Customer Reviews

Amazon Fire Phone, 32GB (AT&T)

I wanted to love my Fire Phone. I really love Amazon and my kindle software, and they made it a bargain. Who could resist a year of prime on top of the rest? When at last it arrived, that sleek black box was a pleasure to unwrap.

The phone felt good in my hand, sturdy, well made. I used it as a phone -- wow, good sound, much better than many of the cell phones I've used in the past. Score.

I played with the dynamic perspective -- how nifty. I tried changing the backgound and here was my first disapointment -- a lot of them are dim, even bordering on creepy. Clearly time and effort was spent on choosing them, but they felt like Uncle Fester's last minute IT assignment. I finally chose one that bugged me the least. As my 9 year old said the first time he saw one, "Cool!" and then the next day, "that gets kind of annoying."

I moved forward, and loaded my email app, gmail, without a problem. I thought "Smartphones are pretty useful!" and felt reassured in my decision.

Then I started looking for other apps I've used on my android tablet, and I came up empty on the Amazon app store. Huh. I thought "no big deal, I can live without that app" and I searched for something else and thought "and that app too." Finally I realized a lot of google apps were off limits, and I had to rethink what I could do. It felt like a big step backward.

I found solace in streaming a song from my Amazon Music and opening up my current book using the kindle software. Better. Yes, reading was lovely. I took a picture and identified something instantly with Firefly -- nothing tricky, but it was fast. That was kind of fun. I never plan on using my phone to buy anything, however, so not that much fun.

I used the apps i was able to install, and I found myself befuddled a number of times. There's no software back button support. Some apps have a working back button within them, but not all, and there were times I felt trapped in whatever I was using, like Gretel after the breadcrumbs were eaten.

Swiping was supposed to help, as was flicking your wrist, but the responses were inconsistent. I thought I was fumbly and inept until I shared my phone with an IT pro and he also found that there were times where he'd flick his wrist 3 or 4 times without success. You'd feel so frustrated you'd want to start shaking it uncontrollably, then fling it into the wall. I loved catching him in those moments, our frustration shared. Navigation that was effortless on an android tablet became convoluted and difficult. MANY things that felt effortless on a full blown android were obscured or disabled.

A phrase swirled in my head, "you can't get there from here."

The low point came when I was showing off my new phone at work to extol the virtues of my new Amazon Fire. Flick fail. Swipe fail. Firefly fail. I could at least show the dynamic perspective with my lock screen, and they gazed politely. They tried the swipes and flicks, and sometimes they worked. Overall though, I think I solidified their loyalty to their current iPhone or Android. Sigh.

I had my Fire Phone two more demoralizing days, and gave up. What I thought at first was unhappiness due to unrealistic expections of having a smartphone, I came to realize was unhappiness based upon the comparison of my phone to my android tablet. It's just not as good. The Fire Phone is pretty and well made, but the software is crippled and the experience disappointing.

I returned the phone, and I have to say Amazon was professional, quick and courteous. Customer service rates an A+.

I replaced my Fire Phone with a Google Nexus 5, and I could not be more happy. Sorry Amazon, I wanted to love you best. Your screen was great and I loved using you for calls, but my need for sleek functionality won out over the fun of drama and glitz. Maybe next time.

I had a hard decision between the Amazon Fire Phone, Samsung Galaxy S 5, and Samsung Galaxy S 5 Active. I eventually picked the Fire Phone because I have loved my Kindle, Amazon Prime, and the camera on it was excellent. I keep my phones for a while, in all my years of wireless service I have been off contract more than I have been in one. This phone replaced a 1st gen windows phone I carried for 5 years or so (which still works flawlessly after years of abuse).
First week I was disappointed in how the battery will not last even 16 hours if you do anything that takes advantage of the high def screen. I now have a charger in the car, at work and at home so the damn thing can be plugged in all the time. I am essentially back to having a corded phone that travels.
I also noticed was it gets super warm, I understand that having a powerful processor will generate heat, but with my job being in technology I also know poor cooling design and excessive heat is the bane of electronics.
The most annoying issue I have found is that the day after my 2 weeks trial period ended the key pad has started to freeze up and disappear at least once a day, forcing a restart of the phone.
Conclusions: Gimmicky at best, has potential if people actually program to the capabilities of the phone, good call quality, excellent camera, Amazon's restricted access to apps has been more annoying than I anticipated, I am nervous about the phone's longevity and hope it makes it past my 2 years on contract without too many issues until I can get it replaced, I feel like I should have went with the Samsung Galaxy S 5 Active.

Update: My opinions have not changed about the phone. I was contacted by Amazon's customer service and they were excellent and did all they could do for a customer. I would rate the customer service at Amazon as one of the best in the world.

