Anybody use BLU cell phone?

[sixkids]

Was doing a little research on lowering my bills and all. Came across an article on low cost, high feature cell phones. Looking now at getting the BLU advance 5.0, which is $59, total. Android, and on paper, it looks like it is gobs better than the iPhone 7 I'm paying $31 a month for. It also gets excellent reviews everywhere, not for being the greatest phone ever, but for succeeding at just being a decent smartphone at a good price. If it lasts me six months, I'm ahead of the game. Hell, of it lasts me two months, I'm ahead.
I figure if anyone here has any firsthand knowledge, I'll buy one, try it out for a few days and if it's acceptable, sell my iPhone for payoff plus a couple hundred bucks and make the switch to cricket at that time. My wife will never give up an iPhone, but hers is paid for and she's happy with it still, so no biggie.

[Stash Engineer]

I had the BLU advance 5.0 for over a year on Ting before I had to give it up for a work phone (Iphone 6).  It was a great phone for the price.  Only complaint I had is that the camera sucks compared to most smartphones on the market now.  My Iphone 6 takes way better pictures.  Not a complaint so much as just a FYI, but the field of view for the screen is narrow.  You have to look almost perpendicular the screen when you are using it.  It handles all other smartphone stuff just fine and the reception is great.  I would certainly buy another one.

[seattlecyclone]

I've used one. If you're looking for a perfectly adequate but not terribly fancy smart phone, a BLU phone should fit the bill.

[sixkids]

Sounds like this will work out well then.  I don't need a bunch of extra stuff.  In fact, the only reason I got the iphone 7 was because I ran out of space and couldn't upgrade the memory.  With the BLU, I can upgrade to 64gb, which is way more than I would ever need.  Email, facebook, my bank apps, and a couple of time waster game I play twice a day are all I really do on my iphone. 

[engineerjourney]

My DH and I both currently have BLU phones and are using airvoice.  They were our first smart phones a couple years ago and we still have the same ones.  They shut off sometimes now so we are going to look into new ones soon.  Two things I don't like but otherwise they are pretty great, especially for the price!!  1.  Camera sucks, like really really bad (at least on our model). 2.  Doesn't do group messages.. so if you get group messages often and would like to be able to see the conversation flow it sucks, the texts will show up under the person that sent it and you can't reply to everyone (and can't even tell who else is on the message).   Not sure how much those two things matter to you but they are the only things making me think I might want to non-BLU phone for my next phone (mostly the camera since I have kids now and getting the actual camera out to capture a moment is a lot more difficult than having your phone out).

[khangaroo]

I bought a Blu Dash Jr for my dad and was an absolute piece of junk. I wasn't expecting much, but at least more functional than a piece of sh*t in a plastic case. The call quality was terrible, the feel of the case was abrasive, the button was extremely twitchy and it took a good 3-5 pushes each time for the screen to turn on, the screen resolution sucked, the camera was useless, and on and on.

It MIGHT be good if you use your phone for the occasional call or text, like my dad, but I would never use it if you look at your phone more than 3 times a day. It was so shitty that I just bought my dad a Samsung, forgot which one but more than the $35 Dash JR. Not comparable to your Blu phone but that experience has left a bad taste in my mouth for the company.

I also use my phone frequently for work and personal so I need a decent one which is luckily provided for free (company).

[ketchup]

It'll be a colossal step down from a flashy new iPhone, but as long as you're aware of that you'll be fine.  It'll do the basics as well as any phone.  As others have said, cheaper smartphones tend to be very hit or VERY miss in the camera department, if that's something you care about.

If you actually use your smartphone heavily for anything besides the basics (talk, text, email), you'd probably be happier with a middle ground between el cheapo phone and $700 flagship phone.  Otherwise, go for it.

[sjlp]

I actually think the camera is decent. Once I load the photos onto the computer I use the auto-adjust button and it improves the lighting and colors. I can tell this phone won't last for years -- it is already a little wonky turning on, and sometimes struggles to connect to the cellular network. Clearly it's not as fancy and snazzy as the iPhone, but the price is right! Moreover, I find myself less addicted to the phone because it is a little more utilitarian, which I think is a good thing in the long run.

[Spork]

BLU did come under some heat a couple of months back when security researchers found that it came pre-installed with spyware that collected data on the users and sent it back to the manufacturer in China.

Supposedly this was fixed.  And let's be clear here: LOTS of data collection is going on in a normal case, so you may or may not be bothered by this.  But it did get the brand splashed all over all the security blogs back in November.

[sixkids]

I bought it and ended up returning it to amazon the next day. I can cut costs, but that was just more of a step down that I want to go with. I'd rather take my old iPhone 4 that I've got in a drawer in the kitchen and activate it. In reality, I'm just gonna keep my iPhone 7 for as long as I can make it work.