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.

This is my second Blu product and it worked amazingly, it was easy to use it never froze even when I did put a lot of apps on it, eventually had to change it just because there was better options with better specs.

I've had the BLU XL4 for a week and everything got transferred over seamlessly and easily from my Blu XL3. T-mobile service worked right away, no setup necessary, as did voicemail and tethering (hotspot). I'll compare the XL4 to the XL3.BLU-specific:- The sound volume for phone calls & media are loud enough. The notification tones and touchscreen sounds, as noted by others, are very soft. Even if the preview of sounds are loud when you test them, the actual notification sounds are soft. Takes a bit getting used to because the XL3 was loud for ALL sounds.- No LED notification light, not even for charging. Already noted in other reviews. Again takes a bit getting used to because the XL3 had it. I tried to install a 3rd party app to control it, and the app kept crashing which caused my fingerprint sensor to malfunction. So I gave up on that.- Notification sounds & alarm. I had tried to install a couple 3rd party apps to make different notification sounds and lights for the the XL3, and it ended up permanently eliminating the notification sounds altogether for a bunch of apps. I didn't feel like doing a factory reset so I just lived with it. So it looks like these BLU phones do not react well to 3rd party apps trying to control the sounds and lights. You've been warned. I did not try to mess with the default notification sounds on the XL4 because I suspect they'll behave the same way. Also, I am unable to change the default alarm tone on the XL4 and given up on that as well. Not worth potentially messing up all the sounds and having to do a factory reset. So now I have the default sounds & alarms for everything, and they work well. Those who like customized sounds and alarms on their phones will be very frustrated by this problem. I'm not entirely sure this is a BLU or Android-specific problem, but I'm leaning towards BLU problem.- Camera. I'm not a heavy camera user, just want to take clear pictures in decent light which it does. I do like the Camera Zoom FX app better than the stock camera app because it focuses better before each shot. Serious camera enthusiasts will probably have more opinions.- Wifi. The BLU specs say the XL4 supports 802.11a,b,g,n wi-fi protocol. This is incorrect. It does not support 802.11a, which is the oldest wifi technology of them all. So if your home wifi is on 802.11a, you need to change it to 802.11n. You can't see the protocol setting on your phone. You have to use a desktop/laptop to see it after you've connected to wifi, click on the wifi name, properties, and it will show you which 802.11 protocol. I've taken my laptop to the gym and verified they used 802.11n and the XL4 connects just fine to 802.11n. So if your XL4 is not connecting to wifi even after rebooting everything, use a laptop to verify it's not on 802.11a. See attached screenshots of checking Wifi protocol on your computer to verify it is on 802.11n.- Battery life. It's great so far because it's a new phone. Hope it will last more than a year. My XL3's battery started dying around the 8 month mark. Removing it from the charger when at 100% at night would result in about 75% battery in the morning (25% loss overnight). I always had to re-charge it once during the day. The XL4 only loses 5% overnight so far, and is over 60% at the end of the day. That's the main reason I got the XL4 - the battery.- Bluetooth. So far so good. I have it connected to my Mi Band 2 fitness band so all my phone calls/texts, notifications and alarms ring my band. Very good so far, as was my XL3.- Screen. Love the big screen. The resolution is okay for my needs, it looks like my XL3 screen that got zoomed in a bit so not as crisp. Makes sense because they're both 720p. I'm pleased to report that the XL4 screen does not turn on randomly like the XL3! Could never figure it out on the XL3 (turned on least 20 times a day for no reason at all), but the XL4 screen never turns on unexpectedly running the exact same apps.Android-specific:- The XL4 had the same problem as the XL3 in getting timely notifications and alarms. This is due to Android's Doze program that is on every Android phone after Android 6.0 that is supposed to save battery by shutting down processes when the screen is off. Well, it's terrible and causes just about all Android phones regardless of manufacturer to miss or delay push notifications and alarms. I finally solved this problem by enabling developer mode, and running an ADB shell command to disable Doze (can't disable just from phone settings). Notification and alarms are perfect now, same as my really Android 6.0 phone. Several other reviewers of the XL4 have noted the notification and alarm problem so I thought I would detail the solution here. Keep in mind it's an ANDROID problem, not a BLU problem.