Amazon Phone

If it comes with software anything like kindle its going to suck. I hate kindles. The only thing worse than a mobile device with only 1 button for navigation is a device with none. Well it looks like they are putting 1 on this. But still.

Anyhow its great to try to break into the market with gimmick so I will give them credit for at least trying to do 3D AGAIN.

PS 720P sucks.
 
Amazon Fire Phone has been officially announced. No full spec yet. No pricing or availability yet.

Free unlimited phone cloud (like Yahoo Flickr)
 
Amazon Fire Phone has been officially announced. No full spec yet. No pricing or availability yet.

Free unlimited phone cloud (like Yahoo Flickr)

Based on what Engadget is saying here: http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/18/amazon-phone/

4.7-inch 1280x720 screen resolution (guess)
Snapdragon 800 (guess)
32GB onboard storage
2GB RAM
13MP rear camera + OIS
Stereo front facing speakers

Its a Moto X with a better CPU, camera and speakers. Which, honestly, doesn't sound bad. Too bad its AT&T exclusive.

EDIT:

Amazon's product page, which has full specs, confirms its a 720p screen with a Snapdragon 800 CPU, a 2400mAh battery, and 32GB or 64GB of storage:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ne&sprefix=fire+pho,aps&rh=i:aps,k:fire phone
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Using Touchwiz's multi-window to view live blog in one browser and comment in another browser.

73e67c744ae42177d75399a6c44f6a064ed203fc32f1e6f496642bf8af447f66.jpg
 
Yup, it's basically a Moto X with dual stereo, dedicate camera button (most likely a better camera), and 3D sensors at a high end price despite using mostly last gen technology. Weird part is Bluetooth 3.0??? And being an AT&T exclusive, it'll likely die an early death. Let's face it, with that kind of money, most AT&T customers will get the iPhone.

On the fortunate side, it's got the bands that should make it work with T-Mobile GSM/LTE.
 
Last edited:
Tempted to buy one full price and try on Tmobile.

Feature wise it ranks up there with Touchwiz then iOS 8 which is pretty much a Touchwiz copy then the featureless Sense at the bottom.
 
3 years of prime for free is the only thing that seems to make this interesting. If you preorder now they say that would be worth about $300 making it a free phone on contract.
 
3 years of prime for free is the only thing that seems to make this interesting. If you preorder now they say that would be worth about $300 making it a free phone on contract.
As I understand it, it's only one year of Prime for free, which is essential about $100.
 
Its a pre order special for 3 years according to engadget.
 
Here's Engadget's hands-on.

I'm a bit disappointed, myself -- Amazon is leaning very heavily on retail showrooming (what Firefly is really for) and the ooh-ah perspective feature to lure you toward a phone that's not terribly exciting in practice. People railed against the Moto X, but it had features that were useful every day, like hands-free voice and Active Display.

And Amazon seems to have forgotten the real reason people buy Kindle Fire tablets -- they're cheap. It's trying to pitch the Fire Phone as worthy of the same price as the HTC One, iPhone and Galaxy S5, but it's not. Having 32GB of minimum storage doesn't really sway me, either. The Fire could do well, but I see this going more the way of the HTC First (i.e. an AT&T-exclusive gimmick phone that dies quickly) than a runaway hit.
 
seen more quality pictures of the device now... obviously Jeff Bezels* doesn't mind bezels... Looks like more than enough space for front facing stereo instead of top and bottom.

I'll be waiting for the Fire Sale... it'll be a penny by September, and hopefully $400 without contract.
 
Last edited:
I wish I could say Amazon has a great track record with hardware/software for devices. I do want a new phone, but I don't see an Amazon device in my future. I'm sure they'll sell some.
 
I see absolutely zero reason to buy this phone. Lower specs with the same price as the competition. Silly Amazon, you are not Apple, so good luck selling this thing.
 
Theres no problem with the phone other then its price. I'm sure once the "exclusive" rights goes away the phone starts to lower in price.

They aren't competing with any other company directly. They are attempting to make their own segregated ecosystem along side Android. This phone, while I don't really believe is a good idea, does fit their theme of "everything Amazon" but its a market filled with competition.
 
I see absolutely zero reason to buy this phone. Lower specs with the same price as the competition. Silly Amazon, you are not Apple, so good luck selling this thing.


Well, the 1-year of free prime makes it REALLY appealing for folks like myself.
I plan on paying the $100 for prime anyway. My wife would really like a smartphone because she wants a better camera on her phone. She currently has an old-school clamshell flip phone that is not a smartphone and has a horrible "camera" with abysmally small resolution.

I would definitely buy this phone since it's effectively only $100 if I deduct the price of 1-year of prime, which I would have bought anyway.

HOWEVER, I do NOT want the overpriced plan from AT&T.
Currently we're on Ting, and I pay $30/mo. for TWO phones with no data plan. 500 mins/mo + 1000 texts (which is plenty, shared for 2 phones).

As I see it, these AT&T prices are ATROCIOUS!!!

$40/mo for 450 mins + $20/mo for unlimited texting + $20/mo for data?!

= $80/mo + taxes!

HOLY FU!!!!

If I did pay per text at $0.20 ea, which is absurd overpriced rape, for a nominal 500 texts, that's an extra $100!!!
 
