Smart Phone Price List - BLU Advance 5.0

BLU Advance 5.0 - US GSM - Unlocked Dual Sim Smartphone

Click Here to get this BLU Advance 5.0

* Unlocked Dual SIM smartphone, with Android 5.1 Lollipop
* Mediatek 6580 Quad Core 1.3 GHz Processor with arm Mali-400 GPU
* 5.0" IPS display: 5MP Main Camera with LED flash and 2MP Front Camera; 4GB Internal memory 768MB RAM Micro SD up to 64GB
* GSM Quad band 4G HSPA+ (850/1700/1900): US compatibility Nationwide on all GSM Networks including AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS, Straight Talk, Pure Talk USA and others
* "VERY IMPORTANT" Please refer the User Manual & the User Guide before use.

Beautiful Design

The Advance 5.0 blends technology and design into an incredible package. The shiny metal finishing on the front frame brings out the essence of a well tailored smartphone while the leather pattern with smooth paint technology finish on the battery cover ensure an excellent hand held experience.
   

Smooth Processor

Put your Advance 5.0 to the test with its 1.3GHz Quad-core processor and you will see that it multitasks as good as you do. From a vibrant Powerpoint presentation to your favorite video game, it will all look good thanks to the Mali 400 GPU.
   

No Need to Squint

Your smartphone screen should be big enough to be a comfort to your eyes. The Advance 5.0 has an ample 5.0-inch screen with BLU Infinite View Technology (IPS) to make any angle a great angle.

Dual Camera

Take advantage of the main 5MP camera on your Advance 5.0 to capture all of life’s great moments. For those loved ones that live far away, there is a front mount 2MP camera for video calls or to snap awesome selfies.
   

Dual SIM

Whether it is a personal number and a business number or a personal number and an international SIM, The Advance 5.0 has dual SIM capabilities that allows you to have 2 phone numbers in one device.
   

Android v5.1 Lollipop

Redesigned user interface that is friendly and intuitive. Lock screen notifications that offer quick actions as well as quick access. Project Volta which will improve battery life better than any previous version. App switching / Multitasking is now easier with a complete look at all your open applications.

What is an unlocked phone?

An unlocked phone is a device that is not bound to any carrier or plan. It allows you to choose your phone first and your carrier second. Upon selecting a plan, simply insert the carrier's SIM card into the phone and you're ready to go. If you decide you want to change carriers down the road or want to take an international trip, it's as simple as replacing your existing SIM card with a new SIM and activating your new plan.
   

What are the benefits of an unlocked phone?

Freedom: Choose the carrier with the best service or price. If you find a better deal later, you have the ability to change to a different carrier. Travel: Take your phone internationally and use the carrier of your choice. It's as easy as inserting an active SIM card. Selection: Choose the phone with the features you want, whether or not your carrier sells it, and get more service options without a contract.
   

How do I set up my unlocked phone?

The first thing you’ll need is a SIM card for your desired carrier. When activated, the SIM card will let your phone connect to your carrier’s network. If you decide to upgrade to a newer unlocked phone in the future, you can easily remove the SIM card from your old phone and put it in your new phone—just make sure you get the right size of SIM card (nano, micro, or standard) for your phone. If you want to use your phone while traveling internationally, you can easily buy a SIM card for a carrier that operates where you’re traveling. As long as it’s activated, you can just swap SIM cards when you arrive at your destination.

Best $60 Ever Spent

First, to put into perspective, no one should expect this as a replacement for iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy. Also, an even better deal would be spending $10 more for the BLU Advance 5.0 HD: Android 6, same CPU, a bit more RAM, better cameras and 8GB storage (4GB extra - see comments below).

