My first tablet was a fire. It worked fairly well, seemed more durable than some of the others I looked at. It is nowhere near the Ipad obviously but will perform many functions. One thing I did not like about it, and I dont know if they have fixed it was that you could only use Amazon apps. While they have most, it did limit you on some occasions. By going with an Android tablet using chrome there was more variety in what was available.
Amazon may have fixed the problem, but I know it was a problem a while back.