Paying $199 for the phone on contract to have it change to $0.99 just one month later feels like a huge rip and is a bit insulting as a customer. The new 99 cent phones even come with Prime. I will never again buy a phone on release week. Thank you Amazon for a hard earned lesson.

Pros-

1. Nice comfortable build.
2. Good camera.
3. Excellent 24/7 customer service.
4. Dynamic Perspective is fun and unique.
5. Pretty nice headphones are included.
6. One year of Free Amazon Prime.

Cons-

1. Missing Google apps.
2. Gestures and navigation is overcomplicated.
3. Mediocre battery life.
4. Bad value for your money.

Over the last couple of days I have managed to get my hands on the much anticipated Amazon Fire phone. I had being waiting with anticipation for this phone for the last few months and was very excited when it was finally announced. My initial impression has a being a mixed bag. While I commend Amazon for trying to create a unique experience and bringing new features like Dynamic Perspective, I simply can't ignore the shortcomings of this phone and the many improvements it needs. I will elaborate more below.

DESIGN

The phone has a 4.7 inch display and weights 160 grams. Not the lightest phone in the market but I personally don't mind. It feels solid in the hand. The phone is comfortable to hold making it an excellent one handed device. The size of the phone is a very good compromise between smaller phones like the IPhone 5S and bigger android phone like the G3, HTC One, and Galaxy S5.

The front and back of the phone are made of Gorilla Glass 3. It reminds me a lot of the IPhone 4S and the Nexus 4. The glass on the back is very prone to fingerprints. If the IPhone 4S is any indications this phone is going to have durability problems. That glass back is going to inevitably break when you drop the phone a couple of times. Keep this in mind. A case is a must for this phone. The border around the phone is made of rubber. It makes for an excellent grip when making calls. It will come in handy if you are one of those people that tend to drop your phone a lot.

The phone features several hardware buttons around the device. On the left hand side you have a dedicated "Firefly" button (more on that later) along with the volume up and down keys. On the top you have the power button and the 3.5 mm jack for headphones. You also have a single physical home button on the front of the phone similar to the one found on the Galaxy S5 and the IPhone 5S. The front look of the device is unique because it has 5 front facing cameras. One of them is the regular front facing camera to take selfies and the other four is for the "Dynamic Perspective" 3D effects (more on that coming up). I don't particularly like the front view but I got used to it and have learned to ignore the camera holes.

The phone has a unibody design. Meaning that the back cover is not removable and neither is the battery. It also lacks any slot to use MicroSD cards. The phone is not waterproof either. I would have liked if Amazon would have added a fingerprint scanner on the physical home button of the device. This phone is made primarily to have a convenient way to purchase items on Amazon. It would have been nice to have a fingerprint scanner that would authorize you to make purchases without having to put a password or pin. Not to mention it provides better security than a regular pin or password.

Overall, the design of the phone is nice but there is definitely room for improvement in future versions.

DISPLAY

The phone has a 4.7 inch display that has a resolution of 1280 x 720. That is a step below most high end smartphone. It is not terrible by any means. In fact, I got done reviewing the LG G3 a few days ago and in terms of actual usage the difference in resolution is negligible. The difference is much bigger on paper than in real life usage. From a normal viewing distance you can barely tell any difference. The screen color saturation is pretty nice.

One of the things that I like about the phone is the screen brightness. Outdoor visibility is excellent. It is easily one of the brightest smartphones on the market. If you find yourself having a hard time reading and viewing videos outdoors you are going to appreciate this. When indoors I used the phone at around 40% percent brightness and it was more than enough.

PERFORMANCE

The Fire phone comes with a very powerful processor. It is the Snapdragon 800 clocked in at 2.2 GHz. It also has 2 GB of ram memory. Most of the high end phones released this year have come with the newer Snapdragon 801 which is slightly faster than the one found on the Amazon Fire phone. The Fire phone manages to hold its own though. The interface performed relatively smooth and I did not experienced much lag. You will not have any problem performing everyday tasks like phone calls, text messages, Facebook, Twitter etc.
The only time where I experienced a bit of lag and stuttering was when I was playing 3D games that used Dynamic Perspective. They should have gone with the latest processor. Those 3D effects seem to take a lot of processing power. I hope some of these stutters are software bugs that can be improved later on. More often than not the phone felt quick and responsive. I am not going to argue too much about its performance. For general usage it is more than enough but I am a bit concerned on how it will perform over the 2 year contract lifetime.

USER INTERFACE, DYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE AND FIREFLY

The Amazon Fire phone is an Android phone. It doesn't look like any phone you have used in the past though. That is because it comes with a skin on top of android known as Fire OS. It looks very similar to the one found on the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. Instead of the regular row of icons and widgets you find on other android smartphones you will see a carousel that scrolls around on your home screen. The carousel shows all of the apps and videos you have used in the past. It shows them in chronological order. The ones you have used more recently appears first. It is very useful when you are trying to switch between recently used applications. Below the carousel you see recommendations and notifications.

