Blu R1 HD

Editors' Note: Nosotros first published this review in July 2022. Amazon pulled the R1 HD and other Blu phones from sale in July 2022 considering of "potential security bug." As of August 8, 2022, the R1 HD and other Blu devices are once once again available from Amazon.

As I first pulled the Blu R1 HD out of the box, my colleague Sascha Segan walked over and exclaimed, "It'due south the Amazon Fire tablet for phones!" After a few days of testing, information technology turns out that's actually the all-time way to think near the R1. It'due south an unlocked Android phone available to Amazon Prime customers for a bargain bin cost of $49.99 (with 8GB storage and 1GB RAM) or $59.99 (for 16GB storage and 2GB RAM), subsidized by the inclusion of pre-installed Amazon apps and congenital-in ads on the lock screen. Even for not-Prime customers (who will pay $99.99 or $109.99, respectively, and non have to deal with ads) it still offers remarkable value thanks to solid battery life, a crisp 720p display, and good overall functioning. For these reasons, the R1 Hard disk earns Editors' Pick honors for upkeep unlocked phones.

Blueprint, Features, and Display

My biggest concern earlier actually getting my hands on the R1 HD was that Blu would be making large sacrifices in build quality in order to hit a depression price. That's frequently the case with budget phones, which tend to exist made out of cheap-feeling plastic and faux metal (I'm looking at you, Samsung). That'southward not the case with the R1, which has a existent metal edge to bind the pane of curved glass on the forepart, and removable soft-affect blackness plastic comprehend on the back.

Measuring in at v.63 by 2.78 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and 5.01 ounces, the R1 is a svelte and lightweight device. Information technology's nigh half an ounce lighter than the fully metal Huawei Honor 5X (5.96 by 3.00 past 0.32 inches, five.57 ounces). Overall, it bears a stiff resemblance to the Blu Life I 10 (v.89 by two.90 by 0.34 inches, 4.97 ounces), which has similar dimensions, a metal edge, and a soft-touch back. Y'all'll find the R1 piece of cake to apply one-handed and generally quite pleasant to concur.

R1 HD right

The phone has fairly standard button and port placement. <spanThere's a clicky volume rocker and power push button on the left side, an off-center port on the lesser, and a 3.5mm audio jack up height. The dorsum peels off to requite you access to a microSD carte slot that worked with a 64GB menu (only not a 200GB bill of fare), and dual SIM bill of fare slots. Unfortunately, the battery is sealed in, and then you tin can't conduct a spare.

The forepart is dwelling house to a reasonably sharp, five-inch 1,280-by-720 IPS LCD display with a narrow bezel on both sides. The resolution works out to 294 pixels per inch, which is more than than enough to brand text and video appear crisp, and viewing angles are likewise adept. The screen gets very bright— 420 nits according to Blu—making it hands visible outdoors. The screen isn't as sharp equally the 1080p displays you'll find on the Honor 5X and the Life 1 Ten, but for the price, it's hard to notice fault with it.

Network Operation and Connectivity

The R1 Hard disk supports 3G (850/1700/1900/2100MHz) and LTE bands (2/4/7/17), allowing information technology to work with carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and any other GSM network provider. It doesn't have band 12 for T-Mobile, which is used for extended range LTE coverage, so you may get meliorate connectivity on AT&T. Because the R1 has dual SIM slots, you lot can accept two phone numbers on it, which is a handy feature if you're traveling or want to have separate home and work numbers. The R1 likewise supports ii.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth iv.1, but yous won't find 5GHz Wi-Fi or NFC at this price range.

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I tested the R1 on T-Mobile in midtown Manhattan. Network operation was average, with similar download and upload speeds to an Apple iPhone 6s Plus.

Call quality is mixed. Transmissions were a bit garbled and voices suffered from a harsh, robotic border. Fortunately, earpiece volume is loud and noise cancellation is quite expert at blotting out background interference.

