Blu R1 HD ... Amazon Prime Deal

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Does anyone plan one picking one of these up? I'm tempted to get the 16gb 2gb ram version for $60. But the partial LTE T-mobile bands is holding me back. Still don't know if I should bite. Looks like a great quality phone for the price. Might used it as a backup or a mini tablet.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product..._t=101&pf_rd_p=2544890482&pf_rd_i=11448061011

 

[nfl46]

Ah hell, I wasn't planning on it, but why not? Lol! It's $60 plus it has Marshmallow on it.

Edit: Pre-Ordered.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Ah hell, I wasn't planning on it, but why not? Lol! It's $60 plus it has Marshmallow on it.

Edit: Pre-Ordered.

Good, I needed that satisfaction of someone biting first.

Gonna order mines right now.

 

[Surf Donkey]

Nice deal! When I got my Fire Phone for $30 ($129.99 with a year of Prime) I thought i was a steal. I still use that thing as a gym and running music player. But it is stuck on Kit Kat (well Amazon's FireOS terrible implementation of it) forever with a decently solid CM 11 option on XDA.

This Blu is pretty nice for a backup and I assume will be easy to flash CM13 and rid the ads. Very nice. Going to see what happens to it on Prime Day, though I doubt it could get any cheaper.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Nice deal! When I got my Fire Phone for $30 ($129.99 with a year of Prime) I thought i was a steal. I still use that thing as a gym and running music player. But it is stuck on Kit Kat (well Amazon's FireOS terrible implementation of it) forever with a decently solid CM 11 option on XDA.

This Blu is pretty nice for a backup and I assume will be easy to flash CM13 and rid the ads. Very nice. Going to see what happens to it on Prime Day, though I doubt it could get any cheaper.

That's exactly what I plan on doing.

 

[Hastings101]

Nice deal! When I got my Fire Phone for $30 ($129.99 with a year of Prime) I thought i was a steal. I still use that thing as a gym and running music player. But it is stuck on Kit Kat (well Amazon's FireOS terrible implementation of it) forever with a decently solid CM 11 option on XDA.

This Blu is pretty nice for a backup and I assume will be easy to flash CM13 and rid the ads. Very nice. Going to see what happens to it on Prime Day, though I doubt it could get any cheaper.

Woo, someone else that uses their old Fire Phone as a music player. Mine's sat in my bathroom for shower time music for about a year now except when it's been needed as a backup phone. The speakers kind of suck, but the vocals are really loud and easy to hear for some reason.

Anyway, I do plan on picking up one of these for fun if someone manages to get CM on it. The Moto G4 seems like a good deal too if you can flash the stock/non-Amazonified version of the ROM on there.

 

[mclld]

The king of budget phones for me still remains the Zmax 2 for $60-80, I really like these offerings from amazon and hope to see more.

 

[LSUtigers03]

I preordered one. Changing the lock screen will get rid of the ads and I've spent $60 on much less than the R1 HD. Even if it's the worst phone in history Amazon is great about returns.

 

[Savor]

Wow! What a great deal that is!

BLU is basically Gionee (ODM) but that phone would cost equal to $150-$200 here in the Philippines. We have Android One phones with much crappier specs than that. An Asus Zenfone Go (ZB452KG) goes for $85 locally here and its specs don't match it.

$50 with HD display, 2 GB RAM, ample 2500 mAh battery, and Marshmallow is a deal I take no matter what brand it is. Those are the specs I generally ones look for with a price hard to beat. Not so in love with the bigger flagships with QHD, 4-6 GB RAM, only 2800-3200+ mAh battery to power a "5.5 QHD, and a SoC that is over 2.5 GHz even on idle mode which kills standby time or overheats while gaming. I like to stay at the 2012 flagship level specs.

Nice score! Enjoy!

 

[nfl46]

I just received this phone. I mean, for $60 for the 2GB, it is a nice deal. It's just hard for me to overlook the 720P screen. I guess I am so used to 1080p Full HD displays now a days. But, so far the device has been snappy and works great! I would recommend it for someone who wants a backup device, or wants to try out Android. Personally, I couldn't use this as my primary device, though.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I just received this phone. I mean, for $60 for the 2GB, it is a nice deal. It's just hard for me to overlook the 720P screen. I guess I am so used to 1080p Full HD displays now a days. But, so far the device has been snappy and works great! I would recommend it for someone who wants a backup device, or wants to try out Android. Personally, I couldn't use this as my primary device, though.

