Blu R1 HD
Blu, the US-based company that
specializes in low-cost unlocked smartphones, has announced the Blu R1 HD, a
handset that's priced starting at just US$ 99.99 unlocked. Given its price, some
may hurry to dismiss the Blu R1 HD as a smartphone with horrible specs, but it
turns out that this isn't the case.
Blu says that the R1 HD features a
premium build quality at an entry-level price. While that affirmation might be
an exaggeration, the handset does come with a metal frame that goes around the
body as well as a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass on the front, a combination
that's hard to find at the US$ 100 price point. The back of the phone is made out
of polycarbonate. The body of the Blu R1 HD measures 8.8 mm
across the waist, although a downside of this slimness is the presence of a
camera hump on the back.
The display of the Blu R1 HD is a 5-inch
panel running at 720x1280 pixels, specs that are good enough for a PPI of
294. That's not a level of crispness that we'd be satisfied to see in a premium
phone, but it will definitely suffice given the affordable price. Furthermore,
Blu says that the display on the R1 HD features a brightness rating of 420
nits, which should mean that the panel is bright enough to be used in direct
sunlight.
Under the hood beats the heart of a
MediaTek MT6735 chipset, a SoC that integrates a 1.7 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53
CPU and a Mali-T760MP2 GPU. In terms of processing power, the MT6735 should be
on par with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, a chip that you'll find powering pricier
phones such as the Motorola Moto G3.
When it comes to the memory, the handset
will be offered in two versions. The cheaper one is priced at US$ 99.99 and comes
with 8 GB of integrated storage space and 1 GB of RAM. The second one, which is
is the one we'd recommend, comes with 16 GB of integrated storage and 2 GB of RAM
at a price of US$ 109.99. Usually, smartphone makers ask for much more than US$ 10 to
upgrade your phone to 2 GB of RAM / 16 GB of storage.
In the imaging department, the Blu R1
comes with an 8 MP primary camera on the back as well as a 5 MP selfie shooter
with 84° wide-angle capture. Both cameras are equipped with LED flash. The Blu
R1 HD runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, which is a pleasant surprise
on such a cheap phone. Better still, Blu says that it guarantees an update to
the final version of Android N.
If need be mentioned, the Blu R1 HD will
work just fine with GSM carriers in the US (such as T-Mobile or AT&T) but
is not compatible with Verizon or Sprint.
