BLU Samba Jr Q51

[rfranzq]

Has anyone ever heard of BLU?? The seem to aim at the Latin American market.
I have purchased two of the BLU Samba Jr Q51.

It is a dual-SIM QWERTY quad-band phone. It is really small. I like it

[DRNewcomb]

It's really cheap on Amazon.com, $32.99. Only one customer review. Can't find a manual online (yet). I'm not 100% sure that both SIMs are active at the same time or if it is switched between the two.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

It's really cheap on Amazon.com, $32.99. Only one customer review. Can't find a manual online (yet). I'm not 100% sure that both SIMs are active at the same time or if it is switched between the two.

I actually paid less for them on eBay. The 'manual' is pretty sparse. The 'quick start' even more so. As best I can tell both SIMs are on all the time. It behaves like my two other kinds of dual-SIM phones. Manual says the memory card can be up to 8GB. When you look at its specs online, make sure you note the demensions. It is smaller than you might expect.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Only one customer review.

Actually, if you look at all the Q51s on Amazon each have 1 review. Not that they all say that much, but there are few.

Originally Posted by rfranzq

I actually paid less for them on eBay. The 'manual' is pretty sparse. The 'quick start' even more so.

The 4 panel Quick Start Guide:
1. Before turning on charge for 24 hours.
2. Insert SIM card
3. GPRS/WAP Setting
4. FM Radio
5. Music Player [says you can hook phone to computer to download and fill memory card.]

The 16 page User's Manual is sixteen pages [16 more in Spanish]. I do not recall in my life seeing a less helpful manual in my life.

Any questions you might have, go ahead and ask!


FWIW, BLU describes itself thusly::

About BLU

The BLU brand was launched in August of 2009 and has rapidly grown in the market from sales of just 224 units in August of 2009, to the tune of over 1,000,000 units shipped of BLU mobile devices to over 25 different countries in the Latin America region.

Our focus at BLU is to provide the consumer with the best looking handsets, with the best features, at the best pricing without compromising on quality.

Extensive quality control measures have been put in place before and after shipment from factory to ensure all handsets comply with the highest quality standards. BLU has recently managed to control and eliminate defective returns to less than 1%, which is industry leading.

BLU has teamed up with several multi billion dollar technology companies such as Mediatek and Qualcomm to manufacture Tier 1 quality handsets with the same factories and technology used by manufacturers such as Motorola, Alcatel, L.G., ZTE, Huawei, and others.

All new BLU handsets are FCC certified which means they go through over a month of testing in laboratories to ensure they comply with the same requirements as handsets from manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and others.

The market is shifting towards handsets created by manufacturers such as “BLU” since the same quality is now achievable as the traditional manufacturers but without the high pricing, due to the excessive expenses the traditional manufacturers incur, which bring no value to the end consumer.

All general indications and the market trend points to a reality that in 2 or 3 years, mobile devices in the low and mid price range will be completely overtaken by manufacturers such as BLU; therefore we are working hard to ensure supply in this market segment, by partnering with key distributors, retailers, and operators in the region.

[rfranzq]

I still very much like the phone.

Originally Posted by rfranzq

The 'manual' is pretty sparse. The 'quick start' even more so.

This is unfortunate. I would hate to find an 'undocumented feature' and not know how to reverse it. Yesterday, I discovered if you hold down the '#' key it switches between silent and general user mode. I would hate to unknowingly find out how to lock the keyboard.

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Manual says the memory card can be up to 8GB.

I have an 8GB card in it now.

[rfranzq]

BLU seems to becoming a popular source of inexpensive phones for MVNOs. Spot Mobile and OneSimCard both have at least two models each.