That would be me!! lol. Amazon made me an offer I couldn't refuse -$159- I got the free year of prime- I paid for it last year by accident and ended up getting a lot of use out of it, so this made it easy. And the phone was $60 (after putting $99 towards prime), and I opened an amazon CC which gave me $40 in an instant credit- so this phone was $20 in the end!! plus taxes of course.
Before I pulled the trigger I looked to XDA to see where development was for this phone- and it looks like it is picking up and starting to move- so I will be getting this new fire phone tomorrow!!! I have to confess I have been using an iphone 5s (JB of course!) for the last year and a half and have been missing the challenge of rooting, romming, and making the best out of the hardware that is lacking due to poor software.
My plan is to put on the latest update and add google play market- leave it unrooted for now and see how it goes. But I am keeping my eye on beta CM11 and seeing how far it goes with CM 13 possibly in the future!!
@ggow- you seem to be very ambitious with this phone!!!! You are doing some great work and I am following your development closely :good::highfive:. I have never used safestrap before, but I may just have to give it a whirl. You make it very tempting
Why was I interested in this Fire Phone??? I bought a kindle 7 hdx last year and hacked that to run google market and it turned out to be a pretty great tablet that I also got a great deal on. It has the fire OS running along side google market with a great launcher running to swap back and forth. So kindle, instant videos, amazon music, and all the google apps too. It's specs were very close to the ipad mini and was a third of the cost. I gave it to my daughter to use in NYC running on att and she has had no complaints with how I modded it. And she is not very techy! :silly:
I am getting a little bored with my 5s and wanted a bigger screen- I passed on the 6+ since we are no longer getting subsidies and $850 for a phone seems ridiculous!! I don't know if 0.7 inches will make much of a difference, but for $20, I just had to find out
I have a Fire Stick TV also and I want to see how they work together. Very excited to receive this phone tomorrow.
Even after all the horrible reviews I read and watched on you tube!! Hopefully these modifications developed here will make it great!
Geez!!!! 75 views and no comments? Come on people- loosen up and let me know if you love your fire phone or hate it or Hate me cause I got it so cheap:silly: Please share your experiences with your Fire Phone. By now it's a year old, but still looks like a great phone for $60. I am basically a really cheap bargain hunter and wait for things to go on sale. This was really a good one.
Share what you did to make it a great phone! Would love to benefit from your experiences.:highfive: Do you love the Fire OS? Do you love the Market? Or CM11? Please share And I thank you in advance:good:
Great phone for the money. If throw yourself into the Amazon ecosystem the fire OS works quite well but I think only Jeff Bezos has done that so far. I'm using it with a custom launcher at the moment but when cm11 is final I might adopt it.
sashusmom said:
Geez!!!! 75 views and no comments? Come on people- loosen up and let me know if you love your fire phone or hate it or Hate me cause I got it so cheap:silly: Please share your experiences with your Fire Phone. By now it's a year old, but still looks like a great phone for $60. I am basically a really cheap bargain hunter and wait for things to go on sale. This was really a good one.
Share what you did to make it a great phone! Would love to benefit from your experiences.:highfive: Do you love the Fire OS? Do you love the Market? Or CM11? Please share And I thank you in advance:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you asked:
The hardware is incredible for the price. The antutu benchmark puts it slightly faster than a galaxy s5. However, the bells and whistles (extra cameras, 3D, etc) are irrelevant at best. -- The os is terrible. It works well enough but is far behind other smart phones' os. Also, Amazon's wish to completely control your "experience" gets in the way of good hardware. If you root and then add gapps and the google now launcher, the phone is better to use, but still feels wrong, especially when certain apps can only be added through amazon's app store. -- Finally, I'm still irked by the locked bootloader. It was at this stage I put it in the drawer to use as an emergency backup - or maybe a "mini-gamer" for kids.
Then came ggow and his work to bring CM11 to the phone. Thanks to him, I now use it as my daily driver. I have added Xposed Framework with a few modules, all my favorite apps, and the phone is great! The only annoyance is that there are very infrequent random google play services stops which quickly correct themselves leaving a msg that needs to be swiped away. This is no big deal and ggow might have this fixed by the time you read this. Ggow also mentioned bypassing lollipop (CM12) and looking to "M" for his next major upgrade. How this will happen with a locked bootloader I don't know, but all praise to the person who brought my firephone backed to life.
