NEW Blu Win HD LTE
- Thread starter corgi11
- Start date
RumoredNow
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About the camera.... Check the pics taken thread. I think you just have to get the right lens going and expect some post shot editing if you want to get jiggy wit' it...
So far I'm the only one who posted any shots with a Win HD, but you get the idea and the LTE Camera is supposed to be tweaked better in the firmware.
http://forums.windowscentral.com/blu-win-hd/344253-pictures-videos-taken-your-blu-win-hd.html
So far I'm the only one who posted any shots with a Win HD, but you get the idea and the LTE Camera is supposed to be tweaked better in the firmware.
http://forums.windowscentral.com/blu-win-hd/344253-pictures-videos-taken-your-blu-win-hd.html
When it says it supports 1700 for LTE, does that imply aws 1700/2100?
Also if it only supports band 17 (700 b, and c) it will not work for low band LTE on T-Mobile's network because to use the T-Mobile low band LTE you need band 12 specifically because all of t-mobile's 700 is in 700a, while at&t owns most of band 700b, and Verizon owns most of 700c.
Also AT&T was supposedly required by the FCC to support band 12, at least according to Wikipedia. So there would be no reason to make devices only capable of supporting band 17.
Also if it only supports band 17 (700 b, and c) it will not work for low band LTE on T-Mobile's network because to use the T-Mobile low band LTE you need band 12 specifically because all of t-mobile's 700 is in 700a, while at&t owns most of band 700b, and Verizon owns most of 700c.
Also AT&T was supposedly required by the FCC to support band 12, at least according to Wikipedia. So there would be no reason to make devices only capable of supporting band 17.
I just ordered one yesterday. I had the original WIN HD and I thought that was a good build. I did not like having the volume buttons on the opposite side of the power. The new model has all buttons on the same side. The new specs, the new build, and the button placement really sold me over waiting on the Lumia 640. I will use this for a year and then see how the new models shake out and WP10 finalizes.
RumoredNow
New member
E-UTRA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Band 4 is AWS 1700 downlink/2100 uplink, but commonly gets shorthanded to 1700.
Band 12 is Blocks A/B/C, not just A Block. T-Mo is to use all blocks, they just bought additional 700 MHz regional market rights from Vzw. ATT agreed to support band 12 if the FCC addresses bleed trough from the adjacent Digital Broadcast TV channel 51. There is no sign yet (that I've seen) that ATT is switching to Band 12.
I agree. Too many accidental screen shots with the old button placement. The new arrangement should work nicely and is what Lumia users are used to.
I received my HD LTE (gray) yesterday and have a few thoughts to share for those also considering it.
- Form factor is nice. Build quality good.
- The screen quality is great. It is warmer than the Lumia 830 (more red, where 830 is more blue).
- Everything is scaled smaller on the HD LTE when compared to the Lumia 830. For example, the Podcasts app shows things smaller (still touch friendly, but zoomed out. The Inbox can show about one more message in the list. This is odd since both devices have the same size and resolution.
- Pretty fast. It launches apps the same speed as the 830. I haven't seen much resuming (yet).
- The camera is improved from the original BLU HD but is way oversaturated when taking photos outside. Like really, seriously oversaturated. Inside shots are OK, but occasionally blurry due to lack of OIS. Much better than the 635, but not as good as the 830, as expected.
- Notification sounds are a little quiet. Music is loud enough, but not the loudest I've heard. FF camera is good quality for a FF camera.
- I'm having some trouble getting used to the dual SIM support. I use only SIM 2. All of my texts originally showed in the text app for SIM 1. I linked the two together, but now when I respond for the first time to someone, I need to toggle to use 2 instead of 1. Sharing to text from apps defaults to 1 as well.
- Auto brightness doesn't seem to work right for me. When set to High then auto, it looks great indoors and outside but is blinding at night. Medium is good at night but too dark for outside. It doesn't seem to autolevel the backlight though.
Overall, for the price, this is good stuff. It's definitely an improvement over the original BLU HD. It doesn't quite compare to higher, midrange phones, but the price is fair for what you get!
- Form factor is nice. Build quality good.
- The screen quality is great. It is warmer than the Lumia 830 (more red, where 830 is more blue).
- Everything is scaled smaller on the HD LTE when compared to the Lumia 830. For example, the Podcasts app shows things smaller (still touch friendly, but zoomed out. The Inbox can show about one more message in the list. This is odd since both devices have the same size and resolution.
- Pretty fast. It launches apps the same speed as the 830. I haven't seen much resuming (yet).
- The camera is improved from the original BLU HD but is way oversaturated when taking photos outside. Like really, seriously oversaturated. Inside shots are OK, but occasionally blurry due to lack of OIS. Much better than the 635, but not as good as the 830, as expected.
- Notification sounds are a little quiet. Music is loud enough, but not the loudest I've heard. FF camera is good quality for a FF camera.
- I'm having some trouble getting used to the dual SIM support. I use only SIM 2. All of my texts originally showed in the text app for SIM 1. I linked the two together, but now when I respond for the first time to someone, I need to toggle to use 2 instead of 1. Sharing to text from apps defaults to 1 as well.
