Long story - my experience with WP and where I am with this BLU phone.
My first Windows phone was a Lumia 635. The Lumia had replaced a 3 year old T-Mobile G-2 (the original HTC G2 not the later LG G2 flagship phone). I was disenchanted and disillusioned with the Android support model, and wanted a change of pace. I read great things about Windows Phone and specifically the Lumia 635 which looked to be an incredible value as far as capabilities for the price.
I was excited about the Lumia and I really loved it, but a software/firmware update that happened one weekend broke the compatibility my SD card, a 64G Sandisc brand card. Since I use my phone as my main music player and for snapshot photo/video on vacation I need the storage. I was faced with investing in a new micro SD card to replace a perfectly good one that worked, and that I had no other use for. I didn't want to invest a penny in a year old phone with spotty support from the carrier to make it work, and had no use for another 64G micro-SD card. Also, what guarantee do I have that the new card won't have problems? After all, Sandisc is a high quality brand - it should work. That and the fact that T-Mobile wasn't being timely in providing OS updates made me want to go with a new unlocked phone. My initial idea was to get a 640 or 640XL.
Luckily I have a physical Microsoft store very close to my home, actually on my commute from the office to home, so it's extremely convenient for me to actually see the actual hardware for these things in action and touch and try them out. I had read a little about this phone and it intrigued me. At the Microsoft store I confirmed my 635 SD Card incompatibility. There were no unlocked 640 and 640XLs in the store. The only T-Mobile phone was the Lumia phone smaller/cheaper than the 640, and the only 640XL was an AT&T phone. I got to try the Win HD LTE hands on. I was impressed by the phone when I had it in my hands. When I bought the 635 I had looked at the old Win HD but had disqualified it because it was not LTE. I have a company phone and the idea of being able to put that SIM into my phone and have both numbers in a single device was compelling. The fact that BLU is promising an update to Windows 10 when it is available was compelling as well. I have been unhappy with the support from T-Mobile and HTC on my previous phones, so buying an unlocked phone from a company that's making noises about ongoing support was something I wanted to do.
The sale price of $179 sealed the deal. I've been using the phone for about 2 months now I guess and here are my initial impressions.
I love the form factor and the screen. I got the gray phone because I need something more conservative for work and the bright yellow as much as I liked it was too much. The screen is big and bright and bold and the phone is the perfect size, feel, and weight. it comes with a nice simple plastic/rubber case and a screen protector which I use most of the time. The nice lady at the Microsoft store was good enough to install the screen protector for me, and it only has one tiny tiny bubble on the screen part. I've installed these things enough over the years that I don't know that I would have been able to do as good a job as this.
The resolution of the phone is noticeably better than the 635. I am extremely happy with the screen quality on this phone. My corporate phone, a Motorola Moto X (2nd gen), is much higher definition, and honestly I can't tell the difference. I guess you have to have better vision for any resolution beyond a certain one to really make much of a difference. The resolution on this BLU phone to me is easy to see much better than the Lumia 635, but compared to the Moto X I can't really tell a difference.
The performance is snappier than my 635. I guess having a gig of RAM makes a big difference. Much less time seeing the "Resuming". The Windows Phone experience is just as great as it was with my 635. The camera is fine but does not seem to take pictures as nicely as the 635, which IMO had a really excellent camera. I am still experimenting with different camera apps to see which one works best with this hardware. So far I like Camera360 Sight, recommended here on this forum.
The speaker is quieter than the 635 was, but sounds fine and is adequate for me. I may take the screen protector off some time, as I prefer my phones and tablets without them in general. Phone and tablet manufacturers take pride in and choose specific glass to work with their devices. I think covering that glass, whether it's a brand name glass or not, with a plastic cover is a disservice to the device in general. Screen protectors tend to not feel as nice as glass and collect fingerprints easier (though the Lumia 635 was the all time fingerprint collecting king).
Another thing I like about the BLU is that the glass is not polarized. The glass on my 635 was polarized, which meant that when I took landscape pictures wearing my polarized sunglasses I couldn't see the picture on the screen unless I removed my sunglasses. The Blu screen is not polarized so that problem went away.
I haven't tried the dual-SIM thing yet. My corporate phone until recently was an old flip phone with a full size SIM. In an effort to get a phone with a compatible SIM, I contacted the phone folks and they upgraded me to a Moto X, which has a nano SIM. I don't yet have the SIM converter to try the nano SIM in my Blu phone. It would be convenient on weekends or some other times when the only way anyone would contact me on my company phone is an emergency to be able to have both my personal and business phones on the same device. So turn off my company phone (which has email, messaging, etc) at 6PM on Friday, take the SIM out, put it in my BLU, and run dual SIM until Monday morning. We'll see how that works.
I recommend this phone - it's a great piece. And it's good to support 3rd party companies who support this great phone platform by buying their hardware. BLU has promised compatibility with Windows Phone 10 when it is available, and has been VERY good about supporting this phone with updates to the OS (much better than T-Mobile was with my 635!). That is the kind of customer service I'm looking for. The screen is beautiful, CPU power is more than sufficient for my needs, form factor is comfortable, camera is good, it supports my 64G SIM card (despite the fact that the specs on BLU's web site say 32G max. According to BLU it's hit-or-miss with 64G cards - most work, some don't.). What's not to like?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram