Fire Phone
NFC Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac | |
Website | www.amazon.com/firephone |
---|
The Fire Phone is a discontinued
Notable for its hallmark feature "Dynamic Perspective" using four front-facing cameras and the gyroscope to track the user's movements, the phone's
The phone received mixed reviews. Critics praised the Dynamic Perspective, Firefly and, to a lesser extent, the packaged headphones, but derided the build, design, Fire OS version of Android, specifications, and exclusivity to AT&T. Amazon does not release sales figures for any of its devices, but based in part on its quickly declining prices and an announced $170 million write-down, analysts have judged it a commercial failure.[9][10] Amazon ceased production of the Fire Phone in August 2015 and discontinued sales soon after.[11]
History
Development
The Fire Phone was rumored to be under development for several years prior to its release. Amazon reportedly started work on the phone in 2010, showing a prototype to AT&T in 2011.
Later, in 2012,
In 2013, reports claimed Amazon would partner with HTC[21] to create a "Kindle Phone" which would be free with Amazon Prime membership.[22] Amazon denied these rumors, stating that the company "will not launch a phone this year" and that if it did, it "would not be free".[23] It continued to develop its phone while denying such rumours, and by 2013, it had split into two projects: "Duke" and "Otus". "Duke" was intended to be the higher end device in its portfolio, while Otus would serve as a low-cost or free (to Amazon Prime members) alternative to Duke. Jeff Bezos later reconsidered, believing only a phone which could set itself apart, could compete against established phone manufactures such as Apple, and a lower-cost, bare-bones phone would hurt the Amazon brand.[15] Although many rumors were not accurate, several final specs, the use of 3D,[24] and the release date[25] were correctly reported.[26]
Release
The phone was introduced in
Specifications
Hardware
The Fire Phone uses a 4.7-inch
The phone uses a
The head tracking "dynamic perspective" camera array used a set of four low-resolution wide angle (120°)[35] IR cameras and IR illuminators, synchronised with a global camera shutter.[36] The computer vision algorithms were executed on a dedicated custom low power processor.[37]
According to the product teardown site
Accessories
Included with the phone are earbuds Amazon claims to be "tangle-free"; the earbud tips can be attached to each other magnetically and also have a flat cable in order to minimize tangling.[39][40][41][42] These earbuds can be purchased separately as a standalone accessory.[43] Also included with the phone are the USB cable and power adaptor, as well as a quick start guide. The phone is available only in black, but first-party cases can be purchased in black/cayenne leather or black/cayenne/citron/blue/royal polyurethane.[27]
Operating system and software
Similar to the
Also introduced with the Fire Phone is a three-panel design for apps: the leftmost panel displays settings, the center panel is the main screen for apps, and the rightmost panel is used for "delights" - features specific to an app. The example given at the press conference was the music app: the main panel displays the music playing, the left panel shows navigation and settings, and the right panel shows the "delight" of live song lyrics.[39]
Using the four front cameras and the gyroscope, the Fire Phone provides shortcuts based on the orientation of the device. Marketed as "Dynamic Perspective" with actions such as tilt, swivel, and peek, they allow a user to navigate menus/access shortcuts, view notifications, and reveal quick actions respectively. This also allows a user to scroll through a webpage or flip a page in a book by tilting the phone.[33][46]
Photos taken with the Fire Phone are automatically backed up to
Mayday and Firefly are also selling points of the phone. Mayday is a free, 24-hour customer support service for users of Amazon's devices, allowing the customer service access to the device in order to show a user particular functions of their device.[48] Firefly uses the camera and microphone to identify objects that can be bought from Amazon (such as media) or to scan useful information (such as addresses and phone numbers).[32][44][49] An update added the ability to translate text, as well as identify famous pieces of art.[50]
The Fire Phone can also send its screen to any Miracast enabled device, including the Fire TV, Xbox, Sony PlayStation 3/4, or select Samsung Smart TVs. It can also function as a second screen.[40]
Reception
Critical reception
The reception to the Fire Phone was mixed. Although reviewers found Firefly and the Dynamic Perspective features to be significant differentiators,
