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Amazon has substantially dropped the price of its Fire 32GB GSM unlocked smartphone to $199 for a limited time—through Dec. 1—a $250 price cut from its previous price of $449.
The Black Friday deal was unveiled by Amazon Nov. 25 as part of series of promotions for other specially priced Amazon-branded devices, including Kindles, HD tablets and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick. The other offers run through Nov. 29 or through Dec. 1, depending on the device.
The unlocked 32GB GSM Fire smartphone includes one year of Amazon’s Prime service, which includes free two-day shipping on millions of items in Amazon’s online store, as well as free music and movie streaming for thousands of titles. The phone can also be purchased through a contract with AT&T, according to Amazon.
The Fire features a 4.7-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) LCD HD display, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/2.0 five-element lens and unlimited photo storage in the Amazon cloud, a quad-core 2.2GHz processor, an Adreno 330 graphics processor, 2GB of RAM, dual stereo speakers and virtual surround sound.
The unlocked smartphone can be used on GSM networks including AT&T, T-Mobile, Walmart Family Mobile, MetroPCS, Brightspot, Simple Mobile, Mobal, Net10, Straight Talk, h20 Wireless and OneSimCard, according to Amazon. The device is not, however, compatible with services from Verizon Wireless, Sprint and US Cellular.
AT&T has been offering a locked version of the 32GB Fire smartphone for 99 cents with a two-year contract, or a locked version of the 64GB model for $99.99, also with a two–year contract, according to earlier eWEEK reports. The regular price of the 32GB model was $449.99, while the 64GB model was normally priced at $549.99.
The price cuts have come as Amazon has been trying to bolster sales of the Fire smartphones, which have not been selling as well as the company had hoped when they were unveiled back in June.
The Fire 32GB smartphone also includes the Mayday service that Amazon introduced with the Kindle Fire HDX that promises 24/7/365 customer service from a human that’s activated within 15 seconds of pushing the Mayday button.
In addition, the Fire smartphone features Amazon’s Firefly service, which can identify printed text on posters, magazines and business cards, as well as make calls, save new contacts, send emails and visit Websites without typing long site addresses. Firefly also can recognize songs, more than 240,000 movies, TV episodes and household products, as well as 160 live TV channels.
The smartphone runs on Amazon’s Android-based Fire OS, which is closely tied in with Amazon services and offerings.
Other Black Friday Amazon Device Deals
The unlocked 32GB Fire smartphone is far from the only Amazon-branded device with special pricing for Black Friday.
Also available is a standard Kindle e-reader for $49, a $30 savings from the device’s normal $79 retail price. The Kindle deal starts Nov. 27 and runs through Nov. 29. The seventh-generation Kindle includes a touch-screen display, a 20 percent faster processor and twice the storage as earlier models.
The standard Kindle can also be purchased in a $79 bundle with a six-month subscription to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service, which offers plenty of reading content without individual billings by title. The service offers unlimited reading from more than 700,000 books, including bestsellers like “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the Harry Potter series, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books, “2001: A Space Odyssey” and much more.
Kindle Paperwhite models will be on sale for $99, down from their regular $119 price tags, or they can be purchased in a $129 bundle with a six-month subscription to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service. The deal on the Paperwhite, which includes a touch screen that has no screen glare in bright sunlight, a battery that lasts for weeks and a built-in light for reading without eyestrain, runs from Nov. 27 through Nov. 29.
For tablet fans, the $99 Fire HD 6 tablet will be on sale for $79 from Nov. 27 through Nov. 29, while the Fire HD 7 will be on sale from Nov. 27 through Dec. 1 for $109, a $30 savings from its regular $139 price. The tablets are available in black, white, cobalt, magenta and citron and feature quad-core processors, front and rear-facing cameras, and HD displays.
Also for Black Friday, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick is on sale for $24.99 through Nov. 29 at Best Buy and Staples stores, which is $14 off its normal $39 retail price, according to Amazon. Fire TV Stick is a small stick that connects to the HDMI port on an HDTV for instant access to movies, TV shows, music, photos, apps and games.
All of Amazon’s Black Friday deals are available only while supplies last, according to the company.