Remember those four cameras on the front of the device that I talked about earlier? Well the purpose of those is to track your head movements. When you are navigating through apps on any regular phone you will find that you have tabs on the sides of the apps that will open menus and other options if you swipe from the sides. Well on this phone you can do that with a flick of your wrist. Depending on whether you tilt your phone to the left or the right it will show you different menus and additional information. It is useful if you are like using the phone one handed. These gestures are optional though and you can simply use the regular swiping from the sides if you prefer. The gestures are found on some of the apps but not all of them. It will probably be integrated in more apps in the future.

Besides tracking your movements the cameras on the front provide what Amazon calls Dynamic Perspective. This adds a 3D effect to the lock screen of the phone as well as games found on the Amazon store. The 3D effect is very impressive. Much better than the one found on the Nintendo 3DS. Amazon included its very own map application that takes advantage of this feature. When you look at the landscape of the map you can clearly see the top of the buildings in 3D. When you tilt the phone to you left you get more information on the map. The games I played that took advantage of Dynamic Perspective were pretty fun. I hope other developers jump into the bandwagon and created more custom applications for this phone. In my time using the phone I did not experience any nausea or eye fatigue with the 3D but that is going to vary from person to person.

Firefly is another feature that is exclusive to this phone. When you press the Firefly physical button on the left side of the phone it automatically launches the Firefly application. You can use it to scan products in their packages and check whether it is available on Amazon. You can use it on movies, books, CD, DVDs, foods, diapers etc. It can also scan phone numbers as well as addresses. I personally find it to be a hit and miss in this aspect. Sometimes it makes mistakes when detecting numbers. You can also activate Firefly when you are listening to a song or a movie and it will tell you what it is. It works really fast and I found it to be particularly useful when watching TV. When you use it to find a show it will give the information regarding the actors and the movie. It uses IMDB as a reference.

The regular Amazon app that comes in the Play Store has the ability to scan items just like Firefly but it will not scan for phone numbers, songs or movies. There is an app on the Play Store called Shazaam that can be used to scan songs that are playing on the background. So, as you can see, Firefly is a convenient feature but there are alternatives that you can use on other phones. So it is not necessarily a feature that makes this phone a must buy in my opinion. You will like Firefly if you like buying items directly from Amazon though. If you like to do comparison shopping you will probably use it often. The application is easy to use and makes buying from Amazon incredibly simple.

CAMERA

The phone comes with a 13 Megapixel camera. I was very pleased with the shots I managed to take. I found night time pictures to be above average for a cell phone. I found the phone took a 2-3 seconds to take each shot at nigh time but for the most part they came out relatively noise free. I took a few pictures during daytime and found it to be very nice also. The pictures had plenty of detail when you zoom them and the colors did not feel washed out. The only thing I would improve is the focusing and shutter time. The LG G3 and Galaxy S5 are quicker to focus. But honestly that is just nitpicking at this point. The camera is very good. I was satisfied.

The software and user interface of the camera app was very simple and easy to use. Not as feature packed as the one found on Galaxy S5 or Sony Xperia Z2 but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I prefer the clutter free interface better. Most of the critically important modes were present including HDR mode. HDR mode had a pretty natural effect. Other smartphones provide a very artificial and retouched feel in HDR mode.

As far as video is concerned you can take videos at 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second. The videos looked sharp but nothing out of the ordinary. For the most part they were relatively stable and were not shaky (by cell phone standards). Most high end cell phones are starting to come out with the ability to record at 4K resolution. That is not a priority now it may be in a couple of years once 4K TV prices start to lower their prices. This phone cannot do that. Keep this in mind if you are planning to get this phone.

As a bonus Amazon has offered unlimited cloud storage for pictures taken with this cell phone. Pretty sweet deal. I am not sure if videos are included though. I have not tried uploading any pictures because my internet connection is slow and it takes forever for me to do that.

APP STORE AND ECOSYSTEM

Amazon like other phones come with its own suite of apps. It comes with its very own its custom browser, calendar, email, maps and more. For the most part they are decent apps but not as refined as the Google apps. Keep in mind that you will not have access to any of the Google apps on this phone. That means you will not be able to use Google Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, or Google Music. That is a huge negative of this phone. If you are deeply entrenched in the Google ecosystem this may not be the phone for you.

Everything is not bad though. When you buy this cell phone you get one year access to Prime membership. That means you can get free two day shipping to many of the items found on Amazon. You also have access to Prime Instant Videos and Music. Neither one has a particularly large library but I always find something decent to watch. As of the time I am writing this review this is the only android cell phone with access to Amazon Prime Instant videos. However, I read that Amazon is going to be adding the Instant video app to the Play Store soon. That means other cell phones are going to be able to use it as well.

