The Amazon Fire Phone: A Review of its Unique Features and Cost

Amazon's latest attempt at entering the smartphone market is the Fire Phone, a device that boasts several new features, including Mayday, a live quick teex support system. This feature allows users to quickly access information about what they are looking at through their camera lens. Another notable feature is Dynamic Perspective, which enables the phone to shift its focus from one point on the screen to another. While these features may seem innovative, it's worth noting that some of them could be packaged into a single app or two.

The Fire Phone also comes with a free year of Amazon Prime, but this raises questions about what exactly you're paying for. With a price tag of $650 off contract and no clear indication of what makes this phone worth the investment, it's difficult to see how these features will justify the cost. In fact, one could argue that many of these features are already available in third-party apps, such as Shazam or Google Goggles.

Amazon's decision to create a custom Fire OS for the phone and develop its own app store is also noteworthy. This means that Amazon has to handle manufacturing, production, packaging, and distribution on its own, which can be a significant undertaking. Furthermore, by making the phone exclusive to AT&T, Amazon may limit its appeal to a wider audience.

The Fire Phone's design and functionality are geared towards reading, with features such as Live Weather Updates and Gesture-based Quick Settings. However, these features alone do not seem to justify the cost of $650. The Kindle Fire tablet, which is priced similarly, offers a more practical use case for its unique form factor and features.

In conclusion, while the Amazon Fire Phone boasts some innovative features, its high price tag and lack of clear justification make it difficult to see how it will compete in the market. The fact that many of these features are already available in third-party apps or could be packaged into a single app makes it hard to understand what sets the Fire Phone apart from other devices.

The cost of the Fire Phone, at $650 off contract, is also a significant barrier to entry for many potential buyers. Even if it were to be released at a lower price point, such as $200 on contract, there are already better options available in the market that offer similar features and functionality at a lower cost. As a result, Amazon may have made a mistake by releasing this phone, rather than developing a more practical app or service that leverages its unique features.

