As a tech blogger, I’ve love smartphones and I’m often researching which ones are the best and why. With a variety of operating systems, sizes, layouts, cameras, speakers, and ways to navigate they all differ in so many ways.
I have fun checking them all out intensively and using them in day-to-day life. That’s why I was excited that AT&T loaned me the Amazon Fire Phone to play with for a couple of weeks.
This phone is lots of fun. It’s very intuitive and easy to use and has a number of great features. I decided to pick out my top 3 favorite features and share them with you. These features are so impressive and stand out from any other phone I’ve used that they deserve an in-depth look.
Here’s a video showing all three in action.
Here’s a closer look at each.
One-Handed Gestures
For quicker, easier navigation One-Handed Gestures make the Amazon Fire Phone fun to use. Tilt your phone right or left to reveal panels that include quick links and information relevant to content being viewed. Auto scroll allows you to scan a long web page by tilting the phone up and down, never having to touch the screen. Swivel the phone to the left or right to reveal quick actions. Peek – slightly angle the device to peek and reveal helpful layered information. For example when in the camera gallery you can use Peek to see the date the photo was taken.
Dynamic Perspective
The Amazon Fire Phone is the only smartphone with Dynamic Perspective which is an entirely new sensor system that responds to the way you hold, view, and move the phone. I love how you can use it on the lock screen to look around and I also had fun with it when playing the game, Lili.
You can see that it’s as if you are standing on the ground next to the character and looking around yourself. You can look up, down, left, right, and even behind you all by tilting the phone and holding it in various ways. It’s very immersive and makes you feel like you are right in the game yourself.
To see Dynamic Perspective and One-Handed Gestures working together check out this video – it’s amazing!
Amazon Firefly
The Amazon Fire Phone is the only phone with Firefly technology which uses the camera to recognize over 100 million items. You can also quickly capture web addresses/URL’s, email addresses, phone numbers, and take action without typing. It will also identify scenes on TV by instantly recognizing over 280,000 movies, TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels. You can also use IMDB X-Ray to learn about actors and related content. You can use it to recognize music too. It will identify the song and artist of the song you are listening to and you can download it instantly. To use it simply launch the Firefly app or hold down the Firefly button then point the camera at items you want it to recognize or tap the music or video icons to identify music you are listening to or a movie or tv show you are watching.
Here’s Firefly recognizing one of the kids’ favorite books.
It pulled the book up and now I can add it to my shopping cart….
Here’s a video showing even more of what Firefly can do.
These features are remarkable and very fun to use. Other great features include:
- Includes a full year of Prime Benefits – including Instant Video unlimited streaming of over 40,000 movies and TV episodes, Prime Music over a million songs ad free, Kindle Owner’s Lending Library more than 500,000 books to borrow, free 2-day shipping
- If you are already a Prime member, your membership will be extended one year at no additional cost
- Comes with 1,000 Amazon Coins to purchase apps and games
- Free, unlimited Cloud Drive storage for all photos taken with the Fire Phone
- Can also back up Notes, Bookmarks, and Apps to the cloud
- The only smartphone with Mayday – Free, live, on-device support available 24/7 365 days a year, simply hit the Mayday button and a tech advisor will appear on the screen in about 15 seconds to copilot you through any feature on the device by drawing right on your screen
- Second Screen – turns your TV into the primary screen and frees up your Fire Phone for playback controls, a display for X-Ray, or emails, web browsing, social media and more.
I’ve enjoyed my time with the Amazon Fire Phone immensely and honestly, I’m going to miss it when I mail it back. I recommend it to anyone looking for a new smartphone and I’m putting it on my wishlist myself. It would make a fantastic gift for any gadget lover, phone fanatic, or for someone who simply needs a new phone this holiday season.
To learn more check out the Amazon Fire Phone website
I find this helpful because still trying to figure out the new smart phone thing. I still have a flip phone until I decide which is best fit for me.
I love the one handed gestures!