Five reasons we're excited about the Amazon Fire Phone

After seeing astronomical success on the tablet and e-reader market, it didn’t come as much of a surprise to see Amazon unveil its very first smartphone earlier on this year. Named the Amazon Fire Phone, it certainly has a lot to live up to if it wants to compete with some of the other flagship phones on the market.

But what features separate the Amazon Fire Phone from the rest of its competition? Can the Amazon Fire Phone specs and functions really find a way to stand out ahead of the likes of the latest Apple or Samsung offerings?

1. Amazon Dynamic Perspective

One of the most interesting features we’ve ever seen on a smartphone, Dynamic Perspective is being marketed as one of the key selling points of the Fire Phone. Working through four corner based cameras, the Amazon handset can track the user’s eyes and face and adjust the display accordingly to offer a 3D effect.

The feature allows users to scroll hands-free, tilt for expanded perspectives, swivel to gain access to quick settings and notifications, and ‘peek’ to see customisable settings at leisure. Amazon has also opened up the feature to developers, so its uses are only going to grow the longer the handset is out.

2. Firefly from Amazon

Another feature that’s never been seen before on any smartphone is Firefly, leading to the handset being referred to as the ‘Firefly Phone. The feature acts as a ‘Shazam’ style app on a much greater scale; whilst Shazam can identify songs with the press of a button, Firefly can identify over 50 million products and much, much more.

Phone numbers, web and email addresses can be pulled straight from your camera viewfinder. Movies from your television screen, music off the radio and even products from everyday life can get identified, all within seconds of pressing the integrated Firefly button on the Amazon Fire Phone.

Also, if you spot something you want to buy, any product found through Firefly can be bought online quickly and easily. Again, this feature is open to developers, so if you aren’t impressed yet (we can’t imagine why!) then its abilities are set to grow even more with age.

3. Amazon Mayday

Technical support in its most advanced form to date, Amazon Mayday ensures that if you’re having problems with your phone, that it gets fixed as fast as possible. Offering free, one to one mobile support with a friendly face, you can access the service within 15 seconds or less, 24 hours a day.

Amazon personnel can troubleshoot in person, and can also annotate your display to help you fix the problem quickly and easily. Whilst you can see them, the Amazon staff can’t see you, so you needn’t worry about doing your hair or make-up if you’re self-conscious.

In addition to Wi-Fi connections, Amazon has also begun making the service compatible with mobile network services, which will use up your data when out and about. So, regardless of where you’re located, if you have signal, you can get technical support.

4. Amazon Fire OS 3.6

As well as a new phone, Amazon is bringing us a new operating system to play with as well via the Amazon Fire OS 3.6 software. Based on the Android OS which has been immensely popular, the Amazon operating system adds a number of enhancements to make the software unique to the Fire Phone.

The system allows you to organise your apps easily, switch between features without fuss, and offers Amazon’s very own digital content through its own app store. Also, with built-in apps like Amazon Instant Video, Audiobooks and the Silk Browser, you won’t be struggling to use the Fire Phone’s software anytime soon.

5. Fire Phone Advanced Camera System

With the ever growing love of selfies, Vines and Instagram, a good camera has become a necessity on a flagship smartphone, and the Amazon Fire Phone isn’t planning on getting left behind on this front. Sporting a 13 megapixel rear lens, the Fire Phone offers terrific picture quality alongside a bevy of features.

Optical Image Stabilisation, 1080p video, burst mode, HDR and panorama modes all make the cut behind the scenes. Also, with unlimited free cloud storage alongside an automatic back-up feature, all of your images are kept safe and sound after they’ve been taken.

Finally, with a dedicated camera button on the side of the handset, you don’t have to worry about scrolling through your phone’s touch-screen to get to the snapper. All in all, Amazon’s camera does a brilliant job, and is probably one of its most underrated features.

So, with all of these features, it looks like the Amazon Fire Phone could well be a hit. We certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see it turn some heads this Christmas.

How much is the Amazon Fire phone?

The first phone from Amazon is exclusively available to O2 at a pay monthly price of £33/month. However, with the popularity of the device growing, we could see it coming to the Mobiles.co.uk store soon!