I'm receiving mines tomorrow.

 

[mclld]

I ordered one for a friend and it just came in, wow what a nice phone. I was able to disable all the amazon apps and I installed Next lockscreen to get rid of the ads. I didnt realize it was a metal frame on the edges, the screen looks really good as well imo. This is an incredible value. I think once people see this in person and word of mouth this will sell very well. I ordered the 6 buck case and it even came with a screen protector


Edit:. I found a single ab line command on slickdeals that gets rid of the ads as well with no lock screen app needed. I assume this will work on the Moto G as well
adb shell pm hide com.amazon.phoenix

 

[BeSweeet]

Mine came in yesterday. So far, so good. I think it's safe to say that, at $60 for the 16GB / 2GB variant, it's the best smartphone deal around.

One thing I noticed is that YouTube playback is limited to 720p for non-60FPS videos, while 60FPS videos are limited to 480p30... Even then, 480p30FPS videos are a bit stuttery.

From what I read on other sites, custom ROMs probably won't be a thing for the R1 HD, due to its MediaTek processor, which I thought was interesting. Didn't think that the CPU would influence ROMs, but that's apparently the case.

 

[LSUtigers03]

Edit:. I found a single ab line command on slickdeals that gets rid of the ads as well with no lock screen app needed. I assume this will work on the Moto G as well
adb shell pm hide com.amazon.phoenix

I did this and restarted the phone and the ads are still there. After entering the command the result was "Package com.amazon.phoenix new hidden state: true" Is there anything I did wrong or anything else that needs to be done?

 

[mclld]

I have not restarted it yet

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Been playing with mines for about 30 min now. I'm impressed so far.

The full screen ads on the lock screen are not bad at all. And it only does full screen if you have no notifications shown, otherwise it will show your notifications over normal wallpaper and a small ad under the notifications. Amazon did a great job at not being intrusive.








The phone itself fells thick compared to my S7 edge, but it feels good. The speaker audio is pure crap, it's laughable. The headphone audio is loud and crisp. The camera takes decent photos front and back, way better than I expected. And not too bad in low light, but nothing compared to today's flagship phones.

Android feels snappy, responsive, and lean for a budget phone of this price. Haven't seen a hiccup yet. The icons are too big for my taste though. I'm hoping for root and custom rom on this phone. Plus I hate the Google search bar on the top.

I played some Amazon Prime and Youtube 720p videos on this and they look good. The display itself is bright enough for my satisfaction, and the color saturation seems minimal.

I didn't get to test my T-mobile sim, cause I can't find my nano to micro adapter. So I wasn't able to test T-mobile LTE service yet. Wifi connection is good, but no 5GHz. Bluetooth and GPS work excellent.

Can't speak on battery life yet.

The micro USB slot is pretty tight, hope that doesn't cause breakage down the line.

So far the only thing about this phone that is horrible is the speaker. It's the worst speaker I've ever experienced on a phone, EVER!!!!

But other than the speaker, this phone is worth every dime. More than meets my expectations.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Spent the last two days with this phone, with my main T-mobile sim inside. LTE data seems good, multiple speed tests on average is 30dwn 20up. That's lower than my S7 edge which averages around 70dwn 35up and sometimes hit 90dwn. I think it's the missing band freq that T-mobile uses that limits the speed on this phone, but 30dwn is still fast enough.

When I was on a call, I noticed this device has phone recording built in. Just tap the far right menu button and you have the option for recording a call. You'll see a red dot to the right start blinking as it's recording. NICE!!!




Can't really comment much on battery life usage, as I was using this in my car most of the time while connected to the charger. But I can say that stand-by battery life is just as good as most flagship phones today, most likely due to Doze.


Hotspot works great also. Not sure if it's authorized or not. I'm leaning towards not, cause it gave no indication of checking to see if I had hotspot service. Hotspot just enabled instantly. But I can't truly tell, cause I get free hotspot with my T-mobile plan.