Enjoy your firephone.
I bought the Fire Phone 6 months ago (I think, don't remember), when it was $189 (and a year of Prime). Having a phone with those specs at $90 was a great deal and hard to refuse. Bought it, got it, and the first day of using it I was amused with how different it was from stock Android. I had a Nexus 5, which got stolen, and I wandered with a low-end phone until I bought the Fire Phone. The Fire Phone couldn't be more different from the Nexus 5, software-wise. I saw the lock screen, toyed with it and thought: "Wow, it moves depending on where I look it from, nice!" (my first lock screen was the one with the time made from the stars and the moon with below it) but also "Did Amazon really need 4 cameras just for that? It might drain my battery" and "Which real-world use could I give to this feature?"
Yes, it was nice to see how things moved thanks to the Dynamic Perspective feature, at least at first; then, like all novelties, my attention to it faded and eventually I disabled it. Having my battery drained wasn't worth for a feature I wasn't paying attention to and which the only real-world use I could think of was showing it to some friend to surprise them a for a little time. And because this phone doesn't have a removable battery, I couldn't afford to lose it for some gimmicky feature.
Then I saw the Carousel, which is the home screen where the most recent apps are shown, with the notifications below it. They were affected by the Dynamic Perspective too. I hated that dotted pattern they used for the Carousel, and then I tried to change it for, say, whatever picture this phone could've come with.
I went to Settings, and was surprised to see, first, that that annoying dotted pattern was there too, and then that there wasn't a way to change the wallpaper. I thought "Come on, it's 2015, every OS in the friggin' world has a way to change the wallpaper. It's the most basic form of customization. Even Apple (which I don't hate), with all that walled garden feeling, allows you to change the wallpaper." But Amazon's FireOS didn't (I haven't ever seen a Kindle Fire tablet). My phone shipped with version 3.6.8, and we had to wait until May to see such a basic feature with the upgrade to 4.6.1. I got annoyed by that, but there was nothing I could to about it.
I checked the pre-loaded games, which make heavy use of the same Dynamic Perspective. I half-liked the Planet Blocks game and played it for a while. After that, I forgot I had it and remained hidden.
Then I went to the Appstore to see what was new. I knew the Appstore didn't have any Google app, and understood it. Amazon had an equivalent to every Google app and, even though I didn't like how they looked, they got the job done, and that was what mattered. Downloading and installing was what I was used to, and updating was a breeze.
But I guess I missed some apps that weren't on the Appstore and was lazy to not sideload all of them. I needed to see good ol' Google on this phone, so I went to XDA and checked if there was a way to sideload Google Play Services. After all, underneath all the Amazon skin and no traces of Google, FireOS was Android at the heart (3.6.8 was based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, which was pretty outdated even then). There was a way to install Google Play Services, and there was a way to root the phone too, but only if you were brave (and foolish) enough to downgrade to 3.5.1 (it was a bad idea, because if you did that, there would be problems with the Amazon account registration and also some nasty overheating issue). So, I stayed with just installing Google Play Services. It went smoothly and finally got Google. With the Play Store I'd be able to download and install SwiftKey and maybe Google Now Launcher or Nova Launcher.
I got no luck with SwiftKey. It installed, but then you couldn't use it unless you activated it via ADB. After that, got SwiftKey. And about launchers, they worked, except for widgets (which weren't supported in FireOS) and the wallpaper (there was a way to change the wallpaper in Nova; you could choose the image, but it never worked; you had to like the black background because it was the only option). I checked other launchers, some supported widgets (not all widgets, but some) and some found a way to change the wallpaper. I stuck with Buzz Launcher, which made the phone look and work most similar to Android.
I hoped Amazon would sometime hear what users here at XDA (and everywhere else) had to say. The Fire Phone was a great piece of hardware, but its software was a bummer. People were trying to google it but all you could do was sideload Google Play Services. The bootloader was locked (and still is), and the Towelroot method for rooting didn't work for 3.6.8, so downgrading was the next stage for googling up the device. I remember seeing some guys here at XDA offering some money to the first person to unlock the bootloader, and some people sending a letter to Jeff Bezos himself to unlock it and then also a Change.org petition, taking the example of the HP TouchPad tablet (it saw new life after HP unlocked its bootloader, after which people flashed Android instead of the built-in webOS, becoming the second-most selling tablet of 2011). It never happened.