Unfortunately this phone does not have access to the Google Play Store. Instead you have to rely on the Amazon App Store to get your apps. Most of the big apps are available such as Facebook, Twitter, and Vine. It also has a lot of the most popular games. Where it falls short is with smaller apps. There is not nearly as much customization available. There are less available keyboards, launchers, and themes to choose from. When you dig deeper than the popular apps you will notice there are many apps missing that are available on the Play Store and the IOS App Store.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND MAYDAY BUTTON

This phone comes with a feature called Mayday. When you activate this feature you get access to an Amazon live customer service rep that helps you operate the phone and answer any questions you might have about the user interface. They can even take control of the phone with your permission and show you step by step instructions in case you get stuck. The service is available 24/7 and it is free. It takes only about 15 seconds from the time you push the mayday button to the time you start talking to the agent. It is an invaluable tool for those people that are not good with technology and have a hard time adjusting to smartphones. It is excellent for first time smartphone users. This is a service that no other phone company can match at the moment.

I have dealt with Amazon for many year. I have purchased and sold hundreds of item on the website. Every time I have had a problem I have found the customer service to be helpful, efficient, and reliable. If you ever have any problem with the phone and it needs replacing it will take no more than a few minutes to talk to an agent and they will be ordering an exchange. The only other company that can match this level of service is Apple. I have tried dealing with Samsung, LG, and HTC and it has been a real pain to get decent customer service.

STORAGE

The base model of the phone comes with a 32 GB hard drive. There is also a 64 GB model available for $100 dollars more. Keep in mind there is no MicroSD card slot available. So what you see is what you get. There is no way to add more storage. I am using the 32 GB model. Only 23 GB was available out of the box.

BATTERY LIFE

This phone comes with a non-removable 2400 mah battery. Most smartphones have a battery life of at least a day. Most of the big android phones can last longer than that if you are careful and don't use the phone much. Amazon claims this phone can last a day with normal use. I barely made it to the end of the day before having to recharge the phone. I had to watch myself on more than one occasion or I would have the need to recharge by 3 p.m. This is while sending a few text, making a couple of calls, browsing the web for about an hour. I kept the brightness at about half way most of the time. The dynamic perspective seems to take a real toll on the battery. I could turn it off but then what is the purpose of buying this phone.

The battery life is disappointing, there is no getting around that. The fact that you can't remove it and replace it with another one makes it even worse. A real shame. Definitely one of the weakest points of this phone.

HEADPHONES AND AUDIO SPEAKERS

Along with the phone Amazon will also package a pair of headphones. The cable on the headphones is flat and has magnetic ear buds. This makes the headphones tangle free which is critical to the durability of headphones. I found the sound to be crisp and loud for small headphones. It is not audiophile quality but it will get the job done when you are on the go. As far as sound is concerned they are in the same category as Apple ear buds.

The phone has a set of dual speakers on the bottom of the phone. By cell phone standards they are pretty good. They are fairly loud and don't have a muddy sound like the one on the S5. I have not used them much though. I am more of a headphone person.

VALUE FOR $$$

This phone is very expensive, it costs $200 dollars with a 2 year contract and $650 dollars without one. All of the major premium manufacturers cost $100 with a contract. That includes the IPhone 5S, HTC One (M8), Samsung Galaxy S5 and the just released LG G3. If you are considering a phone off contract I would recommend the Nexus 5 from Google. For $350 you get a premium experience for nearly half the price of the Amazon Fire phone. Even with the free year of Prime membership and the headphones it still feels like a bad deal. It feels like Amazon really missed the boat on the price.

The other high end smartphones on the market come with a larger, better quality screen, a faster processor, and a better ecosystem. All cell phones have their pros and their cons, however, when you stack the Fire phone head to head you will see it comes up short just about every time.

Also keep in mind that the only carrier available is AT&T. So you have no other choice in the matter. The phone comes locked into the network.

CONCLUSION

So do I recommend this phone? Not really. Not at this price. The phone has a nice screen, good camera, and it is nicely built. However, its unique features are not enough to make me consider it over others in the market. The 3D capabilities are good and it has a lot of potential but as of right now it feels like a glorified Nintendo 3DS. Most of the 3D effect are prevalent on games and nothing more.

The phone has very mediocre battery life and I can't help but feel trapped in Amazon ecosystem. I miss the Google apps. I personally rely on Google Maps, Google Music, and Gmail every day.

The only people I would recommend this phone are those that are buying a smartphone for the first time. The Mayday technical support is fantastic and is very helpful for new comers. New comers are less likely to miss the useful Google apps that are absent on this smartphone. I was not impressed by the first edition of the Kindle Fire tablet but Amazon improved it considerably with future versions. I really hope they do the same with its phone. It really needs it.

