[poohbear_nc]

OK - been playing with most of the features for a couple of weeks now. It's a decent smartphone.

Firefly is fun - but only works well recognizing music, films, products with brand names or bar codes, etc. - at present fairly hopeless at recognizing everyday objects without labels. Just for fun I scanned the 'LL Bean' tag on my slippers - not a clue. Lots of room for improvement here. I read that future development will add translation to its functionality - handy for menus, traveling (street signs, phone directories, etc).

Dynamic Perspective 3D effects work fine for the floating menus/labels, etc. I'm not a game player, so I can't really evaluate its importance there. The one handed gestures/flips to bring up/remove menu panels were quite easy to learn & use - not really intrusive at all. They do become irritating when actually using the phone to actually make a call - when you adjust it to your ear, the tilting causes menus to appear/disappear - and you have to re-adjust it to get back to the screen with the information about your call - but no real problem.

Decent camera with nice on-phone editing tools.

Enough apps to keep me organized/informed (To do lists, note pad, etc.) - but I'm not active on social media.

The screen is crisp & bright and very readable - even for someone with old, tired eyes - I've had little trouble using apps, reading emails, reading the map, etc. - it's a very nice screen display.

So - as I said above, no real compelling reason to dump your current phone, esp. if your life is wedded to Google or iPhone apps. Lots of potential areas of development for its flagship Dynamic Perspective & Firefly apps. ATT data plans suck, compared to say, T-Mobile - with unlimited text & talk, if you aren't a data hog, the monthly plans are over kill and over priced. Unlocked pricing highly unrealistic with the current set of features.

Who should consider buying this phone?
1. Lifelong members of the Amazon eco-verse that buy everything possible from Amazon and are Prime members. And who have their stuff in the Amazon cloud.

2. Older (non techy) folk who are daunted by the learning curve for either an iPhone or an Android smartphone, and want a gentle introduction into the world of smartphones - esp. since Mayday is included. You can really start using email, camera, etc. right away with few problems.

3. Folk with disabilities or difficulties with finger movements (arthritis, etc.) - the one handed gestures plus the array of Accessibility features available are impressive.

4. Parents who want to give their kids smartphones - parental controls, etc. loaded.

I'm keeping mine - and awaiting anxiously to see if Amazon/ATT will offer some better data deals either during the 2-year contract (to keep existing customers) or at the end - when you can legally unlock your phone.