Everything you need to know about the Fire Phone, Amazon's first smartphone
Last night, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled the company's first smartphone, the Fire Phone. The presentation took place at the company's headquarters in Seattle. In this post we have collected the most interesting facts about the first smartphone from Amazon. Let’s say right away that the device turned out to be ambiguous and interesting.
As expected, the Fire Phone has an incredible number of cameras and sensors that allow you to interact with your smartphone on a whole new level. But first things first.
"Iron"
- The device from Amazon is equipped with a 4.7-inch screen with a brightness reserve of 590 nits. Resolution and pixel density are still unknown.
- Inside is a quad-core 2.2GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and an Adreno 330 GPU.
- 13-megapixel rear camera with built-in optical stabilization and f/2 aperture.
- Two dual stereo speakers located at the top and bottom of the smartphone.
- The Fire Phone is covered with Gorilla Glass on both sides.
Price
Usually, when Amazon enters a market, their competitors immediately begin to merge due to too high prices. But not at this time.
- The price of the device without a contract will be $649 for a model with 32 GB of memory and $749 for a model with 64 GB.
- Amazon gives all smartphone buyers a free annual subscription to its services.
Free storage
Especially for Fire Phone owners, Amazon has made Cloud Drive cloud storage unlimited in volume and completely free, but exclusively for photo and video files.
Similar to AirPlay
Like Apple devices, the Fire Phone will be able to stream images to Amazon's own set-top box, the Fire TV, which we wrote about a couple of months ago.
24/7 technical support
To help users understand all the features of their device, Amazon has opened 24-hour technical support. According to company representatives, you won’t have to wait more than 15 seconds for a response from specialists.
Firefly recognizes everything
Do you like recognizing music using Shazam? So here it is the same, but with cinema and fine art. Point the camera at the TV and Firefly will provide information about what kind of series or picture it is. And all this is launched using a special physical button.
Dynamic Perspective
Almost the same parallax from Apple, but it is used everywhere, from the main menu to third-party applications.
Big brother is watching you
Remember when we wrote about the number of additional cameras in the Fire Phone? So, with their help, the smartphone models objects on the screen, creating a 3D image. To do this, the device has 4 additional infrared cameras that constantly monitor the movement of the user’s face, even at night.
Active widgets
With Fire Phone, you can pin an open app, like a book or mail, directly to the home screen as a functional widget. It turns out that a preview of the program left there will hang in the menu.
Hardware component and technical characteristics
Under the hood, Amazon's first smartphone has a quad-core processor clocked at 2.2 GHz (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800?) and 2 GB of RAM. Also notable is the main camera, which has a resolution of 13 megapixels and is capable of taking excellent photos in low light conditions. By the way, the first-born is compared in this regard with such competitors as the Apple iPhone 5S and Samsung GALAXY S5.
As for the body materials, the Amazon Fire Phone smartphone is equipped with a soft and rubberized body, while the connectors are made of cast steel. The control buttons (including the camera launch key) are made of aluminum. According to the manufacturer, with this the company wants to give some premiumness to its first smartphone - well, thanks for that.
Pricing and Availability
In classic Amazon fashion, you won't have to wait long at all for the company's new smartphone. If you really want to purchase a new product, you can do so without leaving your chair by pre-ordering one of the two models. Models with 32 GB of internal memory are available for pre-order at a price of $650 (23 thousand rubles) and 64 GB of internal memory. The latter received a price tag of 750 dollars or 26 thousand Russian rubles.
What do you think about Amazon's first smartphone? Feel free to express your thoughts in the comments.
| AMAZON FIRE 7 (2019) REVIEW: SUMMARY
While the Amazon Fire 7 (2019) is seriously lacking in pace in some areas, it's still a decent choice for anyone looking for a very budget-friendly tablet for reading books, watching the occasional YouTube video, and doing shopping.
With the Kindle Store on board, it's home to the largest collection of digital books on the planet, and there's no shortage of on-demand streaming services if you want to catch up on the go (only in low resolution).