Then it was the question if the phone would ever receive a FireOS 4 update (based on Android 4.4 KitKat), given its lackluster sales. It finally happened on May, and came with very necessary changes to help customize the phone.
This new version would eventually be rooted via Kingroot, which is a very shady-looking app for rooting. It worked, and then there was a way to change it for SuperSU, a more reliable root app. With all the long wait, knowing a developer found a way to flash a ROM even with the locked bootloader was a relief. I flashed it as fast as I could. Now I'm using Cyanogenmod 11 and it's great (no trace of Amazon). It's still beta (the developer uploaded the first build just 4 days ago), but it works pretty well right now, and it'll only get better.
Now we can use a phone that has a great price and good specs with a great OS to match. To the people out there wondering if the phone is worth the price (right now it went back to $449 and comes with a year of Amazon Prime, with $99 alone, so the phone's real price is $350), no, it's not, you could get a OnePlus One at that price (which comes with Cyanogen OS), or a Moto X, or a Xiaomi Mi4, or many other great phones below $350 (and then if, and only if, you want Amazon Prime you can subscribe). When it gets a big discount, which happens from time to time (last one was this week and the price went down to $159), it gets more attractive (especially if you were going to subscribe to Amazon Prime). The phone has many gimmicky features which are really useless, uses an OS that is difficult to adapt to, and is overpriced most of the time (no wonder Amazon failed to sell it at launch at $199 with AT&T contact, or later at $649 unlocked, or now at $449), but may be a great deal when bought at discount (this week the real price of the phone was $60, and at that price you cannot get any smartphone off-contract) and if you're willing to tinker with the phone and flash a ROM (Cyanogenmod 11 is the only one right now, but might be more in the future), it makes a pretty good phone.
A quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU, with Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera and 2.1MP front camera, 1080p recording, 32GB of built-in storage and now the ability to flash Cyanogenmod 11 for just $60? I'd buy it.
Wow!! Great responses guys. I thank you for taking the time to offer your opinions and I really look forward to receiving my Fire phone
Got my Fire phone!!
I really like the screen- overall size of the phone is not really bigger than my 5s but the screen real estate is a little bigger. It's not so lite that you will drop it or so thin you will drop it either. When I use my 5s bare, I have a hard time hanging onto it. It's in a wallet case that I can get a good grab onto. I like a little heft to it and it does feel good in your hand.
I have the incipio folio case on this fire phone that I got for $10 from ATT online store. That was a really good deal. Also did a screen saver just because I like them and the protection from minute scratches they provide.
So, on my Amazon account it was registered to me and the free prime was added on. When I went to set up the phone it requires you to register again to your account and I got all errors that it couldn't be done at this time, blah blah blah. I researched it and apparently this was a big problem at launch too.
So I updated it to the latest of 4.6.1 (820) and tried again, same deal. It just wouldn't register. So I de-registered it on my computer, and tried again on the phone, no go. You can't use the phone without it being asso. with an amazon acct- no apps at all are usable, even the preinstalled ones. So I chatted online, they couldn't help me and wanted to have their Fire Team support call me back- but I couldn't at that time so I will deal with it tomorrow. I'll have to search this forum and see if there's any info about it.
In the meantime I got the google apps working so now I at least have a pretty good list of apps, but no amazon services working yet. I still have to add a sim card and check the basic call functions- since it is a phone.
The benefit of picking up a phone that is a year old is you guys have already tackled the tough parts of rooting, modding, roms, etc. I checked out this forum before purchasing and was pleasantly surprised that you just made the break through just this week for CM. I may have to check that out! I have the att Mega and that poor orphan phone is so crippled most guys just walked away. I Love it for it's 6 inch screen size. The iphone 6+ was in my thoughts but can't justify that price tag. My mega was a penny when we still did subsidies.
I thank you all for your perseverance and hard work and your stick-to-it-ive-ness:good: This could actually be a decent phone with all the modifications. I am hoping I can leave it as is and swap between the Fire OS and the Nova launcher. Hopefully I'll get it registered correctly tomorrow. It's nice getting back into android after apple. I like them both- but I do get bored.
