Amazon releases the Killer Android Phone "Fire Phone"

Amazon took to the stage in Seattle to talk about its first smartphone. The device is a rather middle-of-the-road piece of hardware, and comes with features that range from genius to gimmicky. The Fire Phone has a 4.7-inch 720p HD screen that Android claims is one of the brightest available for better outdoor viewing and reading. It is powered by a 2.2-GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor from Qualcomm with Adreno 330 graphics and 2 GB of RAM. The phone will be sold in 32-GB and 64-GB varieties.

The Fire Phone includes a 13-megapixel main camera that can shoot 1080p HD video. Amazon is providing unlimited Cloud Drive storage for photos taken with the Fire Phone. The camera has an aperture of f/2.0 for better low-light performance and optical image stabilization for sharper photos. It also has a 2.1-megapixel user-facing camera for selfies. The device is equipped with stereo speakers and Dolby Digital sound. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company took care in designing and manufacturing the phone to give it a premium feel.

The Fire Phone runs the latest version of Amazon's Fire OS, which is what is found on Amazon's Kindle tablets. Fire OS is based on Android, but is forked -- meaning it doesn't include Google services, such as the Play Store and Gmail. Instead, the OS comes with Amazon's application and content stores. The operating system is where Amazon performed most of the magic to differentiate the Fire Phone from the competition. The things that stand out are Dynamic Perspective, Firefly, MayDay, and Prime.

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