Warmish? Amazon Fire Phone 32GB $159

elleana

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Apr 15, 2006
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Comes with free year of Prime, so if you're going to get any use out of that its essentially $60 for an unlocked phone, which isn't half bad.
 
Yes, it adds it on so your fee is delayed a year. They did this with their last phone as well and if you sell the phone you make money on just avoiding the one year Prime fee.
 
Link by the way.

Details for current Prime members:

•What if I'm already a Prime member?
You're still eligible. Prime members who purchase a Fire will receive an additional year of Prime when their existing membership is up for renewal. For example: if your next renewal date is June 1st 2015 and you purchase a Fire, we will give you an additional year of Prime at no charge, making your next paid renewal date June 1st 2016.
 
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Is this significantly faster than a moto g (2012) for day to day use?

This doesn't have google play store, correct?
 
This phone is unlocked for carriers but still very much locked into Amazon ecosystem and bloatware. No Google Play and Amazon crap sucks down the battery in the background. Thought about picking this up for my wife because of the superior "specs" to other $60 alternatives like the Fusion 3/Tribute, but if I get her another device that won't last a day on a charge she will kill me.

EDIT: Hmm, seems the battery drain is tied to some of the UI features. Might have to really consider this.
 
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Almost worth it to buy it just to play around with at this price, or use as a backup phone. How awful are Amazon apps? Can you not even use Google maps?
 
You can pretty much put any android app on your Fire Phone via side loading. Fire OS is (AFAIK) a heavily skinned version of android or "forked" from android.
 
Just ordered to replace my wife's dinky little budget LG Fuel on Straight Talk. Getting another year of Prime in the equation makes this phone around $40. Pretty damn hot...can't pass it up!
 
Possible to root / install a custom ROM on these?

Also do these work with carriers like MetroPCS?
 
Possible to root / install a custom ROM on these?

Also do these work with carriers like MetroPCS?

I believe so.

It will likely work with any carrier than uses a GSM network and offers a compatible SIM.
 
Google play can be side loaded easily. Battery is pretty good. Better then my nexus 5. I liked the build quality and size of the phone to.
 
I'd get one of these if they'd put Fire OS 4 on them, but as far as I know they still only have Fire OS 3.x based off Android 4.2.
 
I'd get one of these if they'd put Fire OS 4 on them, but as far as I know they still only have Fire OS 3.x based off Android 4.2.

I believe the Fire OS 4 update rolled out a couple months ago. There is also the Amazon developer network which allows access to the Fire OS 5 beta.
 
4.6.1 which is based off Kitkat did indeed roll out a couple months ago and turned the Fire into a much more usable phone.

Yesterday, I loaded CM11 onto my Fire Phone and it's a whole new experience. Haven't tried making a voice call yet so I can't vouch for that quality.
 
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