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So even though it is 3 am here, I just got off the phone with fire phone support and I was told it was a system wide outage and there are many people having this problem. They will get back to me!! I won't hold my breath here
**************************************************************************************************************
Talked again to amazon and I am "on the list" to have this registration fubar sorted out. She took additional info- my mac address on the phone specifically, and supposedly this will be fixed OTA magically. We'll see.
I do have a working sim in and phone calls work fine. I have issue with the tinny sounding speakers that are suppose to be stereo- Sounds terrible- especially with music clips ringtones. Pandora sounds bad too. I did read the reviews about the sound and it appears to be true.
******************************************************************************************
So Amazon finally fixed the registration problem OTA. I can now access my Amazon stuff. Problem solved.
Related
My phone was delivered at 2pm EST but stayed in the box til 6pm. Mine is the 64GB version .As a life long google apps user, I needed to make sure at least a couple of the apps could be sidelined before I decided to unbox. Initial reports seem to indicate several of the google apps can be sidelined so I unboxed 30 minutes ago and set it on a charger.
I haven't turned it on yet. However, side by side, the screen size seems similar to to my Galaxy S3 I am retiring due to a myriad of hardware issues. The Fire Phone is a tad bit narrower and taller, however, and, although people have complained about the weight, the Fire Phone feels much more solid and comfortable in my hand compared to my S3.
The free year of Amazon Prime, for me, easily makes up for some of the phones expensive price. I just bought some land recently and I have been ordering stuff from Amazon at a rate of at least 6 times/month. Prime will be nice going forward.
I'm going to let it sit on the charger a little while longer and report back again. I'm not holding my breath but hopefully we can get this sucker rooted and a real OS installed one of these days. Until then, I'm going to try and make the best of things. I've had Apple, I've had pure Android, it was time for something different and the free year of Prime was enough of a difference to make me give it a go.
Wow, I am not terribly impressed with the UI and I cannot figure out how to activate my free year of Prime. I am not very pleased thus far. Mayday button also isn't working.
I figured out what happened with Amazon Prime. My mother bought the phone for me as a gift. Despite Amazon's "free Prime FAQ" stating:
I have more than one Amazon account, which one is eligible for one year of Prime?
When registering your device, you will be prompted to enter your Amazon account information. We will apply a full year Prime membership to this account.
How long do I have to activate my year of Prime included with my Fire purchase?
Prime is activated immediately upon registering your Amazon account with your Fire device. This means that the first time you set up and use your Fire, Prime will be activated as a result.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It turns out they activated her year of Prime on the day the phone was ordered. We just logged onto her account and it says she's been a Prime customer since "July 22nd" the same day we ordered the phone. Crock of crap. I think I will be returning it soon if they don't answer us soon. Mayday still isn't working on ATT's network either.
Wow I didn't think any suckers from XDA will actually buy this phone
Sent from my LG-D851
and to top it off, ATT is as screwed up as Amazon.. both my new Amazon phone and my old S3 both ring when someone calls or sends a text message. How the hell can this be? It's a cluster of epic proportions. I never know which one to answer.
Sent it Back
Received yesterday. First issue was could not get the SIM tray out. Was really stuck. FInally after 15 minutes I was able to get it out. Charged up and signed in or should I say registered the device. Then spent couple of hours downloading apps and using the features of the phone. First of all DP is a gimmick. After seeing it it is not really useful. Maybe some of the gamers will like it. Phone would not always move from one screen to another when I would twist my wrist left or right. It is hit or miss. Screen quality was ok and keyboard worked well. Battery life depletes quickly. Turning of DP and some other features slowed down the battery drain. This phone is HEAVY also. After playing with all its features I decided it was not worth the money or time. Maybe gen 2 will be but this was a real disappointment.
My opinion only.
I think they did an o...k job with the phone. They could of did a little better on pricing and followed the Kindle Fire strategy.
The 3D gets me dizzy after awhile. Bad gimmick.
N1ESE said:
and to top it off, ATT is as screwed up as Amazon.. both my new Amazon phone and my old S3 both ring when someone calls or sends a text message. How the hell can this be? It's a cluster of epic proportions. I never know which one to answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you order the phone online?? I'd so.. look in the box and read the directions on stopping this.