For those interested in learning more about the Fire Phone, there is a video available that provides an early hands-on experience with the device. The author of the video shares their thoughts on the phone's features and price point, and whether they think it's worth purchasing.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys MKBHD here and yesterday Amazon released their fir phone and basically every major Tech publication wrote something about it it's that sort of an all-time high in terms of curiosity right now and I didn't expect to see so many people interested in it but I've gotten a lot of questions about it so the firep phone is a new smartphone with a custom Os from Amazon Fire OS it's built on top of Android and it's based around a couple of pretty unique features the number one of these being what's called Dynamic perspective in fact I just sent out an email to a lot of people here are interested today saying that this is the first smartphone with Dynamic perspective it's kind of like 3D but not really so the phone has four front-facing cameras one on each corner to track your face and it uses a tracking with an accelerometer and gyroscope to shift what's on the screen a bit to make it feel more immersive it works with their new custom user interface it works with a few apps here and there when you tilt works with a few games here and there uh you can use it to scroll down lists and Pages without touching the display yeah this is neat this is really neat when I turn it it moves whoa The Verge actually did a great Hands-On video with the phone and I'll have that linked right below the like button if you want to check this out in action to a lot of people this will either scream awesome or gimmick depending on who you are but either way you look at it this is the main headlining feature of this phone the second major feature is what's called Firefly and it has its own button on the side of the phone when you press it it opens up Firefly and just starts scanning with the camera and the microphones and whatever you point the phone at it will recognize it so if you have a TV playing a show in the background or if you have music playing in the background or if you point it at an object it will scan that and recognize it and then bring up a link to buy it on Amazon of course Amazon is hoping you'll really like this feature and start taking major advantage of it and buying lots of things on Amazon based on what you recognize around you pretty self-explanatory this is supposed to make Amazon more money but besides those two major new headlining features there's just a couple of other things sprinkled in you have your Mayday uh Live teex support so the same thing that was on the Kindle Fire tablets you now get that live quick teex support on the phone uh and since it's the fire OS made specifically for this phone you have a couple of other features like a notification tray a live weather updates some gesture stuff to get quick settings it's made to compete and it's got these new features uh to stay with that you also get a free year of Amazon Prime but here's the thing about the fire phone it costs $650 off contract and that brings up a lot of questions about what exactly you're paying for here and to be honest basically all of this phone's features except for a dynamic perspective and I guess Mayday could be packaged into an app one app a five or $10 Amazon Fire app that could look at what the camera's looking at and interpret it and give you an Amazon link to buy it we actually already kind of had versions of that you've probably already heard of Shazam and sound Hound where you can just listen to whatever music is playing and it'll give you a link to buy that song on iTunes or Amazon or whatever and then at one point we had what's called Google Goggles which you've probably already heard of which let you just point your phone at anything it would recognize it and then give you a Google shopping link to buy whatever you were getting it didn't always work it wasn't perfect but it did basically the same thing and at one point Google Now even had that command built into it so Amazon could have built a a Amazon Fire or Firefly app and just packaged that and sold it on Android and iOS stores and called it a day but because they decided to make a phone out of this and not just an app now they have to make all these things for the phone they have to make the custom fire OS for the phone sized screen now they have to make all these custom apps because they don't have access to the Google Play store or the IOS app store and for third party apps they're still going to depend on Amazon's app store because again they can't use the Google Play store or the IOS app store and they have to do manufacturing and production and packaging and Amazon's never made a phone before before so this is their first try at all of that I'm not doubting them I'm not saying they can't do it but this is a lot of work to do for these features you want to sell people and they also have to work with a carrier to sell this phone and they only worked with AT&T so it's exclusive to AT&T at this point and it's $650 off contract so they made a $650 phone instead of an app or two I mean on I guess on one hand that's that's kind of ballsy and confident about what they have to offer but on the other hand that seems pretty silly not every one has to make a phone remember when Facebook decided we have to make a phone and the HTC First was born how long did that last really so I'd be surprised if we saw this Amazon fir phone last as long as that I mean I'd be I'd be surprised if we saw a version two of it next year even for 200 bucks Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet makes more sense because you actually get a unique new form factor specifically for reading you know it actually has some advantages over other e-readers in the $200 price bracket I just don't see any of that with the 6 $50 price bracket and the fir phone even if it's $200 on contract with AT&T there are better options out there so sorry Amazon probably should have made an app so I wasn't able to get my hands on one of these phones early uh not that cool I didn't get to get hands on but my first shot at actually playing with this phone would be pre-ordering one which would mean paying the $650 with the pre-order I have that link below and then waiting a month for it to actually come out uh now don't get me wrong I love Amazon like I spend lots of money on Amazon probably more than any other site on the internet I'm an Amazon Prime member most of the people I know are Amazon Prime members we all get our textbooks from Amazon but I won't be buying this phone and neither should you so that's the Amazon Fire Phone explained feel free to share this video get the word out I've gotten a lot of questions about this phone so this is the video for people who are asking