We've said it before and we'll say it again: the most important thing when choosing any new device is to set your expectations according to your budget.
There's a reason why even the most basic iPad can set you back $300 while the Fire 7 (2019) will set you back $50: they're aimed at different audiences.
Suffice to say, if you're expecting iPad-level performance for free, you'll be disappointed with Amazon's tablet.
But if you're looking for something to surf the Internet with, and are willing to put up with some slowdown here and there when the load exceeds acceptable limits, and also don't have any need to use multiple applications at the same time, then the Amazon Fire 7 (2019) is fantastic value.
Given the sluggish performance, the main concern is how quickly the device will wear out when you fill up the memory with more apps.
If you decide to buy a tablet, you should carry a charging cable with you, as after about four hours of continuous use of the tablet, the power will most likely run out.
Do you have a long flight ahead? Simply switch your Amazon Fire 7 (2019) to Airplane mode and you can squeeze extra power out of it. And if it really doesn't last until the end of the flight, a 2A portable charger will be enough to charge it in an hour or so.
WHO IS AMAZON FIRE 7 (2019) FOR?
The Amazon Fire 7 (2019) is the perfect companion for those who want to read a book, watch the occasional YouTube video, or order groceries at home or on the go.
It's comfortable enough that you can hold it with one hand for long periods of time and—with a screen up to 7 inches—it's small and durable enough that you can take it with you by simply throwing it in your backpack or even a large pocket.
Battery life
The biggest innovation in the Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017) is improved battery life. At the brightest display settings in video playback mode, the tablet can last 9 hours and 13 minutes.
In web surfing mode with the display brightness reduced to 200 cd/m2, the new tablet can work away from a power outlet for 10 hours and 55 minutes. This is approximately one hour longer than last year's Fire HD 8.
The big drawback is that the charging process is too long: with the help of the included 5 W power supply, the device replenishes its energy reserves in as much as 5 hours and 2 minutes.
Dynamic Perspective (3D)
The coolest thing that sources have reported is 3D. Support for gesture control in 3D format, viewing three-dimensional video without special accessories and much more - many probably expected this from the first Amazon smartphone, because there were rumors about it. Unfortunately, 3D only gives a smartphone a few functions: tilting the device left, right, up or down will only allow the user to do a few things. On a web page or application, you can view content simply by tilting your smartphone.
With photos, the user will be able to see different points of view (if the photo supports this function) by moving the device in space to the right or left. The most impressive example was the demonstration of functionality in the Maps app, where you can tilt your smartphone to see 3D buildings.
Also, thanks to amazing technologies, engineers were able to prepare something more: the Amazon Fire Phone smartphone is capable of detecting head movement in space while the device itself is at rest. Four front cameras contribute to the user's head detection functionality.
As with the new service called Amazon Firefly, the company has released an SDK for developers to enhance the technology's functionality and create apps that take full advantage of dynamic perspective. If you are a developer or simply interested in learning more, you should visit the company's official website.
Amazon Firefly
And then there's Amazon's new Firefly, an app that can help you identify books, TV shows, movies, music, games, art, and more with the click of a button. Think of it as SoundHound or Google Goggles in one, except that Amazon's Firefly app can identify much more media content than both of the above services combined. The new product even works with phone numbers and email addresses.
The most exciting part of the Amazon Firefly app presentation is its SDK. Developers will have access to all possible functions, they will be able to integrate a variety of functions and services into the Amazon Firefly service, making them compatible with the Amazon database. The new application has an incredibly potential future, and the developers will only help the new product develop its abilities and capabilities.
Amazon Prime, software and services
Amazon is known to place high bets on its own software and branded services. Buyers can expect a complete package: support and integration for Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Instant Video, Kindle, Whispersync, ComiXology, Amazon MP3 and Music and much more.
Naturally, the company has provided something special for the first smartphone, which is part of the above mixture. The feature is reportedly free and unlimited photo storage. There are no details about this yet, but they will probably become known in the near future.