I wish I could say Amazon has a great track record with hardware/software for devices. I do want a new phone, but I don't see an Amazon device in my future. I'm sure they'll sell some.

I think Amazon has a good track record with hardware, their software leaves a lot to be desired though. I use a Kindle Fire for some work stuff and I swear the thing pisses me off every time I pick it up.

Hopefully Amazon keeps updating and releasing new phones like they do with Kindle and Kindle Fire devices. I think the decision to launch exclusively on AT&T was a bad move.
 
HOWEVER, I do NOT want the overpriced plan from AT&T.
Currently we're on Ting, and I pay $30/mo. for TWO phones with no data plan. 500 mins/mo + 1000 texts (which is plenty, shared for 2 phones).

As I see it, these AT&T prices are ATROCIOUS!!!

C'mon man. You're on Ting. None of the 4 major carriers can compete with them, it's not even fair to try and compare. Every other carrier looks like a joke after you're on Ting for a few months. I used to be on Ting, but switched to Republic for the even less expensive service.

I don't understand why Amazon released this as an AT&T exclusive. Exclusives haven't made sense since the iPhone came out, they just limit your market. In this case there's not even a benefit to the consumer since this phone costs as much as any other high-end phone on an AT&T contract. They could have made a huge splash if it were free on contract or came with free data like the Kindle Fire, instead they released a luxury-level phone only available on an overpriced contract.
 
Ting isn't the greatest thing in the world for people that use a lot of texts and data.
 
Ting isn't the greatest thing in the world for people that use a lot of texts and data.

Yes, once you start using enough data then it makes sense to switch to Republic if you like the service and network.

For the low and mid usage tiers, Ting has almost no real competition and none at all from the Big 4 carriers.
 
I used to be on Ting, but switched to Republic for the even less expensive service.


What's this you say? There's a cell service provider that is cheaper than Ting?
*runs to google* :D

And you're right, Ting's prices don't look that great if you use a lot of data.
But as I see it, I have wifi & home & work. My wife is always home, so that's wifi data, not 3G data cost.

I don't understand why so many people think they need >2GB per month. I bet most could even get away with <500mb/mo if they used more wifi access.

*edit* wow, $25/mo for 5GB of data? that's pretty sweet. hmm... 2 smartphones, using republic with data for only $20/mo more than ting... that's not bad at all.
 
Last edited:
Its mainly because most of these consumers who don't need high end cell service for data aren't aware of how good these smaller companies are, or IF THEY EVEN EXIST!

A lot of the customers the big 4 get are people who barely make calls, send a few hundred texts a month and use maybe 500mb of data month watching youtube/facebook comments. These are the same people who eat every word of advertising as if it was written on stone tablets by some old man who smoked a lot of funny-bark. People will get their brand new shiny phone, that they believe should still cost more then a medium range laptop:)confused:) for less money while they pay their arm and leg to the big 4.

At the same time, if everyone was intrigued enough to go to these smaller MVNO's their service contracts with the big Cell Tower owner's won't be enough to hold up and they would eventually have to increase prices, meaning increased service prices to consumers.

So enjoy the mass ignorance for now, it keeps prices down. :D
 
i think if it were priced $199 w/o a contract I might have given it a try. But no way am I signing a 2yr contract, that in itself is absurd in this day in age where you can get much more value buying a phone outright and putting it on a mvno.
 
Well the Fire Phone (32GB) is 99 cents now with two-year contract (AT&T) *AND* 12 months of Amazon Prime.

Fire Phone on fire sale.

I was interested in the phone four months ago- but the three-star aggregate review turned me off in a hurry.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Well the Fire Phone (32GB) is 99 cents now with two-year contract (AT&T) *AND* 12 months of Amazon Prime.

Fire Phone on fire sale.

I was interested in the phone four months ago- but the three-star aggregate review turned me off in a hurry.

I don't see why anyone would go for this phone at all. Amazon needs to stick to what they are good at.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Amazon also has massive name recognition, advertising muscle, and a streaming content library thats competing with iTunes. Those are 3 huge advantages that Motorola, for example, didn't have when they released the Moto X (and even a giant like Samsung can't match the last one). Amazon simply doesn't need top tier hardware to stand out like the other Android manufacturers do.

Lol this quote make me want to say "ouch" from over here from recent news about terrible sales.
 
Amazon currently has $83 million USD worth of these phones that no one wants...
 
They did it on purpose so they can release the twice as fast Fire Phone HD then HDX.
 
They did it on purpose so they can release the twice as fast Fire Phone HD then HDX.

The first gen h/w is almost always weak-sauce when it comes to Amazon devices. Kindle, Kindle Tablet, FireTV all had relatively anemic cpu, RAM, storage or all three.

But I really doubt there's going to be a second-gen Fire Phone.
 
They did it on purpose so they can release the twice as fast Fire Phone HD then HDX.

They likely already have followup designs in the pipeline, never to see the light of day now. Amazon missed the mark about as hard as they could have. I bet they aren't even surprised that people didn't want an expensive AT&T locked phone without access to the Play Store and a gimmicky head tracking feature.

Amazon would have been better served with a multiple carrier inexpensive phone. Look at a phone like the Moto G, the phone is cheap and runs great (depending on the version). They should have done something around that price <$100 (off contract) and tried to move volume to pimp out Amazon services.
 
Back
Top