Amazon Announces 'Fire Phone' With 3D 'Dynamic Perspective' Interface, 'Firefly' Object Recognition Engine

Amazon today unveiled its much-anticipated new smartphone, the Fire Phone, which Amazon calls "refined, beautiful, and robust." The phone has a 4.7-inch LCD HD display along with Gorilla Glass 3 on both sides and "precise" aluminum buttons.

It includes a quad-core 2.2GHz processor, an Adreno 330 Graphics Processor, 2GB of RAM, and dual stereo speakers. There's a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/2.0 five element lens and built-in optical image stabilization.

firephone
Aiming at Apple, Amazon touted the low-light capabilities of the camera included in the phone and announced free unlimited photo storage through its Amazon Cloud Drive service. Apple recently announced its own iCloud Photo Library, but it offers a limited amount of storage for free.

Along with standard cameras, Amazon's Fire Phone utilizes four additional cameras for a 3D interface, called "Dynamic Perspective." 3D images on the phone change as it is tilted and viewed from different angles, thanks to advanced eye and face tracking capabilities. Demonstrated with a mapping app, the 3D UI displayed a 3D version of the Empire State Building that could be viewed from all angles, with a tilt of the phone expanding the view.

Amazon's Fire Phone accomplishes the facial tracking with its four corner cameras and knows where a user's head is at all times to aid Dynamic Perspective, using infrared for tracking in the dark and advanced algorithms for head continuous tracking.

dynamicperspective
Accelerometers enable navigation through tilt gestures, demonstrated within a maps app that brought up Yelp when the phone was tilted slightly. Tilting and Dynamic Perspective can also be used in apps and for web browsing -- scrolling through items, zooming in, pulling up menus, and more. There's an autoscroll feature that will scroll through web pages and books automatically, which Jeff Bezos called "incredibly natural." Amazon is releasing a Dynamic Perspective SDK for developers today.

Also included with the phone is a new flagship feature called Firefly, a virtual recognition program able to recognize QR codes, barcodes, objects, and more, which facilitates the discovery and purchase of various items. Firefly is built directly into the Fire Phone with a dedicated button on the side.

On stage, Amazon demoed Firefly scanning barcodes, URLs, and products like games, keeping a record of what was scanned and allowing the info to be used to make purchases, phone calls, and more. Firefly is also able to listen to music and recognize audio like TV shows, much like Siri can now do with Shazam, and it's also able to recognize art, pulling up a Wikipedia page for a painting.

It's a fully featured recognition system that can even read street signs and phone numbers from a distance. According to Amazon, it recognizes a hundred million different items in real world situations, and provides a button so users can buy most of them on the spot. There's also a Firefly SDK that developers can utilize to build Firefly into apps.

firefly
As for the phone's UI, it includes an app grid that lets users pin content like books, apps, magazines, and more, and there's also a scrollable carousel of apps at the top of the screen and four common apps on the bottom of the phone's interface. The phone also includes active widgets that can be used when opening a full app is unnecessary.

Both the Kindle Fire's Second Screen and X-Ray feature work on the Fire phone, and users are able to "fling" video from the phone to the Amazon TV, while X-Ray gives details on whatever is being watched. HBO Go, Netflix, YouTube, ESPN, and more are all supposed in addition to Amazon's own video services.

The Fire Phone will also support Amazon's new Prime music service, which the company launched last week, as well as music from Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartMusic, and it will include Kindle and Audible support. Much like the latest Fire tablets, it supports Mayday, a free service that lets users contact customer support representatives for free.

Amazon's Fire Phone is exclusive to AT&T and will be priced at $199/$299 for 32/64GB of storage with a standard contract or carrier agreement. The price includes the phone, stay-flat cables, and premium magnetic earbuds. It can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com and is expected to begin shipping in July.