I don't want to sound negative, the phone itself is pretty good. But I have to be honest. There are better options. I hope this review has helped you decide whether this phone is right for you. I thank you for having taken the time to read it. If you have any other questions regarding the phone please feel free to put it on the comment section and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

This is the Amazon phone you are looking for! Does everything Amazon which is great consider I have Kindle. This review will constantly be updated. If you find this helpful, please press Yes below.

My profile: Heavy gadget users for personal and business purposes. I use my phone (Galaxy S5) quite a bit for personal use and iPhone 5 for work

I have the following and/or used the following before:

1) iPhone 5
2) Galaxy S5
3) Galaxy S3
4) Wife's Moto X
5) Galaxy Nexus
6) Nexus One
7) iPhone 3GS

I've been through many devices and also Kindle Fire Tablets. This will be an ongoing review for this device throughout this next year. I will provide a detail comparison between the smartphones I use and a little bit of Kindle Fire comparison (which uses similar OS).

Spec (8/10):

For Amazon first attempt, this is a very decent phone. It has the speed of my wife's Moto X but not where it is for Galaxy S5. However, this phone is built much differently for different purpose. It's an "experience" phone rather than a "spec" phone. Like an iPhone or Moto X, it provides a very tight experience to its Fire OS without needing any of the raw power that you get from Galaxy S5 to please you. It's a phone that does "just enough" for all the things the OS is capable of doing for you

Screen (9/10):
This screen is very nice. At 720p, it may not have the clarity of the Galaxy S5 but beats the iPhone 5. Video on this is crisp. Running 720p content is absolutely fabulous on this device and no shadowing whatsoever.

Sound(8/10):
The sound system in this Fire Phone is Digital Dolby Plus. This means lots of virtualization of sound and a good pair of earphones wlil help you go through your tracks. Quality is on par with Galaxy S5 for low bitrate soundtrack but at higher bitrate, the Galaxy S5 maybe better with the 24-bit/192kHz DAC built in that the Fire Phone is lacking. The earphone that comes with the device is very clever with magnetic pad to stick the earphones together and reduce tangle.

Build & Styling (7/10):

This Fire Phone is a sturdy piece of brick. Yes, a brick I said because there's not much styling to it. It's like holding a phone from 2010. Styling is more inline with the Nexus 4 with Glass back and the iPhone 3GS with round side. People may think you are holding some cheapo knockoff phone without the Amazon logo on the back of the phone. Definitely you won't impress your colleagues if you are going for the looks. However, it does feel very sturdy and I can tell it can take some major drops. I advise getting a case to stylize your phone
Camera (8/10)
The Camera on the Fire Phone is mediocre at best. It's not as good as Galaxy S5 16MP ISOCELL camera but it serves it purpose. There is Optical Image Stabilization on this camera which is done quite well and much less blurry shots that you expect from phones such as the Galaxy S5. Details won't be on par with Galaxy S5 but for those quick snap this is the phone to use.

The best part about the camera is not actually the camera but the free cloud storage on the camera. You get UNLIMITED photo storage using the Fire Phone. For the ones that go crazy snapping around all the time, you don't have to worry about storage space anymore. Remember this is for photos and not for videos. Videos still have storage limits.

Software & Experience (8/10):
There are two major software that is the biggest feature on this phone
Dynamic Perspective - This tracks your head movement by using the 5 cameras in the four corners of the Fire Phone's front face to track your head constantly. If you try to move your head or tilt your phone, your perspective will be align with the phone. Special viewpoints are like the edge of icons, image focus that you don't see at other angles. It's fun to play with but frankly a bit of a gimmick.
Firefly - Click the firefly button on the phone and point it towards the item you want to purchase, and it will appear on your phone for purchase if available or recognized. It's great idea but really only works around 50% of the time. For example, it's definitely not useful if the item is not on Amazon's selection (which is possible surprisingly) or that it recognize it as something else. Purchasing can't be more easier with this and it's a very good direction Amazon is taking for improve customer experience. But until this can work more than 50% of the time, I will stick with the Amazon mobile store for purchases.
The other apps are very similar to the Kindle Fire apps. If you are using a Kindle Fire, this should be easy for you to use and navigate. Things like Mayday is still available on the phone which is definitely useful for people who are less tech savvy. I will find this very useful for my mom so that she can ask Mayday rep the tech questions instead of me!

This phone is definitely not as open as actual Android phones such as Galaxy S5. Although Fire OS is based on Android, it is still a very closed system and it's Amazon every intention to keep you in their ecosystem. If you are like me who have Amazon Prime, this device is a godsend. All your instant video/musics/purchase is tightly intergrated to this smartphone. If you live by Amazon, this is the phone to get. However, if you like to play around with things such as custom ROMs then it's best to stay off this phone. You won't be getting the type of freedom on customization that you get on Android.

