Exclusive Mobile Zone: Amazon Fire Phone

Introduction

LG's flagship for the year, the G3, is stuffed to the gills with modern specs, and even throws a thrill or two, in the form of a display with record pixel density, and a unique laser autofocus system. Apple's iPhone 5s, on the other hand, offers a more manageable chassis, and a stellar Touch ID fingerprints sensor. As usual, we are staging a combat between the brushed looks of the 5.5” LG G3, against the slender metal-and-glass frame of the iPhone 5s, as this will be one of the heavyweights fight in the Android vs iOS championship for the immediate future. Which one will prevail? Let's find out...

Design

The plastic G3 feels less premium to hold, and is much harder to use with one hand than the iPhone 5s - those get traded for the large 5.5” display.

The phones are in entirely different categories when it comes to external design. Measuring at 8.9 mm, the 5.5” G3 is thicker than the 4” iPhone 5s (7.6 mm), and way larger, heavier, and cumbersome to use with one hand. Its plastic build sports a removable back cover, giving you access to the battery compartment and memory expansion slot – possibilities that the iPhone 5s doesn't offer. The iPhone is crafted in a very different way, with premium metal chassis.

LG has positioned the power/lock key, and the volume rocker, in its unique way on the back of the handset. Here they are easier to feel and press with your index finger only, and ensure good tactile feedback. The lock key and the volume buttons of the iPhone 5s are also breezy to use, on account of the small form factor of the phone, which lets your fingers reach everywhere without stretch gymnastics.

Apple shook the mobile phone industry with a unique Touch ID sensor embedded in the home key, which is the first (and only) fingerprint sensor on a mobile device done right. It lets you unlock the phone, and authorize iTunes purchases.

5.76 x 2.94 x 0.35 inches
146.3 x 74.6 x 8.9 mm
5.26 oz (149 g)

LG G3

4.87 x 2.31 x 0.3 inches
123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm
3.95 oz (112 g)

Display

The Quad HD panel of the G3 overpowers the smallish display on the iPhone 5s with sheer size and record pixel density, but is less visible outdoors.

The G3 has a 5.5" Quad HD (1440x2560 pixels) IPS-LCD display with record 538ppi pixel density, while the 4" 640x1136 pixels IPS-LCD display on the iPhone has only 326ppi. You won't be able to notice the individual pixels on both displays from a normal viewing distance, but if you examine the screens closely, the G3 panel comes out significantly sharper.

The iPhone 5s has excellent color reproduction with very accurate colors. In comparison, the G3 display colors are less correct, which goes especially for the oversatured reds, but not something that the average user will notice, unlike with Samsung's tacky AMOLED displays, for instance. The color temperatures of both handsets are pretty close – we measured 7357K for the G3, against the iPhone's 7150K. Both are rather close enough to the 6500K white point standard, yet LG's phone leans more to the cold side of the spectrum than the iPhone.

When it comes to outdoor visibility, though, the iPhone 5s definitely has the upper hand, as it is capable to reach almost 600 nits of peak brightness, and has lower reflectance, while the G3 musters 376 nits only.

Display measurements and quality

	Maximum brightness (nits)Higher is better	Minimum brightness (nits)Lower is better	Contrast Higher is better	Color temperature (Kelvins)	Gamma	Delta E rgbcmy Lower is better	Delta E grayscale Lower is better
Apple iPhone 5s	587 (Excellent)	5 (Excellent)	1:1007 (Good)	7144 (Good)	2.21	3.36 (Good)	2.66 (Good)
LG G3	455 (Good)	9 (Average)	1:997 (Average)	7099 (Good)	2.26	3.60 (Good)	2.86 (Good)

Amazon has introduced a new smartphone that will be closely tied to the products and services it sells, while adding such touches as the ability to render images in 3D. It was announced Wednesday and will start shipping next month.Here are some details on the new Fire phone:

1. Audio and object recognition

With a new Firefly feature, snap a photo of a book, and it'll show you where to buy it. Listen to a song playing in the background, and it'll direct you to that tune on Amazon. It can even direct you to knowledge, such as pulling up a Wikipedia entry on a painting you snapped. The feature will also let you snap bar codes, email addresses, phone numbers and more.

This concept isn't entirely new. Sony, for instance, has a tool for getting information over the Internet by snapping a bar code or a landmark. Firefly goes further, though, by incorporating audio recognition.

2. 3D images

You can rotate the phone and get a different view depending on your angle of vision. CEO Jeff Bezos calls this "dynamic perspective" and said the phone is basically redrawing the image 60 times per second. To make that happen, the phone has four front-facing infrared cameras to tell where your head is, even if your fingers happen to cover two of them.

You can use this feature, for instance, to get front and back views of a dress you are thinking of buying. You can take a character's viewpoint in games by moving your head to look around.

3. Taking photos

Beyond the four infrared cameras, there's a regular, 2-megapixel camera on the front for selfies and a 13-megapixel camera on the back. That's standard for phones these days.

The rear camera has image stabilization to counteract shaking as people take shots, something available in other phones as well.
Amazon is offering unlimited free storage of photos taken with the Fire on its Cloud Drive service.

4. Other details

At 4.7-inches, as measured diagonally, the screen is smaller than leading Android phone, but larger than Apple's iPhone. Bezos calls the Fire's screen ideal for one-handed use.

The phone will come with earbuds that have flat cords and magnets to clasp them together, so tangled cords will be history.
There's an auto-scroll feature that lets you scroll down website articles or books by tilting the phone. Samsung's Galaxy phones have that, too.

5. Availability

AT&T will be the exclusive carrier. The phone will be available July 25. People can start ordering them Wednesday at $200 for a base model with 32 gigabytes and $300 for 64 gigabytes. Both require two-year service contracts.
The phone comes with 12 months of Prime membership, which is normally $99 a year. Existing Prime members will get their term extended.

6. Not a first

Facebook once tried to release a phone tied to its services. The HTC First, released in April 2013, came with Facebook's Home software, which takes over the phone's front screen to present status updates, messages and other content. Both the phone and the software flopped.
Google also has its own phones under the Nexus brand, mostly to showcase its Android operating system. Google makes Android available for free for any phone manufacturer to use and modify. That makes it difficult to know what's really Android and what's a modification.

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LG G3 vs Apple iPhone 5s