Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) through its CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled its first and highly-anticipated Fire Phone with 3D visual technology during an event in Seattle, Washington today.
“Fire Phone puts everything you love about Amazon in the palm of your hand—instant access to Amazon’s vast content ecosystem and exclusive features like the Mayday button, ASAP, Second Screen, X-Ray, free unlimited photo storage, and more,” according to Bezos in a statement.
Fire Phone design and specifications
According to the e-commerce giant, Fire Phone is designed for beauty, hand comfort, and powerful performance. It is built using high-quality materials including Gorilla Glass 3 for the rear and front, aluminum buttons, stainless steel details and a rubberized polyurethane grip area.
Fire Phone sports a 4.7-inch HD display with ambient light sensors and dynamic image contrast that offers better outdoor viewing. It is powered by Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon 2.2 GHz processor and 2GB RAM for excellent fluidity and image rendering.
It is integrated with advance imaging system with custom tuned 13MP rear-facing camera with backside illumination, LED flash, 5 element F/2.0 lens, optical image stabilization (OIS), high-dynamic range (HDR) capabilities. It is also equipped with a 2.1 MP front-facing camera. Both cameras record smooth 1080p HD videos.
In addition, Fire Phone has dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus for a virtual surround experience; global LTE and connectivity with nine bands of LTE, four bands of GSM, five bands of UMTS for better voice coverage and faster data speeds. It supports 802.11ac, Wi-Fi channel bonding, NFC, and Bluetooth.
Fire Phone features breakthrough technologies
The e-commerce giant boasted that Fire Phone is integrated with two new breakthrough technologies—Dynamic Perspective and Firely that allow users to see and interact with the world through an entirely new lens.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) explained that the Dynamic Perspective technology uses a new sensor system that responds to the ways users hold, view, and move the Fire Phone, which provides them with an experience impossible for other existing smartphones. It uses four ultra-low powered cameras and four infrared LEDs located in the front face of the Fire Phone. It is powered by a custom processor, sophisticated real-time computer vision algorithm, a a new high-performing and power-efficient graphics rendering engine.
Bezos said, “We invented a new sensor system called Dynamic Perspective that recognizes where a user’s head is relative to the device—we use it to offer customers a more immersive experience, one-handed navigation, and gestures that actually work. And this is only the beginning—the most powerful inventions are the ones that empower others to unleash their creativity…”
The Firefly technology easily identifies things in the real world such as web and e-mail addresses, phone numbers, QR, bar codes, movies, music and millions of products and it allows users to take actions in seconds.
The Firefly SDK is available to developers for them to create new ways to use the technology starting today. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) said the technology will include artwork recognition, foreign language, and wine label recognition powered by Vivino later this year.
Availability and Price
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) said Fire Phone will be available on June 25, and its exclusive wireless network partner is AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T). Consumers will be able to place a pre-order on the e-commerce giant’s website, at AT&T’s retail locations or website. Fire Phone with 32GB costs $199 with a two-year contract and $299 for the 64GB with a two-year contract.
