March 21, 2016: BLU is a rare mobile phone band that comes from the US -- Florida to be exact --  in a sea of  Chinese offerings. Ironically,  this American design,  is still assembled in China.  But the cultural difference is apparent  with one look at the mains adapter:  it is precisely  made for the width of  Indian power sockets,  unlike 9 out of 10 Chinese brands.
The 5 inch  720 p HD display ( you can record at full 1080p) and the 1.3 GHz  quad core Mediatek processor may be standard like the   2GB of RAM and 16 GB of onboard storage which you can expand  with up 64 GB on a micro SD card.  The cameras as 13 GB ( front) and 5 MP (  84 degree  wide angle rear )  and there is a conveniently positioned  finger print scanner next to the rear camera. This is a 4G LTE phone with dual micro SIM slots running Android  Lollipop  and with  the bands to make it truly pan-Indian, and much of Europe-ready to boot.  
So far there may be nothing  out of the ordinary -- unless you consider the very reasonable price of Rs 8999. But BLU  shows its class in the little things:  They throw in a screen guard and a silicone case for free.  The basic Android menu has some thoughtful add-ons -- short cuts to Amazon, Kindle, TrueCaller;   McAfee net security.  In addition to the default  google apps, you have Opera  preinstalled  --    with some useful Indian apps  like Olyx and AskMe Bazaar.   Metal wedges  notwithstanding  it weighs just  163 grams.... a great combo of price and performance  and  4G-ready at that!
Anand Parthasarathy