As March gets underway we’re in that time of year that I unchangingly find to be quite interesting. That is to say it’s increasingly or less “new phone season” as many handset makers trot out flagships and high-end devices for the coming months.
Things have been slowly waffly over the years and US consumers are increasingly educated than ever. Further, they understand that they have increasingly nomination then they thought. Ownership an unlocked phone is no longer as taboo or troublemaking as it was in the early days of Android.
With that said, the phone space is a rhadamanthine a increasingly crowded one than overly before. Looking at 2022 I’ve noticed I’ve noticed that we’ve received increasingly “new” names here at the office. Companies like Xiaomi, realme, and POCO have sent us phones for review whereas previously they didn’t seem to be making the play for a global audience. If anything, they didn’t seem to superintendency all that much for the US market.
Miami-based BLU is when with a new phone of its own, the G91 Max. Priced just $250, it builds on a series that started a few years back.
Naturally, one looks at that price and assumes that this model is anything but a flagship. Surely it’s just flipside entry-level wits that offers up little increasingly than the essentials, right? As it turns out, there’s quite a bit of hardware under the hood and the overall package might surprise a few readers.
BLU G91 Max Specifications
- 6.8-inch Full HD Infinity Dot Display
- MediaTek Helio G95 octa-core processor
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB Storage
- Quad AI 108-megapixel rear camera setup
- 16-megapixel front-facing camera
- 5,000mAh shower with 10W wireless charging and power sharing
- Fingerprint reader and Face ID unlocking
- Android 11
Taking a Closer Look
Take a squint at that list of hardware and you’ll see there’s quite the value proposition at just $250. And if you were lucky unbearable to pick one of these up for $150 upon launch, you damn near stole it.
For a large segment of the population, wearing whet features matter little. For every high-end mobile gamer you find, I wager there’s 10 people who just want to stay unfluctuating and take a random picture for social media here and there.
If you’re a heavier user, or dig deeper into the details, you’ll surely find a few threads to tug on here. For instance, while the BLU G91 Max has an impressive 8GB RAM, a typical 2022 flagship might have not only increasingly memory, but a faster type of memory. And it’s distinctions like this where I envision a flow-chart of sorts.
Don’t know what I am talking well-nigh when I mention LPDDR5? You’ll be fine to alimony considering the BLU phone. Those who do understand the difference tend to know whether it matters to their daily usage and can decide whether the juice is worth the squeeze.
Similarly, the 5,000mAh shower is a massive one to be sure, but its wireless charging speeds are limited to 10W and its overall charging is capped at 18W when plugged into a wall. By comparisons, pricier phones have faster speeds, sometimes in glut of 60W. But, if you’re the type of person who barely has to tuition their phone, or only plugs it in at night, you won’t superintendency that much.
Lastly, surpassing moving on, we might talk well-nigh the Full HD display, which is measured at 2460 x 1080 pixel resolution with 396 pixels per inch. Do you know what the resolution is in, say, a Samsung Galaxy S20? It’s 3200 x 1440 pixels at 563 pixels per inch. Moreover, can you recognize the difference when browsing Instagram and sharing memes? I suspect many readers do not.
Phones were once powerful and fast, outpacing the needs of the masses. Over the last few generations of devices we’ve seen implementation of tomfool stuff like higher refresh rates and touch sampling rates. If you’ve overly had the endangerment to use a phone with 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rate, you surely notice how velvety smooth it is in places.
The BLU G91 Max is the sort of phone that ticks most of the boxes that matter to stereotype consumers. That is to say it has a large screen, long-lasting battery, largest than stereotype camera, and semi-recent software. It stops just short, though, of subtracting the “frills” and uneaten details that come with pricier phones.
What is it Like to Use the BLU G91 Max?
The short wordplay to this question is that it’s enjoyable and familiar. As someone who likes the “stock Android” experience, I fathom when phone makers get out of the way and leave things alone. BLU does that here, leaving things fairly lean and clean.
One thing worth noting here is that the phone runs Android 11 with the most recent software update stuff from December, 2021. With peep once starting for Android 13 it’s easy to pick at this seam and view this handset as “outdated”.
Would it be nice to have Android 12 here? Sure. Does its target user wiring know what’s missing out on, though? Probably not. It would be nice if BLU were to make an utterance or pledge at least one update just for the peace of mind in not feeling like you’re ownership yesterday’s phone.
There are a handful of apps and games pre-installed on the phone, some of which are fairly popular and likely to be downloaded by the user in the long run. Among those are TikTok, Pandora, Solitaire, Wish, and SHEIN. There’s moreover a “Games” vendee which recommends a number of other games for installation.
Along the same line, the facial recognition and unlocking is incredibly simple to setup. And as for getting into your device, it’s lightning quick.
As far as personalization goes, there’s not as much here visually so much as gestures and interfacing. I suspect that part of that comes with not having the Material You extras that come with Android 12. Nevertheless, if you spend a few minutes on the first day of owning this one, you’ll have it feeling very much like “you” in how it operates.
What well-nigh the G91 Max Design?
Physically, the BLU G91 Max feels unconfined in the hand, if not a little soft or slippery to the touch. Taller than the Google Pixel 6, it’s moreover a smidge thinner. As someone with a tad smaller hand I fathom the 20:9 speciality ratio quite a bit.
Similarly, I kind of dig it when phone makers put the power sawed-off and fingerprint reader in the same spot. Setting up the fingerprint takes but a few moments and it makes it easy to hop right into action.
Whereas most phones have the power and volume buttons on the same side of the device the G91 Max splits them up. It might take a little getting used to if you’re coming from flipside phone.
