Amazon is going all out to sell the rest of the Fire Phone inventory, after extremely poor sales figures in the opening quarter.
The Fire Phone is now just £249 in the UK and $199 in the US, an odd state of price. Normally items in the UK cost less than the US equivalent, but for some reason Amazon has decided to price the Fire Phone higher in the UK.
Despite the exchange rate, the £249 off contract price is good, relative to other smartphones. Most smartphones in the UK come with a £399 – £599 off contract price, making the Fire Phone considerably lower.
The Fire Phone is one of the first smartphones to offer a 3D display, utilising the four cameras on the front of the device to change the perspective of the display. It allows the screen to emit 3D without the need for 3D glasses.
Another feature exclusive to the Fire Phone is Firefly, a digital “tagger” capable of recognising millions of objects and showing what it is and potentially where to buy it, further pushing the Amazon ecosystem onto the user.
Even though these two features sound great, in reality they have had a less than stellar first few months. The 3D display does not work on most apps and Firefly is mostly used as a tool for Amazon to sell you stuff, not amazing in the real world.
Amazon’s Fire OS is missing a lot of features iOS and Android have had for years and lacks the full finish of those other two operating systems. The design looks nice, but design is not really enough to sell a phone on its own.
Even at £249, it becomes questionable as to whether the Fire Phone is as good as a cheap Android smartphone. It all depends on if the customers if fine with Fire OS, Amazon’s worst flaw at the moment.
