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The number one seller in the unlocked cell phones category on Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is the $50 Blu R1 HD, which is sold out as of this posting.
This is an Amazon phone made by Blu, a US based company that offers the phone for $100, but with Amazon Prime you only pay half the price. For this subsidy, Amazon has tweaked the operating system to load the entire suite of Amazon apps. So if you don’t have a notification, you will see ads on your lock screen.
If you are a small business looking for a phone you can give to your entire staff, this may be an option. The ads don’t get in the way when the screen is active, because they only show up as notifications, just like any other message. As far as sending emails, texting and other communications, it has the necessary hardware to make it possible. This includes 3G/4G LTE bands to access the fastest networks and WiFi.
50 Dollar Amazon Blu Smartphone Specs
By now you are probably wondering, what can you possibly get for $50? The answer is enough to let you carry out many of the functions of premium phones, albeit at different levels.
- Processor – 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek 6735 ARM Cortex processor,
- Display – 5.0” HD 1280X720 with 294ppi,
- Storage/Memory – 16GB with 2GB RAM and 8 with 1GB RAM, optional MicroSD with up to 64GB,
- Camera – 8MP for the main camera and 5MP Front with LED Flash,
- Battery – 2500 mAh,
- Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, Hotspot, Micro USB v2.0 and
- Unlocked for AT&T and T-Mobile with dual-SIM slots.
As far as the body and design, the device has a curved display with Gorilla Glass 3 and a metal trim.
In short, this $50 smartphone by all accounts it more than delivers when it comes to the communications functions. So the only question about whether this could make a good inexpensive business phone is whether you find Amazon apps and ads too distracting.
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Image: Blu
People will put up with a lot of clutter if it saves them over $500. The prices on unlocked flagship phones like the iPhone 7 or Google Pixel are crazy.