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
The phone is slowly growing on me. I just got back from a 600 mile road trip and relied heavily on turn-by-turn dircetions with the Amazon maps app. It did a perfect job at the task and bluetooth connectivity in my truck is perfect. Amazon also fixed my issue with Prime while I was on the road. I'll keep it for now and see how things go.
So..... You still liking the phone? May try it due to the fact I want something different.
Sent from my unknown using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
It is a nice phone, check it earlier at at&t, one thing though is the google play store, I'll wait until root has been achieved, for now on I'll stick with my incoming ONE PLUS ONE?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
After having my Fire phone for almost 3 weeks, I am relatively happy with it.
It is a slim phone, watching video on it is a pleasure, music sounds great. If you are an Amazon Prime member, the xray feature on some TV programs which is linked in with IMDB is just way to cool.. I think this way cooler than "Dynamic Perspective," which may be a feature yet to be exploited by apps and technology which are NOT yet in the Amazon appstore.
Amazon Prime Music is being way undersold by Jeff Bezos in promoting his new phone. Why, I do not know!? From the man who wants to sell you everything, this is a big marketing mistake in the world of iphones, itunes, ipods!!!! And for God's sakes, he owns Audible now, he should make that bargain basement now too, while he is playing Monopoly to gain control of absolutely everything fun.
Granted, my phone is more fun since gaining root, that is one reason I bought it, that and one year of extra Prime, the chance to throwaway a locked Samsung Galaxay S3 with crappy Boost mobile service. I never thought it was that great a phone, anyway.
Unlimited cloud storage of photos.
And by the way, Does anyone listen to all the iPhone fanboys complain about horrible battery life on their latest iteration of the iPhone? I thought Apple took care of that early on? All I'm saying, this is the FIRST Amazon phone. You don't have to be a fan, you can still love whatever iteration of iPhone out there (and still be apron-stringed to i-Tunes) or love your favorite Android...
Yes complaints that Amazon wants to sell you a store and not a phone, I ***** about that every time I buy a new PC with bundled so ftware.
To me, an iPhone is more paralyzing than either a Fire phone or generic android, and a Fire phone, rooted, is the best of android devices, but still some annoying features.
I have to agree with you. I work for o2 and I had the device 4 weeks before the realise date for 3 days.
Have to say I loved it, It just oozes pure quality much like, and I hate to say it... iPhone's except the build quality.
When I was using it all I could think of was "this would be amazing with the full play store on".
Now I can see Root access, it may not be a dream.
I have told a lot of people about this phone, me being very surprised.
A little hard to get your head around the OS butas Dilbert says, Its a store with a built in phone.
From an analytic point of view, Amazon have missed the boat on this.
A good 55% of consumers have brand loyalty, 20% follow them, 10-15% have the same but can not afford to have their 1st choice so opt for the closest and probably oldest. The rest take anything.
Now you might get some Kindle users wanting 1 but most would still rather have the iPhone etc,.....
They should target them 10-15% in price but not at £399.99 ($650). If I lost my phone or didn't have the money to get a new HTC or iPhone, Had £400 in my pocket............ I'd go and buy the Moto G2.
If they're planning on making money from their stores, they should focus on that lower the price and let word of mouth do the talking because they have the hardware to back it up.
Great phone, great first attempt.
I know that question may seem inane at first but the elaboration is, it seems Amazon did some things to make this hard to customize like we love to do and its much riskier than say doing a Galaxy 4 phone. For some of us who just wanna play games on them and the remedial stuff, where we can still get the Google Playstore through secondary channels, why are some of you rooting and messing with it... from what I'v heard, the stock Amazon is pretty "clean" and also having access to their stock software to integrate with your Amazon account to download from their site seems like an advantage. I.e., if you really wanted a PURE Android tab, why not just get like a Lenovo, Acer, Samsung and root that... I am getting the HD 8.9 because its on sale for $180 in hand, and the display seems superior to almost any tab in its price range and class.
Thanks for any illuminating responses.
Having owned one for a year.
No. It gets slower with a custom rom. You're better off getting a Nexus.
I've used it stock, stock+root+Gapps, CM11, LiquidROM, PacmanROM currently.
