Amazon just revealed its long-rumoured Fire Phone, the company’s first smartphone.
We can’t decide whether we love it or can do without.
What do you think? Here are the basics…
What sets it apart from the rest:
– The Fire Phone features a three-dimensional menu, but the main draw is a new scanning system, Firefly. It has the ability to identify up to 100 million objects through direct Amazon marketplace integration, in everything from shopping staples to music and art.
– Unlike other 3D smartphones, users don’t need to maintain a direct line of sight with the Fire Phone to see the 3D images. That makes it easier to use after a few happy hour cocktails (not a bad perk).
Why you’ll like it:
– If nothing else, the phone may appeal to some for the pure love (OK, obsession) of photo documenting your life on social media.
– The rear camera has 13 megapixels and the camera is designed to take high-quality pictures through special image stabilization capabilities via tiny motors that automatically combat hand tremors. In low lighting conditions (like your got-to Thursday night lounge), the camera’s shutter is also designed to stay open four times longer than most smartphones, allowing for better image capturing with friends. Another perk includes unlimited photo storage via Amazon’s Cloud Drive storage service.
– The Fire Phone will feature dual stereo speakers and virtual surround sound from Dolby and will come with magnetic, tangle-free earbuds. The Firefly feature can listen to music and recognize audio tracks in a similar fashion to apps like SoundHound and Shazam. The service can also recognize art and will link to a Wikipedia entry about the artist.
For shopaholics, the phone makes shopping simpler than ever (which could also be dangerous).
– With the phone’s Firefly feature, users can scan objects, QR codes and barcodes to connect instantly with the product on Amazon’s online store. Though another blow for many retailers, this means another gain for you when it comes to power shopping and all those upcoming weddings and engagement parties.
– Other notable features:
– The Fire Phone features an auto-scrolling gesture that allows users to tilt their phone to scroll up and down a page.
– The phone has a “MayDay” button for nearly instant tech support.
– The Fire Phone features a 4.7-inch IPS LCD HD display, Guerrilla Glass 3 construction and a rubber frame.
– The phone features a 2.2 GHZ Quad-core processor and a 330 Adreno Graphics processor, as well as 2 GBs of RAM.
The downfalls:
– If you’re an app person, the phone may not be for you. Both the iPhone and Android smartphones boast more than a million apps, while Amazon only has about 250,000. Due to the heavily customized operating system, this doesn’t include many go-to Google apps like Maps or Gmail.
– The phone has already been met with criticism that it is nothing more than a portable cash register linked directly to the Amazon site.
– The phone isn’t cheap and will retail at a comparable price point as Apple and Samsung smartphones.
The phone will launch on July 25th in the US, but it’s still unclear if the smartphone will be sold in Canada at that time.
#LYNL | (Live Your Notable Life)
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