Amazon Lights A Fire

New smartphone on the scene

By Anca Gagiuc on Jun 26, 2014 in Technology

It may have felt like the smartphone world had reached a point of status quo until a few weeks ago, when Amazon launched the Fire Smartphone after years of preparations.

Chief Executive Jeff Bezos described it as the gadget that “puts everything you love about Amazon in the palm of your hand — instant access to Amazon’s vast content ecosystem and exclusive features.”

The technical specifications present a device worthy of  premium classification. A 2.2GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU with Adreno 330 GPU and 2 GB of RAM fuels the Fire, complemented by a 2400mAh battery that burns up to 22 hours of talk time, 285 hours of standby, up to 11 hours of video playback, and up to 65 hours of audio playback. The screen is 4.7-inches with glass on the front and back giving it a less plasticky feeling than a Samsung Galaxy, but adds to the weight reaching 160 grams. Unfortunately, the Gorilla Glass 3 it has on both sides is durable but not shatter-proof, thus doubling the risk to break it.

The OS is Fire OS 3.5.0 built on the open source version of Google’s Android operating system, without Google’s standard suite of apps and without the Google Play app store. Fire has its own app store, browser, email client, and non-Google maps. Among the most popular apps in its store are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Pandora, Netflix, HBO Go, Uber, Yelp, and StubHub.

Two cameras, a 13 MP rear-facing camera with multi-frame HDR, auto focus, optical image stabilization, f/2.0 5-element wide aperture lens, LED flash, and a 2.1 MP front-facing camera have a dedicated button to wake the camera and snap a photo, even when the device is asleep. The Fire Phone shoots 1080p video and features HDR, panorama and burst modes, presumably with better low-light performance than the competition; moreover, buyers get unlimited photo storage in Amazon’s Cloud Drive.

One of the most interesting aspects of Fire is related to its sensors, and it has quite a few: the Dynamic Perspective sensor system with invisible infrared illumination, gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, barometer, proximity sensor, and ambient light sensor. The Dynamic Perspective is made out of four cameras built into the front of the phone that watch you when the phone is on, tracking your head movements and moving with it the images shown on the phone; it’s somewhat like the motion “parallax” on iPhones, but on a higher level. Apparently this feature goes so far that in some cases you have to learn how to command the phone with your head – how much or little you turn your head, the Fire phone will answer by revealing Yelp reviews on Amazon’s custom-made maps app, or open a side panel with various options.

Another interesting innovation Amazon brings with the new device is the app called Firefly. This app, that’s been honored with an actual button on the side of the phone, recognizes real-world items and adds them to a list for you to either review or buy them later, more than a hundred million items, the company says. The best thing about it is that it can spot many different things – books, albums, packaged goods, TV shows, even phone numbers and Web addresses on signs – so Amazon basically gets rid of hand-touch gestures and replaces them with… head-twitching?

Price-wise the Fire doesn’t come cheap – $199.99 with 32GB of built-in storage on a 2-year contract with AT&T, and $299.99 for a 64GB model. Free of contract the Fire starts at $649. To sweeten the deal, the e-commerce behemoth offered 12 months of membership to Prime, its streaming and two-day delivery service.

Has the Fire piqued your interest? Tell us why in the comments.