Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm not an AT&T customer so I kind of disregarded the AT&T Fire phone, but then I saw an unlocked device for $199, so I looked at the reviews of the AT&T version and almost dismissed the product because of the 2 1/2 stars rating, that is until I noticed that most of those reviews had nothing to do with the product. The majority of the one stars came from either Greenpeacers protesting against Amazon (the company, not the phone) or people complaining about that the phone only works on AT&T, which is exactly as it was advertised. Take out the Greenpeacers, misguided reviewers who slammed the phone because it is an AT&T-only product, and folks who for some reason think a company should not attempt to make money by making it easy to purchase content and services from the handset maker, and you have a solid four-star rating; and as an AT&T contract-required device, I'd agree with the 4 stars. But after one day with the product, given the price point and value, I'm giving the unlocked version of this phone 5 stars. Here's why: First, if you are Prime, or considering being a Prime member, the phone is 99 bucks for both the already-Prime customer and the non-Prime customer because either way, you get Amazon Prime free for one year. Prime gives me free two-day shipping, and includes a vast array of included books, video, music, cloud storage, and audible books among other stuff which I had been consuming on my Kindle tablet. Then I got Fire TV and that blew me away. Point is, to me, there's really no reason for a middle class family with a mailbox and electricity to not have Amazon Prime, so again, the phone is $99 if you consider the free Prime, and I consider that value in my rating. You will not find a smart phone anywhere in the world with these specs at this price. Super-fast processor, high quality camera and display, great sound, and easy access to Amazon media and shopping. I've found native maps every bit as user friendly as Google maps or iphone maps. At first I was annoyed because there is no "back" functionality, but then I called Mayday and the agent demonstrated by taking remote control of my screen that Fire phone doesn't use a "back" button, instead, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen. "Swipe-up is the new back". After figuring that out, the UI was easy to adapt to when I followed this rule of thumb: "If you can't find what you are looking for on the screen then swipe left, right, up, or down, and you will probably find the button or screen you need. It's all there, hidden off to the side, and Amazon has revolutionized that concept of off-screen, invisible menus. This is an under-rated feature. I saw a lot of reviews complain about the UI, but they could have done the same thing I did and spent one minute to tap the Mayday button and get a live person to appear on their screen and demo anything on the phone that they want to know about. That is truly amazing customer service and beats standing around an Apple store for 20 minutes trying to get someone's attention. The twist thing is pretty cool as well, twist left or right and see "hidden menus". Voice commands are not as extensive as Siri, but for calling and surfing functions, no problem. So the dynamic perspective is gimmicky and not really that useful in a lot of places especially since I don't game. I agree, but...for $99, you're not paying extra for it anyway. The camera is good quality and once you log in to your Amazon account, your photo and video content is auto-uploaded to your Amazon Cloud drive automatically and for free. A perfect solution for those who tend to lose their pictures forever when they lose their phone. I was disappointed that some of my favorite apps were missing from the Amazon app store, like Scottrade and Redfin to name two, but most of my old iphone apps were there. Frankly, I got tired of Apple's poor customer service and how every product that I've ever bought from them goes to crap after a year of two and their solution is to always to ask me to pay for sw upgrades or sell me their new product. I don't want to pay for a software upgrade to make my Facetime work again. I want my Facetime to work on my 2-year-old iphone and my 3-year-old IMac without paying again. When something doesn't work, I want to tap a button and complain to an agent who will do every thing they can to help me, for free. That's why I took a chance with the Fire phone and so far...so good.