Kindle Fire Phone - Hands On Review

[Barbara1955]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Not really. You can't make a call with a tablet, You can't use a turn by turn navigation app with a WIFI tablet while driving. You can't have 4G on a $50 Kindle Fire. The Amazon phone is a great phone The speakers are okay but the earbuds that comes with the phone are top notch. It's super portable. The texting app awesome. It can hold a infinite amount of texts. I have 1 years worth on here and still have not reach my limit. Silk actually works on the Fire Phone unlike the Kindle Fires where it is buggy and likes to freeze.

The camera is 20 megapixels The front camera is 5 megapixels. It has flash which also doubles as a super bright flashlight wonderful for power outages. You can store all your photos on the Cloud for free.

There is also voice recognition which allows you to use it hands free when needing to call someone, email, get directions and ask simple fact questions. This is wonderful when you are in a car and can't type due to bad roads or you are driving.

The PPI on Fire Phone is 315ppi which makes text rendering amazing. So it outdoes the Kindle Fire 6 which only has 252ppi Having such a high PPI on a phone is surprising.

I could go on and on why this phone is an amazing deal without Prime for the price. I can say it has been a real blessing to me this year being back in St Louis it has kept my husband calm when he expected me to know how to get from point a to point b by memory. Alot has change in 15 years so the navigation app was a must for our sanity

If you can tell I really miss my phone! I still use it to read or listen to music on the go but phone features really are amazing.

Silk worked great on my Fire HD 7" Never had a problem with it once! Speakers were great ion my Fire HD ..which is why I was surprised they so crappy on the phone. Had to buy decent speakers just to hear my Audibles
How come you miss your phone?

[vermontcathy]

Yep, I'm one of the very unlucky ones who bought a Fire phone on eBay, after Amazon stopped offering Prime, and before the seller found out and changed the listing. Trouble is, I really like the phone and don't want to return it. I thought Amazon would eventually budge and give us the year of prime, but not so far. But I did get two months free Prime, one month because I started a chat and said I bought a phone that will come with Prime, but my prime was going to expire just a few days before I receive the phone, and could I have my Prime expiration date pushed back just so I don't get charged before I get the phone. They said sure and gave me a month. Then, during one of several chats arguing about not getting prime, I asked if I could maybe have a $10 account credit to make up for the hassle, and they said no. I asked for an extra month of Prime and they said yes. A day or two later I tried again, but they very quickly said I had contacted Amazon many times recently about this and essentially, stop bothering them.

[tomsem]

The Fire Phone navigation is okay, but it has left me in limbo a few times, and I had to basically wing it and hope that it got back on track to get me where I needed to go. It sometimes sends me one way, then changes its mind and sends me back in a different direction. Sort of annoying when you are trying to get somewhere on time.

Google Maps does some strange routing sometimes but i trust it more.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Katie1

How come you miss your phone?

Because I am stuck using a dumbphone due to finances. I get like 350 minutes a month for free but unlimited texting but texting on a dumbphone is really difficult. I'm not complaining it was all free thanks to Uncle Sam.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by vermontcathy

Yep, I'm one of the very unlucky ones who bought a Fire phone on eBay, after Amazon stopped offering Prime, and before the seller found out and changed the listing. Trouble is, I really like the phone and don't want to return it. I thought Amazon would eventually budge and give us the year of prime, but not so far. But I did get two months free Prime, one month because I started a chat and said I bought a phone that will come with Prime, but my prime was going to expire just a few days before I receive the phone, and could I have my Prime expiration date pushed back just so I don't get charged before I get the phone. They said sure and gave me a month. Then, during one of several chats arguing about not getting prime, I asked if I could maybe have a $10 account credit to make up for the hassle, and they said no. I asked for an extra month of Prime and they said yes. A day or two later I tried again, but they very quickly said I had contacted Amazon many times recently about this and essentially, stop bothering them.

It's time to email Jeff Bezos' office and let him know what they said to you. If you have your transcript forward them to his office. Don't stand for it. Amazon is usually very good on making the customer happy.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by tomsem

The Fire Phone navigation is okay, but it has left me in limbo a few times, and I had to basically wing it and hope that it got back on track to get me where I needed to go. It sometimes sends me one way, then changes its mind and sends me back in a different direction. Sort of annoying when you are trying to get somewhere on time.