Too bad this phone didn't release about 3-4 years earlier at the same price.
Now back to my S7 edge.

 

[co.ag.2005]

FYI

Amazon's BLU R1 HD gets rooted, bootloader unlocked, TWRPed, and debloated

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

FYI

Amazon's BLU R1 HD gets rooted, bootloader unlocked, TWRPed, and debloated

Nice, going to do that asap.

 

[MrXiro]

Woo, someone else that uses their old Fire Phone as a music player. Mine's sat in my bathroom for shower time music for about a year now except when it's been needed as a backup phone. The speakers kind of suck, but the vocals are really loud and easy to hear for some reason.

Anyway, I do plan on picking up one of these for fun if someone manages to get CM on it. The Moto G4 seems like a good deal too if you can flash the stock/non-Amazonified version of the ROM on there.

I picked up both and surprisingly I prefer the Blu R1 HD to the Moto G4. There seems to a fair bit of lag on the G4 that I don't experience with the Blu. Not sure why or what it is.

 

[Hastings101]

I picked up both and surprisingly I prefer the Blu R1 HD to the Moto G4. There seems to a fair bit of lag on the G4 that I don't experience with the Blu. Not sure why or what it is.

I've heard there are a lot of lag problems with the Moto G4. Maybe the software (though it looks? almost stock) is to blame or there's a cooling issue since the Honor 5x and other phones have about the same specs and run really well. Funny that the cheap Blu is going to end up a decent phone

 

[MrXiro]

I can't decide if I should keep the Blu or not... I have a 64gb 6s Plus and while I like using it the Blu is fun to play with too... and it's so light! $65 won't break the bank but it's also a luxury purchase I shouldn't be making. What do you all think I should do?

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I can't decide if I should keep the Blu or not... I have a 64gb 6s Plus and while I like using it the Blu is fun to play with too... and it's so light! $65 won't break the bank but it's also a luxury purchase I shouldn't be making. What do you all think I should do?

I would keep it as a backup, if you don't already have one.

I will be using it as a backup and in some cases as a travel phone. Some places I travel to is not smart to carry around an expensive phone.

 

[TallManNY]

I've had mine for a couple of weeks now. It is incredible for $60. I really think it will be a game changer. It seems a bit under the radar, but it has to be savaging Android handset sales. Top Android phones are already coming in at $400 in the U.S. But I don't think that price level can last competing against a $60 phone this good that runs the same Android operating system and same Apps.

And this is another factor that has me thinking that we are going to get a price cut on the iPhone 7. It isn't just what can Apple sell the 7 for in September. Apple doesn't like to change prices. So they need a price that will still move product in June 2017. I don't think that is $649 for the base model. Not if very good Android phones are going to cost $300 next year. I'm guessing base iPhone is $549 or $599 tops. But the price has to come down. Paying $749 for a phone with decent storage is not going to be acceptable in 2017.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I've had mine for a couple of weeks now. It is incredible for $60. I really think it will be a game changer. It seems a bit under the radar, but it has to be savaging Android handset sales. Top Android phones are already coming in at $400 in the U.S. But I don't think that price level can last competing against a $60 phone this good that runs the same Android operating system and same Apps.

Yea, for $60 is an amazing device. Runs very solid and smooth.

But it lacks plenty ....
Fast and Wireless charging
NFC (no Android Pay)
No 5GHz wifi
Speaker SUCKS!!!
Camera is just decent
No Gyroscope and Compass.
No Finger Print sensor

But the Pros are ....
5' inch 720 IPS screen
2 GB Ram
1.3GHz Quad Core
Micro SD slot
Dual Sim
Excellent design and build quality
Built-in call recording
Android 6.0 running very close to stock.
Able to Root .... I have mines rooted already
Battery lasts about a day with normal usage, stand-by is good.
Tethers/Hotspot without checking for carrier authorization
Adoptable storage, which works well.

If someone doesn't want all the bells and whistles, and just needs a good reliable smartphone. I highly recommend this. The speaker is the only real flaw about this phone.