Now that amazon offers its instant video with the android app, its even better off to go w/ a nexus. You just have to get it to use the Phone version of the app, not the tablet version. (which I did with the current pacman rom.) So, IMO there is no longer any benefit of the HD8.9 over faster/lighter tablets. I am strongly considering putting mine back to stock, and when a trade-in deal comes around trade it in for a Nexus tablet.
ydgmms said:
Having owned one for a year.
No. It gets slower with a custom rom. You're better off getting a Nexus.
I've used it stock, stock+root+Gapps, CM11, LiquidROM, PacmanROM currently.
Now that amazon offers its instant video with the android app, its even better off to go w/ a nexus. You just have to get it to use the Phone version of the app, not the tablet version. (which I did with the current pacman rom.) So, IMO there is no longer any benefit of the HD8.9 over faster/lighter tablets. I am strongly considering putting mine back to stock, and when a trade-in deal comes around trade it in for a Nexus tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply... they used to allow a second hand install of google play but even that doesnt work now and it seems they are forcing a root as the only way to get google play on it, sigh. I guess I will sell the stupid things as used and look for a deal on the nexus or samsung/lenovo/asus.... what a crock. I got it for $180 total which I thought was a decent deal brand new...
What trade in is available for this?
Sometimes stores like Best Buy will accept trade-ins. You'll definately not get the 180$ spent. But it'll ease the purchase price of something else.
ydgmms said:
Sometimes stores like Best Buy will accept trade-ins. You'll definately not get the 180$ spent. But it'll ease the purchase price of something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya few months ago I got $100 for an XP laptop a client gave me from like 2002 for trade-in. I thinking I can get more just putting it on ebay for mint condition sale.
Well, if you bought it from Amazon..just return it.
Otherwise, ...good luck.
ydgmms said:
Well, if you bought it from Amazon..just return it.
Otherwise, ...good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Office depot.... :crying:
ebay/CL it is.......
I have the 8.9 rooted and running cm11 with no complaints. I enjoy the freedom of running full Android over the Amazon os. There are really only 2 apps that i havent been able to fully use. One was screen capture software, its always choppy or poor quality. Thats because the hardware isnt enough to run it properly, not an os problem. The other is the new Madden Football game, its very laggy. Again hardware problem, not the os. If the 8.9 is enough for you and Google play is the only thing holding you back, root it and install cm11. Get greenify and it will turn off apps for you keeping it running smooth. There is also an app called lagfix that cleans up the file system. Running lagfix once a month or so seems to keep it clean. In short go for it, if you don't like it flash it back Amazon os and unroot then trade it in.
Shack70 said:
I have the 8.9 rooted and running cm11 with no complaints. I enjoy the freedom of running full Android over the Amazon os. There are really only 2 apps that i havent been able to fully use. One was screen capture software, its always choppy or poor quality. Thats because the hardware isnt enough to run it properly, not an os problem. The other is the new Madden Football game, its very laggy. Again hardware problem, not the os. If the 8.9 is enough for you and Google play is the only thing holding you back, root it and install cm11. Get greenify and it will turn off apps for you keeping it running smooth. There is also an app called lagfix that cleans up the file system. Running lagfix once a month or so seems to keep it clean. In short go for it, if you don't like it flash it back Amazon os and unroot then trade it in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh really? I thought these Kindles were very particular in what they "took." I use CM for my Galaxy S4 and very satisfied with it so I have no problem trying it. I dont play Madden so thats fine (I was a big 2K fan LOL). I am really only looking to play Clash of Clans and some other remedial stuff, nothing too taxing. I guess I'll try that then since I think for the $$$ this screen is boss and the size is just about right too.
One thing, is the screen pretty responsive with CM in it? And is it ok if I ask a followup or two in case something goes out of sorts per your experience?
I play clash on mine all the time. I didn't say it was easy getting CM11 on my Kindle. It's a bit more work that rooting a Samsung phone but there are some good tutorials here on XDA, I used http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2128175. Follow it exactly and you will have no problem. The screen is responsive and works great for everyday use, books, and games like clash. Videos look great too. Feel free to ask me more
Dathaeus said:
Oh really? I thought these Kindles were very particular in what they "took." I use CM for my Galaxy S4 and very satisfied with it so I have no problem trying it. I dont play Madden so thats fine (I was a big 2K fan LOL). I am really only looking to play Clash of Clans and some other remedial stuff, nothing too taxing. I guess I'll try that then since I think for the $$$ this screen is boss and the size is just about right too.
