Amazon, which has already stepped into the tablet-market is now looking to compete in the smartphone category as well. And, looking at its high-quality Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon might come out with an even more impressive smartphone. Leaked photos of the upcoming smartphone from Amazon are now doing rounds on the internet.
The photos, which show an early prototype, have been leaked by the tech-site BGR. The smartphone seems to be packed in a protective case which hides the actual design of the phone.
Wall Street Journal had recently reported that Amazon might release the smartphone in June. It also revealed that the phone will be capable of displaying 3D content without any requirement of special glasses. The smartphone is said to incorporate retina-tracking technology “embedded in four front-facing cameras” to display a 3D hologram-like effect.
Amazon’s smartphone will have to compete with the likes of Samsung which recently launched its flagship smartphone Galaxy S5. It will also have to watch out for Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6.
So far, what we know about Amazon’s smartphone is that it will feature a 4.7-inch 720p display even though one would expect a 1080p display to start off with, these days. When it comes to the hardware inside, it will most likely feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 2GB of RAM. It will run on Android which is most likely going to be the customized version just like its Fire OS featured on its Kindle devices.
The most interesting feature revealed by the leaked photos is the total of five front-facing cameras. Four of them are located in each corner which point to the 3D feature of the smartphone. While BGR has claims that these cameras will follow the position of a user’s face and eyes to display things in a 3D perspective, TechCrunch says the 3D feature will be “very limited out of the box” and instead of tracking eyes of a user, the cameras will actually track a user’s head position. The tech site also adds that the screen which is technically NOT 3D, will actually “stimulate” a 3D effect.
Amazon is looking forward to recruit third-party developers to increase its number of third-party apps which will also take advantage of the phone’s 3D surface.
WSJ says that Amazon has already shown the device to key developers in San Francisco and Seattle, which means that the smartphone is likely to launch with third-party support. It also says that Amazon plans to announce the device by June and ship it by the end of September.