- Auto brightness doesn't seem to work right for me. When set to High then auto, it looks great indoors and outside but is blinding at night. Medium is good at night but too dark for outside. It doesn't seem to autolevel the backlight though.
Overall, for the price, this is good stuff. It's definitely an improvement over the original BLU HD. It doesn't quite compare to higher, midrange phones, but the price is fair for what you get!
Elitewolf
New member
A youtube user named boredatwork uploaded a review on this phone for those interested. It has camera samples included. I would post a link but i don't have enough posts yet.
Is yours the black/gray color? If so, what do you think of the color?
I'm undecided between the black/gray and the white one.
I'm undecided between the black/gray and the white one.
I got the black/gray one and like it. I've always owned mostly black slab devices, so that's not saying much.
RumoredNow
New member
I've seen this guy's stuff. He's a pretty good video blogger.
Embedded the vid for you.
MassDeduction
New member
I got mine yesterday as well. For those still uncertain, I can confirm it uses Band 17 MBS LTE (as deployed by AT&T, Rogers, Telus, and Bell), not Band 12 MBS LTE as deployed by T-Mobile.
Dual-SIM support surprised me. As I expected, if you are talking on the phone the other SIM is totally locked out. But I went to Youtube and started streaming a video, then called the other SIM, and the call went through on each of several attempts. And yes, I remembered to disable WiFi first.
This pleasantly surprised me. I suppose it's because it's packet data, so it can poll the other SIM between packets. That makes dual-standy much more useful than I expected, as I had feared data use on one would make it impossible to receive calls on the other SIM, and I'm happy to be proven wrong.
Mind you, voice worked fine in either SIM slot (though only one SIM at a time obviously) but I was unable to get data to work in the second SIM slot no matter what I did. I'm not sure if I made a rookie mistake, but I couldn't get data to work in the second SIM slot (not even over Edge). I'm really uncertain whether the second SIM slot is 3G or 2G. With two SIMs in there, it lists one as "LTE" and the other as "G". I'm concerned that means GSM, eg. 2G. The second SIM slot was only 2G on the original Blu Win HD, and this is a budget phone so corners have to be cut here and there to hit the price point they've aimed at. If that's the case, then the second SIM slot is useless in Canada on every network other than Rogers' network. Only the Rogers network has 2G GSM, the other carriers all started their modern networks with HSPA and have no 2G GSM at all.
Hopefully this second SIM slot supports HSPA, as this phone seems to have been made with Canada in mind with its frequency support. I kid you not. Consider, that it supports:
3G over 850MHz and PCS (as deployed by the Big Three, and the traditional regionalsl)
3G over AWS (as deployed by Wind and the other new entrants)
LTE over AWS and Band 17 (as deployed by the Big Three)
LTE over BRS (AKA band 7) (as deployed by Rogers and Bell)
That's every major frequency deployed in Canada. None are missing.* And none are added aside from the European frequencies you typically get in every halfways-decent phone for roaming purposes (900 and 1800MHz 2G, and 2100MHz 3G).
There's no U.S. carrier that supports band 7 (Sprint has the spectrum and, as usual, rolled it out as exotic band, band 41 in this case), so that's useless in the U.S., but hugely useful in Canada where Rogers and Bell have rolled it out, and Telus and other carriers likely soon will roll out more band 7 spectrum. The auction to dole out the rest of the BRS 2600MHz spectrum is happening in Canada as we speak (results expected to be announced any day now). Instead of band 7, you'd probably want band 2 (PCS LTE) in the U.S. which is used by AT&T, T-Mobile, and a few others.
If I were designing a phone for Canadian carriers, these are exactly the frequencies I would want it to have. If I were designing it with Americans in mind, I'd make some changes: if I were aiming AT&T I'd support bands 2, 4, and 17; if I were aiming T-Mobile I'd support do the same, except I'd swap out band 17 for band 12. And yet Canada is a very small market for unlocked phones, as we're so tied into the getting subsidized phones on contract here. Very curious.
* For the purposes of this discussion I'm ignoring Telus' recent refarming of their (now) tiny slices of CDMA2000 spectrum into equally tiny slices of LTE over band 2 and band 5. As far as I can tell Telus is doing it "just 'cause" because they're doing it in areas that they've already rolled out band 4 and 17, so it offers neither coverage, nor (significant) capacity advantages over their existing network.
Dual-SIM support surprised me. As I expected, if you are talking on the phone the other SIM is totally locked out. But I went to Youtube and started streaming a video, then called the other SIM, and the call went through on each of several attempts. And yes, I remembered to disable WiFi first.
