Amazon has officially introduced its first smartphone called the 'Amazon Fire Phone'. The new Amazon smartphone is available in the US exclusively via AT&T for $199 (32GB) or $299 (64GB) on a two-year contract. On Amazon's site, the company is also listing the device for $649 (32GB) and $749 (64GB) without a service plan. Amazon has already begun taking pre-orders for the smartphone, and is scheduled to be available from July 25.
The Amazon Fire Phone features a 4.7-inch IPS 720p touchscreen with 590 nits of brightness, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with a 2.2 GHz quad-core CPU and Adreno 330 GPU, and 2GB of RAM. It also supports 4G LTE.
The smartphone runs Fire OS 3.5, which is said to be similar OS used on Kindle range of tablets. The operating system is based on Android, but does not have access to Google's services.
It sports a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, Optical Image Stabilization (IOS) and an f/2.0 five-element lens. There’s also a dedicated camera shutter button that launches the Fire Phone’s camera app.
We take a look at the main highlights of the Amazon Fire Phone.
Dynamic Perspective
The Amazon Fire Phone has four-front facing cameras that create a unique 3D UI dubbed 'Dynamic Perspective'. It's a new head-tracking tool that changes the phone depending on how a user looks at it. The new feature is supposed to help in navigation, diving in apps and games, and gestures such as scrolling web pages. Amazon's Dynamic Perspective uses four infrared LEDs for invisible illumination, real-time computer vision algorithms, and a custom graphics engine rendering at 60 fps.
Firefly
Firefly is an exclusive Amazon tool on the new Fire Phone. Firefly allows users to identify 100 million different items using the rear facing camera of the smartphone. Firefly identifies printed text on posters, magazines, and business cards—make calls, save new contacts, send emails, and visit websites without typing long addresses.
Firefly also recognizes movies and TV episodes, live TV channels. Firefly uses X-Ray, powered by IMDb, to provide information on actors, plot details, and related content—add titles to your Watchlist or download to watch later. Similar to Shazam, Firefly identifies songs as well, delivering artist information, play related songs, download albums direct to the smartphone.
Cloud
Amazon has also heated up competition with Google and its Google+ photo-storage service. Amazon is offering free and unlimited storage on Amazon Cloud Drive. Amazon says its Fire phone can automatically back up photos and videos to Amazon Cloud Drive. Access anytime on Fire phone, other Amazon devices, or Cloud Drive apps.
Mayday
The Mayday button gives you direct access to an Amazon expert that will appear to help users via live video. Amazon experts will co-pilot through any feature by drawing on the screen, walking through how to do something , or doing it for you. Amazon says, “throughout the process, you’ll be able to see the Amazon expert live on your screen, but they won't see you”.
Amazon Prime
For Amazon Prime users, Amazon is offering free two-day shipping on items, unlimited streaming of top TV shows and movies, the new Prime Music, and more. Prime members get access to unlimited, commercial-free streaming of tens of thousands of popular movies and TV episodes. Also, users can borrow a book for free from the Kindle owners' Lending Library, as frequently as a book a month, with no waiting and no due dates.
You can check out more details about the smartphone here.
Amazon Fire Phone specifications:
| Size | 5.5" x 2.6" x 0.35" (139.2mm x 66.5mm x 8.9mm) |
| Weight | 5.64 ounces (160 grams) |
| Processor | 2.2GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, with Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM |
| Display | 4.7" HD LCD display, with 1280 x 720 resolution at 315 ppi, 590 cd/m2 brightness (typical), 1000:1 contrast ratio (typical) |
| Cameras | 13 MP rear-facing camera, multi-frame HDR, auto focus, optical image stabilization, f/2.0 5-element wide aperture lens, LED flash 2.1 MP front-facing camera |
| OS | Fire OS 3.5.0 |
| Storage | 32 GB or 64 GB |
| Cloud Storage | Free cloud storage for all Amazon content, and photos taken with Fire phone |
| Battery | Battery size: 2400mAh. Talk time: up to 22 hours; standby time: up to 285 hours. Video playback: up to 11 hours; audio playback: up to 65 hours. |
| Video recording | 1080p HD video recording at 30 fps (front- and rear-facing cameras) |
| Audio playback | Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio processing |
| TV and Video | Supports screen mirroring and Second Screen |
| Content formats supported | Audio: Dolby Digital (AC-3), Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC-3), non-DRM AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, PCM/WAVE, AAC LC/ELD, HE-AAC (v1 & v2), AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AMR-WB+, Audible Enhanced format (AAX); Video: MPEG4, VP8, H.264/MPEG4/AVC,MPEG4 SP, H.263,AVI,HDCP2.x, PlayReady DRM; Images: JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, GIF87a,GIF89a; Viewable docs: PDF, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively, DOC, DOCX, Kindle (AZW), KF8, TXT |
| Sensors | Dynamic Perspective sensor system with invisible infrared illumination, gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, barometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor |
| Location | GPS, Assisted GPS, GLONASS, Wi-Fi/Cellular location, and Digital compass |
| Cellular | UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz), Quad-band GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), 9 bands of LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 17, 20), supports carrier aggregation |
| Connectivity | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, up to 300 Mbps with channel bonding; Bluetooth 3.0 wireless technology; NFC enabled |
| Headphones | Premium, tangle-free headphones with remote and mic |
| Rating for hearing aids | M4, T4 |
| SIM Card | Pre-installed Nano SIM card |
| Ports | Micro USB 2.0 3.5mm headphone |
| Warranty and Service | 1-year Limited Warranty included. Use of Fire phone is subject to these terms |
| Included in the Box | Amazon Fire Phone with Fire OS 3.5.0 Premium headphones with remote and mic Micro USB to USB charging cable USB power adapter (5W) Quick Start Guide |