One thing, is the screen pretty responsive with CM in it? And is it ok if I ask a followup or two in case something goes out of sorts per your experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went back to stock because all the custom roms were too slow. Found this on the hdx forum though, pretty much all google apps working without root! Just need one quick adb command and all done... http://forum.xda-developers.com/kindle-fire-hdx/themes-apps/how-to-install-gapps-root-t2954372
Play store wont work, but you can always sideload apps. So far have google+, youtube, maps and newsstand all working without a hitch. Works fine with my chromecast too.
I picked up a Fire Phone during the Black Friday Firesale. I've given it a month to see if I could use it, but it spent the last week in my glove compartment. I just feel like FireOS is too limited. It's not any one thing, more like a bunch of small annoyances added up.
Pros:
Love the hardware
Integration with Amazon services is nice (Audible, Prime Video)
Most gapps work sideloaded
Cheap
Cons:
The whole OS is designed to sell you stuff. I don't like paying money (even just $200) for ads.
Doesn't feel like a true Android experience, even after sideloading Play Store and changing launcher.
At the end of the day, it's a phone I didn't use. I'd rather lug my LTE iPad mini around than use this phone. Even with a year of Amazon Prime ($50 since I'm a student), I can't really justify keeping it.
tanders12 said:
I picked up a Fire Phone during the Black Friday Firesale. I've given it a month to see if I could use it, but it spent the last week in my glove compartment. I just feel like FireOS is too limited. It's not any one thing, more like a bunch of small annoyances added up.
Pros:
Love the hardware
Integration with Amazon services is nice (Audible, Prime Video)
Most gapps work sideloaded
Cheap
Cons:
The whole OS is designed to sell you stuff. I don't like paying money (even just $200) for ads.
Doesn't feel like a true Android experience, even after sideloading Play Store and changing launcher.
At the end of the day, it's a phone I didn't use. I'd rather lug my LTE iPad mini around than use this phone. Even with a year of Amazon Prime ($50 since I'm a student), I can't really justify keeping it.
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The reason why I'm happy with it is because my sister wanted a phone and the max. she was willing to pay was US $125 for the price I got it for ($199 which includes a year of prime which I sold the other 4 slots for $25 a piece to people on a forum...) this makes the phone just $100 for that price you really can't go wrong, I'm running Google Play Store on it with Google Now Launcher.
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
swati770 said:
The reason why I'm happy with it is because my sister wanted a phone and the max. she was willing to pay was US $125 for the price I got it for ($199 which includes a year of prime which I sold the other 4 slots for $25 a piece to people on a forum...) this makes the phone just $100 for that price you really can't go wrong, I'm running Google Play Store on it with Google Now Launcher.
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
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I'm glad it worked out for you. It really was a close call for me. So far I'm really happy with the Moto G. It's not as snappy as the Fire, but it's so nice to have vanilla Android.
While I'm sure Amazon will go under because you returned the phone, I don't get this whole "selling you stuff" and "ads". While it's true we cannot root the phones and install and adblocker, I'm not seeing all of these "ads" you're referring to. The ad-supported apps are certainly functioning by providing ads so we can have the app for "free", but otherwise, these ads that you're telling us about don't seem to be there. Amazon hasn't sold me anything, although they certainly designed the phone to make it easy for amazon customers to purchase from amazon. Other than some free apps that didn't work, as not all apps will work with the Fire Phone, I really haven't experienced any of this horrible "selling" and "ads" that you have found.
Ok, so not 100% as-is. I sideloaded Google Play for a couple apps, namely Gmail and Line. But nearly everything else I've installed has come from the Amazon store. Unlike others, I don't feel like the phone is trying to sell me stuff, but when I do want to buy something, the process is super-simple. I actually love Firefly, and I love that it's one button away, even on my locked phone. I regularly find a new product in a store and wonder about the Amazon price. Now, it's incredibly easy to check.
Granted, I got one of the 3.6.8 firesale phones, and I think that update addressed many of the early reviewers' concerns, but it really seems like a great phone for, in essence, $100 unlocked, no contract.
