Blu Win HD LTE review

The Blu Win HD LTE is a dual SIM handset with 4G LTE support. It houses the well known Snapdragon 410 64 bit quad core processor. This handset however is running Windows 8.1 out of the box and will get Windows 10 update.

Unboxing
Inside the box you will find the handset, data cable, good quality earphone, user guide, warranty card, SAR info, screen guard and silicon back cover for added protection. Surprisingly travel charger is not included.

Design
The Blu Win HD LTE weight with non-removable battery is 143 grams and dimensions are 72.20 x 145.73 x 9.07mm. Build quality and finishing is very good. Handset has got a curvy body, slightly curved on the side. Body is made of plastic, matte finish on the back and comfortable to hold and operate.

Power and volume rocker are placed on the right side, audio jack and micro USB port is placed on the top. There are dual mics for noise cancellation. This is a dual SIM handset – there are 2 x micro SIM slots and a micro SD card slot. 4G works on both the SIM slots.

There is accelerometer, light, Gyro and proximity sensors. When connected to power source a faint red LED does light up but hardly visible.

Display
This handset sports a 5 inch screen supporting 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. The screen does not come with any protection so better use the screen guard provided. Colour reproduction, viewing angles and touch response are good.

Memory and Storage
Win HD LTE is loaded with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. You will get around 4GB free space for apps. Some apps are getting installed on external storage. OTG is not supported.

Performance and OS
This handset is using Snapdragon 410 64 bit quad core processor with Adreno 306 GPU. Performance is smooth lag free and handset does not heat-up much. It is running Windows 8.1 Update 2 and will get windows 10 update.

Benchmark

Gaming
I installed and played the Asphalt 8 for windows. The game played well in medium visual quality mode. Check video review for gaming action. The game is also playable in high visual quality mode.

Camera
There is 8MP rear AF camera with flash and a 2MP camera on the front. Camera quality is okay, not bad and not that great. Check sample images and video at the end. Rear camera can shoot 1080p videos, however I found some issues when recording – you can clearly see that in the sample video below – the camera started to lag after sometime, when shooting 1080p videos and the same (lag) also got recorded.

Others
Sound is loud and clear. 4G works on both the SIM slots. No issues found with WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth. GPS works indoors too and lock is pretty fast.

Battery
There is 2500 mAh non-removable battery that also gives a okay kind of battery backup. You can expect about 2 to 5 hours of continuous moderate to heavy usage on a single charge. I did get a comfortable 1 days of mixed usage. Another issues is the charging time, I wonder if that was the reason why the charger was not included. It took me about 5 hours 30 minutes to charge from 7% to 100% (hardly any difference when using 5V-2A and 5V-1A charger).

Verdict
This is not a bad option for ₹4,999 (price may have increased now). However do note that if you are a hardcore Android user or have used Android phone before it will not be that easy adapting to the new environment (Windows 8.1).

I used the handset for couple of days and was really missing my android phone. The biggest issue is the incompatibility with other gadgets like Mi Band and Moto 360 (to name a few). Now there is any app on windows store for Mi Band but that is not that great and there is nothing for Moto 360 android wear Smartwatch.

You will need to consider these too, gadgets that worked on android may not work on Windows phone. I don’t know what changes will happen after the Windows 10 update.

As a backup phone this is not a bad option, but it is not a good replacement for your android phone. But if someone who had never used android before can easily adapt to this windows phone.

Blu Win HD LTE is available for ₹5,999.

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Video review