Google Maps does some strange routing sometimes but i trust it more.

I actually trust my phone more. Google Maps has gotten me yelled at more times than I can count when we lived in Raleigh because it tooks us the wrong way or the directions wasn't clear enough. I've never had it change the directions but it does always show several routes make sure you pick the same one both times.

[Breathinlady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

A feedback to Amazon got me a "does not support Amazon Underground at this time". As a goodwill gesture, they gave me 5,000 Amazon Coins ($50 in value).

I also complained about no Underground, I have 2 Fire Phones and 4 Kindles. Amazon promised me 5,000 coins....BUT have not received them. Did you get yours or just a promise.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I actually trust my phone more. Google Maps has gotten me yelled at more times than I can count when we lived in Raleigh because it tooks us the wrong way or the directions wasn't clear enough. I've never had it change the directions but it does always show several routes make sure you pick the same one both times.

Must have been a solar flare or something, but I was approaching my destination and it said 'take the next exit', 'continue on highway x', 'take the next exit', 'continue on highway x', 'take the next exit', about 5 times, all within the space of a few seconds.

Another time it told me to take an exit and turn right, then a few hundred yards later to turn around and get back on the freeway (the more direct route in the first place, but heavy traffic). It's like it lost its faith in the local route it was taking me on.

I haven't figured out how to select from alternative routes when it displays them on the map. I just 'start navigation' and go.

[alexa04]

Thanks for sharing this review, I now already decided to have one. Kudos!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Breathinlady

I also complained about no Underground, I have 2 Fire Phones and 4 Kindles. Amazon promised me 5,000 coins....BUT have not received them. Did you get yours or just a promise.

Congrats; I got them and you'll get them too, but it'll take several days. It was about four days for me because of a weekend. This is from the email they sent me:

Your opinion is important for us and hence as a good will gesture, I’ve requested 5000 Amazon Coins to be applied to your Amazon account. You will receive these Amazon Coins within 3 business days.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Must have been a solar flare or something, but I was approaching my destination and it said 'take the next exit', 'continue on highway x', 'take the next exit', 'continue on highway x', 'take the next exit', about 5 times, all within the space of a few seconds.

Another time it told me to take an exit and turn right, then a few hundred yards later to turn around and get back on the freeway (the more direct route in the first place, but heavy traffic). It's like it lost its faith in the local route it was taking me on.

I haven't figured out how to select from alternative routes when it displays them on the map. I just 'start navigation' and go.

You just click on the pins to select the route you want to try. It sounds to me like your phone overheated. The Nav app draws a significant amount of power and when it's sunny it's heats up quick. I've had to put my phone in front of the ac ducts to keep it cool and keep it out of the sun. I have an app that alerts me when my phone is overheated and due to the case its in it does it quite often if outdoors.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Blossom

You just click on the pins to select the route you want to try. It sounds to me like your phone overheated. The Nav app draws a significant amount of power and when it's sunny it's heats up quick. I've had to put my phone in front of the ac ducts to keep it cool and keep it out of the sun. I have an app that alerts me when my phone is overheated and due to the case its in it does it quite often if outdoors.

Yes I figured out the route thing when I tried it the next time. Sometimes I just need to state the problem to somebody & then the solution comes.

I don't think overheating was at issue in either case I cited, it had not been going more than 5-10 minutes, and was not in the sun or without a/c flow.

[Blossom]

I just figured out how to fix my voicemail notifications. I had this notification stuck for months. The voicemail number has changed. I got my phone reactivated by the way. I first cleared the voicemail app data then I made a call from another phone leaving a message. I then restarted my Fire Phone and waited. The notification never came back and 15 minutes later the new one showed up which I called in and deleted and that notification went away. So I can use voicemail again.

[Barbara1955]

I had to get my Home Health Aide to teach me that feature when I 1st got it

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I got my phone reactivated by the way.

Awesome! I upgraded my GoPhone plan to include 1.5 GB of data a month. I'll try and see if I like it, so far, I do!