Amazon Fire Smartphone Features

Amazon's Fire Phone: How New Are Its So-Called New Features?

CNET takes a look at six of the most hyped features on Amazon's Fire Phone and tells us just how new they really are.

The Amazon Fire Phone is a discontinued 3D-enabled smartphone developed by Amazon and manufactured by Foxconn. It was announced on June 18, 2014, and marked Amazon's first foray into the smartphone market.

The Fire Phone was heavily promoted by Amazon as having a number of innovative features, including a 3D display, a Snapdragon 800 chipset, a 13 MP rear-facing camera, and a 21 MP front-facing camera. However, CNET's review of the Fire Phone found that many of these features were not as new or innovative as Amazon claimed.

Display

The Fire Phone's 4.7-inch display is not a true 3D display. Instead, it uses a technology called "parallax barrier" to create the illusion of 3D.

Parallax barrier displays have been around for several years, and they are not without their drawbacks. For one, they require users to hold the phone at a very specific angle in order to see the 3D effect.

Chipset

The Fire Phone is powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset, which was released in 2013.

This chipset is not the latest and greatest, but it is still a powerful chip that can handle most tasks without any problems.

Cameras

The Fire Phone has a 13 MP rear-facing camera and a 21 MP front-facing camera.

These cameras are not the best in the market, but they are still capable of taking good photos.

Battery

The Fire Phone has a 2400 mAh battery.

This is a relatively small battery, and it is not likely to last a full day on a single charge.

Storage

The Fire Phone comes with 64 GB of storage.

This is a lot of storage, but it is not expandable.

RAM

The Fire Phone has 2 GB of RAM.

This is a decent amount of RAM, but it is not as much as some other smartphones on the market.

Conclusion

Overall, the Amazon Fire Phone is a decent smartphone, but it is not as revolutionary as Amazon claimed.

Many of the features that Amazon touted as being new and innovative are actually not that new.