BLU Vivo 5

performance, price, screen, usability, design

91% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

portability, performance, price, camera, usability

size

95% of the reviews on Amazon.ca give this product a positive rating.

Affordable. Smooth performance. Attractive metal build. UBS-C port. Expandable storage.

Lacks important US LTE bands. Heavy custom UI layer.

Software and Conclusions The Vivo 5 ships running Android 5.1 Lollipop , but an update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow is expected. As mentioned earlier, Blu has departed from other devices in its lineup by laying on a pretty thick UI layer here. The app...

Stay tuned for hands-on photos and video from the show!

Price, $199.99 off contract. Design, aluminum unibody

Screen struggles in sunlight, capacitive buttons do not have back light

For $199.99 you're getting way more than what you're paying out. Yes, the BLU Vivo 5 has its issues, but those all melt away just knowing you actually own the device and aren't paying a monthly bill on it.

Attractive all-metal construction ; Sleek, mostly uniform construction ; Lightweight ; Low outright cost of $200 ; Above average battery life

Choppy graphics processing performance ; Weaker screen luminance makes it unusable in direct sun ; Underpowered internal speaker ; Custom Android experience isn’t for everyone

Slowly but surely, BLU has been gaining traction on the entry-level side of the US smartphone market, and the BLU Vivo 5, along with the Vivo XL, is a testament to how far the company's products have come. A year or so ago, BLU’s phones hardly drew...

The Vivo 5 smartphone from Blu isn't for everyone. It's an unlocked handset that's only being sold online. While there are a growing number of people who prefer to buy unlocked phones, the Vivo 5's limited support for AT&T and T-Mobile LTE causes me...

Great performance for the money ; It's hard to argue with what this phone is capable of for just $200. The processor is snappy, it's got 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. What's not to like about that? ; Beautiful, elegant design ; This is easily one of...

Software layer ; While it's easy enough to change the Carefree Launcher to something more usable, the skinned settings menu is kind of a mess. Some of the features are also completely inaccessible unless an app or notification calls on it. More on that...

If you haven't already figured it out, this is a great phone for $200. The hardware and build quality are both excellent for this price, and the device has a nice, premium look to it. I have zero complaints about the hardware (though I would like to...

Fantastic Metal Build ; Great Battery Life ; Amoled Display with saturated colors ; USB Type C Charging Port ; Affordable Price ; Average performance

720p display is too low for a 5.5 inch screen ; Software is heavily skinned ; Below average Camera

The BLU Vivo 5 offers by far, the best build design of any phone under $199. From it’s full metal build to it’s thinness and lightweight, the phone feels like it should cost a lot more. Although it isn't perfect, ultimately the BLU Vivo 5 is a...