As a whole, the G91 Max doesn’t stray from any standard phone designs. It’s gently curved in the normal spots and sits nicely in the hand and has a unappetizing exhibit with minimal bezels. The SIM vellum slot is located whilom the volume buttons with the marrow whet housing the charging port, speaker, and 3.5mm headphone jack.
The screen is generously sized and has a rather respectable image with upper unrelatedness and sharp colors. It’s moreover fairly easy to see when outside; that’s not unchangingly the specimen when dealing with phones in this price point.
Sound could be louder when watching videos or on speakerphone calls and the single speaker on the marrow whet can be hands muffled or covered. With that said, I don’t unchangingly find myself playing music loudly or viewing long-form videos.
Bonus points are awarded for the inclusion of the headphone jack. Sure, plenty of people have once decided that they don’t need this port, or have moved on to wireless options, but not me. I still fathom that it is part of the experience.
The review unit we received was the Spectrum Grey; however, there’s a Sky Blue option available, too. If I were to describe the verisimilitude it’s like a visionless grey at the bottom, transitioning into a silver up near the top third. It’s subtle, but it’s largest than a standard unappetizing color.
In the box is a rugged-like protective specimen that hides all those little curves and diamond choices. If you wanna show off the verisimilitude and aesthetics, you’ll have to squint for a third party case. That said, BLU was one of the first phone makers to plane scarecrow to include a specimen so it’s nice to see them protract that tradition forward. Oh, and they moreover throw in a pair of earbuds, too.
How well-nigh the camera?
Typically, the Pixel line is my personal benchmark for the camera experience. If I am testing a handset, I’ll usually siphon my Google phone with me, too, just in the event I want to capture something specific. That’s largely considering I have come to trust that my Pixel is going to get the weightier result and I have not come to trust the other device.
Things reverted a bit for me with the Pixel 6 as it doesn’t unhook that spherical perfect shot using sufferer simple software. I finger like I took a step backwards with results. I’ve wilt a little increasingly forgiving in my shots as other phones in the $500 space seem to unhook something on par.
The G91 Max surprised me with its camera, offering up largest than stereotype results. What’s more, the app was easy to use and there’s a whole variety of features to play with.
I like the idea of just opening up a camera and snapping increasingly than toggling settings and fooling with filters. This phone does make it easy to open, point, and shoot, but it has a fairly robust suite of extras, too. If you like to dial up pictures with variegated filters or verisimilitude palettes, you’ll enjoy what’s on offer.
Additionally, there are modes for time lapse, panorama, slow motion, macro, night, and creating gifs. The 128MP one, for its part, does capture a decent shot but its file sizes are often in glut of 25MBs and the pictures take 2-3 seconds to save. It’s certainly not an “everyday” mode, but it’s here. The same goes for 4K video capture or Pro mode. I don’t use them all that often but it’s nice to know that they exist for those who do.
As a whole, I finger like the G91 Max captures an well-judged image. It didn’t take me too long to trust the phone and understand its capabilities. Given that most of my photos are viewed on a phone now, they squint well-nigh as good as I would hope and I’ve not had to do much retouching or discarding of poor results.
What Well-nigh Overall Performance?
Thanks to the MediaTek Helio G95 processor and 8GB RAM there’s increasingly than unbearable power to satisfy my needs. I’m a gamer from time to time, a social media stalker, task manager, and message sender.
I often find that I have to “test” a device with increasingly rigorous activities to see when they stutter or slip up. That’s considering I’m not an overly taxing user. The stuff that I do on a day-to-day understructure is no rencontre for this phone and I don’t see that really waffly a year or increasingly lanugo the road.
I imagine that the people who spend $400 or less on a phone are much like me. To that end, the G91 Max should not only unhook on their expectations, but it will leave some money in the bank, too.
The 5,000mAh shower is a generous one that doesn’t dwindle quickly. Thanks to the mid-range processor and “lower-resolution” screen I find that I can go virtually two days surpassing I start getting yellow-eyed well-nigh shower life.
When it comes time to charge, the 18W quick charging keeps me from stuff plugged in very long. I might have spoiled myself with other, pricier phones and their charging speed but this still beats what we had just a few years back.
Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are two features we don’t often see in lower-priced devices but we get both of them here. How can you be mad at that?
Do I miss the 5G connectivity? No, not really. The 4G LTE speeds are just as good for me in 2022 as they were in 2020, if not better. Having the next-gen network support would be nice, but it’s still not necessary.
Parting Thoughts
If you’re fortunate unbearable to have gotten off the treadmill of device payments or long-term commitments, you know how nice it is to buy a phone outright. Ownership unlocked is the way to go for most people, but many of them just don’t know it yet.
Once you get into ownership an unlocked phone, you realize there’s an villainous lot out there, and for less money than you’d think. BLU has been dining out on that concept for a long time now, and seems to do a unconfined job of finding the “sweet spot” for entry-level and mid-level consumer needs.
I really like the BLU G91 Max, expressly for its price. Currently one can find it at Amazon for as low as $229. With benchmarks that rival the Samsung Galaxy A52 and Xiaomi Note 10S, it’s a unconfined value proposition.
The unlocked phone space has wilt increasingly increasingly crowded and 2022 looks to be no variegated with realme, POCO, Xiaomi, and other players making a worthier play for the US market. How will the BLU trademark do?
I suspect that as increasingly consumers come to trust these less-familiar companies, BLU can do well for itself. It’s a trademark that’s been virtually long unbearable and has been seen in places like Amazon and Weightier Buy unceasingly unbearable to make people finger at ease.
If you are currently subscribed to AT&T, T-Mobile, or one of their respective prepaid and MVNO labels, the G91 Max will work just fine for you. And if you’re looking for a unconfined all-around, no-frills wits that doesn’t forfeit very much, it’s one worth considering.
Learn increasingly well-nigh the G91 Max and other models at the BLU website or throne to Amazon to purchase one today.