What is the Fire Phone? Amazon enters smart phone market and turns up the heat on Apple and Google

Amazon officially entered the smartphone war with the Fire Phone, a feature-packed device built around shopping.

17:34 19 June 2014

Following a lengthy PR tease that involved sending a children’s storybook to reporters and a video of people fawning over an unseen device, Amazon has finally unveiled Fire Phone, a smartphone that is feature-packed and geared towards shopping. 

 

The Fire Phone is expected to turn up the heat on Apple and Google as Amazon aims to win the smartphone war. 

 

Amazon is working together with HBO Go, Netflix, and Hulu Plus to stream movies and TV on the device. Meanwhile, Amazon head Jeff Bezos made clear he was courting the millions of people who use its Amazon Prime service to get music and films to encourage them to swap devices. 

 

Fire Phone comes with a 4.7in screen, a 14 megapixel rear camera with an f2.0 lens which Bezos said was better in taking photos in low lighting when compared to Apple and Samsung. The phone also comes with free, unlimited photo storage via Amazon Cloud Drive and tangle-free headphones. 

 

It's currently a US exclusive.