Octa core processor, a huge amount of RAM, and good looking screen makes it almost on par with other flagships on the market. However, there is a slight catch. The Blu Pure XR only costs around 300 dollars, which if you are keeping tabs, is almost half of other flagship phones of 2016. The Blu smartphones use their custom Android skin and it is heavily inspired by iOS. It is not such a bad thing, though, it still retains the good old Android features with the added flair of iOS only found on iPhones. While there are a lot of things you can play around with, most of them boil down to basic, utilitarian ones, which to me are the best features. Features that you use daily in your day to day usage are best simply because they get used and provide a quality service. Blu Pure XR comes with a few of those awesome features, let’s check them out.
1. Use 3D Touch
This feature is lifted straight from iOS and it works perfectly on the smartphone. Basically, it allows you to long press a certain button or area to extend options available. For example, if you long press the contacts app icon, you’ll get the option of adding a new number directly without even launching the app. You can easily call recent numbers by long pressing the phone app icon and selecting them. It is a nifty little feature that gives a lot of depth to the already robust offering. This feature is enabled by default but you can also activate it in the settings.
2. Launch Front Camera Quickly
Using the same three touch feature, you can easily launch the front facing camera of the smartphone to take a selfie. All you need to do is simply long press the camera button and three options will pop on the screen, from there you can easily select the front facing camera, the back facing camera or video mode without even launching the app itself. This saves you the trouble of selecting modes in the camera app which are sometimes not easy to access especially if your phone is new and you have yet to become familiarized with it.
3. Turn on Adaptive Brightness
You know how hard it is to look at your smartphone in direct sunlight? Or when you’re in bed, the smartphone light gets a little too harsh. I highly recommend turning on adaptive brightness, so that screen can adjust according to the light in the surrounding. This feature is available on a lot of different smartphones and it is here as well. A lot of people don’t remember turning it on though. Simply head over to Settings > Display > Adaptive Brightness and turn the option on.
4. Check out Economical Backlight
If you’re worried that the brightness of the screen might affect the battery timings of your device, then you can easily turn on economical backlight option. This option allows the smartphone to adjust the brightness of cutting to the remaining battery. It is almost like a power saving option found on other smartphones but this one only affects the backlight. For example at nearly full, the brightness will be at the highest level you have set for it. However, towards the end, it will get a bit dimmer.
5. Change the Font Size
If your eyesight is not perfect and you want to use the smartphone, the font can be sometimes a bit too small. Head over to Settings > Display > Font Size and easily change to your liking. There are multiple sizes available and you can easily select between them. It is a great way to make the text legible on the screen and a bit easier to understand.
6. Change LCD Effect
Some people prefer the warmer tones while others want the crispness of slightly sharper ones. I personally like to have a yellowish tint to my screen when reading because it makes it easier on the eyes by limiting the blue light. But when watching movies or videos, I like the screen to be as natural as possible. This can easily be tweaked in the Settings > Display > LCD Effect menu. The default setting is set at natural but you can change it at your will.
7. Change 3-D Touch Settings
The 3-D touch on Blu Pure XR is a pretty main feature and it deserves its own section. While one may wonder that you will find the settings in the display section, these are however hidden inside the advanced settings. So simply head over to Ssettings > Advanced Settings > 3D touch and you will be able to tweak it to your liking. Don’t want to press the screen so hard that it feels like cracking under your thumb? You can adjust the pressure needed to trigger the 3-D touch features. You can also check out the settings of edge touch which is similar to what the Samsung Galaxy edge series of smartphones offer.
8. Check out Smart Gestures
I really like when companies incorporate gestures in their Android skins and Blu just did that. From gestures that trigger certain actions to ones that launch apps, all are available on the smartphone. I really liked the option to simply swipe up to access my apps anywhere on the home screen and this smartphone delivers this functionality.
9. Use Text Recognition
While the camera on the smartphone is a very capable one especially when you consider the price tag, there are certain features that are simply marvelous. Text recognition is one such feature, it basically allows you to snap a picture of any kind of text, newspaper, or magazine and convert into actual text. This is a very convenient feature if you want to share the text without sending the picture or want to make amendments to the content. Simply launch the camera and select the text recognition mode and you are golden.
10. Use Custom Colors
This one is perhaps my favorite feature included on this flagship smartphone. Simply because I haven’t seen any other mainstream manufacturer do this. The Chameleon feature allows you to take real world colors and apply them to the user interface. For example, if you liked the color palette of a painting, all you need to do is snap a picture of it, select two colors from it and the app will incorporate them into the user interface. This allows you to make custom themes that are highly malleable and look beautiful. Once in a while, I come across a feature that truly impresses me and Chameleon is one such feature that I would want Android to adapt as soon as possible.
Conclusion
These were a few tips and tricks for the Blu Pure XR, a criminally underrated smartphone that deserves all the praise it can get. For $300 you are essentially getting a flagship experience that is right on par with other smartphones and manufacturers. Sure, there are some cutbacks but that is understandable because of the highly affordable price tag. Blu deserves all the praise it gets and I wish they would produce a little bit more expensive and yet highly competitive smartphone soon. Image Credits
