How to Upload Music to Blu R1 Hd

Editors' Note: We outset published this review in July 2016. Amazon pulled the R1 Hard disk and other Blu phones from sale in July 2017 because of "potential security problems." As of August viii, 2017, the R1 HD and other Blu devices are in one case over again available from Amazon.

As I start pulled the Blu R1 HD out of the box, my colleague Sascha Segan walked over and exclaimed, "It's the Amazon Fire tablet for phones!" After a few days of testing, information technology turns out that'due south really the best fashion to think about the R1. It's an unlocked Android phone available to Amazon Prime number customers for a bargain bin price of $49.99 (with 8GB storage and 1GB RAM) or $59.99 (for 16GB storage and 2GB RAM), subsidized past the inclusion of pre-installed Amazon apps and built-in ads on the lock screen. Even for non-Prime customers (who will pay $99.99 or $109.99, respectively, and not have to deal with ads) it still offers remarkable value thanks to solid bombardment life, a crisp 720p brandish, and adept overall performance. For these reasons, the R1 Hard disk drive earns Editors' Choice honors for budget unlocked phones.

Our Experts Have Tested 63 Products in the Mobile Phones Category in the Past Year

Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to aid you make better buying decisions. (See how we exam.)

Pattern, Features, and Brandish
My biggest concern before actually getting my hands on the R1 HD was that Blu would be making large sacrifices in build quality in lodge to striking a low price. That'southward often the example with budget phones, which tend to be made out of cheap-feeling plastic and false metal (I'm looking at you, Samsung). That'southward not the case with the R1, which has a existent metal border to bind the pane of curved drinking glass on the front, and removable soft-touch black plastic embrace on the back.

Measuring in at five.63 by 2.78 by 0.33 inches (HWD) and v.01 ounces, the R1 is a svelte and lightweight device. Information technology's about half an ounce lighter than the fully metal Huawei Award 5X (v.96 by iii.00 past 0.32 inches, v.57 ounces). Overall, it bears a strong resemblance to the Blu Life One X (5.89 by ii.90 by 0.34 inches, 4.97 ounces), which has similar dimensions, a metallic edge, and a soft-touch back. You'll observe the R1 piece of cake to use one-handed and generally quite pleasant to hold.

Similar Products

The phone has fairly standard button and port placement. There'due south a clicky book rocker and ability button on the left side, an off-center micro USB port on the bottom, and a 3.5mm sound jack up top. The back peels off to requite you access to a microSD card slot that worked with a 64GB card (but not a 200GB bill of fare), and dual SIM menu slots. Unfortunately, the battery is sealed in, so y'all can't carry a spare.

The front is habitation to a reasonably sharp, v-inch 1,280-past-720 IPS LCD display with a narrow bezel on both sides. The resolution works out to 294 pixels per inch, which is more than plenty to make text and video appear well-baked, and viewing angles are also skilful. The screen gets very bright— 420 nits according to Blu—making information technology easily visible outdoors. The screen isn't every bit sharp as the 1080p displays yous'll find on the Honour 5X and the Life One Ten, only for the toll, it'south hard to find fault with it.

Network Performance and Connectivity
The R1 Hard disk supports 3G (850/1700/1900/2100MHz) and LTE bands (2/4/7/17), allowing it to piece of work with carriers similar AT&T, T-Mobile, and whatever other GSM network provider. It doesn't have band 12 for T-Mobile, which is used for extended range LTE coverage, so y'all may get amend connectivity on AT&T. Considering the R1 has dual SIM slots, you lot tin can take two phone numbers on it, which is a handy characteristic if you're traveling or desire to accept separate dwelling house and work numbers. The R1 too supports two.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth iv.i, but you lot won't detect 5GHz Wi-Fi or NFC at this price range.

