did anyone buy the new BLU R1 HD?

[AC Question]

did anyone buy the new BLU R1 HD? I bought the 16gb amazon version and should get it tomorrow. I would be curious to know what others think about this phone, whether you bought it or not.

 

[sprof]

I got mine today. I like it so far. I don't even notice the ads. I won't even attempt to remove them. Battery is draining about 4% per hour with the same use as my Droid Turbo that's about 2% on that one. Although that battery is huge. Wifi signal is strong. I use Tracfone in tray 1 for calls and text and FreedomPop in tray 2 for data.

 

[jshandell]

I've had mine for a few days now. For the price, you can't beat it. It lags at times, and wifi signal seems to go in and out sporadically. But the dual SIM and the micro SD capabilities make the phone very useful. I've seen online chatter that you can avoid the lockscreen ads by installing a third party lockscreen app, but I don't find this to be completely accurate. When I tried it, sometimes the ads were present and sometimes they were absent. But when the phone has a notification, the ad reduces in size from the full screen to a notification-sized card on the lock screen. So I installed an app that keeps a permanent notification, so the ads are always small (and thus barely even noticeable). Overall, it's worth the small investment, I think. Splurge the extra $10 for the upgraded model (16gb/2gb over 8gb/1gb).

 

[sprof]

But when the phone has a notification, the ad reduces in size from the full screen to a notification-sized card on the lock screen. So I installed an app that keeps a permanent notification, so the ads are always small (and thus barely even noticeable). Overall, it's worth the small investment, I think. Splurge the extra $10 for the upgraded model (16gb/2gb over 8gb/1gb).

I always have a notification anyway (Weather Underground), that's why I don't notice the ads I agree about paying the extra $10.

 

[sprof]

Just received a software update.

BLU_R0010UU_V6.4_GENERIC 10-07-2016 00:10

 

[Teddy Foster]

I received the same update. I heard that Blu was supposed to push an OTA update to enable access to T-Mobile's band 12 frequency. Does anyone know if this recent update in fact did enable band 12? Also, I'm loving this phone. I switched from a Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Yeah, sure, I know that my Note was pretty old, still this Blu phone is better than it in nearly everyway. On Amazon's prime day I also scored a Huawei honor 5X. I heard that it should receive an OTA upgrade from lollipop to marshmallow. Anyone know when that update should be pushed?

 

[sprof]

I think the update was just bug fixes and also to stop the ability to block the ads.

I'm not liking the signal strength. I think it's a Blu thing and not just this phone. I have Tracfone on AT&T and the signal varies wildly while in my house. It can go no no bars to full bars while stationary. The Dash X2 and Energy 2 did the same. The signal also drops in places where an AT&T Gophone never did.

I took it off the charger this morning after charging all night and within 15 minutes the battery was at 86% just from checking my emails. That's the first full charge since the update.

 

[Teddy Foster]

Wow, sorry to hear that. No issues on T-Mobile. My cube at work is current in the basement of my company's main building. My signal strength using my Note was always only 1 bar. With my Blu R1, it's always either 3 bars or full bars. I'm never buying a big name (Samsung, Apple...) cell phone ever again.

 

[Teddy Foster]

FYI:
Devices compatible with 700 MHz A block spectrum - Spectrum Gateway

BLU R1 HD (ships with band 12 disabled, but the manufacturer promises a future update to enable it. If you own this phone and it happens, please make an announcement as described below)

 

[sprof]

I've used this phone enough to know it's not for me. The sporadic cell signal and low volume speaker are the deal breakers for me.

 

[JonCBK]

Got it over the weekend. Seemingly amazing quality for a $60 phone (of course I got the 2gb version, as everyone should). Put a MetroPCS card in there and signal strength seems fine. The ads have not bothered me so far.

I really don't know how Samsung is going to sell very many $600 phones going forward if stock android is available in decent hardware at 10% of the cost. And I suspect that Amazon is going to support this phone with software updates in a way that I'd be skeptical of the budget Chinese brands ever doing. I think this is going to be a game changer phone in the U.S.

 

[General Tso]

I bought one for my kid. Popped in a Cricket SIM. Thing works great. Best bang for your buck out there. I did spend the extra $10 for the 16gb and 2gb RAM.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[jmshub]

I got mine a couple of days ago. I'm primarily a Windows Phone user, I mostly bought this to have a modern Android device to play around with. It will be primarily used as a WiFi device.

 

[QUIK_LS1]

I got mine today. I like it so far. I don't even notice the ads. I won't even attempt to remove them. Battery is draining about 4% per hour with the same use as my Droid Turbo that's about 2% on that one. Although that battery is huge. Wifi signal is strong. I use Tracfone in tray 1 for calls and text and FreedomPop in tray 2 for data.

So I bought this phone primarily for Pokemon GO (the addiction is real) for my locator app and then playing the actual game on my regular phone. I was told that I had to have a prepaid plan and couldn't just use data, which if true is unfortunate because I literally have zero intention on using this as anything other than an emergency backup phone and for Pokemon. I bought a $45 prepaid monthly card from AT&T and want to utilize the second SIM slot with a T-mobile card. Can I load just data on it or do I need the prepaid plan per month like I was told at AT&T?

 

[greg dyer]

Had mine for 2 weeks - tremendous value. Amazing speed. Is it worth 50 bucks to put up with an ad ? Yes, easily. Only drawback, it didn't pair with my car's bluetooth, but did with my amazon speaker.

 

[zoomzoom71]

I bought the 16GB version, as my first, inexpensive entry into the Android world. I used it WiFi only for a couple of weeks, then tried it as a phone for about a week. It's decent enough, for what it is. I'm a Prime Member (I guess we all are, though. LOL), and I liked having all the Amazon apps already installed.

I also purchased a DTEK50 last week, which I'm going to make my primary. (I'm a Blackberry guy, hard habit to break) I'll keep the R1 and let one of my kids use it on WiFi. I think it will perform better than the Fire Tablet they've had since last Xmas. Can't believe Amazon didn't put more than 8GB of storage, or at least an SD card on that thing. Very disappointed in that device.

 

[Neutron29]

I've had mine for a month now. I love the phone, but have noticed a strange quirk. I'm thinking it's something to do with Marshmallow. I added a note application several times, and a day or so later, it is gone. I thought I was imagining it when it happened the first time. I have a couple tablets I also installed the app on, so I thought maybe I was confusing the two.

But this time, I wrote down the application date (ironically on the note application on my tablet), and sure enough, a day later, it's gone. Anyone else have this happen?

 

[Mitch Alan]

I like mine quite a bit. It has an amazing screen resolution for video for the price. The ads can be mitigated by adding a third party Screen Lock app. Ditto for a home page launcher to get rid of the Google Search ad on the first page. The only flaw so far is I can't connect my Blu R1 to my PC using the USB cable. Something got corrupted on the phone. Has anyone had any trouble using the MTP function?

 

[cori lucas]

i have the same problem conecting via usb...i cant trannsfer anything else but pics...only ptp, no mtp

 

[Mitch Alan]

The solution is to update the driver for the blu r1 reusing the driver from Portable Devices, it is the WPD FILE SYSTEM VOLUME DRIVER.

You will find it in the Device Manager.