BLU Vivo XL4 6.2" HD Display Smartphone 32Gb+3Gb RAM, Black

So far, I have gone through four generations of Blu phones. Two of them being the studio and two of them being the Vivo.Out of all the budget smartphones I have ever owned, this one surpasses my expectations by far. Although I have only had it for two weeks, the operating system is very stable. The 3gigs of onboard memory seem to have no problem switching between applications, I have no lag or freezing.The operating system itself is robust.The phone itself is made of quality materials, and the notch display - although a little bit gimmicky, is very effective after time.In the world of cases, you will be disappointed that the aftermarket appears to have not one single case available for this phone as of the 1st of January 2019. (Edit, see below).however, the phone does come with one clear silicone case, and one that has abstract art on it.So what I have done is left the phone in its silicone case and it looks wonderful. for only $150 this phone is absolutely fantastic and for the average to above-average user - they will find incredible value for this.If you want to make an amazing gift to your parents or grandparents and bring them into the smartphone community, this is a wonderful way to begin at all.The ease of the operating system, the speed of the processor, and the build quality of this phone are all very nice....Now as for the the sound quality - coming from the twin rear speakers: it is above-average. Not fantastic, but totally acceptable. The speakers are rear firing, and facing out from the back they create pretty decent sound.I cannot speak on the fingerprint reader as I find any security on my phone obtrusive.The pictures that the camera produces are on par with any average smartphone. Totally usable and totally acceptable by sharing and showing standards.It is almost unbelievable that you get this much phone for the money. I will update this at the 2-month mark, as that is when the phone really shows its bones.... But thus far I can only give it my highest ratings and congratulate Blu.Micro USB.. no problem. The standard today is USB-c but transmission and data rates are still fine. And lucky you! you probably have a lot of micro USB cables laying around the house 🙂I mean what the heck do you expect for a unlocked smartphone less than 150.00??With specs close to an Iphone, it blows my mind people spend more.And I read a review about the operating system. In my opinion, it is modern, fully functional and will be relevant for at least two years. If you make it to the two year mark with this phone, then truly you will know what quality and value can be, thanks to Blu.In all my years as a tech guy even in the army, this device is worth every penny and I stand by my review 100%I do not work for Blu , I do not get paid or compensated for anything. I write this as a thank you to them for saving me and my elderly mother money and allowing us to have nice phones we can enjoy and afford.(I have now purchased 3 of these.)For one new iPhone you could get 7 of these for your friends and family that would love to have them, if they weren't jaded children anticipating something 500+$This phone is the KING of the budget smartphones oh, and if you are ever in a jam and needed an unlocked phone immediately, you could just keep this one on deck and be good to go for a very long time.Oh did I mention that the battery lasts all day long and then some, and I'm a super user 😋😋😋.again, I will edit the review at the 2-month Mark but so far I give this phone a solid A.Edit : so it's been about 45 days with the phone. And I continue to only praise it.I keep reading the highest rated comment about blu not upgrading their operating system. As I said in my review before, who really cares about that? This operating system will be totally usable for at least 32 years.I've also read comments that say that the hardware messes up the experience. Okay whoever you are out there.. what in the heck are you expecting for $150.I'm 40 years old, middle class, I use the phone more than a regular person.. and I say once again I recommend this phone absolutely.If you don't like it, you can return it as well, what do you have to lose??Also as of the last week you can buy an extremely nice case to fit this phone. It was just released about a week ago and I compare it to a Spigen... It has a nice internal bumper as well as a solid rubber shell . It is the case that you want and it's only 14 bucks.Tudia case for vivo xl4, they sell it on Amazon right now.So, get the phone, and get a black case.. you spent $180 and you have a fantastic piece of technology.Don't believe the other headlines, especially the one about Wi-Fi. That is definitely not a phone issue. The phone cannot connect to your home internet because it's not on the same radio band. That is a very easy fix done through your Wi-Fi router settings.Not everyone is going to have a great experience - but I would say for the most part these phones perform excellent.After 45 days I still grade this phone A.

Perfect. Absolutely beautiful phone.Edit: 05/06/19 UpdateI think I originally bought this back in January. It was a solid phone for five months. On a day-to-day basis, I use a Samsung S8 for IT work and this Blu Vivo XL4 for personal use. There were considerable performance differences but as far as how it looked and held up against time, I really think this phone was a phenomenal deal. I would recommend it for anyone that isn't in IT or development or needs a high-performance phone for x, y, and z reasons. This will easily handle social media, netflix, internet browsing, email, etc just fine. It would be a very good phone for the intermediate user. Trust me, unless you are using your phone as a work device on a regular basis, this is an exceptionally valued phone.* Screen is impeccable, absolutely love it.* Intuitive design, everything - power buttons and the like - is where it's supposed to be (according to me, lol).* I had a tempered glass screen protector but it was funky so I removed it and there have been no scratches or cracks on the screen for several months until I dropped it two stories down. It hit every concrete step and then flew a whole story off the apartment stairs. I mean, nothing would have survived that. Not even me. So it was a champ for a very long time.* Great battery life.* Wasn't USB-C but it was a fast charge with the right adapter and cable.* Storage was not enough for me towards the end, but I ended up downloading a lot of stuff inadvertently for work or other productive reasons (microsoft apps and the like) but also for things like Audible and email to voicemail downloads, etc.* RAM was not enough for me towards the end. I ended up doing a factory data reset just to be sure and as it turns out, I needed a higher spec phone for the things I wanted and needed to do.This is a great phone. I made my brother jealous and he bought an iPhone X at around the same time that I bought this because the screen was pretty amazing and he paid 9-10x as much for his phone (ouch, brother, ouch).Again, this isn't going to handle an intensive load very well. It operates under 1.5GB of RAM just for regular OS apps and services, so you're really only working with 1.5GB of free RAM. Honestly, that's enough to do what most people want to do. You don't need a flagship phone anymore to watch youtube or get on social media. We need to move away from that trend. Buy only what you need and the flagship phone manufacturers will start coming down in price - as they should anyways since technology improves over time.A huge heartbreaker for me was, towards the end, messages and calls weren't being received as often as they probably should have been but my Galaxy would get them with no problem. I would later get them if I sent a text out or made a phone call. The bluetooth stopped working with some but not all of my devices. Not sure what was going on there but I didn't investigate too much. I paid $129 for crying out loud. That's a steal compared to the "more than my rent or mortgage payment" cost of a flagship phone these days.Overall, I'd recommend it to intermediate users or those who lost a phone and need something in the interim until they have enough money to buy a flagship.