Amazon discounts Android phones, if you're willing to see ads
Tech Industry
Amazon is discounting some Android phones, but of course you know there has to be a catch, right?
In this case several catches.
First up, you have to be an Amazon Prime subscriber, which runs about $100 per year.
Second, you're limited to a couple of phones.
Is the Blu R1 HD.
Normally it costs about $100.
With the deal, it's $50 dollars.
You may not have heard of the Blu R1, but Amazon is also offering a discount on the fourth generation Moto G. It normally goes for around $200 dollars.
The reduced price is $150 dollars.
Person.
Both of those devices are unlocked so they're not tied to any specific wireless carrier.
Sounds pretty good so far, right?
There's one more massive catch.
You have to agree to receive personalized ads on the devices' lockscreens.
Yeah.
Amazon already has a similar feature on its Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets.
For the phones, the ads will appear full screen unless you have notifications.
Then the ad will shrink to the size of notifications.
Ads can be dismissed.
There is no requirement to go further with an ad to use your phone.
The phone will Also be pre-loaded with Amazon apps like Amazon's main shopping app and Kindle.
Google's apps are still on both the BLU R One HD and the Moto G.
These are still Android phones.
They do not run Amazon's Fire OS.
This is the first time Amazon is bringing it's special offers discount to phones, and the first time those offers are coming to non-Amazon devices.
Both phones are available for preorder now and will ship on July 12th.
I'm Iyaz Akhtar and you can keep up with the hottest tech news at cnet.com/update.
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