Known for making unlocked, affordable Android smartphones, Miami-based Blu introduced the Energy JR, which costs less than a prepaid mobile plan but comes with the specifications to match that price.
Taking a look at the front, the Energy JR rocks a 4-inch, 800 x 480 resolution display, with a front-facing camera capable of 640 x 480 resolution selfies sitting right above it. Around back reveals a 3.2-megapixel camera, with the back panel adopting the fake leather stitching reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
It’s when we take a peek under the hood when the Energy JR shows its budget colors, with the handset powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6571 processor and 256MB of RAM. That’s the processing package that will power Android 4.4 KitKat, which was initially released in 2013. In addition, even though you’ll get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, you’re limited to EDGE speeds, thanks to the 2G radios in the Energy JR. With U.S. carriers moving away from their 2G networks, this could be a potential deal breaker if you plan to buy the Energy JR for use here.
With that said, the Energy JR has two main reasons of being: its large 3,000mAh battery and its $40 price tag. With the former, the Energy JR can reportedly live for 72 hours of standard usage and 30 days of standby time on a single charge. Given the extremely meager internals of the handset, we wouldn’t be surprised if it reaches those numbers in real-life scenarios. Meanwhile, the $40 price tag allows the Energy JR to cater to the subset of the smartphone market that isn’t concerned with beefy quad-core processors and high-resolution displays.
If the Energy JR piques your interest, it will be available through Amazon in the coming weeks in both black and white.
