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Watch Jeff Bezos unveil Amazon's new Fire phone (video)
Amazon didn't provide a live stream for its festivities earlier today, but if you'd like to relive the unveiling of its first smartphone, now you can. The nearly 1 and a half hour Fire phone event video has been posted to YouTube and we've included it after the break. Don't have that time to watch Jeff Bezos explain why you'll slip this universal buying tool into your pocket? Check out all the info and our first hands-on impressions first.
Amazon's Fire has a multi-perspective display that moves with you
After weeks and weeks of being rumored, Amazon's finally unveiled its first smartphone: the Fire. And, as expected, there are 3D-like features on board, with something the company's calling Dynamic Perspective. Thanks to this, Amazon's Fire will be able to do a number of neat things across different apps; for example, if you're looking at a picture, the view of it will change as you move the device around. To show off the effect, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos used a 3D aerial view of the Empire State Building, which made the iconic building look as if it were popping out of the Fire phone's screen. The web browser can also take advantage of the Dynamic Perspective feature, allowing you to easily scroll through pages by simply tilting the phone.
Amazon's Firefly recognizes everything you see and hear, then lets you buy it
So yes, Amazon's phone is a real thing... and it's turning out to be quite a sales tool, too. Jeff Bezos just pulled back the curtain on the device's Firefly feature, which scans music, art and even products you have lying around in the real world. Why? So you can buy it all from Amazon, of course.
Amazon announces the Fire, its first-ever smartphone
Yep, it's a phone alright. Amazon officially unveiled the Fire today at a special press event held in Seattle. Consistent with the rumors, Amazon's first-ever handset has a 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass display with an HD-resolution screen (720p). That makes it the same size as the Moto X, which was also supposed to be a phone for the masses. It also has a rubberized frame with aluminum buttons, a quad-core 2.2GHz processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. As for the camera, there's a 13-megapixel rear-facing one equipped with an f/2.0 lens and optical image stabilization and the ability to capture 1080p video. The phone's display will have 590 nits of brightness, dynamic image contrast and a "circular polarizer," which will likely be used to combat glare. There's also a dedicated camera key and, luckily for all you amateur photogs, it'll come with free unlimited cloud storage for photos as well. Other features include global LTE and connectivity with nine bands of LTE, quad-band GSM, five bands of UMTS, 802.11ac support, WiFi channel bonding, NFC and Bluetooth. It even supposedly has great battery life, promising nearly 285 hours of standby time, 22 hours of talk time, 65 hours of audio and 11 hours of video playback. It'll be available exclusively from AT&T for $199 if you want the 32GB version, or $299 if you prefer the 64GB. Alternately, you can get the 32GB version for as little as $27 a month or the 64GB for around $31 a month if you opt for AT&T's Next program. If you'd rather go off-contract instead, you can get the phone directly from Amazon for $649 for 32GB and $749 for 64GB.