Battery (6.5/10):
Battery life is quite good given the phone is not top specification. However, the Dynamic Perspective and Firefly can drain your battery quite fast if you use it constantly. Unfortunately, you cannot remove the battery of the phone and replace it with another (which Galaxy S5 has and it is very handy feature to have) so you better be careful how you use your phone.

Complimentary Accessories (6/10):
There are quite a number of cases out for the Fire Phone at launch which is great. Additionally the accessories that come with the phone such as the earphone are very good.

Value (6/10):
This is a very hard one to write about.
On one hand, you get one full year of Prime membership for free which is 99 dollars in value + unlimited photo storage (which can be quite expensive if you are using other cloud service to storage over 1000 GB of photos)

On the other hand, you are lock down to all Amazon services + AT&T exclusivity + mediocre specification (though enough for this phone as I mentioned) + $200 on contract for 32gb which is as expensive as some high end phones available today

For value, it really comes down to how often you use Amazon. If you are an Amazonholic, then this phone will not disappoint you. However, if you don't even have Amazon Prime to begin with or that you are not locked down currently to any Amazon service, this device can be quite expensive for getting into Amazon services.

Conclusion in one sentence: Great for CURRENT Amazon service users & not so great for anyone not locked into their system yet.

Perhaps Amazon needs to rethink its pricing strategy for this device. For current Amazon customers such as myself who know Amazon good service that we are currently locked into, this is a great upgrade to enhance the shopping experience of Amazon and to enjoy all the Amazon Prime services on my most frequently used device. However, it can be quite expensive sacrifice for newcomers to Amazon ecosystem especially this phone is not cheap (unlike the Kindle Fire) and that the mediocre specs are not selling itself. Especially with AT&T exclusivity, I don't see how this device will be flying off the shelf (think Facebook phone). What Amazon should do is to reprice this to cheaper bracket (Free on 2 year contract at least) or let people try using this phone for free for a limited amount of time. Dynamic Perspective and Firefly are just not enough to sell the phone to newcomers.

As mentioned, I will update this review periodically. Next time I will focus on physical wear and tear of the machine after couple more months and again on battery life (as all electronics have a diminishing battery duration throughout its course of use). [...] Thanks for reading!

Extremely sad and dissatisfied with this product. I have been looking forward to this phone for a while now and it saddens me to give it a bad review. Not everything's bad about this phone, but the cons are greater than the pros.
Pros:
- The form factor of the phone itself is excellent.
- Nice size screen.
- Amazing speakers. I have never stumbled upon a cellphone with such an amazing sound quality.
- Instant access to the camera at the touch of a button.
- Beautifully designed; very elegant.
- Access to Mayday which is super helpful.
- Average picture quality.
- 12 months of prime included.
- Very fast internet browser.
- Firefly works just as announced.
- The earbuds are pretty decent. The flat part doesn't tangle; can't say much about the rest of it.

Cons:
- The battery life is absolutely horrendous. Amazon promises "Fire phone delivers up to 285 hours of standby time, up to 22 hours of talk time, up to 65 hours of audio playback, and up to 11 hours of video playback" This is the biggest lie that any company has ever made. I don't know why Amazon is claiming such a thing when it's not nearly close to be true. I took the phone to work this morning with 98% battery life. I checked my Instagram during my fifteen minute break, and read my email as well. The phone was on 2% by 10AM. I wasn't running Bluetooth, GPS, or wifi, nor was I streaming music or videos (more about videos later); just a simple thing such as checking my email and looking at my Instagram feed for about fifteen minutes.

- The phone gets super hot. I understand that electronic devices get warm once in a while depending on how much you're using it, but Fire Phone wasn't warm, it was HOT! I guess that's why it's called Fire Phone. Joke aside, the phone does get extremely uncomfortably hot even whilst you're not even using it. I had it in my front pocket and had to take it out because the warmth was bothering me.

- The camera takes decent photos; nothing to drool for. The picture button comes in handy and is very simple to use. Everything's nice and dandy until you get home and realize you're phone spent all day taking photos of the inside of your pocket. I don't weak skinny jeans or anything tight. I had my phone in my messenger bag and it took four photos of the inside of the bag. The hardware picture button is too easily pressed.

- I know that Amazon talked about how amazing Dynamic Perspective was, and all I've got to say is Thank God there's a way to turn it off, because all it did was to give me a headache. Some people might like it, but I thought it was just too gimmicky. Auto scroll worked 75% of the time as expected. And why do I need to tilt my phone to "peek" on my status bar?? Annoying.

- The lack of YouTube and Snapchat are a bummer. I'm sure they'll arrive eventually, but there aren't available as of right now.

- There's no way to organize your apps in different folders, so be ready to scroll and scroll to find the one app you're looking for.

- You can't pin anything to the home screen because there isn't one. All there is is a carousel with your most recent apps.

- You need to swipe up to go back. How does this make any sense again?

