6-Pack of Amazon Fire Tablets

Product Description

Top Reviews

After 1 Year...
by Anna (2 out of 5 stars)
November 28, 2016

I bought this tablet in January, it's now November (almost December) and after only having this 11 months... the thing is basically unusable. There are a few reasons that I find this device very frustrating.

Firstly, despite getting the correct updates for this device, the thing doesn't stream any kind of video service any more. YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, they all don't work. I'm not sure if the internal processor just... lost it after a year? I have no idea. All I know is I can't even watch a YouTube video on it any more, I have to rely on my iPhone for that when I'm away from my computer. This is also the case with Pandora and Spotify. If I click on Pandora it will sit there and load for about 60 seconds and then give me an error message that it couldn't load the app. I'll turn the Kindle off, turn it back on and try again. Same problem. I'll close all background apps, make any adjustments I can think of to get it to work... nothing.

Even if I'm doing a basic google search it takes at least 60 seconds for search results to load, then the pages take 90 seconds+ to open.

Second, they advertise that you can expand your space with an SD card. You can... but your limited on what you can actually load onto the SD card. For instance certain apps, for example I'm a big "Simpsons Tapped Out" fan, you can't download onto the SD card. This is especially frustrating because it's the larger apps that are nontransferable to the SD card. Adding in that yes, you have 8 gigs but the actually brain of the Kindle takes up a certain amount, this thing fills up pretty quick. I was getting "storage full" warnings after 2 days of having it because nothing would work with the SD card but my music.

I give this two stars because I was in love with it when I first got it and it worked well for a couple months. Also I can still read books on it and it was only $50. I know it's a harsh review for a $50 tablet but I was a sucker and bought the recommended items (SD card, case, screen protector) as well and spent about $100 on a tablet that lasted me 3 months tops. I thought I was investing in items that would protect my tablet for a long time...

I personally wish I had waited, saved up, and invested in a better quality tablet.
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Best Value, Especially with Prime, but beware: mine has 2 dead pixels, Works with GH4 + Antutu Bench
by Darren Levine (4 out of 5 stars)
October 2, 2015

$50? Despite the dirt cheap price, i find it to be great for casual use. Videos play nice, games even play nice, text is just not as sexy looking as higher resolution screens. Watch the video for full demo!

The short/summed up version: it's the new budget king in the 6-8" size. It's screen is a little lower in resolution but still pleasant to look at, it has enough power for most of the typical tablet tasks, and it shares many of the same features as its higher priced brothers such as front and back cameras, b/g/n wifi, and good overall battery life (minus an hour) My favorite size tablet is 8", so if you're looking at the amazon fire lineup, i would take this over the 6" for sure, and would have a hard time picking the 8" fire at 3x the price. If you're not a prime member, it's still a good tablet, if you are a prime member: it's a great tablet. Possible quality control issue: Mine had two dead pixels (not very noticeable, but still will exchange) You can load APKs(enable unknown sources), i loaded antutu and panasonic image app, both work properly.

Just some background, i currently own 5 tablets not including this new one, ranging from a nook color, a samsung tab pro 8.4, LG g pad x8.3, an old acer a500 and an off brand 10.1". Suffice it to say: i know my tablets!

Main Cons:
-2 dead pixels
-Front and rear cameras are low resolution, mostly good for video calls only
-1 speaker, sounds tinny like a small laptop, Gets decently loud, use headphones!
-Text not very crisp (but still decent to read)

The rest are overall Positives:
-7-8" is my favorite tablet size, 6" is just a bit too tiny, and 9+ can be cumbersome
-Uses a slightly slower quad core 1.3ghz processor, for most tasks you won't notice a difference
-Screen resolution is OK at 171 pixels per inch, at this price point it's totally satisfactory
-Screen uses an IPS panel, meaning good viewing angles and color
-The OS/interface overall is a smooth an intuitive experience, very simplified
-Advertisements are there, but don't bother me much ($50 version only)
-Fit and finish are very good, feels solid in the hand
-Comes with 8gb, expandable to 128gb (and cards are cheap!)
-A little less battery life than the rest of its brothers (7 instead of 8)
-Mostly worth it if you're an amazon prime subscriber (lots of access)
-Readability for books is overall good, but still pales in comparison to an e-ink reader such as kindle
-Movies look overall great, but look better on my other higher end tablets(of course)
-Tested with Panasonic Image app with GH4 wifi control and it works well, very little lag

Preface: Let's always keep in mind that this is a $50 tablet, i may be using my $200+ tablets for comparison, but i by no means expect a $200 tablet out of this $50 tablet.