Engadget's Brad Molen stated, "Although Amazon's debut phone isn't bad, per se, but there's little incentive to switch carriers or platforms to buy it. Its unique features don't provide enough utility, and come at the expense of battery life and performance.". They also criticized the "limited [Amazon] ecosystem", including the lack of frequently used apps available on other platforms. The reviewer gave the phone a final rating of 70 out of 100.[58]
David Pierce from The Verge gave the phone a 5.9 out of 10; although praising the phone's picture taking abilities, the "solid" battery life, and "cool ideas like Dynamic Perspective and Firefly", the main drawbacks included the confusing interface, bland design, Firefly's poor accuracy, and the phone's commercialism. He concluded by saying, "Amazon’s first smartphone is a series of interesting ideas in a package that is … much less than the sum of its parts."[60]
Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times compared the phone to "Mr. Pine's purple house" (in which the eponymous character paints his house purple to stand out from others), stating that "Amazon has built a nice, solid, plain white house. You'll love living in it, if you can ignore all the purple." This references the "superficial features" of the Fire Phone, "born of the same superficial impulse", including Dynamic Perspective. He also criticized the phone's appearance, stating it "looked more like a prototype than a finished product." Unlike The Verge, The New York Times felt the interface was "relatively simple to navigate".[61]
The Wall Street Journal's Geoffrey Fowler praised Amazon for "attempting to make inroads which might disrupt the giants", saying the smartphone market needed new ideas. All the same, the reviewer compared the phone's features to "the grown-up equivalent of a 9-year-old riding a bike with his hands in the air" - gimmicks, without much real-world usage. He also stated the battery never lasted for an entire day, a "telephonic cardinal sin".[62]
The Fire Phone has been labeled as the most-polluting phone by Greenpeace, who claims Amazon's servers are powered by non-renewable sources of energy. Amazon disputes these claims, countering Greenpeace's data is incorrect and misleading.[why?] This led to a large number of one-star reviews being left on Amazon's website, as a form of protest on the part of Greenpeace activists and/or its supporters.[65][66][67]
Technology reviewer and Internet personality Marques Brownlee stated in his Smartphone Awards video the Fire Phone was the "Bust of the Year", saying; "… it wasn't really a good phone in any way, and there was no real reason for people to buy it (..) It just didn't really have anything going for it."[68]
When asked about the perceived flop of the Fire Phone during
Commercial reception
The Fire Phone occupied the number one spot on the "Best Selling" list on Amazon.com, before sales dropped significantly after 2 weeks.[70] Amazon shares dipped by 10% July 24, 2014, one day prior to its launch on AT&T, due to increased losses incurred by the development of the Fire Phone.[71] On July 25, 2014, several AT&T stores reported little to no sales, although several stores experienced increased foot traffic and interest for the Fire Phone.[72] Amazon has yet to release official sales figures for the device.
According to
In October 2014, during the announcement of 3rd quarter financial results, Amazon stated they took a $170 million hit due to costs associated with the Fire Phone and had over $83 million worth of Fire Phones in inventory, but declined to comment on how this would affect predictions for the 4th quarter.[10][76] The company's CFO Tom Szkutak indicated its pricing strategy being initially too high was the reason for the product's poor consumer reception.[77]
Models
Generation (within Fire phones) | 1st generation (2014) | |
---|---|---|
Model | Fire Phone | |
Release date | July 2014 | |
Status | Discontinued | |
OS | Fire OS 3.5, later updated to Fire OS 4 | |
System Version | 4.6.6.1[78] | |
Screen | Size (diagonal) | 4.7 in (12 cm) |
Resolution | 1280 × 720 | |
Density | 312 ppi
| |
CPU | Maker | Qualcomm |
Kind | Quad-core Snapdragon | |
Model | 800 | |
Cores | 4x Krait 400 @ 2.2 GHz
| |
Width | 32-bit
| |
GPU | Designer | Qualcomm |
Kind | Adreno | |
Model | 330 | |
Clock | 450 MHz [79] | |
RAM | 2 GiB | |
Storage | Internal | 32 GB or 64 GB |
External | — | |
Cameras | Back | 13 MP |
Front | 4x, 2.1 MP total | |
Microphones | 3 | |
Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.0(LE as well) + EDR | |
Wireless | Wi-Fi | Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
Cellular | 4G LTE | |
Location | aGPS, GLONASS , and Wi-Fi based
| |
Proximity | Yes | |
Compass | ||
Light sensor | ||
Accelerometer | ||
Gyroscope | ||
Barometer | ||
Weight | 160 g (5.64 oz) | |
Dimensions | 139.2 mm × 66.5 mm × 8.9 mm (5.48 in × 2.62 in × 0.35 in) | |
Battery | 2400 mAh |
See also
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