JEFF BEZOS: Here's Why The Amazon Smartphone Is So Expensive

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Amazon Fire Phone Jeff Bezos

Business Insider / Jillian D'Onfro

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces the Fire Phone

After Amazon announced its first smartphone on Wednesday, some criticized the company for the Fire phone's relatively high price tag.

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos believes the price is perfect, however.

When speaking with the New York Times, Bezos explained the Fire phone's premium design and included perks justify the cost.

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Well, it's 32 gigabytes instead of 16, which is a big deal. So don't forget that small fact! And it has Prime - for new or existing members, you get 12 months free. But it's really a premium phone. We've packed a lot of hardware, a lot of expensive material into the phone.

The Amazon Fire costs the same as the iPhone 5S on a two-year contract with AT&T: The 32GB base model sells for $199.99 and the 64GB versions sells for $299.99. If you want to purchase Fire without a two-year committment, those prices jump up to $649 and $749 respectively.

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Amazon Fire is built with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on both the front and back of the device, which is similar to the design in Apple's older iPhones, including the iPhone 4 and 4S models.

The Fire phone is also equipped with six cameras in total, compared to the two cameras often featured in standard smartphones. Besides the regular front-facing camera, Fire comes with cameras in all four corners of the phone's face. Each camera has an infrared light for tracking your head movements, which allows you to view images and content from various perspectives. In some cases, your head movements can also be used to play certain games and activate certain features.

You can pre-order the Fire phone now before the device officially ships July 25.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.