Amazon Fire Phone

Amazon announces the release of Fire, the first smartphone designed by Amazon.

During a long-awaited launch event, online superstore and technology company, Amazon, announced the release of its first smartphone simply called, Fire. The Fire is the only smartphone with Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, two new interactive technologies. The phone will be shipped later in July with service exclusively through AT&T’s 4G LTE network. Fire can be preordered starting today through Amazon and AT&T. The device starts at $199 and can be preordered with an individual plan, a family plan or without any plan at all.

“Fire Phone puts everything you love about Amazon in the palm of your hand—instant access to Amazon’s vast content ecosystem and exclusive features like the Mayday button, ASAP, Second Screen, X-Ray, free unlimited photo storage, and more,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “The Firefly button lets you identify printed web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, artwork, and over 100 million items, including songs, movies, TV shows, and products—and take action in seconds. We invented a new sensor system called Dynamic Perspective that recognizes where a user’s head is relative to the device—we use it to offer customers a more immersive experience, one-handed navigation, and gestures that actually work. And this is only the beginning—the most powerful inventions are the ones that empower others to unleash their creativity—that’s why today we are launching the Dynamic Perspective SDK and the Firefly SDK—we can’t wait to see how developers surprise us.”

Built using premium materials, including Gorilla Glass 3 for the rear and front, aluminum buttons, stainless steel details and a rubberized polyurethane grip area, Fire is optimized for beauty, hand comfort and powerful performance:

• Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 2.2 GHz processor and 2GB RAM for excellent fluidity and image rendering.
• 4.7-inch HD display with an ambient light sensor and Dynamic Image Contrast that delivers better outdoor viewing.
• Global LTE and connectivity with nine bands of LTE, four bands of GSM, five bands of UMTS for better voice coverage and faster data speeds, 802.11ac support, Wi-Fi channel bonding, NFC, and Bluetooth.
• Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus for a virtual surround sound experience.
• Advanced imaging system with custom-tuned 13MP rear-facing camera with backside illumination, LED flash, 5-element f/2.0 lens, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), and high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities for beautiful, crisp photos, even in low-light conditions. Fire also includes a 2.1MP front-facing camera. Both front and rear-facing cameras record smooth 1080p HD videos.
• Reliable backup and restore leveraging the experience and operational excellence of Amazon Web Services and its cloud technology. Fire customers can automatically back up device settings, notes, bookmarks, messages, and installed applications—no need to manually configure or connect to a computer.

Fire comes equipped with Fire OS 3.5, which starts with an Android base and adds cloud services, a content-forward UI and platform enhancements that integrate Amazon’s digital content.

The two new technologies – Dynamic Perspective and Firefly – are groundbreaking immersive experiences. Dynamic Perspective uses four ultra-low power cameras and four infrared LEDs built into the front face of Fire. It has a dedicated custom processor, real-time vision algorithms and a new power-efficient graphics rendering engine. Some of Dynamic Perspective’s features include – one-handed gestures with auto-scroll, tilt, swivel and peek; immersive apps and games; and enhanced carousel which includes real-time updates from the home screen. Starting today, Amazon is introducing the Dynamic Perspective SDK for developers. To learn more, visit developer.amazon.com/firephone

Firefly combines Amazon’s catalog of physical and digital content with image, text and audio recognition technology. It identifies web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, plus over 100 million items including movies, TV episodes, songs and products. To activate the feature, simply tap the dedicated Firefly button on the Fire. The Firefly SDK is also available today. Later this year, Firefly will include artwork recognition, foreign language translation and wine label recognition powered by Vivano. To learn more about the SDK, visit developer.amazon.com/firephone.

Fire works with all of Amazon’s digital ecosystem of products including Mayday, ASAP, X-Ray, Second Screen and Free unlimited cloud storage of photos taken with Fire. Prime members also receive unlimited streaming of Prime Instant Video, Prime Music and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. For a limited time starting today, customers can purchase Fire and receive 12 months of Amazon Prime FREE – a $99 value. Existing Prime members will receive an additional 12 months added to their account.

Fire ships starting July 25 and can be preordered starting today through Amazon, AT&T.com and AT&T retail locations. The Fire 32GB is available for $199 with service contract or $649 without and the 64GB is available for $299 with service contract or $749 without.

Fire Specs