896
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #12,788 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Would not buy again...
I had a hard decision between the Amazon Fire Phone, Samsung Galaxy S 5, and Samsung Galaxy S 5 Active. I eventually picked the Fire Phone because I have loved my Kindle, Amazon Prime, and the camera on it was excellent. I keep my phones for a while, in all my years of wireless service I have been off contract more than I have been in one. This phone replaced a 1st gen windows phone I carried for 5 years or so (which still works flawlessly after years of abuse).
First week I was disappointed in how the battery will not last even 16 hours if you do anything that takes advantage of the high def screen. I now have a charger in the car, at work and at home so the damn thing can be plugged in all the time. I am essentially back to having a corded phone that travels.
I also noticed was it gets super warm, I understand that having a powerful processor will generate heat, but with my job being in technology I also know poor cooling design and excessive heat is the bane of electronics.
The most annoying issue I have found is that the day after my 2 weeks trial period ended the key pad has started to freeze up and disappear at least once a day, forcing a restart of the phone.
Conclusions: Gimmicky at best, has potential if people actually program to the capabilities of the phone, good call quality, excellent camera, Amazon's restricted access to apps has been more annoying than I anticipated, I am nervous about the phone's longevity and hope it makes it past my 2 years on contract without too many issues until I can get it replaced, I feel like I should have went with the Samsung Galaxy S 5 Active.
Update: My opinions have not changed about the phone. I was contacted by Amazon's customer service and they were excellent and did all they could do for a customer. I would rate the customer service at Amazon as one of the best in the world.
Paying $199 for the phone on contract to have it change to $0.99 just one month later feels like a huge rip and is a bit insulting as a customer. The new 99 cent phones even come with Prime. I will never again buy a phone on release week. Thank you Amazon for a hard earned lesson.
August 2014 · Unknown · verified purchase