BLU Studio SelfieThe BLU Studio Selfie is here almost as a placeholder for a whole range of BLU budget phones that have brought some quality, some brand value, and a lot of performance to a market segment usually stuffed with no-brand Chinese crapphones. And don’t be put off by the name: It could be just the pocket-and-wallet-friendly supplementary device for your mobile e-reading needs.

The BLU Studio Selfie admittedly has an adequate-to-serviceable 5-inch display rather than an outstanding one, at 854 x 480 pixels. But it does ship with Android 5.1 Lollipop, with 1 GB RAM and 8 GB onboard memory, as well as a 1.3 GHz CPU. And Amazon is offering the Studio Selfie right now at $79.99, unlocked. This is less than half the price of David Rothman’s favorite bargain pick for e-reading, the Huawei Ascend Mate 2. For many, the screen resolution may be a deal breaker, but I’ve been reading on a similar-resolution display for years without too much complaint. If you want to shell out an extra $10, though, and shop at Best Buy instead, you can pick up the BLU Life X8, which does have only Android 4.4 KitKat, but also a 1280 x 720 screen. Or the BLU Dash M, with the same lower-res 5-inch screen, and only 4 GB internal memory, but Android 5.0 Lollipop and a Best Buy price of just $69.99.

All in all, there are some no-stress impulse purchase phone bargains out there. You could be doing your e-reading on an adequately comfortable and reliable smartphone for a ridiculously low price. Or just give BLU to your significant other/s. I have no stock or other personal interest in BLU – except in getting my hands on their highly attractive devices.

1 COMMENT

  1. This phone is okay at best. I got one at the local liquor store when I dropped my S4 into the lake fishing. My main complaint with the screen is that after a month pixels started to die in a stripe pattern. Also the digitizer because it is always off and will spaz out and do crazy stuff. Lastly the headphone port is really quiet but the speaker is super loud! Its a decent phone for the price but the build quality is pretty sub-par.

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