Amazon Fire Phone revealed
Jun 18, 2014, 12:01 pm
#1
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Amazon Fire Phone revealed
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/18/58...the-fire-phone
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/...phone-seattle/
Thoughts on how successful this will be?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/...phone-seattle/
The phone features Gorilla Glass and has a 4.7-inch screen. There is a Quad-core 2.2 GHz Processor and 2GB of RAM. There is also a 13 megapixel camera and optical image stabilization.
Jun 18, 2014, 12:21 pm
#2
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Actually, looks better than I (or anyone for that matter) had expected. they just might have enough differentiators to make it a viable option. Reading all the things it does, and some things better than current offerings - they JUST MIGHT be able to get 1-2% of the market in a few years. That would be the threshold for success.
Jun 18, 2014, 12:25 pm
#3
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The Verge's commentary is pretty funny.
(If Amazon's phone exclusively presents stuff from a cubist perspective, I will buy so many of them I can't even)
(If Amazon's phone exclusively presents stuff from a cubist perspective, I will buy so many of them I can't even)
Jun 18, 2014, 12:53 pm
#5
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OK ScottC, I assume you already have this phone... do tell us how you like it! 
Jun 18, 2014, 2:15 pm
#6
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I am disappointed. Clearly Amazon is not sure it will be able to derive enough additional revenue from the phone to sell it at a more subsidized price. Something that they are arguably doing with the Fire tablets. Throwing Prime in for a year is a gimmick to make the phone seem less expensive.
Google Nexus phones are still my benchmark for good hardware at a reasonable price. Sadly with Android Silver maybe that's going away too. I am now pretty comfortable the Fire smartphone will not devalue my collection of Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones (starting a side hobby activity of buying broken Nexus 4 and 5's and fixing them up for resale at a profit). Fire smartphone not having SD card slot or removable battery also helps with this.
The four cameras for 3D perspective is innovative, but doesn't add that much to the cost. I also think the feature is going to be common soon - as in there are other products being developed with this feature, not as someone copying Amazon starting today. I do like the tilting feature showing additional information. Of course, we will need Google apps catch up with this new hardware feature to take full advantage of it. This certainly looks to be an easier phone to use one-handed - valuable feature as I have a baby and a toddler
At $649 without contract, I think it costs too much and will likely pass. There is no way I am signing an AT&T contract. I use literally 10 minutes of airtime a month and a fair amount of data (and Google Voice for texts), and feel being forced to pay for unlimited talk/text just to buy data is unfair.
Google Nexus phones are still my benchmark for good hardware at a reasonable price. Sadly with Android Silver maybe that's going away too. I am now pretty comfortable the Fire smartphone will not devalue my collection of Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones (starting a side hobby activity of buying broken Nexus 4 and 5's and fixing them up for resale at a profit). Fire smartphone not having SD card slot or removable battery also helps with this.
The four cameras for 3D perspective is innovative, but doesn't add that much to the cost. I also think the feature is going to be common soon - as in there are other products being developed with this feature, not as someone copying Amazon starting today. I do like the tilting feature showing additional information. Of course, we will need Google apps catch up with this new hardware feature to take full advantage of it. This certainly looks to be an easier phone to use one-handed - valuable feature as I have a baby and a toddler
At $649 without contract, I think it costs too much and will likely pass. There is no way I am signing an AT&T contract. I use literally 10 minutes of airtime a month and a fair amount of data (and Google Voice for texts), and feel being forced to pay for unlimited talk/text just to buy data is unfair.
Last edited by AnalogMan; Jun 18, 2014 at 2:15 pm Reason: fixed one spelling error
Jun 18, 2014, 3:18 pm
#9
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I am disappointed. Clearly Amazon is not sure it will be able to derive enough additional revenue from the phone to sell it at a more subsidized price. Something that they are arguably doing with the Fire tablets. Throwing Prime in for a year is a gimmick to make the phone seem less expensive.
Google Nexus phones are still my benchmark for good hardware at a reasonable price. Sadly with Android Silver maybe that's going away too. I am now pretty comfortable the Fire smartphone will not devalue my collection of Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones (starting a side hobby activity of buying broken Nexus 4 and 5's and fixing them up for resale at a profit). Fire smartphone not having SD card slot or removable battery also helps with this.