I actually agree. Sideloaded play store... started with buzz launcher until I actually decided I like the Fire Launcher better. This thing performance wise in antutu is seriously a tiny tic under the S5... for $100? I'm very happy.
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I'm really enjoying the phone without having it rooted and modded, which is a shock to me. Given that this replaces an HTC G2 (I know, ancient) I'm loving the capabilities as far as streaming audio and video - yes, video is much better on a tablet or my 45" tv, but it shows quite well. Having as much ram as it does available for running processes is pretty amazing for me. My only complaint is having to scroll through apps, books and audiobooks to find anything I haven't pinned to the front. I'll have to look into creating collections to make use easier. All in all, I thoroughly enjoy the phone.
ETA - the camera takes great pictures for a non photographer such as myself.
+1
I made the switch from a Galaxy Note II and have been an Android user since I got my first Google G1. As first I found it a little odd, but I really enjoy FireOS now (having added Google Play store for a few oddball apps). I'm actually more productive and can multitask much faster on the Fire Phone than any other Android that I've used. They have a few bugs to work out and some needed features, but not a bad start!
Same here, loving it, after Sideloaded Gapps and google now launcher (i rather have no wallpaper than use buzz launcher) overall its an amazing device for the price!
I agree. I purchased this phone for $200.00 with the one year of prime that I would have bought anyways. I'm coming from an old LG p930 that was getting slow even with Cyanogenmod installed. The battery life was awful.
This one, with update 3.6.8, is super fast, great battery life, and does a lot more than I expected. A few apps weren't there, so I side loaded them and installed the playstore. I, like most people, hate change - so was after getting an android launcher installed. I thinks this might have been the fact that i felt forced to use the Fire Launcher. I now came back to the Fire launcher, and I love it now that I have a choice. I disabled auto updates in google play as it was replacing some amazon apps that used the Fire widgets.
I really hope more apps start building for the Fire Phone as the Fire widgets are super cool, such as reading emails from the home screen, text messages, weather, etc. My only complaint right now is the fact that you cant' easily install an alternate keyboard. When I open the browser it adds the .com and makes the space bar smaller. This bugs me as I'm always either slamming it or the period instead of space when messaging or browsing. Amazon told me there has been a lot of feedback, and they design this phone to be similar to the Kindle. They assume an update will be pushed out in January that will address this, and other issues, as the Kindle allows you to change the keyboard.
Other than that, I wish I could sort my apps in the grid. Outside of those simple things, now that I can side load a few apps I used on a day to day basis, I love this thing! (I do miss Cyanogenmod from time to time though.
Mine is stock except for loading the Play Store and Play apps like Play Music, Play News Stand etc. I also use the Google Now Launcher as I like using the hands free "Okay Google" functionality to send emails and texts without touching the device. Great while driving.
Thanks for all the replies! I stand corrected!
llllI said:
Thanks for all the replies! I stand corrected!
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In fairness, "as is", isn't a fair statement. Like others, I have sideloaded google apps and use the google now launcher. I find the stock launcher to be counter-intuitive (scrolling down in apps instead of sideways, and not having the apps in alphabetical order in the app drawer).
I wish I could root it and run CM11. I would rather have the same hardware without the dynamic perspective (and the extra cameras) for the same price. It's a neat "show off" feature, but it serves no actual purpose to me. I'd rather have a bigger screen in place of the 4 extra cameras.
The UI reminds me a lot of the WebOS from the HP Touchpad I had. I liked WebOS better than Android, but the app support for it was crippling. The same can be said of the Fi re Phone.
Of course, had they left it with vanilla Android, unlocked bootloader and root access, we couldn't have bought the phone for $200. The launch failure is what allowed us to get such a "deal" on the phone. If they'd given us all the features without loading all the stuff that made it Amazon-centric and breaking a lot of the apps, it wouldn't have been such a flop and they'd have sold out at a higher price. So, overall, the ONLY reason we got the phones so cheap is because of the stuff Amazon did to it.
I had a Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3, and I miss the huge screen, but a functional phone with GPS and wif i that don't regularly die is what I wanted and what I received.
I really believe that a lot of the haters out there are simply looking for reasons to hate a device they've not used. They wanted to not like it and they succeeded. I wanted a cheap phone with great specs and I got just that.