It makes me sad that I had to give such a horrible review to the Fire Phone because I love Amazon. I've owned three kindles and never had any issues with them, but it seems like they released a promising phone way too soon. I just spoke to the customer representative and he sent me a return label for a full refund. I wish things were different.

** UPDATE **
Amazon was extremely helpful when it came to return the phone. They emailed me a shipping label and refunded me the money within two days.

The phone has many good ideas which were poorly executed. Let me list just a few of the issues that I've had with this phone after using it for 2 weeks.

- The dynamic perspective is fun in theory, but becomes annoying in lower light when it senses your face or somebody next to you and makes the objects on the screen bounce left and right jarringly.
- If the phone doesn't sense your face in the dark it will turn on and then off again. It might take 2 or 3 trys.
- If the phone thinks its senses a face (just guessing) it won't shut off (black the screen) and your pocket will start to feel very warm.
- motion controls (which were a big selling point in their marketing and in my purchase decision) work about 50% of the time.
- No Hulu app...? seriously
- if your contacts have the number one in front i.e. 1 (###) ###-####; it will say that it is an invalid contact for group messages and image texting, so I've had to go through hundreds of contacts to delete these 1's

I know that some issues can be resolved with OS updates, but in the meantime, it is almost too frustrating to use the phone.

I really wanted to like this phone, but I should have went with my gut and waited for the next model.

WARNING!
My AT&T app is preloaded on the phone, and you cannot delete it, or change the permissions it has.
And the permissions it has are the biggest problem I've encountered with this phone by far.
This app has some scary permissions, but the one that really bothered me is the following:

Camera
Allows the app to take pictures and videos with the camera. This permission allows the app to use the camera at any time without your confirmation.
( that is word for word!)

Amazon had some good ideas with the phone, but many of the daily uses of the phone are absolutely worthless. I love Amazon products and we even have two Kindle Fires in our house, so I thought the phone would be amazing as well. I was VERY wrong. I knew that some of the common apps were not on the phone yet, which I could live with but there were many things that made having this phone worse than any other phone I have ever had.
1. It gets incredibly hot, I was on the phone for less than 5 minutes when I had to turn it on speaker and put it on a table to talk because it was burning my face.
2. There is no back button. Yes, you should be able to move your hand a certain way to go back or turn pages but most times nothing worked and I would have to just return to my home screen and start again.
3. The battery life is terrible, I charged it for over 6 hours and it only had 80% at 6:00am, by 9:30am it was completely dead.
4. The battery would only charge if the phone was turned off. SERIOUSLY?

In conclusion, I will NEVER get a first generation phone again. I am very highly dissatisfied with the Amazon Fire phone and do not recommend it to anyone. I am planning on switching to a Galaxy S5. Amazon should have tested this phone out more before releasing it to the public, it is really sad that this phone is this bad.

Okay...I purposely waited a few days to review this phone. Absolutely hated it and was going to return it on the first day (Thursday). Second day, I decided to give the phone a chance. Today (Monday) I am liking the phone but there still are issues.

- The Keyboard - small - no way to make it bigger and cannot download another keyboard app.

- Sound - the speakers sound a bit tinny - the sound is good through the earphones though.

- Call answering - the decline call button is on the left (it was on the right on all of my previous phones) so I have been declining calls by mistake.

- Camera button - it is so close to the sound buttons I am constantly hitting it by mistake (will take some getting used to but I can live with it)

- Battery Life - seems to be getting better the longer I use the phone but still not wonderful. Initially the phone had a battery life of about 4-6 hrs. After turning off a lot of the push notifications i.e. email and apps, the battery life now is much longer but still not where it needs to be. Will followup on this matter again later.

- Apps - knew going into the phone it was going to be an issue but expect that since Amazon wants to sell the phone they will work on the app issue. Frankly this is something that should have been address PRIOR to release instead of after.

- Wifi - not sure what the issue is here. The wifi signal is about half of what it should be BUT I have not had any problems connecting and downloading apps. I have not attempted to stream yet and this is where it will likely make the difference. Not sure why the wifi signal is so low, this is the only device that I have this issue with. I will followup to this post if this is an issue with streaming.

- Dynamic perspective - this feature is great, especially if you are a gamer. Now time for more content! (Amazon are you listening??!!!)

- Firefly - only tried it a few times. It worked perfectly on books, music and TV shows. It did not recognize any products I scanned. Good Feature but database needs to be developed more.

- Photos - photo quality is excellent. I love the ability to add a photo by swiping in email. Very convenient!

My thoughts on this phone is that perhaps it was rushed out before it was ready. I understand they spent four years working on it but 6 more months after beta testing probably wouldn't have hurt. Getting this type of feedback before release could mean the difference between success and failure. Probably very avoidable because I see that alot of people are having the same issues and/or complaints and a lot of the issues are software based.

