BLU R1 HD - 16 GB - Black - Prime Exclusive - with Lockscreen Offers & Ads

I've had this device for about a week now. If there is anything that comes up that I don't like after a month I will update the review.***Usage***The main thing that's missing in all reviews is how the people are using their device. This device is actually being used as my daily driver. I upgraded from an ever aging galaxy s3 which was rooted with cm 12.***Hardware***I know I know this does not come with a snapdragon 820 or 4 GB of RAM. Is it as fast as a galaxy s7, or a One Plus 3? No. But this costs sixty dollars where as the One Plus 3 costs $400, the s7 costing about $650. In fact if you look up on YouTube this device vs Galaxy S7 speed test, the S7 is barely faster. With my usage the hardware is just fine. The processor is snappy enough. I've had little to no lag. I've experienced no force closes. The 2GB of ram can keep about 5 apps open. And 16 GB of storage is more than enough for me. However, there is a micro SD card slot if 16 GB just isn't enough. The screen is better than my s3 screen. No it's not 4k. It isn't even 1080p. It is a 720p IPS panel. This pannel seems like a very good 720p pannel. Viewing angels are great, and colors seem good enough to me. The pannel is also protected in Gorilla Glass 3 which should offer enough protection for most people. Finally, the build quality is awesome for this phone. I know people will hate me for this but the build quality is better than a Galaxy S5 (However the Galaxy S6, S7, and One Plus 3 all have better build quality). The S5 has plastic edges, this has metal edges. The S5 also has a plastic back. So does this. This is an A+ in build quality for the price. And a B+ in build quality for any price. All in all the hardware for the Blu R1 HD is superb. I'm a geek and I have no problem what so ever with the speed of this phone. If you do basic stuff like Facebook, Instagram, Web Browsing, Music Listening, YouTube, and even games like Candy Crush or Temple Run this phone will do very well. Even more demanding games will do okay. However if you want the best performance, fastest game playing device, this is not for you. Instead look at a One Plus 3, Galaxy S7, or an iPhone 6s.***Cameras****The cameras on this phone are not any where close to as good as an S7, S6, S5, or S4. I would say the back camera does a little bit better than my Galaxy S3. The camera also shoots way fast. I would say the Back camera can snap a picture about as fast as the Galaxy S5 does. The front camera in my opinion is equal to the S5 front camera. And it even has front facing flash so low light quality should be better than the S5 on the front camera. All in all for the price point the camera is excellent, and in general the cameras are okay. I'd give an A+ for the price point, and a B- in general. I will include some sample shots in the pictures section.***Speakers***My biggest complaint about this phone is indeed the speakers. Yes it is a budget phone. No I don't expect these speaker to have good mids, lows, and good bass. However I do expect the speakers to be loud enough. These are anything but loud. Most YouTube videos require you to turn the volume all the way up just to barely here what the person is saying. If you watch movies these should be just fine if you like turning the volume up all the way. In this price range I would give the speakers a B-, and in general a C.***Wifi, Cell Service, and Bluetooth***The wifi is great on this phone. I seem to get the same signal strength out of this device as my mom's S7 does. However on our 100mbps fiber to the home network the S7 would get almost always 110mbps. Where as the Blu R1 HD would get about 37mbps download. The Blu also does not support the 5GHZ band.As for cell service, the Blu worked wonderful on AT&T's network. Cell strength was always the same as the S7. The Blu scored on average 61 mbps on AT&T's LTe network. I have yet to test my mom's S7. However, in the future I will update this review with the results of my mom's S7. Bluetooth was just like any other device. I could go about 15 feet away from my Bluetooth speaker before music started to get choppy. Bluetooth streaming was also smooth with little delay. There was also no "choppiness". All in all for sixty dollars; connection wise this phone gets an A+. And in general a B- (because of the wifi speeds).***Call Quality****Call Quality is just like a flagship from 2012. There is no HD Voice. There is no Voice over LTE. And there isn't even support for Wi-Fi Calling. However, calls were always loud enough, and sounded just the same as my Galaxy S3. I also received no dropped calls. All in all for the price point, call Quality is an A-. And in general, a B-.***Software***The software on the Blu R1 HD is nearly stock Android. The only differences I could see was that Blu does not use the Google Now Launcher. And there are some extra display, and sound settings. There is also a separate Gallery app. And the camera UI is tweaked. The software always runs smooth, and is very fast and fluid. There is also no bloatware, except for the Google apps.If you get the Amazon Prime version, you will also have Amazon's apps preinstalled.You will also have ads on the lock screen which I personally do not mind at all. I have no complaints about the software, and I'd wish all budget phonrakers would take the Stock Android software approach.***Updates***Many people say BLU does not have a good history for updating their devices. This is true; however, I've already received two software updates in the two weeks I've had this phone.***Final Verdict***In my opinion there is no better phone you can get at this price point. If you don't do a lot of heavy gaming this phone is a much better choice than forking out $650 plus for an S7. I would also only buy the 16GB and 2GB RAM model if only because in this day and age that is the minimum.****FINAL Updates****Okay I know it's been a long time. But I need to update this review. I dropped a star. If only because there were a few issuee that pushed me to buy a flagship after 6 months (Galaxy Note 5). Number one was Bluetooth. At first, Bluetooth was just fine, as stated above in my first review. However, now my Bluetooth is always failing to connect. The only way to fix this is turning Bluetooth off, and then restarting the phone. The second issue I just could not stand was how quiet the rear firing speaker is. It is very very quiet to the point where you will need an external audio source. The final issue I have is the spyware that was found on the phone. The spyware would sentd various data to a company in China. However, BLU did push out an update to fix this. Speaking of updates, before switching to the Note 5, I had received about 6 updates. All of which were only a month behind Google's current monthly security patch. I also forgot to mention in my original review about the battery life. From my memory battery life was great for the price point. It had even better battery life than my Note 5 I have right now. With brightness turned up 25% most of the time I got around 4 hours of screen on time on average. Thanks for all the up votes everyone!

