In a move that caught many by surprise, Amazon has announced that they will be eliminating the lock screen ads on all of the current Prime phones and future phones will not have them. On the current phones, there will be a firmware update that will eliminate the ads which should be released this week.
The move means that the company will be in compliance with Google’s new rules for Android that bans lock screen ads. This is likely the reason for the dropping of the ads. Amazon has reported that they plan to increase the price of the phones by $20 across the board which will likely go into effect after the patch to remove the ads has been released.
The Prime phones were a great value for those who didn’t mind the ads on the lock screen as it saved anywhere from $50 to $200 on a phone depending on the phone and promotions running. While that value is diminished slightly with the $20 increase, it can still be a great deal for those on a budget.
Keep in mind that the phones will still have ads and have a locked boot loader so there will still be some restriction on the Prime phone that are not on the completely unlocked variants that Amazon sells of the phone.
You can see the entire Prime phone lineup over at Amazon. Even if you buy one today, you will still get the software patch to remove the lock screen ads.