The screen:

It's a lower resolution, but the important factor is how many pixels per inch are there (PPI), at 171, it's not exciting, but for most people it will be a fine experience, if you put it side by side with a higher resolution screen it's a fairly clear difference, but as someone who owns both, i'm fine with both and expect this at this price. Also realize that some of the larger fire tablets have a comparable PPI. The brightness is good, and the viewing angles are good thanks to it being an IPS panel.

The Processor:

It downgrades from its brothers to a 1.3ghz quad, which in practice doesn't mean much, it's only when you want to use high intensive games or higher resolution video where you may see some issues. Again, this is a $50 tablet, and at that price it's a very capable processor to have.

The overall quality is up to amazon's standards, which is to say: Very good. It's obviously very difficult for other manufactures to match amazon's price/performance/quality, as seen by their overall tablet success. My main quality issue are those two stuck pixels mine has, and it's annoying but simple enough to do a return/exchange to fix that.

What it all comes down to though is just one question; Are you and amazon prime subscriber? If the answer is no, and you never intend to be, than it's still a good tablet, but if the answer is yes, than it's a great tablet. Amazon has been seriously beefing up its prime offerings. It's quite insane(in a good way) how many feature you get access to. I've been a prime member for something like 3 years, and yes i've totally drank the coolaid and am a devote believer in its value.

Summed up: i could nitpick the crappy front facing camera, or the thick bezel, or the advertisements, but would have to eventually come back to the fact that this is the least expensive tablet of its kind on the market. They scaled it down expertly to be just enough tablet to appeal to a very broad market while keeping the overall quality top notch. Call me impressed and satisfied

If you have any questions or comments, please do use the comments section and i'll response as best i can :)

Antutu Benchmark results:

Overall: 23628 (about half the score of a Galaxy note 4, it used the phone scale instead of tablet scale for some reason)

UX: Multitask: 3011

UX: Runtime: 1896

CPU Integer: 1658

CPU float-point: 1731

CPU single thread integer: 1187

CPU single thread float point: 975

RAM operation: 1423

RAM Speed: 1929

GPU 2D: 1637

GPU 3D: 6407

Storage I/O: 1114

Database I/O 660
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This is a steal for $50 as long as you aren;t expecting a "Premium" experience.
by G.Hulse (5 out of 5 stars)
October 2, 2015

I pre-ordered this for my wife mostly to use as a Kindle E-reader as I figured the tablet would be slow and the display would be less than impressive. I was wrong. What a bargain this little beauty is! This model cost $49.00 but it comes with ad's displayed on the lock screen when your tablet is dormant. Once your screen times out, they disappear. You can pay $15.00 up front to get an ad free version so I assumed to unlock the tablet I'd have to spend 15 to 30 seconds looking at an ad for Amazon Prime, or a product from the daily specials section of Amazon.com I abstained from paying for Ad removal and was pleasantly surprised to find that the ads are only on the lock screen and that as soon as I unlock the tablet they disappear immediately.

Here are my pros and cons thus far.

PRO:

Perfect size for Ebooks, and web surfing to alleviate strain on the eyes from my 5" phone display

nice sturdy casing that gives it a nice heft but still weighs in as one of the lighter tablets on the market

Child Accounts- Amazon allows you to set up this tablet with age restricted access for kids making this a low cost piece of tech that is perfect for school kids and allows mom and dad to ration the amount of time lil Johnny can play Clash of Clans and how much he can hit the ol' Visa card for.