What is good with this phone is very good. The hardware itself appears to be well made. Screen is very clear. The auto brightness seems to be a bit dark.

Amazon has a good product here hopefully they will listen to theiir customers and update the software to address the issues. Amazon does have a game changing phone on their hands. The question is will they fix the issues and have a better phone or will another manufacture to do and steal their thunder.

AMAZON!!! Take note please: It should be a good phone first and a marketing tool second. Not the other way around.
And secondly, it's a phone, not a kindle, some changes/differences are necessary.

Bottom line - As of today, I am keeping the phone and am hoping that Amazon addresses as many of the issues as possible with software updates. If not, one year from now I will own another phone.

I have been with Amazon for years. They have always been a customer service oriented company so I have faith that they will do the right thing here.

UPDATE:

I realized while using the phone that there is no notification in the top bar of the phone. i.e. voicemail icon. The notifications appear in the pull down but not at the top. No way to make it that way either. I was told that the top bar was intentionally left uncluttered. I think this is a good choice Amazon but we need to have a voicemail notification that readily visible on the phone. My suggestions to Amazon, remove the Silk Icon and replace it with the voicemail icon. So the top icons on the first screen would then be: Phone, Messaging, Email and Voicemail. Makes a bit more common sense.

I have used the Mayday app twice now to address concerns. Amazon seems to really want to hear about the issues and each time they have sent my concerns up for review to see if the matters can be addressed (at least they told me they would). That makes me hopeful. The techs on the other end have been as helpful as they could be.

Also, battery much better today. It has lasted all day and is now at 43%. Not sure why it was so bad on the first few days but it seems to be getting just a little bit better each day. I did turn off a lot of app notifications, the default on the phone is to enable ALL app notifications regardless of the app. Perhaps the default should be to disable and let the user make the decision.

7/31/14

Battery is now lasting about a day as long as I don't stream music or video which admittedly would be an issue on any phone. But...the battery life is still not comparable to other phones on the market today.

9/23/14

Felt compelled to return and update my review on this phone. Having given the phone some time after the update I am sorry to say that I'm not in love with the phone. Even more, I'm not particularly in "like" with the phone. To top it off, the price of the phone has been cut $200.00 and no refund in sight for me.

I really was hoping that Amazon would come through with an update to this phone that was going to make me fall in love with it. So far....nothing but crickets!!! Battery life sucks...the amazon appstore has not stepped up to the plate and produced...and since the first update, the phone has become unresponsive at times and I am forced to fully restart. I'm also still waiting for apps that take advantage of the dynamic perspective.

Come on Amazon!!!! Get with the program!!!

I've had the Fire Phone for about a month now. Prior to the Fire Phone, I had an iPhone 5. After reading some of the poor reviews, I decided to write one myself. I have been extremely happy with the phone.

Pros:
-Amazon ecosystem: As a Prime member, I get seamless access to all the Prime content (Kindle books, free streaming video, cloud storage). You can even download movies/tv shows for free and watch them offline.
-Mayday/Customer Service: The interface takes a bit to get used to (i.e. swiping up is the back button) and so I had to contact customer service a few times. You can contact Mayday in the touch of a button, with someone taking over control of your phone and assisting you in seconds. You can also send "feedback" and an Amazon rep will e-mail you with a response within a few hours.
-Battery Life: Since the software update, the battery life is much improved and a strength of the device. It definitely lasts longer than my iPhone 5. I have been using the phone regularly all day (web searching, checking e-mail, texting) and I am still at 50% battery. The same could not be said about my iPhone.

Cons/Disappointments:
-Dynamic Perspective and Firefly: Funny enough, two of Amazon's selling points have been my disappointments with the phone. Dynamic Perspective works well, but at this point, it doesn't have much use. Firefly works well when it recognizes an item (i.e a cereal box) but it still does not recognize items seamlessly like I hoped it would.
-App Store: Without the Google Play store, Amazon still has a way to go with the App Store. It has most of the major apps but I find myself sometimes wanting to download an app to find it not being available on the Fire Phone (i.e. Venmo, Lyft, BofA Banking).

All together, I am very happy with the phone. It definitely still has room for improvement, but the phone's weaknesses are software issues. I am a big Amazon fan and I have no doubt Amazon will continue to develop the phone's capabilities in the future. They will keep sending software updates, adding new apps, and hopefully will improve the usage of Dynamic Perspective.

For those complaining about paying $199 for the phone, contact customer service and get a refund! Amazon has released publicly for you to contact customer service and you will receive the $199! For $.99, including a full year of Prime, the phone is a great value. I realize that the price ties you into a contract, but so does paying the subsidized prices for an iPhone or Samsung device. Including the year of Prime, the Fire Phone is $300 cheaper than the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy 5.

I normally don't write reviews, but after seeing some of the negative feedback I had to add my input!