BLU WIN HD Review

Its been a long time Microsoft has launched Windows Phone OS but still its searching for a good market share across the globe. At this time you will find Windows Phone devices mostly coming from Microsoft itself, yes company has joined hands with several OEMs but they are contributing very less to the market.

Recently BLU, an US based technology company has decided to launch Windows Phone devices, earlier they were into Android smartphone’s which were doing good for company. Recently BLU has entered into Indian smartphone market with two Windows Phone devices, the BLU WIN HD and BLU WIN JR, both are LTE enabled devices and recently we had got BLU WIN HD for review and we were using it from past 10 days, so here it our review of it.

InBox Contents Of BLU WIN HD:-

It’s always good to see that OEMs are including something extra inside the box to attract customers, and same is the case with BLU WIN HD, when you open box you will get :-

• WIN HD
• USB cable
• Wall Charger
• In-Ear Headphone
• Manuals
• Jelly Case for protection
• Screen Protector

Build And Design Of BLU WIN HD :-

When I was unboxing this device, I was hoping a full plastic body device with boring finish, but when I took phone in my hand I was impressed by its build and design, it has got a metal like rim which runs all across its body and gives a premium like look to the device.

Phone is light weigh and you can easily hold it in one hand without any issue, screen of it looks quite vibrant and responsive as well. There are rounded edges which further makes your grip more powerful on it.

When it comes to connectivity and ports then on the right side you will find your volume rockers followed by power and sleep button, all buttons are finished in chrome and will give you nice feedback over the usage.

At bottom you have no ports, you will find primary mic over there, left side is again clean with no ports over this side.

At top you will find your 3.5mm audio jack for your headphones, along with Mic USB port for charging and data transfer.

At back you will find your 8MP rear snapper along with LED flash and there is a secondary mic as well for noise cancellation. Back of this device has got smooth finish which might get scratches easily, and at the bottom side of back you will find speaker grill, as speakers are placed at back then audio might get muffled when you place it on a flat surface.

Back panel of this device can be removed and when you remove back panel you will get access to sealed 2500mAh battery which you can’t remove or replace, apart from this there are two SIM slots which accept LTE SIM and there is also an Micro SD card slot which allows you to expand memory.

At front you will have a vibrant 5inch HD display screen which gives nice feedback to you, just above screen you will find a 2MP front facing camera along with ear piece and sensors, below screen you have your three touch capacitive Windows buttons which do support backlit which is nice to see in budget device, however company could have implemented on-screen buttons as Windows Phone 8.1 supports it.

Overall build and design of this phone is good, it does not feel big in hand and you can easily reach all corners of it even if you hold it in one hand.

Display Of BLU WIN HD :-

BLU WIN HD comes with 5 inch HD display screen with screen resolution of 1280x720pixels As told earlier, display of WIN HD is quite vibrant and good, colors also looks very nice on it and as it’s an IPS display with OGS (One Glass Solution) technology, viewing angles are also quite good. Touch response on-screen is not an issue and you can easily navigate from one screen to other without any issue.

Hardware And Specs Of BLU WIN HD :-

When it comes to under the hood feature the BLU WIN HD has got different specs as compared with the variant available in US market, it is powered by an 64 Bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor clocked at 1.2GHz along with 1GB of RAM and also includes 8GB of internal storage which can be further expandable up to 32GB via Micro SD card. For connectivity it has got dual-SIM, LTE, 3G , Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro USB.

Software Of BLU WIN HD :-

When it comes to software, then BLU WIN HD runs on Windows 8.1 and will get Windows 10 update for free. Unlike Lumia devices on which we had seen lots of pre-installed apps, here on BLU WIN HD you wont find any extra apps, I would say if you want to see how stock Windows Phone OS looks like then you should take a look on this device.

It comes with 8GB of internal storage and on your first boot you will find around 4.5GB of free storage which you can always extend with the help of SD card.

As its runs on Windows Phone 8.1 then you will be able to arrange apps in folder on your home screen, you can side load apps from your SD card and much more. But here we do miss some of the Lumia apps like Lumia Selfie, Lumia Storyteller, Lumia Cinemagraph, Lumia and Creative Studio which surly helps a lot.

Camera Of BLU WIN HD :-

At back BLU WIN HD features an 8MP rear snapper, earlier we had seen that pictures taken with rear camera has some purple shades, but recently BLU has pushed an update and that issue has gone, images taken with rear snapper has a good amount of details and sharpness, colors do look naturals up to some extent and color reproduction is also good.

Images taken under low light do carry some noise, but it can only be seen when you zoom and dig in to images, BLU WIN HD is capable of recording full HD videos, it is something which is missing on Lumia device at this price range.

Here are some camera sample images which you can refer :-

Performance of BLU WIN HD :-

Performance on BLU WIN HD is very smooth, as being an entry-level smartphone you can’t expect ir to do top-notch things for you, but it can easily handle moderate level task and multi-tasking was also very smooth on it.

When it comes to game play, then we did played some games like Asphalt 8, GT Racing and Temple Run on, overall gaming was smooth, yes we did faced some frame drop while playing GT R and Asphalt 8 but it’s not the major thing and it is expected in entry-level device.

Here are some benchmark test results :-

AnTuTu :- 13337

MultiBench 2 :-

Final Verdict On BlU WIN HD :-

Overall BlU WIN HD seems to be a nice device with good build, design quality and LTE support, its display is nice and camera can take some nice images, but if you love to control your images like pro then you might feel the camera app is very basic. Another good thing which we liked here is its box contents which you will get here like scratch guard and extra case.

But in our test we found that if you select auto brightness option then screen will become too aggressive when you are indoor, and I wish company could have gone with on-screen buttons to save some space, but still as buttons support backlit so they are good.

Do let us know your thoughts on this device, whether a Windows Phone will be able to survive in this Android dominated market.

Best Buy