This pleasantly surprised me. I suppose it's because it's packet data, so it can poll the other SIM between packets. That makes dual-standy much more useful than I expected, as I had feared data use on one would make it impossible to receive calls on the other SIM, and I'm happy to be proven wrong.Mind you, voice worked fine in either SIM slot (though only one SIM at a time obviously) but I was unable to get data to work in the second SIM slot no matter what I did. I'm not sure if I made a rookie mistake, but I couldn't get data to work in the second SIM slot (not even over Edge). I'm really uncertain whether the second SIM slot is 3G or 2G. With two SIMs in there, it lists one as "LTE" and the other as "G". I'm concerned that means GSM, eg. 2G. The second SIM slot was only 2G on the original Blu Win HD, and this is a budget phone so corners have to be cut here and there to hit the price point they've aimed at. If that's the case, then the second SIM slot is useless in Canada on every network other than Rogers' network. Only the Rogers network has 2G GSM, the other carriers all started their modern networks with HSPA and have no 2G GSM at all.
Hopefully this second SIM slot supports HSPA, as this phone seems to have been made with Canada in mind with its frequency support. I kid you not. Consider, that it supports:
3G over 850MHz and PCS (as deployed by the Big Three, and the traditional regionalsl)
3G over AWS (as deployed by Wind and the other new entrants)
LTE over AWS and Band 17 (as deployed by the Big Three)
LTE over BRS (AKA band 7) (as deployed by Rogers and Bell)
That's every major frequency deployed in Canada. None are missing.* And none are added aside from the European frequencies you typically get in every halfways-decent phone for roaming purposes (900 and 1800MHz 2G, and 2100MHz 3G).
There's no U.S. carrier that supports band 7 (Sprint has the spectrum and, as usual, rolled it out as exotic band, band 41 in this case), so that's useless in the U.S., but hugely useful in Canada where Rogers and Bell have rolled it out, and Telus and other carriers likely soon will roll out more band 7 spectrum. The auction to dole out the rest of the BRS 2600MHz spectrum is happening in Canada as we speak (results expected to be announced any day now). Instead of band 7, you'd probably want band 2 (PCS LTE) in the U.S. which is used by AT&T, T-Mobile, and a few others.
If I were designing a phone for Canadian carriers, these are exactly the frequencies I would want it to have. If I were designing it with Americans in mind, I'd make some changes: if I were aiming AT&T I'd support bands 2, 4, and 17; if I were aiming T-Mobile I'd support do the same, except I'd swap out band 17 for band 12. And yet Canada is a very small market for unlocked phones, as we're so tied into the getting subsidized phones on contract here. Very curious.
* For the purposes of this discussion I'm ignoring Telus' recent refarming of their (now) tiny slices of CDMA2000 spectrum into equally tiny slices of LTE over band 2 and band 5. As far as I can tell Telus is doing it "just 'cause" because they're doing it in areas that they've already rolled out band 4 and 17, so it offers neither coverage, nor (significant) capacity advantages over their existing network.
the_moesiah
New member
the_moesiah
New member
I just contacted BLU, it doesn't support screen mirroring.
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
RumoredNow
New member
Derausgewanderte
New member
Received mine yesterday after sale on MS site for $129. Very impressed. Totally naive I tried to upgrade it to Windows 10 latest 10166 build just to realize it is not possible.
Too bad there is no interop unlock either.
Now just waiting for official Windows 10 update.
The phone feels similar to my L830. Although it has an 8MPixel camera it's not even close to the quality of pictures I get compared to my L830 as expected. Otherwise, it's snappy and runs everything fine. Sometimes I see ghosting and the transitions get stuck in time and space for a sec before it goes to another screen, page etc.
Unlocked and dual sim. I wish I would have had this on my recent Japan trip. Perfect travel phone.
My sister is visiting us from Germany. She will use that while she is here with a pay as you go sim.
Any recommendations for a 2week stay in the US? Free calls and texting would be great, data not so important....
Too bad there is no interop unlock either.
Now just waiting for official Windows 10 update.
The phone feels similar to my L830. Although it has an 8MPixel camera it's not even close to the quality of pictures I get compared to my L830 as expected. Otherwise, it's snappy and runs everything fine. Sometimes I see ghosting and the transitions get stuck in time and space for a sec before it goes to another screen, page etc.
Unlocked and dual sim. I wish I would have had this on my recent Japan trip. Perfect travel phone.
My sister is visiting us from Germany. She will use that while she is here with a pay as you go sim.
Any recommendations for a 2week stay in the US? Free calls and texting would be great, data not so important....
RumoredNow
New member
Try this PureTalk mvno of ATT: https://www.puretalkusa.com/
I was wrong in my post above, B&H has them on preorder. Today was when they were supposed to be in, but they still are not. I just went ahead and ordered mine today anyway. I almost got one from Microsoft the other day but they don't have orange. I had the 1st gen HD in orange and it is a great look. At least B&H is $20 less than most places and ships free 3 day.
What color did you get?
For camera, try Camera360 Sight. I think it took the best shots with 1st gen HD... ProShot not so good, very overexposed.
Derausgewanderte
New member
cool, that looks perfect. Did not see puretalk yet.
I will try Camera360. Thought of ProShot and will compare.
I got the yellow one. Wasn't really sure and thought about the grey one. I am glad I picked the neon yellow. Would have loved the orange but as you point out, that wasn't available at MS.
cheers
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