Run across How We Test Prison cell Phones

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

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

Processor, Battery, and Camera
The R1 is powered past a quad-cadre one.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 arrangement performance, the R1 scored 31,847 to the Life I X's 37,974, which is surprising, because the R1 has lower screen resolution, just that may be due to the difference between the octa-core Life I X and the quad-cadre R1. Information technology could as well exist the software load, which I'll talk over in detail in the next department.

And that said, operation was polish overall. I didn't experience whatsoever significant slowdowns, except when I was trying to push the phone to its limits by launching as many apps as possible. You're more likely to hit the RAM usage limit sooner on the 8GB storage/1GB RAM model; for the $ten price departure, information technology's absolutely worth springing for actress memory and storage. You tin can play avant-garde games like CSR Racing 2 and GTA: San Andreas, only load times tin take a while and gameplay isn't the smoothest.

Battery life is quite good. The R1 clocked 5 hours and 57 minutes in our rundown exam, in which we gear up screen brightness to maximum and stream total-screen video over LTE. That's nearly two hours longer than the Life One 10 (4 hours, iv minutes), and a slight improvement over the Honor 5X (5 hours, 16 minutes). I had no trouble getting the R1 to final through a full day of use.

If you're even so wondering how Blu was able to build such a solid for $50, one clue is in the camera operation. Both the 8-megapixel rear sensor and 5-megapixel front end-facing photographic camera proved disappointing. Outdoors, even nether the best lighting weather condition, pictures taken past the R1 look noisy. And indoors, pictures can go so dingy that y'all don't even want to share them online. In addition, autofocus sometimes failed to lock on, making pictures come up out blurry. The only fourth dimension I was able to take reliably articulate shots was in the PC Labs photo studio. You tin record 1080p video at thirty frames per second, but it as well isn't smashing.

Software
Here'southward where things get interesting. The R1 HD comes running the latest available version of Android vi.0 Marshmallow. The UI is almost stock, with one major exception if you purchase 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 full-screen, for products like the Fitbit Alta and the Amazon Repeat. Occasionally they announced as a uncomplicated notification (once again on the lock screen) you can swipe abroad. These ads appear whether you log in to your Amazon account or not, just if you practise 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 can 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 Now. You'll too find the standard suite of Google apps. None of it is removable, but overall, it'southward less bloatware than you get with near carrier devices. And bated from that, the settings menu, notification shade, and app icons all remain the aforementioned.

You're left with 9.48GB of available storage on the 16GB model. Since the R1 comes with Marshmallow and a microSD card slot, y'all can take advantage of the adoptable storage feature; if you put a microSD carte in the telephone, you have the option of treating it like internal storage.

Conclusions
When I reviewed the $150 Blu Life 1 X, our previous Editors' Option, it was hard to imagine a telephone undercutting it without making huge sacrifices to build quality and performance. With the R1, Blu has managed to do merely that. For the price, y'all get a 720p display, reasonably fast performance, a solid build, and skillful battery life. The Amazon ads aren't bad, and yous can always pay more for a model without them—and you'll notwithstanding exist paying less than you would for virtually other unlocked phones.

If yous want a better camera, you'll have to pay $50 to $100 more for the Life 1 X, merely the performance improvement between the two devices is otherwise negligible. For a meaning leap, you'll take to shell out for the OnePlus 3, which volition get you a cut-edge Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, a sharp display, and a stellar photographic camera, only it too costs a heck of a lot more. So for its potent combination of price and performance, the Blu R1 Hard disk drive receives our Editors' Choice award for cheap unlocked phones.

Blu R1 HD

Cons

The Lesser Line

The Blu R1 Hd is an unlocked Android phone with a good balance of functioning for the price, making it a fantastic value for Amazon Prime users and regular customers akin.

Like What Yous're Reading?

Sign upwards for Fully Mobilized newsletter to get our acme mobile tech stories delivered right to your inbox.

This newsletter may contain advertisement, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Apply and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at whatever time.

garciadeprectuod41.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/blu-r1-hd