questions so if you know people who are curious share this video with them that's been it thanks for watching and I'll talk to you guys in the next one peace hhey what is up guys MKBHD here and yesterday Amazon released their fir phone and basically every major Tech publication wrote something about it it's that sort of an all-time high in terms of curiosity right now and I didn't expect to see so many people interested in it but I've gotten a lot of questions about it so the firep phone is a new smartphone with a custom Os from Amazon Fire OS it's built on top of Android and it's based around a couple of pretty unique features the number one of these being what's called Dynamic perspective in fact I just sent out an email to a lot of people here are interested today saying that this is the first smartphone with Dynamic perspective it's kind of like 3D but not really so the phone has four front-facing cameras one on each corner to track your face and it uses a tracking with an accelerometer and gyroscope to shift what's on the screen a bit to make it feel more immersive it works with their new custom user interface it works with a few apps here and there when you tilt works with a few games here and there uh you can use it to scroll down lists and Pages without touching the display yeah this is neat this is really neat when I turn it it moves whoa The Verge actually did a great Hands-On video with the phone and I'll have that linked right below the like button if you want to check this out in action to a lot of people this will either scream awesome or gimmick depending on who you are but either way you look at it this is the main headlining feature of this phone the second major feature is what's called Firefly and it has its own button on the side of the phone when you press it it opens up Firefly and just starts scanning with the camera and the microphones and whatever you point the phone at it will recognize it so if you have a TV playing a show in the background or if you have music playing in the background or if you point it at an object it will scan that and recognize it and then bring up a link to buy it on Amazon of course Amazon is hoping you'll really like this feature and start taking major advantage of it and buying lots of things on Amazon based on what you recognize around you pretty self-explanatory this is supposed to make Amazon more money but besides those two major new headlining features there's just a couple of other things sprinkled in you have your Mayday uh Live teex support so the same thing that was on the Kindle Fire tablets you now get that live quick teex support on the phone uh and since it's the fire OS made specifically for this phone you have a couple of other features like a notification tray a live weather updates some gesture stuff to get quick settings it's made to compete and it's got these new features uh to stay with that you also get a free year of Amazon Prime but here's the thing about the fire phone it costs $650 off contract and that brings up a lot of questions about what exactly you're paying for here and to be honest basically all of this phone's features except for a dynamic perspective and I guess Mayday could be packaged into an app one app a five or $10 Amazon Fire app that could look at what the camera's looking at and interpret it and give you an Amazon link to buy it we actually already kind of had versions of that you've probably already heard of Shazam and sound Hound where you can just listen to whatever music is playing and it'll give you a link to buy that song on iTunes or Amazon or whatever and then at one point we had what's called Google Goggles which you've probably already heard of which let you just point your phone at anything it would recognize it and then give you a Google shopping link to buy whatever you were getting it didn't always work it wasn't perfect but it did basically the same thing and at one point Google Now even had that command built into it so Amazon could have built a a Amazon Fire or Firefly app and just packaged that and sold it on Android and iOS stores and called it a day but because they decided to make a phone out of this and not just an app now they have to make all these things for the phone they have to make the custom fire OS for the phone sized screen now they have to make all these custom apps because they don't have access to the Google Play store or the IOS app store and for third party apps they're still going to depend on Amazon's app store because again they can't use the Google Play store or the IOS app store and they have to do manufacturing and production and packaging and Amazon's never made a phone before before so this is their first try at all of that I'm not doubting them I'm not saying they can't do it but this is a lot of work to do for these features you want to sell people and they also have to work with a carrier to sell this phone and they only worked with AT&T so it's exclusive to AT&T at this point and it's $650 off contract so they made a $650 phone instead of an app or two I mean on I guess on one hand that's that's kind of ballsy and confident about what they have to offer but on the other hand that seems pretty silly not every one has to make a phone remember when Facebook decided we have to make a phone and the HTC First was born how long did that last really so I'd be surprised if we saw this Amazon fir phone last as long as that I mean I'd be I'd be surprised if we saw a version two of it next year even for 200 bucks Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet makes more sense because you actually get a unique new form factor specifically for reading you know it actually has some advantages over other e-readers in the $200 price bracket I just don't see any of that with the 6 $50 price bracket and the fir phone even if it's $200 on contract with AT&T there are better options out there so sorry Amazon probably should have made an app so I wasn't able to get my hands on one of these phones early uh not that cool I didn't get to get hands on but my first shot at actually playing with this phone would be pre-ordering one which would mean paying the $650 with the pre-order I have that link below and then waiting a month for it to actually come out uh now don't get me wrong I love Amazon like I spend lots of money on Amazon probably more than any other site on the internet I'm an Amazon Prime member most of the people I know are Amazon Prime members we all get our textbooks from Amazon but I won't be buying this phone and neither should you so that's the Amazon Fire Phone explained feel free to share this video get the word out I've gotten a lot of questions about this phone so this is the video for people who are asking questions so if you know people who are curious share this video with them that's been it thanks for watching and I'll talk to you guys in the next one peace h\n"