Battery life thus far; wife was on it for about 5 hours last night and battery was at about 46%

Kindle Integration -this goes without saying but having my ebooks and audible books synced to the tablet is awesome and my Kindle books look great

Price - it's a $50.00 tablet that looks and performs as well as ipad mini gen1

CON:

Screen resolution - if you're looking for a premium screen res on par with your latest smart phone or HD tablet look elsewhere. I'd say the resolution is on par with an Iphone 3G or the original Kindle Fire gen 1

Web browser

The built in "Silk" web browser isn't very nice and the interface is reminiscent of IE on mobile devices. I searched the APP store for Google Chrome or fire fox but apparently those aren't available.

Camera

This has a camera in the strictest sense but it's 2MP camera is slow to load and it's nowhere near on par with the 10MP most mobile devices are boasting these days

The weak ass speaker

OK. So I wasn't expecting a Bose sound out of this thing but the on board speaker is just not very good. Poor sound quality, and weak. My wife was attempting to listen to our Amazon Music library the other night and was underwhelmed with the quality. I haven't attempted this yet, but I'll be paring this to our SONOS bar or my Bluetooth headphones for music or ebooks.

SO there you have it. Despite some of the flaws in the design this is just a fantastic deal for $50.00. SO much so that I ordered a second one for myself and plan on purchasing a 6 pack as Holiday Presents next month for my nieces and nephews. If you are new to tech and want to familiarize yourself without spending a heft sum to get into the game, or if you're looking for a durable yet inexpensive piece of tech for your kids, or if you LOVE e-books then this is the unit for you.
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Hit's your credit card before you know it!!!!
by Kasey (1 out of 5 stars)
February 9, 2017

got this to replace the kid's broken iPad. Fresh out of the box he opened it and started it, without my inputting my user name or password, all the sudden my credit card is being charged. WTF? How this little thing connected the Kindle to my account without my permission I don't know and I hate Kindle just for this. I did not touch it but yet my credit card is charged. How can this be legal?? This is why I'm an Apple person. Never had this kind of issue with Apple. All they do is hit you with Advertisements of Amazon products. This is why they sell it so cheap, not worth it for us. It is costing me more without my permission then if I just bought the iPad. This is a regrettable purchase.
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Power issues :(
by Michael Bruder (1 out of 5 stars)
November 24, 2016

Great price! Great basic tablet! Major engineering flaw with the power connector. I've bought 3 of these for my kids, and replaced 2 under warranty. Every single one gets a loose power connector within a couple months, and the only way to charge it is to prop it up on something just right. Try showing a kid how to prop it up to charge it. If my kid can't just plug it in to charge it, then the tablet is useless.
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Cheap knock-off of the original
by Mommymouse (2 out of 5 stars)
December 11, 2016

We love Kindle Fires in our house. We have 5 (soon to be 6) of them, over several generations. The first few Kindles were fantastic. Quick browsing, great picture quality, good sound, and a user friendly layout. This latest "base model" Kindle is TOO base. It feels incredibly cheap compared to our old Kindles, both in physical form and functionality. In fact, it looks, feels, and operates almost identical to a cheap knock-off brand I bought a few years ago for my kids (back when the base Kindle Fires were still over $100) that I ultimately chucked in the trash. Since purchasing this Kindle, I have found that everyone in the house avoids it, and picks up one of our older versions instead. After having it for several months, I finally tried using it on a trip, and found I could not keep it connected to the internet. The problem persisted on our home wi-fi, even though no other devices were having problems. Invest in a higher model, or go with something else altogether. I have been recommending Fires to all my friends and family for years, but don't plan to anymore.
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Blown away by this tablet
by RPS328ix (5 out of 5 stars)
December 18, 2015

Wow. I'm really impressed with this tablet! I'm an Apple fan boy and have never touched an Android or Android-based device before, but I bought the Fire because I use a lot of Amazon services and just wanted a new gadget to play with. If you want a budget, cost-effective tablet, this is for you. If you want to compare this to an iPad, you'd probably be disappointed -- the screen quality is lower and the apps respond more slowly than on an iPad.

