The Amazon Fire Phone has received an update that brings it up to Android 4.4 KitKat.
Whoever said the online retail giant’s first smartphone was defunct or outdated, eh?
To be fair, though, the Amazon Fire Phone never really relied on its Android underpinnings for its core features or design. Sure enough, Fire OS 4.6.1 brings with it a number of changes and additions.
Features like Bluetooth Low Energy and Cloud Printing support are a clear side effect of the belated switch to KitKat – which has since been supplanted by Android 5.0 Lollipop, of course.
Other features highlighted by Amazon include the ability to swipe to delete messages, changing the colour of your homescreen (really), auto HDR for the camera, improved hardware encryption, and the ability to delete your call history.
There are now coloured emoji options, lock screen notification previews, and general bug fixes.
Read More: Best Android phones 2015
The point to note is that while we may mock the Amazon Fire Phone for only just updating to Android 4.4, only nine percent of Android phones have updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop. As such, Amazon’s failed phone can be said to have caught up with the wider Android field.
The question now is, will Amazon’s first failed smartphone experiment live to see Android 5.0 Lollipop and its fancy new animations?
Also, will we ever get a follow-up device that runs the more modern OS? Reports in December suggested that we would, but not until 2016.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.