BLU VIVO XI+ - 6.2” Full HD+ Display Smartphone, 128GB+6GB RAM, AI Dual Cameras -Silver

OVERVIEW/POSITIVES:I was really on the fence about this purchase. It was pushing both my general budget for a new phone as well as the price I felt comfortable buying from BLU. I've had one BLU phone in the past and it was okay. Not great, but basically good. It was the Life One X (this was a few years back) and I think it was probably about $100 cheaper than this phone. However, I ended up pulling the trigger because of the sheer number of features this phone has over others in the same price range, and after about a week of having it, I'm glad I did.The build quality is pretty good, but the back was immediately covered in fingerprints. I was not going to use the included case but honestly it protects the back from fingerprints and it's really slim so I've put it on and I think it will stay on. It's got a very solid feel to it and more weight than the Moto G5 Plus it replaced. The screen to body ratio is great too. It looks sleek and fancier than its price tag. I've had multiple people mention how similar it looks to the new iPhone, which I get is probably very intentional on BLU's part, but hey, I don't mind people thinking I've got a way more expensive phone than I actually have.The processor/memory combo is beating the pants off my old Moto G5 Plus. It does everything significantly and noticeably faster. Haven't done a ton of gaming, but the games I do play load and play faster and smoother.I noticed that without the case, the fingerprint reader is so subtly outlined on the back that I was often not placing my finger properly on it to be read correctly. This has mostly cleared up with the added outline provided by the case. I'm kind of loving the face unlock, and it works really well no matter what the light level is, and even works whether I have my glasses on or not.Qi charging is great (and not impeded by the slim included case), and I love being able to just rest my phone on a charger at work, and grab it when I walk away from my desk without having to repeatedly use the USB port. To me, it extends the overall life of the phone, because on my old phone, the port was starting to get a little finicky (sometimes I had to fiddle with it to get it to charge properly), and I feel like it's just a common point of failure on most devices with a USB port that gets used a lot.NEGATIVES:Please note that none of these negatives are dealbreakers in my book, and none of them warranted me dropping my overall rating of the phone. I think the internal parts/components in the phone are not necessarily as good as they would be in a more mainstream name brand, which I guessed before I bought it, but gambled on anyway. I've had some Bluetooth pairing issues, but they've mostly cleared up over the last few days. I've also noticed that my WearOS watch has had more connectivity issues (a small handful) with this phone than my Motorola (almost none over 1+ year with the watch), and the overall range of the Bluetooth connection doesn't seem to be quite as good either (but it's not so bad that I'd call it out as being bad). The cellular antenna seems to be not as good as the one in my old phone and also in my wife's iPhone 6 Plus. I consistently have one or more fewer bars at home than I did previously. I also don't really understand why they ditched the headphones jack other than to just look more premium? The phone's not remotely IP rated or anything like that, so why not just leave the jack in place? That being said, the included dongle is functional and as long as you have a Qi charger, you can charge and use wired headphones at once. Last negative is probably that even though it's got 2 reasonable cameras on the back and higher megapixels than the Moto G5 Plus, the photos I've taken so far range from a little better than my old phone to a little worse. It's honestly not even much of a negative, as like I said, some of the photos do come out better, and the depth functionality is a nice addition.CONCLUSION:If I waited a few more months to get a new phone, I may not have ended up going with this one, because other phones from more respected brands and around the same feature set are starting to get nice price drops (the Nokia 7.1 dropped $50 off its price a day after I ordered this phone, which almost made me cancel my order). If some of the mid-range Chinese phones had better US band support, I may have gotten one of those instead (Poco F1 was a serious contender for half a second until I realized how poor the US band support is). But with every other option I looked at leading up to my purchase, I was compromising at least 2 features on this phone that I was looking forward to. Every one of them was missing something, whether it's USB C, Qi charging, expandable storage, dual cameras, 128GB storage, 6GB RAM, etc. and in the end, I decided this was the most complete package I could find for the price I wanted to pay right now.

I just got the phone yesterday and I like that it came with two phone cases, earbuds, a converter for the headphone jack, etc. The phone seems awesome so far I literally have nothing bad to say about it. It's big, the picture is nice and clear, there are cool features that my old cheap phone didn't have lol. I like that I can unlock my phone by password, fingerprint, or facial recognition, I think it's so cool. I like that it rings really loud lol...that'll come in handy with alarms so I can get up on time. I really like this phone and will be sure to do a review on it down the line.

This is the second Blu phone I bought because I accidentally broke the first one but this is the second time I had a lockout on the camera because of "security issues". I have reset the phone, the camera works and then once I use Google Duo then it stops working. Other that that the phone is great.

I was going to buy a Samsung Note 9, but then I saw this phone and everything changed. This phone cost a fraction of any Samsung / iPhone and it’s got the same CPU, RAM and Power as those phones. Fingerprint reader, great camera, face recognition, you name it. Great Buy! And the best thing, Blu is a Florida based company. Blu really changed my mind.Be advised, this phone works great on the AT&T network. Not on T-Mobile. Blu is misleading users to believe that it works on the T-Mobile network. Tested!

This is my 2nd Blu Vivo XI+ purchase. I bought one for my mother last year and it has been working fine. I purchased another one a couple of days ago for my Aunt and set it up with her Mint Mobile sim card (my mother uses same carrier with no issues on her Blu Vivo XI+) from previous cell phone. I correctly setup the proper APN configuration per Mint Mobile website instructions...reboot phone etc etc etc. The problem I have noticed is that intermittently if I or someone attempts to make a call to my Aunts phone, it will go directly to her voicemail and I notice that the cell strength bars at top of phone disappear leaving behind an empty triangle shape, indicating lost carrier connection. Sometimes it will come back up and Calls can be made and received again however checking in the Sim Status in settings shows Cellular network type changes around from LTE to HSPA+ and also UMTS. It may revert back to LTE at some point, like I said its an intermittent connectivity problem. I have ordered a replacement sim card from Mint Mobile which will take a few days to arrive to see if maybe the card in use now somehow became defective. If that does not fix the problem I will be returning the phone.

This is the best phone I have ever owned. It has a great display, tons of memory and internal storage, an unbelievably fantastic camera & photo system, capability of doubling storage capacity with an added 128GB SD Card, fingerprint ID, facial recognition, etc. It has all the quality and amenities of phones 3 times the price or more and without being locked into a carrier; i,e. will work with any GSM carrier. I use Straight Talk. It's like carrying a full computer in your pocket that you can make calls on!!! GREAT BUY

There are many great things about this phone: face recognition, screen size, processing speed, specs, and storage. But after a few months, the camera went out. The camera looks like it is frozen. It doesn't focus and will not allow me to take a photo. One of the main reasons I bought this phone was for a good camera. Before the camera went out, it took great photos. One of the speakers also went out about the same time. I am very disappointed that I spent so much on a phone that only worked for 3 months.

It was great when I first got it. A little bit in the heavy side but I got used to it. However after less than a year the battery has gone to sht. Lasts about 3 hours before it dies with little to no use. I'm going to try and see if they'll honor the warranty. Wish me luck!