(Images courtesy of CNET)

Popular Stories

iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro to Reverse iPhone X Design Decision

Monday July 7, 2025 9:46 am PDT by
Since the iPhone X in 2017, all of Apple's highest-end iPhone models have featured either stainless steel or titanium frames, but it has now been rumored that this design decision will be coming to an end with the iPhone 17 Pro models later this year. In a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo today, the account Instant Digital said that the iPhone 17 Pro models will have an aluminum...
imac video apple feature

Apple Launching These 15+ Products Later This Year

Sunday July 6, 2025 8:05 am PDT by
The calendar has turned to July, meaning that 2025 is now more than half over. And while the summer months are often quiet for Apple, the company still has more than a dozen products coming later this year, according to rumors. Below, we have outlined at least 15 new Apple products that are expected to launch later this year, along with key rumored features for each. iPhone 17 Series iPho...
iOS 26 Feature

Everything New in iOS 26 Beta 3

Monday July 7, 2025 1:20 pm PDT by
Apple is continuing to refine and update iOS 26, and beta three features smaller changes than we saw in beta 2, plus further tweaks to the Liquid Glass design. Apple is gearing up for the next phase of beta testing, and the company has promised that a public beta is set to come out in July. Transparency In some apps like Apple Music, Podcasts, and the App Store, Apple has toned down the...
iPhone Car Key Kia

Here's Which Vehicles Offer iPhone Car Keys

Sunday July 6, 2025 3:03 pm PDT by
In 2020, Apple added a digital car key feature to its Wallet app, allowing users to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle with an iPhone or Apple Watch. The feature is currently offered by select automakers, including Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and a handful of others, and it is set to expand further. Apple has a web page with a list of vehicle models that ...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iphone 17 pro render majin bu

New iPhone 17 Pro Renders Highlight Apple Logo and MagSafe Design Changes

Sunday July 6, 2025 8:43 pm PDT by
New renders today provide the best look yet relocated Apple logo and redesigned MagSafe magnet array of the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. Image via Majin Bu. Several of the design changes coming to the iPhone 17 Pro model have been rumored for some time, such as the elongated camera bump that spans the full width of the device, with the LiDAR Scanner and flash moving to the right side. ...
iPhone 14 Pro Dynamic Island

iPhone 17 Models Rumored to Feature Redesigned Dynamic Island

Monday July 7, 2025 7:38 am PDT by
iPhone 17 models will feature a redesigned Dynamic Island user interface, according to a post today from Digital Chat Station, an account with more than three million followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The account has accurately leaked some information regarding future Apple products in the past. The account did not share any specific details about the alleged changes that are ...
Prime Day 25 Feature Warm Triad

The Best Prime Day Deals on AirPods, iPads, MacBooks, and More

Monday July 7, 2025 10:55 am PDT by
Amazon is back with its annual summertime Prime Day event, lasting for four days from July 8-11, the longest Prime Day yet. As it does every year, Prime Day offers shoppers a huge selection of deals across Amazon's storefront. With the event now underway, we're tracking numerous all-time low prices on Apple gear right now. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a...

Top Rated Comments

netnothing Avatar
144 months ago
Apple take notice

Nobody wants the entry level iPhone to only have 16GB anymore!

32GB minimum unless it's a low end phone.

-Kevin
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AFDoc Avatar
144 months ago
Of course here comes the flood of comments saying how this feature is dumb and the phone sucks..... Of course if apple implements some of these features they will be awesome and revolutionary.

For the guy saying it looks familiar..... To what? Every rectangle phone made?
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
larrylaffer Avatar
144 months ago
Pretty impressive looking device! Good to see more competition entering the fray.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
El Cabong Avatar
144 months ago
That design looks familiar. Can't put my finger on it, though.

Looks like a smartphone.

You're welcome.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1Zach1 Avatar
144 months ago
Yeah, but Apple might have a pressure sensor, so there's that.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MikeAnd Avatar
144 months ago
Can't believe the price of entry...

It's as much as an iPhone 5S or a Galaxy S5 (albeit with more storage). I thought for sure they'd try to shake up the market with low prices, a la Kindle Fire.

It might be a decent high-end smartphone – we won't know until it's reviewed – but at those price points it's going to meet with the same success as the HTC Facebook phone.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)