That being said, I needed a travel "device" that (in order of importance):
1. It is inexpensive (so is no big deal if lost or damaged)
2. Could be used for GPS assisted navigation/maps (especially off-line)
3. Light weight but with large enough display & good battery life
4. Can replace my old $25 BLU Jenny travel phone (still working and was of great use in Europe and N. America, with OneSimCard)
5. Has Wi-Fi connectivity (with internet browsing, travel & weather info, and email) to save on cellular data
6. Allows customizations and installing apps (optional)
This phone fits the list above perfectly. I paired it with a 64GB Class10 SD card ($19.96). I used it on my last trip and worked exactly as expected, no performance issues, lagging, crashes or anything.

Now, more on the technical details.
The biggest drawback is the 4GB storage which includes OS - leaving about 1.4GB free on a freshly started phone. By the time you install the latest Google updates, that drops below 1GB. At first when I got it, I didn't pay any attention to the available storage and tried a significant number of apps just to find out the 2nd day there was less than 100MB left on the device internal storage (BTW, I think this could also explain some of the performance issues some users are reporting).
This sounds like a deal-breaker but I looked up online and soon realized there are simple solutions to get what you need from this phone.

For starters, the simple way, no "hacking", just a few simple rules and a bit of maintenance:
- Set SD card as default write disk
- Move the apps to SD card (as permitted - when the option is available)
- Prefer apps that are movable to the ones stuck to internal storage
- Prefer apps allowing SD as data download and storage locations
- Prefer lighter apps to larger, avoid bloatware
- When possible, uninstall "default" apps not used (I'm not using Amazon while traveling so I removed the apps).
- Use a "Cleaner" app to remove all the junk, free the cache and memory - I tried CM Lite and just need 1 click when notified.
- If more space needed, do "Manage Data" for each of the Google apps to clear the data stored.
So, following the above, from less than 1GB the phone still shows over 600MB free internal storage with these installed: HERE WeGo, Weather XL, United Airlines, NextPlus, K-9 Mail, CM Lite, Video Player HD, Album Art Grabber, ES File Explorer, and a few light "board games"; these (and built-in apps) covered all the things needed during the trip (of course the media files were all loaded and saved to the SD).

When I returned, I figured I could do better than that so I looked-up the "hacking" part (BACKUP 1st!).
Since most of these methods require root access I started with that and found you could easily root this phone with KingoROOT.apk in less than 1 minute.
With the phone rooted I first tried Link2SD and it looked like it was doing the job great, however, after a couple of days and 1 reboot a few of the apps linked stopped working. Even after un-linking they were still crashing at start - went online and there are other reports with no clear solution. It might not be the app's fault, maybe I did something wrong, somebody else might have better luck; I uninstalled and did a factory reset.
I tried a few more apps, notably Apps2SD which seemed to do a bunch of additional interesting things like adding swap, tweaking SD and cache transfers, etc. However, by this time I was at the point where I didn't want to spend more time with system tweaks and decided the simple way is the best way so I decided to uninstall all, un-root and use the phone as originally designed.
Unfortunately, even if I decided "I'm done playing" turns out the last uninstall & un-root resulted in a broken system. Even after factory reset the phone was crashing with "unfortunately Google play services has stopped" every time when trying to connect Wi-Fi or select accounts or install apps. In recovery mode, the system check was failing - with files missing, modified and extra files. I also noted a couple of times an "apps optimization" script was running at boot. So I figured the last system tweaks were not reverted during uninstall, the system was corrupt and needs to be restored/reloaded.
I searched online and found the stock ROM (BLU_D030UX_V04_REPAIR.zip) then used the "SP Flash Tool" to successfully flash the stock ROM and the phone worked correctly afterwards.
There are a few more methods out there one could try, see the XDA-Developers Android Forums where I found most of the info above.

I had fun learning new things about Android but I'll file this instance under "better is the enemy of good" column. I'll stick to using the phone as intended, unmodified, especially since it is doing everything I bought it for to begin with.

