Paul Hanna / Reuters
Amazon may have given up on the Fire phone, but the company's line of low-cost "Prime Exclusive" ad-subsidized smartphones is getting a refresh today. The program launched last year with a respectable lineup of discounted, unlocked handsets that have topped Amazon's sales charts for ever since. This week, Amazon is adding more choice to that lineup with the recently launched Moto G5 Plus and the thrifty Alcatel A30, which will retail for $184.99 and $59.99 respectively.
Both phones come unlocked out of the box and are compatible with any carrier you choose. You'll need to be a Prime subscriber to get the deal, but in exchange for about $45 off the retail price, you'll be get "personalized offers and ads, including deals and product recommendations," showing up on your lock screen.
Assuming you don't mind dismissing ads along with your unread emails, the Moto G5 Plus is another solid smartphone, boasting Android Nougat, a 5.2" 1080p display, fingerprint reader, 2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor and 4G LTE speeds. It also carries the same flagship-level 12-megapixel rear camera as the Galaxy S7 along with a wide angle 5-megapixel front camera for group selfies. Motorola claims the device has an all-day battery and there are two memory sizes available: one version with 2GB RAM and 32GB storage, and another with double the memory across the board.
The Alcatel A30 is also joining the program. Although you won't get any of Alcatel's quirky new handsets at this price, you do get a Nougat-ready phone with a 5-inch 720p HD display, directional speakers, 2GB RAM a quad-core Snapdragon processor, 4G LTE, 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel selfie shooter. The Alcatel also offers some gesture control features and its 16GB of internal storage can be expanded up to 32GB with microSD support.