I have had this phone for about 4 months. I absolutely loved it. I am a hardcore Amazon lover, we have quite a bit of Amazon products, such as the Kindle and the echo Dot. So I was very excited to try this phone. I really loved it, came with all my Amazon apps predownloaded. However, the past week I have been unable to connect to WiFi. I've done all the trouble shooting I can and there is no other answer to the problem. Everyone's devices connect to WiFi just fine, except my Blu phone. I am now reading a lot of reviews of other people running into this same exact problem. WiFi says connected but doesn't work, and when it does work it's only for a few seconds and then stops again. Not just my model of the Blu, but other ones as well. I'm still giving this 3 stars because I seriously love this phone, and I plan on calling Amazon and seeing if they can fix this problem in anyway. I usually am very satisfied with their customer service so if this gets resolved somehow, I will update this review. Also, one weird thing that I read on a forum for the Blu phone, was people said their phone ran WiFi great with airplane mode on. This is true for me too. I can not keep it in airplane mode though or I will not receive calls or texts.Update: my Blu phone connected to WiFi while in airplane mode all day. At the end of the day I took it off airplane mode to see if I missed any calls or texts. After taking it off airplane mode somehow it has fixed the problem. It's been two days and no issues connecting to my wifi since then. If anyone experiences the wifi issue with their phone, you can try keeping it in airplane mode for a few hours and it may fix the issue when you take it back off. So happy because I absolutely love this phone. It's by far the best phone I've ever had.Update: will not connect to any Bluetooth devices. I had to switch it from 5 stars to one. There is just too many issues with this phone. I definitely wouldn't recommend.

I took this on a trip to Italy. When I got there I easily purchased an Italian SIM card for cheap.The phone works really well. I used it for google maps and it was nice to have a local phone number. Great operating system and I didn't encounter any bugs/glitches using the smartphone apps and features we all love.