The specs are surely on par with today’s high end offerings if not better and the features whether you feel gimmicky or useful, go far to make this phone a no-kidding top three (3) device, if not the best.

The Fire Phone brings to market some features we’ve seen on other phones, noticeably, the line of Samsung phones with their gestures and smart features. Having owned the Note 2, those features seemed impressive when introduced, after time, however, I barely used them. Either they just didn’t work as promoted or were a significant drain on battery and not worth the effort. The demos in the keynote looked smooth and just worked, yet real world usage, will show the true light as usual. That said, Amazon is using different technologies, like four (4) cameras on the front to allow the phone to know exactly where the user’s head is at all times to facilitate scrolling web pages, books etc. 

One of the coolest features announced was Firefly, QR scanning on steroids. Supposedly, with the push of the dedicated Firefly button, the Fire will recognize anything and get you the applicable information and/or push you to the Amazon store to purchase. According to Amazon, Firefly recognizes over 70 million items, 240,000 movies & tv shows and music. Bottom line, the Fire Phone is positioning to be the one device to fill consumer needs. Third party apps will play nicely; a couple mentioned were Stubhub and iHeart radio for ticket buying and station creating based on artist Firefly hears.

Another feature sure to please many, is ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction). Now, when you hit play, the video plays. No waiting for buffer and it also learns your viewing habits and will get shows or movies ready for viewing in advance.

For full features and specs, you can head to Amazon’s site and view, here’s the link: Fire Phone.

Concluding thoughts: Devoid of actually having hands on with the Fire Phone, it’s not tough to be impressed with its characteristics and functionality. Still, there’s a piece of me that wonders whether there’s simply too much baked in this 4.7″ device. Sure, there is a huge discussion throughout the tech world that feels tablet use is declining and we, the consumers, use our phones more than tablets for daily task. Actually, of late, I’ve seemed to prefer a good tablet with a good phone with excellent coverage. Merely, that could be ascribed to the failures or smooth execution of yesterday’s features. Perhaps, only maybe, Amazon has got it right, the years of R&D, the four (4) cameras and more are the answer to not just features, but features that work and are useful.

So, I ask. Is the Amazon Fire Phone a “Game Changer”?