BLU vivo 6 Hands On and First Impressions

The BLU vivo 6 is a new phone that offers some fairly impressive features at a very compelling price point. An affordably priced device, it nevertheless comes with a 97% metal body, 4GB RAM, 64GB internal storage and a few other surprisingly high-end features. Like any affordable device however, it also presents a number of compromises which are apparent straight away.

From the front, this is a rather stock-looking smartphone that seems to take design cues from other smartphone. It’s entirely white with a single home button with a dot on either side to indicate the capacitive buttons. The back is a bit more exciting though thanks to a rose gold, matte finish that I actually really like. It manages to look fairly premium and eye-catching without essentially being an oblong mirror for a change. This also bodes well for fingerprints. BLU saw fit to include a soft, transparent case for the back too which is a nice touch.

The display is a 5.5-inch IPS panel of 1080p resolution and while it’s not QHD resolution, it is very bright and you’ll need to inspect closely to see that this isn’t QHD. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 provides some welcome protection and there’s also an included screen protector in the package. There’s a strange raised piece of glass – which is almost imperceptible – around the entire front of the device that I kept trying to peel off at first; this might be the ‘curved display’ that BLU keeps talking about but I’m not sure I get the appeal.

There aren’t many surprises in terms of the hardware either. The home button features a fingerprint scanner that works in any direction and seems to work well enough from our initial tests. There are also two SIM card slots making the vivo 6 one of the few handsets to natively offer dual SIM functionality in the UK. USB-C is a forward-thinking choice and while I haven’t had a chance to test it, the 3,130mAh battery is promising. For the times when you’re running low, Quick Charge helps get you topped up, with the vivo 6 slated to offer a 40% charge in around 30 minutes.

On the rear, the vivo 6 has a 13MP Sony IMX sensor coupled with f/2.0 aperture, HDR (in software, not on the lens), Phase Detection autofocus and laser focus. Video recording tops out at 1080p at 30 frames per second while the front facing camera is capable of taking 8MP selfies.

In my quick tests, the camera seems to perform pretty averagely, with a lack of detail and lack of vibrancy prevalent throughout these quick snaps. Of course, we’ll be testing this further for the full review.

Under the hood, the BLU vivo 6 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 processor clocked at 1.8GHz and this is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage, that can be expanded by a further 64GB using the microSD card slot. It’s not the best processing package on a smartphone but, considering the price tag, it’s more than capable of getting the job done.

The vivo 6 is running Android 6.0.0 Marshmallow with a few tweaks from BLU. It’s a fairly light skin but with some weird choices. Like many custom Android implementations, there’s no app drawer (though this is easily fixed) and for some reason Opera appears to be the default browser. There isn’t much bloatware, but most apps that come preinstalled, such as McAfee Security, can be easily removed.

The BLU vivo 6 certainly won’t set the world alight but it is one of the few handsets at this price to offer a solid set of internals. While the design may seem unimaginative, the rear panel is quite nice and overall, it’s a functional design that gets the job done. It won’t replace your flagship but if you’re in the market for a device that offers a solid experience – say, for your tech-shy uncle perhaps – the vivo 6 certainly seems to tick that box.

Of course, we’ll be bringing you a full review in the coming days so stay tuned but for now, let us know what you think of the BLU vivo 6 in the comments below! If you’re interested in buying the vivo 6, it’s available now at a cost of £239, however as a Black Friday launch special, it’s reduced to just £184.99! You can pick it up from the link below.