PROS:
-- Price -- I see a lot of generic, off-brand tablets advertised at this price that have specs that are inferior to this.
-- Build quality -- nothing seems cheap or flimsy here. I haven't dropped it (yet), but I'd expect it to hold up well if I did.
-- Amazon integration -- if you use Amazon services (Kindle books, music, Prime Video, etc.) then this is perfect for you because the links are built into the operating system
-- Expandable storage -- one thing that Apple products are missing. 8GB will fill up fast, but you can cheaply and easily add more with a microSD
-- Size -- if you want something for reading books or to use while traveling, this is nice. The form factor is easier to use with one hand versus an iPad mini
-- Everything you'd expect in a tablet -- for the price, I thought that maybe corners would be cut or major features would be missing but that isn't the case. This has front and back cameras, decent speakers and Bluetooth.

CONS:
-- Honestly, when you consider that this costs just $50, I can't think of any reason NOT to buy this tablet. If you compare to an iPad, you'll probably see lots of places where the Fire is inferior. For example, the battery life isn't as good as my iPad mini, and the Fire display won't impress you if you're used to an iPad but it is perfectly good at this price point. The camera is usable but not great. Apps respond a bit slower than on my iPad, and the touch-screen isn't as precise. However, you'd really never notice any of those things if you don't regularly use a higher-priced tablet like an iPad.
-- If you don't want to be locked into the Amazon ecosystem, this may not be for you. Although the OS is Andriod-based, you can't customize this as much as you can with a pure Android system. That isn't a problem for me because I do use Amazon services quite a bit.

I was a little concerned that the "special offers" would be annoying, but they aren't a big deal at all. They only display on the lock screen and aren't intrusive. No big deal.

Overall, I highly recommend this. If you need a budget tablet or if you're a first time tablet user, this would work very well for you. If you've already got an iPad and you want a second/backup tablet to use at work or for travel (which is how I'm using this) or as a dedicated Kindle device (which is how I thought I'd use this until I realized it can do much more), then you can't go wrong with this. The only reason not to buy it is if you're planning to use this as your main device and you want a high performance tablet like an iPad -- in that case, buy an iPad.
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Beware over a low port melting on the 7!!!
by sluz (2 out of 5 stars)
December 30, 2016

Okay I tried to email Amazon but got stuck with the chat- they gave me a number which I called and got with several very nice Indian people- i'm from the US but they spoke very good English but had trouble understanding my problem. My kindle fire 7 port has always been too low- I bought it 6 months ago for my daughters birthday so I obviously wasn't sending it right back. We have had zero problems with it other than being a little "wonky" to charge. Until last night. It must have caught fire or got soooo hot it melted the port and the charger. Amazon offered me a 10% discount if I bought a new one but I told them I just wanted to send an email to let the company know. I'm glad our house didn't burn down over a $50 tablet. People need to know though. So they said I couldn't send an email but I could leave a comment 😜 I will post a picture of the low melted port vs my sons higher newer 8 port. I think this must be a problem that they are not talking about
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WILL NOT HOLD A CHARGE. WILL NEVER BUY A FIRE AGAIN
by SZP (1 out of 5 stars)
February 9, 2017

This kindle is a disappointment. It will not hold a charge. I have followed all the instructions for rebooting, re-setting to factory default, a new Amazon charger, and now a replacement Kindle and STILL the same issue - will not hold a charge.

I have never had so much trouble with Amazon customer service. I have been disconnected, have a hard time understanding their English and have had to re-call to try and find someone who can help.

I have been a prime member for 11 years. This is very frustrating.
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UPDATED: Incredible Value for Under $50!
by TM massage (5 out of 5 stars)
October 2, 2015

UPDATED - After spending quite a bit more time with the device, I would give it a 4.5 due to a few specific gaps that are a bit annoying. However, you are still getting an amazing 7" tablet, with front and rear facing cameras, a gorgeous interface, fairly snappy performance and durability, all for under 50 bucks! I can't imagine not buying these for myself and my whole family, but not a primary tablet for a techie adult by any means. For background, I have every Kindle, a couple Fires, and multiple tablets from Apple, Microsoft and Samsung. Note that my review with 5 stars considers the value equation, not just performance and how that may or may not compare to other tablets - if you are expecting this to compare to a tablet costing several times more, don't bother. But if you are looking for a great entry level tablet that does most of the things people want, this little tablet definitely delivers the value!

