MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Amazon Unlocks Fire Phone & Slashes Price

Indio777 · 11-30-2014, 09:05 AM

Hmmmm ..... thinking about this. Definitely a case of something I didn't think/know I needed until I found out about the "sale."

Some other info I found:

Per Amazon: "All GSM Networks including AT&T, T-Mobile, Walmart Family Mobile, MetroPCS, Brightspot, Simple Mobile, Mobal, Net10, Straight Talk, h20 Wireless, and OneSimCard." So I could use this as a backup pay as you go phone, I guess. And a smaller portable tablet, etc.

I read in a review that the "base" OS was Android 4.2.2 Jellybean. Not exactly the most current version of Android, although there have been updates to the OS since the phone came out.

Someone on Amazon claimed that he was able to access GooglePlay by changing a setting. Although even if true I wonder if there might be problems with some apps working properly.

I checked the XDA forum for this phone. Not much activity compared to the ones for other phones. People claim that it IS rootable if one can revert to an earlier version of the OS and does some other things. But since the bootloader remains locked no custom ROMs.

I get the impression that it is rather doubtful that anyone is going to put in the time/effort figuring out how to unlock the bootloader for this particular phone.

11-30-2014, 09:05 AM	#80
Indio777 Addict Posts: 210 Karma: 1503568 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Washington, DC Device: Mobile Phone, Kindle (rarely), but mostly still read paper	Hmmmm ..... thinking about this. Definitely a case of something I didn't think/know I needed until I found out about the "sale." Some other info I found: Per Amazon: "All GSM Networks including AT&T, T-Mobile, Walmart Family Mobile, MetroPCS, Brightspot, Simple Mobile, Mobal, Net10, Straight Talk, h20 Wireless, and OneSimCard." So I could use this as a backup pay as you go phone, I guess. And a smaller portable tablet, etc. I read in a review that the "base" OS was Android 4.2.2 Jellybean. Not exactly the most current version of Android, although there have been updates to the OS since the phone came out. Someone on Amazon claimed that he was able to access GooglePlay by changing a setting. Although even if true I wonder if there might be problems with some apps working properly. I checked the XDA forum for this phone. Not much activity compared to the ones for other phones. People claim that it IS rootable if one can revert to an earlier version of the OS and does some other things. But since the bootloader remains locked no custom ROMs. I get the impression that it is rather doubtful that anyone is going to put in the time/effort figuring out how to unlock the bootloader for this particular phone.