So let me preface this post with the fact that I'm simply looking to do all of this as part of an experiment.
Here's a little bit of background: I've had a first generation Moto X since shortly after it was released, which I believe is edging up on 3 years now. It's been a fantastic phone and I've loved it the whole way. But the bottom line is, it was never a top of the line phone which I knew going in, and at it's current age, it's simply no longer up to what is my usage scenario.
Specifically, since I've had the phone, it's always had a fantastic battery life, very responsive interface, and the extra motorola features have always added a special touch. However, for the last several months, it's been becoming more and more apparent that it's simply aging, such as the fact that I used to use it as a dash cam while driving, as well as streaming music and navigation. As those apps have been updated for higher quality streaming and more features for the dash cam, it now crashes and restarts no matter what I've tried.
Next, the battery life has always been at about 10-20% nearing the end of that day, which is fine for me since I always charge it overnight. However, since purchasing a Moto 360, the added constant bluetooth connection has caused it to die early before I'd like it to.
So, I need a new phone and I'm a pretty strict budget. Let me also note that I will be purchasing said new phone outright.
What's caught my eye happens to be the Amazon Fire Phone, which recently has come down to $189 as it's undoubtedly been a flop, and Amazon is obviously just trying to dump it's inventory. Everything about the phone seems to be pretty great. The design is great, the specs are flagship level, and the added perks, while gimmicky, seem to be solid. The part that drags the phone down is the fact that while it runs Android, it is heavily modified and excluded from the Google ecosystem.
Like other 'Fire' devices released by Amazon, it's extremely easy to add in the Play store, at which point I can't think of anything that the phone would be incapable of doing. I would probably immediately install Google Now Launcher, and a couple other apps that I consider 'Core' level apps. At which point it's basically just another Android phone, and incredibly appealing at the $189 price.
The Fire Phone has Tempered glass screen protectors available, which I favor heavily, and although I'm heavily against two sided glass phones, I'll probably add a skin to mediate that.
So, am I crazy, or what do you guys think? Does anyone have any suggestions?
If it doesn't end up working out like I plan, I can always just return it and open my quest back up, but I'm actually pretty interested in it as an experiment.