Amazon Prime exclusive Android phones are ditching their lockscreen ads and raising prices
Amazon’s Prime Exclusive phones are some of the best deals you can get on a brand new Android device but they came with a catch: lockscreen ads. In exchange for a nice discount, ads would appear on the lockscreen showing you the hottest deals that can be found on Amazon. While this may not sound too invasive for some, for others it was a deal breaker, no matter how sweet the deal.
Today Amazon has announced that they’re finally doing away with these lockscreen ads on all of their Prime Exclusive phones. Amazon would like you to believe that the move is in response to new lockscreen technologies like fingerprint sensors and facial recognition (which completely bypass the lockscreen altogether) but we can’t help but wonder if it has more to do with Google recently prohibiting the use of apps that feature lockscreen ads. Who knows.
The new, ad-free models can be found on Amazon starting tomorrow, February 7th, and anyone that has already purchased a Prime Exclusive Android device will be receiving an over-the-air update to remove the lockscreen ads in the coming days. The downside? According to LIlliputing, Amazon will be raising the price of their Prime Exclusive phones by $20. Bummer.
Prime Exclusive phones will still come pre-installed with Amazon apps and locked bootloaders, so there’s still a slight downside to them. You can check out the full list of Amazon Prime Exclusive phones by hitting that button down below.