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Phones I got an Amazon Fire Phone!

rigormortis

rigormortis

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
1,813
229
i wanted to see how android people lived.

i purchased a used amazon fire phone for $30

it is a piece of crap and here is my review of it

1. i can't activate it on AT&T. amazon says the phone is ok. and they can't unlock it, imei websites say the phone is good. AT&T says this is a test or a not for retail or a prototype phone and it was not meant for resale and therefor i cannot get a sim card, to ever make it eligible for an unlock. i did not try going to the store , i went to the AT&T website, and told it i was bringing a device, i was entering the imei to get the sim card and it said their was a problem with the imei and to call customer service


2. the voice assistant is useless. it won't even tell you the day or the time. here is my stupid little youtube video testing asking the amazon flop phone the amazon echo questions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-O2UjHPxA

3. speed test tells me i have 15 mbps even though i only have 3

4. plex crashes. amazon charges $5 for plex, and all the app does is open for a split second find my plex server and then crash

5. i gave it 15 gigs of videos. only the AVI files played and none of the M4V files showed up on the phone. so there is like 8 gigs of video files on my amazon fire phone that won't even show up anywhere on the phone

6. i couldn't copy any files to it on my mac unless i ran android file transfer. how dare those people nitpick about us having to use iTunes to sync the iPhone, and i have to use "android file transfer" to copy content to my Amazon Fire Phone, and then find out it is hit or miss on video formats


7. i think the proximity sensor is broken, so pressing the home button doesn't show the amazon fire phones lock screen, it just blinks. but the rest of the phone works , i suspect the proximity sensor isn't working

8. i asked amazon how much it costs to replace the broken screen. the quote was $269 which costs $160 more or so then it would cost for an iphone screen changeout
 
the amazon fire phone won't show you the top bar , to see what your battery level is at, unless you tilt it!

i found that and disabled it
 
This does not sound like a good representation of how "android people live."

Sounds like you bought a pos phone with several issues. Would have been better off with a Moto G.
 
The Amazon fire phone is a poor choice to see android, even in a working model it would be hard to recommend the Fire.

The Moto G is likely the best budget android handset to experience android.
 
rigormortis said:
6. i couldn't copy any files to it on my mac unless i ran android file transfer. how dare those people nitpick about us having to use iTunes to sync the iPhone, and i have to use "android file transfer" to copy content to my Amazon Fire Phone, and then find out it is hit or miss on video formats
Click to expand...

That is a Mac limitation. On Windows you don't need AFT. Maybe one day Apple will include MTP support...

http://www.howtogeek.com/192732/android-usb-connections-explained-mtp-ptp-and-usb-mass-storage/ said:
Apple’s Mac OS X is a holdout — it doesn’t include MTP support at all. Apple’s iPod, iPhone, and iPad use their own proprietary syncing protocol along with iTunes, so why would they want to support a competing protocol?
Click to expand...
 
You bought a used broken version of one of the crappiest Android phones out there to rant about how crappy it is

ooohhh that confirmation bias
 
yeah. there is a lack of reviews out their for this phone , to explain how crappy it is
 
rigormortis said:
yeah. there is a lack of reviews out their for this phone , to explain how crappy it is
Click to expand...
I have a coworker that bought Fire phone, and he's quite happy. It sounds to me that you bought either a preproduction or prototype phone (that's why you can't activate it on AT&T network).
 
amazon and AT&T won't stand behind the phone

AT&T says this was a test phone and it will not sell me a line of service and it will refuse to unlock it. amazon won't help either, because the unlock is out of their hands.

i can either use it as a media player only or send it back to eBay

amazon didn't even offer to send me a new phone, i couldn't take them up on it, because it needs a new screen
 
I got an Amazon Fire Phone!

Poisonivy326 said:
Fire Phone is not Android.
Click to expand...


Sadly it is.... But what you perhaps meant to say is that it's (user experience is) not indicative of the majority of other Android based handsets.

----------
rigormortis said:
amazon and AT&T won't stand behind the phone



AT&T says this was a test phone and it will not sell me a line of service and it will refuse to unlock it. amazon won't help either, because the unlock is out of their hands.



i can either use it as a media player only or send it back to eBay



amazon didn't even offer to send me a new phone, i couldn't take them up on it, because it needs a new screen
Click to expand...


If this was a test phone then AT&T has no obligation to you. This was not a general consumer handset and was never properly bought by an end customer.

You have a test handset likely given to a retail store or to an employee for testing. It likely should never have been sold by a third party.

AT&T likely do not even have an unlocking code for the device as it would never have been issued one as its a device not intended for retail consumer.

As for Amazon not offering you a replacement. Why should they? You paid $30 for a "not to be sold" product test prototype off eBay. Why on earth would you think that obligates them to you?

You want them to offer you a replacement. Go onto amazon.com and order one at cost price.

As for sending back to eBay - if the seller never listed it as prototype / test device or never mentioned it may never get cellular service or indeed broken and sold 'as is' - you 'may' have a chance to send it back and get a refund. However if that was written in the description you have little to argue about and again as it was $30 - just chalk it up to experience.

You clearly gambled .... The gamble didn't pay off. Be thankful it was only $30
 
Last edited:
If you were going to try android getting the fire phone is the one of the worse things you could of done
 
gotluck said:
Should have bought a moto g if you wanted a taste
Click to expand...

If you wanted to see what Android's about, yes, if the OP wanted to see what's up with the amazon phone/amazon services, then of course the fire is a better choice.
 
Does the op not have AT&T service already? They could just take any SIM and stick it in the phone and it should work (as long at the IMEI isn't blocked).
 
rigormortis said:
i wanted to see how android people lived.

i purchased a used amazon fire phone for $30

it is a piece of crap and here is my review of it

1. i can't activate it on AT&T. amazon says the phone is ok. and they can't unlock it, imei websites say the phone is good. AT&T says this is a test or a not for retail or a prototype phone and it was not meant for resale and therefor i cannot get a sim card, to ever make it eligible for an unlock. i did not try going to the store , i went to the AT&T website, and told it i was bringing a device, i was entering the imei to get the sim card and it said their was a problem with the imei and to call customer service


2. the voice assistant is useless. it won't even tell you the day or the time. here is my stupid little youtube video testing asking the amazon flop phone the amazon echo questions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-O2UjHPxA

3. speed test tells me i have 15 mbps even though i only have 3

4. plex crashes. amazon charges $5 for plex, and all the app does is open for a split second find my plex server and then crash

5. i gave it 15 gigs of videos. only the AVI files played and none of the M4V files showed up on the phone. so there is like 8 gigs of video files on my amazon fire phone that won't even show up anywhere on the phone

6. i couldn't copy any files to it on my mac unless i ran android file transfer. how dare those people nitpick about us having to use iTunes to sync the iPhone, and i have to use "android file transfer" to copy content to my Amazon Fire Phone, and then find out it is hit or miss on video formats


7. i think the proximity sensor is broken, so pressing the home button doesn't show the amazon fire phones lock screen, it just blinks. but the rest of the phone works , i suspect the proximity sensor isn't working

8. i asked amazon how much it costs to replace the broken screen. the quote was $269 which costs $160 more or so then it would cost for an iphone screen changeout
Click to expand...

I thought the only reason you bought it was to laugh at it..

"i bought the dreaded amazon fire phone used

mostly to laugh at it

the imei was clean according to swappa

but AT&T refuses to activate it because the phone was for testing only and it was not designed to operate on their network

i asked at&t if they want it back. they didn't give me an answer

i asked amazon for an unlock, they wouldn't unlock the sim card because they said the phone was "still under contract"
 
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