PRICING/CONFIG: I prefer this tablet with ads and no accessories to keep the costs down. You have the option to spend more money, but I recommend against it. You can easily see the specs online, so I won't do you the discourtesy of simply cutting and pasting those here. Here is the price breakdown:
* 49.99 base price - what an incredible price point! Or buy 5 and get a sixth one free! This puts it into reach of schools and non-profits.
* No sponsored screensaver ($15) - big deal that each time you turn it on it shows you something interesting you might want.
* MicroSD card ($19.99 for 32GB) - you probably already have one laying around somewhere. Beyond that, there is memory in the device, and you are using the cloud for storage mostly anyway. If you end up needing this, just buy one off Amazon, it certainly won't be more expensive. Also, the SD is likely less useful than you might think, since it is currently a bit limited in what can be stored on it.
* Amazon Fire Case (24.99) - it is supposed to be 2x the durability of an iPad. No case needed.
* Accident Protection (9.99) - who wants to spend 9.99 to insure a $49 device? During your install, they will give you another chance, and you can get the two year for 15.99 if you like. But to me, insurance is for catastrophic things, not a <$50 tablet. UPDATE - after looking into the accident protection, if I were giving it to kids, I might get the insurance. You can get a 1 year pretty cheap as long as you are in the US, and it covers everything from dropping it off a building, running it over with the car, or accidentally hitting it with a baseball bat. As long as you have the pieces, you are good, and there are no back and forth shipping charges to pay.
* That is a total of $119.97, or almost triple the price. If you're buying this device, you're probably a bit price sensitive - if you aren't, you're buying a different device and this review is somewhat irrelevant.

GETTING STARTED: Here is some timing for me to get started with this device:
* 1 minute - open box and read instructions
* 18 minutes - download and update to latest Fire software. If you are giving it as a gift, it is simply good form to turn it on first to get the updates done, even if you are not setting it up under your own name.
* Battery started at 65%, so I had plenty of time to connect, download, and play around with the device.
* I ordered it without my account being integrated, just as if I were buying it as a gift, unregistered. However, it came pre-configured with all of my information. If you are giving them away, I would double check this.
* Tutorials are super simple and quick, and well worth doing if you are unfamiliar with the Fire interface. It is really nice that they integrate your own data into the tutorials.
* HINT: While setting up, go to settings, select security, and take care of adding a passcode to your device. If you ever lose it, someone can cause some havoc if you don't.

APPSTORE: Appstore Underground is fantastic. Simple to use, lots of great apps. Nice to know I won't get gouged here for other fees since everything is included. I have not yet explored the quality of apps available here, so more on that in a later update. Had all my critical apps - LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Skype, etc. However, as noted, you cant use apps from the Android store, so you have to wait for them via Amazon. Not too big of a deal for me, but others might find it a problem.

EMAIL: Email setup was a breeze. In less than 3 minutes, I had my Office 365 account, yahoo account and gmail all set up and flowing perfectly. The interface for switching accounts is one of the easiest I have ever used.

CAMERA: The camera and video functionality were easily accessible, and I liked the quality. Not quite the same experience as using the iPhone, perhaps, but it may be that I also don't have the apps yet installed that make it look so great, so more on that later as I experiment. The camera is 2MP, and the video is 720 HD. If you need something higher res, the Fire HD has 5 MP camera and 1080 HD. But then you don't have a $49.99 tablet ' Same goes for the added speaker and lack of Dolby sound - this is a single speaker that sounds OK, but it is certainly not the same as the Fire 8 or an iPad. UPDATE: Have played around with the camera a bit more, and added a composite image - the first picture you'll see that it does a very poor job in low light conditions. As the light increases, you get some more detail, and brightly lit is not a bad picture at all, with good detail. This is not the same level of camera you will get on an iPhone or Lumia, so don't expect that, it is fine for casual photo, selfie, Skype, etc.

OS: The new OS is fantastic. It is simple to use, even for my fat fingers, and makes sense. Just as advertised, it puts the things you are likely to want to do front and center, makes it easily accessible to find new TV shows and the like, and just overall is a super clean and simple interface. Rotation responsiveness is immediate, unlike many other tablets, and I found the Silk browser on this to be quite snappy in performance. Watching video I found absolutely no lag when I streamed my Prime TV shows.

