Amazon has announced the Amazon Fire Phone, and it’s making a beeline for both the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.
The Amaon Fire Phone, which is the first ever smartphone produced by the online retailer, appears to combine everything that the modern consumer loves about smartphones, including a minimalist design, a large, high-quality screen and a few nifty additions such as a 3D interface, which Amazon is calling its “dynamic perspective.”
Operating on the Fire OS, the operating system which Amazon employs in its Kindle e-readers, the Fire Phone will be intrinsically linked with the Amazon store, meaning that high street retailers should be quaking in their boots right now. The threat to these retailers is made more apparent when you consider the device’s Firefly feature, which can recognize objects and images before bringing up their price on Amazon. Should the Fire Phone prove to be as popular as Amazon wants it to be, this will essentially transform the high street into a showroom, with people scanning items they like before buying them for less money on Amazon.
Here’s the Fire Phone’s specs, as revealed by Amazon:
- Size 5.5″ x 2.6″ x 0.35″ (139.2mm x 66.5mm x 8.9mm)
- Weight 5.64 ounces (160 grams)
- Processor 2.2GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, with Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM
- Display 4.7″ HD LCD display, with 1280 x 720 resolution at 315 ppi, 590 cd/m2 brightness (typical), 1000:1 contrast ratio (typical)
- Cameras 13 MP rear-facing camera, multi-frame HDR, auto focus, optical image stabilization, f/2.0 5-element wide aperture lens, LED flash
- 2.1 MP front-facing camera
- OS Fire OS 3.5.0
- Storage 32 GB or 64 GB
- Battery Battery size: 2400mAh. Talk time: up to 22 hours; standby time: up to 285 hours. Video playback: up to 11 hours; audio playback: up to 65 hours.
- Video recording 1080p HD video recording at 30 fps (front- and rear-facing cameras)
The Fire Phone is set to release on July 25th in the US, with the 32GB model selling for $649 and the 64GB model for $749. A European release date has yet to be announced.
