Fire Phone, Amazon’s first ever smartphone was unveiled on Wednesday, a phone which operates via Amazon’s Fire OS 3.5.0 software platform. The official announcement was made by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during a press event at Fremont Studios in Seattle, when he took the stage in one of his rare public appearances.
“Can we build a better phone for our most engaged customers? Can we build a better phone for Amazon Prime members? Well, I’m excited to tell you that the answer is yes.” Bezos said in front of the media, and later discussed and demonstrated the different features of the first Amazon phone. This is the latest device designed by Amazon after the company released its first Kindle, seven years ago.
The Amazon Fire Phone sports a 4.7-inch 3D high-definition display. It is smaller than most Android phones but bigger than Apple’s iPhone. The device, which Bezos described as a one-hand use phone, uses a Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.2 GHz processor, and has 2 GB of RAM, along with a 13-Megapixel camera. The phone runs on 4G LTE, NFC, and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity. The company promised to update the device later so it can also support Bluetooth LE.
Bezos also mentioned Dynamic Perspective being one of the special features of Fire. It has 4 infrared front-facing cameras with a wide 120-degree view mounted in each corner of the phone. According to Amazon, this unique feature can detect the position of the head of the user. This aims to give viewers a different sense of 3D effect screen viewing by adding an illusion of depth behind the screen. This technology also allows users to scroll across the screen by tilting the phone.
On the other hand, the Firefly feature has a button where users can quickly recognize things they want to shop online, especially at Amazon.com. According to Bezo, pressing the Firefly button lets users identify printed web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, as well as more than 100 million items, including songs, movies, TV show episodes, and other products.
The Amazon Fire phone is currently on pre-orders at Amazon.com, ATT.com, and in AT&T retail locations across the US. Shipment starts this coming July 25. The device costs $649 without a contract. The 32-GB version will be sold for $199.99 with a two-year exclusive contract at AT&T. The 64GB version will cost $299.
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