I bought a $30 Smartphone ! Tracfone Blu View 2 Review

37 Comments

1. You probably pay with your privacy data, i.e. trackphone.

2. Everything that flagships lack: SD card, 3.5mm jack, removable battery. If only some manufacturer had the balls to put higher end hardware in this form factor (ahem Unihertz).

3. Samsung Galaxy A13

4. I have generally tended to use lower-end phones for various reasons. I was happy with them for the kind of usage I do. The one that really impressed my was the Moto G(2015) which made a pretty big splash on phone sites for being a good value for money. It wasn't even mine, but my mom's. It was also the lower-end variant of it. It was still an upgrade for her, and having used it here and there, I was impressed by the general performance of it, even compared to the phone I had at the time, which was more powerful. So I've known for a while that these budget phones, with reasonable expectations, can offer good experiences. That, or I don't know what I'm missing. But I do have to laugh when I see people still in the mindset of 2011 when it comes to budget phones.

   I picked up a Tracfone/Net10 Moto E6 a couple of years back that was on sale for $20 that I use as a mini tablet around the house to keep my phone free. A great buy from my perspective. Just a note of caution, as I have heard some pre-paid phones, Boost seems to be the carrier mentioned, seem to have some kind of software disabling of wi-fi if the phone is not activated. That's the story I've heard from some people.

5. As someone born in the 70s and seen all the iterations of tech since then it's amazing what we consider garbage now. In the 2000s this would have been a killer phone.

6. Cool idea. Why don’t you do a review of some unlocked widely available lowest cost phone’s available at places like Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon.

7. the problem with these low price phones is always the limited ram and later the emmc that becomes slow after like a year, and never recovers

8. 5:07 Why are you pointing at me like that? What did I do? 😂

9. Yes you could buy spare batteries but they probably cost as much as the phone 😂

10. Huh! was just talking about this exact phone with my partner a few days ago and wondering if it would be worth trying.

    Thank you for the walk through and review!!

    Feeling much better about likely using this as a possible backup phone.

11. Back in 1990, I bought a Novatel "Transportable" phone for $100. It came in a purse-type carrying case. The battery for it was also $100, and had a 12v cigarette-lighter socket for the phone. I was the first person on the PLANET to have a cell phone (ok, slight exaggeration, but I was the first person I knew who had one). I would take it hiking, and sit in a tree in the woods, and make phone calls. It was the COOLEST thing ever. Now it's "Meh". I feel old lol.

12. My iPhone is lagging after the recent update. 😭

13. Your dog is cute is that a Husky? What's his or her name?

14. I bought a Tracfone Motolola Moto e6 for $40 back in 2021. I'm happy with it.

15. For some idiotic reason Capital One will NOT recognize a Tracfone as being owned by the person paying for it nor will their system recognize a free government phone as being yours because they say they cannot determine the owner of the phone.
    I've had 2 Android phones and the Tracfone chip in my Iphone 7 and the bank AND Capital One cannot verify who I am because their computer system doesn't recognize the above yet when a credit card was activated they were able to send a text message code to verify the activation of the card but could NOT send a verification of a pin number so I could use it to get a cash advance.
    And no matter who you contact including their chairman's office, they won't fix the problem.

16. Might be good as a cheap travel phone for a kid. If it gets lost or damaged, not a big deal.

17. Wow, just 10 years ago, $30 would barely get you a prepaid flip phone. I remember my first cell phone from walmart for $30, a samsung sch-u350 on tracfone.

18. I appreciate your disclosure. It would be funny if this was a loaner from Blu and you had to send it back 😂

19. This is the world we live in where an Android Smart phone can cost less than Dinner for two at Applebee's

20. If it had 5GHz it could have been a really cheap cloud gaming device.

21. replaceable battery feel like my pinephone

22. I got a tracfone or similar $50 cheap phone at family dollar about 7 years ago. It was just awful, even for then. What you can get now for that is pretty darn impressive.

23. Good news is that terms of service probably isn't legally actionable. Not that I care about the network much. I really just care about the amount of spyware on modern operating systems and the horribly slow and buggy Android operating system.

24. Junk, this phone will be practically useless on a network. He's using it on wifi. You can get much better 4g phones for like 50 bucks.

25. I had a few unlocked Blu phones. Stopped when it was discovered they carried spyware that could not be removed/deleted. They were even suspended on Amazon for a time over it. Don't trust them. Wouldn't buy another ever again.

26. These cheap phones just keep getting better and better. Obviously Tracfone is subsidizing this phone, but still – $30 for a phone that does all this so well, it's extraordinary.

27. It's nice to see a video where you are not bashing cable companies. CATV employed me for 41 years. Thanks.

28. Does it do phone calls?

29. 30 bucks ? solid !

30. Might make a good iPod device

31. My work issue phone is a £150 Samsung and it's absolutely terrible so I dread to think how living with something that costs $30 is

32. Would an already activated Verizon prepaid sim work in it?

33. Love it! They were on clearance at Kroger for 15 dollars. I appeciate the back case material and the USB-C port, big step up from the Blu View 1.

34. That would be a great baby phone. WiFi calls with what's or whatever and emergency calls it needed anywhere.

35. 🚩🚩🚩🚩

36. I like to buy the ones from eBay directly from TracFone that have 1 year service. Perfect burner phones! I don't trust Blu. Seems like there was something shady they did. I can't remember what but I wouldn't touch them. You can unlock TracFone phones for GSM use after a ?1 year? Don't quote me. Verizon buyout might change that. Bonus: Military users can unlock early for deployments.

    I listen to audiobooks so these low end phones don't work well for me. I use audio too much. Moto E/G/Pure/play series are the lowest I find acceptable for audiobooks and they are just barely.

37. First one here

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