UPDATE:
Had a bit of time on my hands, root-ed again with KingoROOT and then figured out how to use Apps2SD correctly. Partitioned the SD card 48GB Fat32 and the rest as EXT3. The result is approx. 1.3 - 1.4GB free internal storage after installing 3.2GB worth of apps (see pics).
A few notes:
- The 2nd SD partition could be EXT4, 3 or 2 but only mounts as EXT4
- I also added a 0.5GB swap file on the SD EXT3 partition
- The Google apps were linked fine to the SD but need to clear the cache 1st
- The Android System WebView does not work from SD, will cause other apps to crash

On Sept. 4, my Samsung Galaxy S6 was washed, which forced me to look into a replacement phone. I decided against going with another on-contract phone and scoured Amazon for a good off-contract option. I initially looked at Motorola phones, such as the Moto G and X, but decided that was more than I wanted to spend at the time. I then came across the Blu series of phones.

I was apprehensive about buying a $60 phone from a maker I was unfamiliar with, but upon seeing the positive reviews I went ahead and bought the phone. Since it arrived I’ve been nothing but impressed with what it can do for less than $100 after using it for almost two weeks.

The phone runs a very close to stock version of Android 6.0, which is great to see. The only bloatware I noticed was the Amazon Shopping app. I even had to hunt down the standard YouTube app from the Play store when I was setting the phone up. All that is good when you consider the phone only has 8GB of internal storage, though I did add a 32GB memory card.

Battery life is outstanding for me. I take it off the charger every morning around 6:45 and when I get home around 6:30 it usually has around 30 percent battery life left. The phone’s battery is not that big in terms of milliamps, but I think the efficiency of Android 6.0 is what makes the difference.

With this being said, I don’t use my phone for work during the week except for when I’m on my lunch break. The phone does take awhile to charge, as it lacks any form of quick charging. I find it takes just over two hours to charge from dead to 100 percent.

The camera is satisfactory to me. I’m not attaching pictures, but many other people have. Specs wise it’s a little behind a flagship phone from Samsung or Apple, but the pictures I’ve taken have looked fine to me.

The screen is 720p, with a pixels per inch of just under 300, which is behind other flagship phones, but still a usable display. It gets fairly bright and can even be seen outside. I have no issues with the screen considering the price of the phone.

Call quality seems the same as on my Galaxy, but I do notice the phone sometimes does not work with my 2013 Ford Escape’s Bluetooth. Sometimes when I press the button to say the voice command to make a call the phone pauses but does not actually make the call. It’s a minor inconvenience and I’m not sure who’s fault it is: the maker of the car’s Bluetooth (Microsoft) or the phone’s. The phone shows I’m connected to AT&T’s 4G network most of the time. I’ve seen some people say the phone lacks 4G connectivity, but from what I’m seeing that is not true.

I thought the 1GB of RAM might be limiting with this phone, but so far it has not been. The phone shows I’m using an average of about 78 percent of the RAM. To compare, an iPhone 6S has 2GB of RAM while a Galaxy S6 has 3 or 4GB of RAM, depending on the model. The 1GB of RAM does not make the phone feel sluggish as the menus still come up quickly and apps launch in a satisfactory timeframe.

Another note is I find the keyboard difficult to type on. I’m not someone who texts that much, but when I do I’m constantly hitting the wrong keys. I’ve even installed other keyboards, but find the results the same. The touch sensor does seem to be fairly low in its sensitivity level when scrolling through apps or web pages, but I’m not sure if that affects texting. Your mileage may vary.

To give some perspective, I’m a 26-year old who works at a university in the financial aid office. I do not use my phone for work at all and uses it mostly to read Reddit posts, watch YouTube, follow Twitter links to news stories and manage fantasy football teams. I don’t play games on my phone at all really. I consider myself to be a power user, but not in the same way as someone who plays games on their phone for hours per day. I use mine mostly for media consumption.

Overall I’m very impressed with what this phone does for $60. If you’re someone looking for a new phone on a budget, perhaps for a grandparent, child or as a replacement to a lost or broken phone, the Advance 5.0 HD will do the job. In fact the first time I showed it to my fairly tech-savvy friend, he initially thought it was an iphone.

Click Here to get this BLU Advance 5.0

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Link: Smart Phone Price List - BLU Advance 5.0