Last night Amazon finally launched its much-rumoured smartphone. The Amazon Fire Phone, as with the company's range of Fire-branded tablets, uses a heavily-modified Android operating system. Its innovative features include pseudo-3D graphics, optimisation for one-handed use, and integration of the Mayday customer service system.
FAUX PERSPECTIVE
Before launch the Fire Phone was much hyped as a 3D phone, though that's an oversimplistic description of the technology being used. Amazon itself doesn't use the term '3D' at all, instead calling the system Dynamic Perspective. In simple terms the phone can tell what angle you're looking at it from and adjust what you see appropriately. This means you can tilt the phone to see objects onscreen from a different angle. It doesn't, though, add depth to a scene when you're just looking at without moving, such as with the stereoscopic display.
It achieves this pseudo-3D effect using four specialised cameras located at the corners of the screen. These track your head position relative to the screen and feedback that information, to the phone, which updates what you see at 60fps, which should make it very smooth in use. There are four infrared LEDs paired with the cameras too, so it will even work in the dark.Software support will be limited at first, until developers get time to update their software. Amazon's own mapping app is the most obvious use at present, as you get 3D building information in major cities and can tilt the phone to get a better perspective on where you are. You can also make Yelp reviews appear and disappear but tilting the handset to the right, which leaves the map uncluttered for general use.
FIRE OS 3.5
The operating system will be familiar to anyone who has used one of Amazon's tablets, but completely alien to anyone familiar with typical Android. It uses a carousel of recently used apps which you can flick through, though these now have a display of information and shortcuts underneath each one, for example email subjects for the most recently received items.The operating system also looks to have numerous graphical effects to make the most of the pseudo-3D system, such as icons that hover over the background. In addition Amazon is encouraging you to make the most of the system but adding other tilting and tipping actions to the handset. These include tilting the phone left or right to bring up menus and shortcuts, and tipping it up and down to scroll through books or webpages. The idea is to make the handset far friendlier to use one-handed.
Now we're seen this kind of stuff before on Samsung's handsets, but with the pseudo 3D and the tips and tilts looking a key part of the operating system, we have to say that Amazon look to have taken it a step further, although that's no guarantee that we'll find it useful when we actually get to test the device.
SPECS
The display itself is probably the most modest part of the Amazon Fire Phone's specification. It's a modestly sized 4.7in screen, though that fits in with Amazon's core concept of one-handed operation, as most people will be able to hold it and reach across the screen with their thumb. It measures a fairly reasonable 139x67x8.9mm and weighs just 160g. Surprisingly it only has a 1,280x720 resolution display, a step back from the Full HD displays on most new handsets.The chipset used is the popular SnapDragon 800, running at 2.2GHz with 2GB of RAM. A slightly newer version of the chipset, the 801, is now available but the 800 is still blistering fast and should cope fine with anything you can throw at it. Any performance issues here will be due to Amazon's own operating system, not the chip it's running on. The chipset comes with an Adreno 330 GPU, the same one we saw recently in the HTC One (m8), and which whipped through all our gaming tests.Amazon is claiming 11 hours of video playback from the handset. Even if true, that's not up to scores we've seen from recent flagship handsets. The Samsung Galaxy S5 scored a whopping 17 and-a-half hours in our video playback test.While we're talking video, we're pleased to see that Amazon has brought across the stereo speaker setup from its tablets, plus there's support for Dolby Digital Plus audio.
FIREFLY AND CAMERA
Firefly is Amazon's way of bringing search to the real world, and selling you stuff at the same time. The feature is activated using the camera button on the left-hand-side of the phone, and then uses the camera to scan what it sees. It can identify books by their covers, which is where the selling stuff bit comes in, and also pulls out email addresses and phone numbers, so you can call or store them for later. The system also uses its microphone to let you identify music or movies and provide information about them, from say IMDB, and of course to opportunity to buy them.
The camera itself uses a 13 megapixel sensor, probably the same Sony backlit sensor found on many smartphones today. It has a bright F2.0 lens in front if it though and comes with optical image stabilisation, so it should be one of the better snappers available in low light conditions. All your photos can be automatically uploaded into the cloud, with free unlimited photo storage.
MAYDAY
Finally, we have Mayday too, Amazon's video chat customer service system. You simply press the icon and within 15 seconds (according to Amazon) you'll be connected to a real person who you can see and talk to, describe your problem, and they can help by drawing on your screen and even taking control of the handset to assist you. Help will be available over mobile networks, as well as just Wi-Fi, but you'll be responsible for any data costs associated.
PRICE AND RELEASE DATE
Amazon's tablets has consistently undercut Apple in terms of price, so it's a surprise to see that the SIM free price of the Amazon Fire Phone is the same as the basic iPhone 5S. Now, you do get 32GB of storage, as opposed to 16GB, and Amazon is throwing in 12 months of Amazon Prime (with Instant Video) for free – existing customers get 12 months added to their current deal.Despite that it still feels like a lot of money for a handset whose design is more functional than must-have. The pseudo-3D effects and one-handed operation both sound like good ideas, but we're yet to be convinced by Amazon's take on Android.This is all conjecture for now anyway, as Amazon has only announced the Fire Phone for sale in the US at present – where it will be on sale as of July 25th - but you can pre-order one today. It's refusing to discuss UK launch plans, but we think that it's bound to come here later in the year, or early next year at the latest, when the demand in the US dips after the launch.
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