The four cameras for 3D perspective is innovative, but doesn't add that much to the cost. I also think the feature is going to be common soon - as in there are other products being developed with this feature, not as someone copying Amazon starting today. I do like the tilting feature showing additional information. Of course, we will need Google apps catch up with this new hardware feature to take full advantage of it. This certainly looks to be an easier phone to use one-handed - valuable feature as I have a baby and a toddler
At $649 without contract, I think it costs too much and will likely pass. There is no way I am signing an AT&T contract. I use literally 10 minutes of airtime a month and a fair amount of data (and Google Voice for texts), and feel being forced to pay for unlimited talk/text just to buy data is unfair.
Google Nexus phones are still my benchmark for good hardware at a reasonable price. Sadly with Android Silver maybe that's going away too. I am now pretty comfortable the Fire smartphone will not devalue my collection of Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones (starting a side hobby activity of buying broken Nexus 4 and 5's and fixing them up for resale at a profit). Fire smartphone not having SD card slot or removable battery also helps with this.
The four cameras for 3D perspective is innovative, but doesn't add that much to the cost. I also think the feature is going to be common soon - as in there are other products being developed with this feature, not as someone copying Amazon starting today. I do like the tilting feature showing additional information. Of course, we will need Google apps catch up with this new hardware feature to take full advantage of it. This certainly looks to be an easier phone to use one-handed - valuable feature as I have a baby and a toddler
At $649 without contract, I think it costs too much and will likely pass. There is no way I am signing an AT&T contract. I use literally 10 minutes of airtime a month and a fair amount of data (and Google Voice for texts), and feel being forced to pay for unlimited talk/text just to buy data is unfair.
My question is, can it run Android apps? If not its kinda pointless and confining.
Jun 18, 2014, 4:46 pm
#11
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Jun 18, 2014, 4:49 pm
#12
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I've been pretty happy with AT&T over the years.
The new family plans just cut our bill from $180 to $130.
The Fire looks nice, but I'm set on getting the "waterproof" Galaxy S5 to upgrade my S3.
I already lost an S2 to water damage from jumping in to a pool. The S5 could prevent that kind of problem.
The new family plans just cut our bill from $180 to $130.
The Fire looks nice, but I'm set on getting the "waterproof" Galaxy S5 to upgrade my S3.
I already lost an S2 to water damage from jumping in to a pool. The S5 could prevent that kind of problem.
Jun 18, 2014, 5:47 pm
#13
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Amazon Fire Phone revealed
Based on history of Kindle Fire tablet AT&T made sense, disappointed there isn't a special kind of data plan offered as rumored.
should be able to sideload Android apps onto Fire OS, again based on Fire tablet experience.
Water resistance is becoming more common and I hope it becomes commonplace. I see tons of water damaged or cracked display smartphones at the big online auction site.
should be able to sideload Android apps onto Fire OS, again based on Fire tablet experience.
Water resistance is becoming more common and I hope it becomes commonplace. I see tons of water damaged or cracked display smartphones at the big online auction site.
Jun 18, 2014, 7:40 pm
#14
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Yawn.
Finally actual fragmentation of Android in the US (the AOSP-only phones in China already did it, but those haven't made it over here in any numbers worth noticing) ... priced to not move off-contract... perfectly good specs, maybe a bit last-generation but nothing terribly interesting to the hardware except maybe a slightly better camera.
If they priced this to compete with the Nexus 5/Moto X, I'd be a lot more interested. Compared to the S5, iPhone, HTC One or other phones priced comparably, I'd think you'd really need to want Amazon's ecosystem to buy one of these.
Personally, that's a great reason to NOT buy it.
Finally actual fragmentation of Android in the US (the AOSP-only phones in China already did it, but those haven't made it over here in any numbers worth noticing) ... priced to not move off-contract... perfectly good specs, maybe a bit last-generation but nothing terribly interesting to the hardware except maybe a slightly better camera.
If they priced this to compete with the Nexus 5/Moto X, I'd be a lot more interested. Compared to the S5, iPhone, HTC One or other phones priced comparably, I'd think you'd really need to want Amazon's ecosystem to buy one of these.
Personally, that's a great reason to NOT buy it.
Jun 18, 2014, 8:14 pm
#15
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The "dynamic perspective" (video of it here) looks very cool, but I'm not sure what the point is other than.. well.. looking cool.
Many of the other features are things that are available as apps anyway.
For those that are already paying for prime it's basically $100 (+tax) which isn't a bad price, but not a lot different to the competition...
Many of the other features are things that are available as apps anyway.
For those that are already paying for prime it's basically $100 (+tax) which isn't a bad price, but not a lot different to the competition...