14 DAY TRIAL // As expected, Amazon has taken the wraps off its first smartphone based on the Android operating system, which it has called the Fire Phone.
The smartphone is now exclusively available in the United States through AT&T carrier, but it can be pre-ordered via Amazon, obviously.
Amazon Fire Phone can be purchased for $200 (€145) with a new 2-year agreement. This price is for the 32GB model, while the 64GB variant is available for $300 (€220) with the same two-year contract from AT&T.
Those who do not wish to commit to a long-term contract can get the Amazon Fire Phone for $650 (€480) outright. According to Amazon, all Fire Phone orders should start shipping on July 25, so those who place their pre-orders should expect to receive their devices around that timeframe.
Now let’s see what would make you want to buy the Amazon Fire Phone over another flagship smartphone that’s already available on the market.
Well, first of all, the smartphone is powered by a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, which is complemented by an Adreno 330 graphics processing unit and 2GB of RAM.
The Amazon Fire Phone comes with either 32GB or 64GB of internal memory, but it does not pack microSD card slot for storage expansion.
However, you might not need any additional storage space, as Amazon offers free unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content, such as photos captured with the smartphone.
On the back, Amazon Fire Phone boasts an impressive 13-megapixel rear-facing camera that features multi-frame HDR, autofocus, OIS (optical image stabilization), f/2.0 5-element wide aperture lens and LED flash.
There’s also a 2.1-megapixel camera in the front for selfies and video calls, which, along with the camera on the back, can capture full HD (1080p) videos at 30fps.
Connectivity-wise, the Amazon Fire Phone supports nine global LTE bands, but offers additional options as well, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC (Near Field Communication), microUSB and GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS support.
Keep in mind that Amazon’s smartphone does not support the Bluetooth 4.0 LE standard, so there’s little to no chance that you will be able to connect additional devices (other than smartphones) to it.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Amazon Fire Phone comes with dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio processing. Speaking of which, the smartphone is shipped with premium, tangle-free headphones with remote and mic.
Moving on to software, the smartphone is powered by a forked version of Android, which is heavily customized and renamed Fire OS 3.5. It’s completely devoid of Google services, which were replaced by Amazon's, so users will have access to more than 240,000 third-party apps via Appstore instead of Google Play Store.
Amazon isn’t clear on what version of Android its Fire OS 3.5 is based on, so we will be back with that information when it’s available.
The smartphone comes with a 3D interface that can follow the user around courtesy of Amazon’s unique head-tracking system called “Dynamic Perspective.” This is why Amazon has added four dedicated cameras, each with 120-degree field of view and infrared.
Thanks to a new feature called Firefly, the phone’s main camera can also be used to recognize books, DVDs, phone numbers, QR codes, CDs, URLs, games, bar codes and you can also order them from Amazon.
The phone’s microphone can also be used to listen to songs and after they have been recognized via Firefly, they can be purchased through the same service.
Another potential selling point of the Amazon Fire Phone is the new Mayday service, which is basically a 24/7 live customer support similar to Kindle Fire, where you can call and someone from Amazon will help you fix your phone.
Those who purchase the Fire Phone will also receive a full year of Amazon Prime service, but if you already are a Prime customer, you will get an extra year of use for free. Last but not least, you will also be provided with free instant video and music streaming as long as you are a Prime customer.
