Amazon Fire Phone

On 1/24/2015 priusgal said: Is this phone any good? Reviews seem to be split on Amazon. Anyone have one?

The Fire phone has very poor reviews. Here is just one. http://www.cnet.com/products/amazon-fire-phone/

Better choices would be Samsung S4, or S5, iPhones 6 or 6 plus, and the LG G3. You will find thousands of reviews for the phones listed at Verizon. http://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/

There are only 40 reviews for the Fire Phone at AT&T. http://www.att.com/cellphones/amazon/fire-phone.html#tab4

This is one of those cases where you'll want to sift through the reviews. Many people just issued scathing reviews because the Fire Phone doesn't use Google's Play Store. Many who own the phones love them, so you have to read through every review to find out which apply to you.

The CNET review is dated and kind of a crock. 3 stars because it doesn't have Play, yet it performs well? Also the price is half of the release now. When reading reviews on Amazon throw out any review that doesn't say verified purchase. Even then you will still find many negative reviews that were made without ever having opened the box. Some positive as well but not nearly as bad. If it says Amazon people are going to hate it just like if it says Walmart. For me the Fire is nice phone. The hardware is killer, much more friendly layout for one handed use, and despite being geared towards the Amazon experience it's not really effected if you don't use it. The GPS is much more responsive and accurate, if you use that function, than my cousins GS5. If you are buying outright unlocked It is half or less than the competitors, or free on conract with different providers.

Like their tablets, Amazon uses an Android base and skins it with their own stuff. If you are going to pay that much money for a phone that has flopped in the world of electronics, buy a real android phone. The reason people get upset about google play is for what I just mentioned. An android phone that can't even access the Play store. A year of prime free isn't worth the phone. Today amazon had prime for a year for 72 bucks. If you bought yourself a decent droid phone , and this today, you still would come out less that what the fire phone goes for. Amazon had the phone unlocked and way under 200 bucks with no contract at xmas time and they barley moved units. Avoid this phone at all costs. It's all gimicky, you can hardly personalize it, and you are stuck in their ecosystem. Not worth it at all. Sure it's fun for like a week, then you'll find yourself wanting to throw it out the window.