The long wait is over. Amazon has finally announced its long-rumoured
smartphone – the Amazon Fire Phone at the company’s headquarters in Seattle,
Washington. Introduced by Jeff Bezos himself, the Fire Phone sports typical
Android specs but infused with some clever hardware and software as well as a
lot of Amazon services.
At first glance, the handset looks like a larger and
slightly different version of the iPhone 4 with Gorilla Glass 3 panels at the
front and back with sides surrounded by polyurethane rubber and buttons made
from anodized aluminium.
The phone’s guts is composed of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
chipset with 2.2GHz quad-core processor, an Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM and
either 32GB or 64GB of non-expandable internal storage. The Fire Phone packs a
13MP snapper at the back with an f/2.0 aperture and a five-element lens that is
capable of capturing 1080p videos, and a 2.1MP front-facing camera for selfies.
There are also four extra camera sensors at the front of the
device that tracks a user’s eyes for the phone’s Dynamic Perspective feature
which adjusts the contents of the screen based on how a user holds the phone.
The feature works best with tilt gestures that allow users to initiate actions
in games and apps by simply moving the phone.
Amazon has equipped the Fire Phone with a 4.7-inch IPS display
with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels that roughly equates to a 315ppi screen
density. Moreover, the display has 590nits of brightness and a contrast ration
of 1000:1.
In the connectivity department, there’s support for global
LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth and NFC.
The Fire Phone also boasts two stereo speakers with Dolby
Digital Plus for an immersive audio experience. Amazon is also adding a premium
headset with the phone that features flat and tangle-free cable and magnetic
earbuds that stick together for easier management.
The handset will run on Fire OS 3.5, which is essentially a
heavily customized version of Android without Google’s services. Just like the
Kindle line of tablets, Amazon is relying on its own app store which recently
reached the 240,000 mark.
Being an Amazon product, the Fire Phone will naturally be
infused with a lot of the features to complement the retail giant’s businesses.
For starters, the device comes with Mayday – Amazon’s 24/7 customer care hotline
which was first introduced in the Kindle tablets.
There’s also this new feature called Firefly, which uses the
phone’s camera or microphone to identify things around you and matches them to
Amazon’s database so you can buy one. Firefly also identifies phone numbers,
email addresses, websites, movies, TV shows and songs.
Click to see Full 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 |
The Amazon Fire Phone will be available on July 25
exclusively on AT&T. Pricing starts at $199 for a two-year contract up to
$649 off-contract.
