movie download , music from Amazon 's MP3 store and the like . Amazon told me you 'll also see a lot of third-party ads for products outside Amazon 's ecosystem . The good news is , if the ads really bother you , you can pay $ 15 to Amazon after you purchase the device to remove them for good . But Amazon did n't stop with the ads . When you 're using the tablet , you 're constantly inundated with suggestions to check out more Amazon products . The most blatant example of this is on the Kindle Fire HD 's home screen . Whenever you hover over an app , movie , song or book , there 's a section at the bottom of the screen that suggests other apps , movies , songs or books that you might want to buy . Do you like playing Angry Birds ? Buy Cut the Rope ! Do you like listening to Nicki Minaj ? Check out Katy Perry 's latest album ! You get the idea . It 's nearly identical to the way Amazon 's website suggests items to you when you 're shopping around . These ads and suggested items are a clever way for Amazon to continue to drive value out of you months and months after you buy the Kindle Fire HD . And it 's completely antithetical to your typical tablet experience . Tablets are supposed to be computing devices , helping you browse the Web , check e-mail , manage your calendar and the like . Yes , they make it easy to buy new content , but on devices like the iPad and Google 's Nexus 7 , you 're not constantly pushed to do so . But Amazon does n't see it that way . It 's just another portal to get you to buy . When you buy a Kindle Fire HD , it does n't feel like your tablet . It feels like Amazon 's . Is this a dealbreaker ? No way . In fact , I imagine there are plenty of people out there who wo n't mind looking at ads and suggestions for stuff to buy if it means getting a decent tablet for less than $ 200 . But if I had a choice between a $ 199 tablet with ads and offers ( like the Kindle Fire ) and a $ 199 without ads and offers ( like the Nexus 7 ) , I 'd go with the latter every time . Copyright © 2011 Business Insider .
Kindle Fire HD is n't really ` ` best option at any price '' but still decent option for the user . Amazon offsets lower prices by using the device to generate more sales . Ads and suggestions are frequent when using the Fire HD . It 's not a deal - breaker but could open the door for Google 's Nexus 5 .