Processor, Battery, and Camera

The R1 is powered by a quad-core 1.3GHz MediaTek 6735 processor, which is a similar chipset and clock speed to the Life One X. I reviewed the 16GB storage, 2GB RAM model. When benchmarked on AnTuTu, which tests overall system performance, the R1 scored 31,847 to the Life Ane Ten's 37,974, which is surprising, considering the R1 has lower screen resolution, only that may be due to the deviation between the octa-core Life One X and the quad-core R1. Information technology could as well be the software load, which I'll discuss in item in the next department.

And that said, operation was polish overall. I didn't experience whatever significant slowdowns, except when I was trying to push the phone to its limits by launching as many apps as possible. You're more than probable to hit the RAM usage limit sooner on the 8GB storage/1GB RAM model; for the $10 price divergence, it'south absolutely worth springing for extra memory and storage. You can play advanced games similar CSR Racing two and GTA: San Andreas, simply load times can accept a while and gameplay isn't the smoothest.

Battery life is quite skillful. The R1 clocked five hours and 57 minutes in our rundown test, in which nosotros set screen brightness to maximum and stream full-screen video over LTE. That's nearly two hours longer than the Life One X (4 hours, 4 minutes), and a slight improvement over the Honour 5X (5 hours, sixteen minutes). I had no trouble getting the R1 to concluding through a full twenty-four hour period of use.

R1 HD back

If you're still wondering how Blu was able to build such a solid for $50, 1 inkling is in the photographic camera functioning. Both the viii-megapixel rear sensor and 5-megapixel front-facing camera proved disappointing. Outdoors, even nether the all-time lighting conditions, pictures taken by the R1 look noisy. And indoors, pictures tin can get so muddy that yous don't fifty-fifty want to share them online. In addition, autofocus sometimes failed to lock on, making pictures come out blurry. The only time I was able to take reliably clear shots was in the PC Labs photo studio. You lot can record 1080p video at 30 frames per second, but it too isn't great.

Software

Here's where things get interesting. The R1 HD comes running the latest available version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The UI is most stock, with i major exception if you lot buy the Amazon Prime version. That model adds Amazon advertisement to the lock screen, and an Amazon widget on the home screen. The lock screen ads are usually total-screen, for products like the Fitbit Alta and the Amazon Repeat. Occasionally they appear as a simple notification (over again on the lock screen) you can swipe away. These ads appear whether you lot log in to your Amazon business relationship or not, but if you do log in, the ads are at to the lowest degree personalized to your interests. The widget on the home screen is less intrusive and you tin remove it.

The phone has several pre-installed Amazon apps including Alexa, Amazon, Amazon Drive, Amazon Kindle, Amazon Music, Amazon Photos, Amazon Video, Goodreads, IMDb, and Prime number Now. Y'all'll too find the standard suite of Google apps. None of it is removable, but overall, information technology'south less bloatware than you lot get with most carrier devices. And bated from that, the settings carte du jour, notification shade, and app icons all remain the aforementioned.

R1 HD lockscreen

You lot're left with nine.48GB of available storage on the 16GB model. Since the R1 comes with Marshmallow and a microSD card slot, you lot can take reward of the adoptable storage feature; if y'all put a microSD card in the phone, you have the option of treating it like internal storage.

Conclusions

When I reviewed the $150 Blu Life One X, our previous Editors' Choice, it was hard to imagine a phone undercutting it without making huge sacrifices to build quality and performance. With the R1, Blu has managed to do just that. For the price, you lot get a 720p display, reasonably fast functioning, a solid build, and proficient battery life. The Amazon ads aren't bad, and you tin can always pay more for a model without them—and you'll still be paying less than you would for most other unlocked phones.

If you want a better photographic camera, you'll have to pay $50 to $100 more for the Life One X, but the operation improvement between the 2 devices is otherwise negligible. For a significant spring, you lot'll accept to beat out for the OnePlus iii, which volition get you lot a cutting-edge Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, a abrupt display, and a stellar photographic camera, merely information technology as well costs a heck of a lot more. And then for its stiff combination of price and operation, the Blu R1 HD receives our Editors' Choice honor for cheap unlocked phones.