FORM FACTOR: This is light and easy to hold, with smooth, rounded corners that don't dig into your hands if help for extended periods. It is heavier than a kindle - if you are used to reading on a Kindle, it is not a replacement for that. Given the lower resolution on this device at 171ppi, I will DEFINITELY keep my Paperwhite for extended reading sessions, and would not recommend this tablet if your primary purpose is reading books, and you do quite a bit of that. I included a screenshot, along with comparison to one of our phones, and you can definitely tell a big difference when looking at fine print, and brightness does not compare. I did enjoy the fact that during several hours of use, I never accidentally hit any buttons, something that always drives me nuts on other devices, so button placement is one of the most convenient out there.

SD CARD: Note that I saw in another review that you can have all of your music on an SD card, you just have to download it through your laptop first. I have not personally tried this, but I imagine that several things with the SD card will change in future updates to make it more broadly valuable, and Amazon has said this in support interactions. I don't have any view of when that update might be coming, however.

OTHER: Have to love all the kid-friendly (or rather, parent-friendly features) that this comes with. Again, buying a pack of these things for the fam is definitely a no-brainer. Charging is not fast - I ran it to zero, then charged for exactly 30 minutes, which brought it to 11%. Doing the math, you're looking at somewhere in the 4.5 - 5 hour range to fully charge.

SUMMARY: There is plenty more to say about this, but basic summary is this is an amazing product for the price, and delivers much more than $50 value, especially if you have a Prime account. I have absolutely no hesitation recommending this enjoyable product. This is my go to tablet for just carrying around in my car. I will still keep my Paperwhite for reading, and I have another more expensive tablet for really watching movies, doing actual work, extended email sessions, etc. But this makes a great 3rd device, and I far prefer it vs trying to do similar activities on a phone. It is perfect for Skype, games, Facebook, browsing, watching videos, emergency reading, etc. There is tremendous value in this device.

NOTE: There are 3 attached pictures/videos. First is one of the Fire next to my cat to show the nice size. Yes, the cat is huge and I only had seconds before he covered it with his massive body - why do cats do that? The second is a screenshot comparison between the Fire and my phone - big difference in text clarity. The Third is a video showing my 3rd drop test, with no cracks, fractures or other damage. I am now done dropping it, rest assured, it seems quite durable.
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Great tablet for Text-to-Speech Fans
by WaltC (5 out of 5 stars)
August 17, 2016

Odd as it might sound, VoiceView is one of my favorite features for the newer Kindle Fires. Since VoiceView hasn't been mentioned much in the various reviews, I thought I'd focus on that:

First of all, I like to write (Science Fiction), but if you write a lot, proof reading the material can be difficult. Text-to-speech (aka VoiceView) is a terrific proof-reading tool-- especially with the very natural sounding voices that it provides (via IVONA's award-winning natural language text-to-speech voices). I tend to like hearing my stories read with a woman's voice, e.g., Salli (USA), and sometimes with a British woman's voice, e.g., Amy (GBR). If you do a lot of writing and haven't tried proofing it that way, give it a try; it's amazing the mistakes you can find that you miss any other way.

Second: Just some tips. Rather than having everything in one place, like you'd want, the controls are a little bit spread around. If you just want VoiceView to read books aloud, don't turn on TTS in accessibility-- That reads everything aloud-- menus, home screens, etc. Instead, go into settings->keyboard & language->text-to-speech. There you can set the default voice, and download additional ones that you might want to switch between (such as British, etc.). Within the book, it you tap on it to bring up the top and bottom toolbars, the bottom one allows you to control reading speed and play or pause. (Also within the top toolbar->menu control->additional settings, make sure "Text-to-speech" is turned on).

Third, I wanted to point out one shortcoming I've noticed with the VoiceView feature: It doesn't provide much granularity in the options for reading speed. You can have it read at 0.7x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x, and 4x. Most other TTS systems allow much more granularity. When you're proofing your own material, sometimes 1.5x can be too slow and 2x, too fast. This seems like an odd limitation for an otherwise superior system.

Walt Christmas

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