Blu Vivo 6 review

Interface and reliability

• Android 6 Marshmallow software, with Blu's own overlay
• Lots of customisation available in Blu's software

The Vivo 6 is running a version of Android Marshmallow with a Blu skin overlay on top. A Blu representative confirmed there are plans to bring Android 7 to the phone, but there’s no timescale for the release at the moment.

The overlay on Blu phones is an interesting addition that you may or may not like. 

It looks very different to stock Android and tries to simplify the experience. It doesn't add many new features on top of normal Android software though, instead just replacing the apps you'd usually use with alternatives.

For example, the Blu Vivo 6 has Opera instead of Chrome as its default browser.

Even though Opera was easier to get to, we found ourselves using Chrome as it's also installed on the phone. The option is there for you to use Opera though, and it's easy to switch the software around if you'd prefer Google Chrome.

There are a few interesting additions to the software, such as an app called Chameleon that allows you to change the phone’s interface based on a real life colour you find. 

Take a photo of it, and your phone's UI will change to that look.

It’s not always accurate, but it’s an interesting idea and means you can customise the look of your phone around your favourite colours in a matter of seconds.

Another interesting Blu UI feature is fake call. It works from the Apple-like control centre you’ll find when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen. 

Press the button and in 15 seconds (or whatever time you set) you’ll get a fake phone call come through from an unknown number, with someone asking if you have “sorted the files yet”, so you can get out of awkward situations.

If you're on a horrible date and you want to get out in a hurry, this may well be the perfect feature for you.

The control centre is perhaps the highlight of Blu's changes to Android. If you swipe up from the bottom of the display you're greeted with all the common options you'll likely want quick access to, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the torch.

It works much like it does within iOS and can save you valuable seconds when you're trying to change the settings on your phone.

Music, movies and gaming

• Packed full of storage at 64GB with extra microSD support
• Standard Google apps will get you by for media

The Blu Vivo 6 isn't going to disappoint you in any area of media, it's perfectly good at what it does and that's what you need from an affordable phone.

The Full HD 5.5-inch display is a perfect setup for watching films. It's a large screen by smartphone standards and it's bright enough for watching video.

The phone is easy to hold as well, which is a big benefit when watching on a commute. The Vivo 6 is also a great option for watching shorter clips on YouTube, which is ready to use right out of the box.

There's also Google Play Movies and TV, but some of the content in there can be expensive, so if you have a Netflix subscription you may want to download that instead to give you something else to watch.

Music-wise you'll only have Google Play Music installed to listen to tracks, but you can always download other players from the Google Play Store.

There are small speakers at the bottom of the phone that make an impressive noise when listening to music out loud. The speakers won't blow you away, but they're good enough to walk around and listen to a little music through them.

It's worth noting that there's also a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the device. Some flagship phones now don't feature jacks for wired headphones, but having one here means you'll be able to used wired headsets.

Of course you can also use Bluetooth, and we found it simple to connect the phone to Bluetooth headsets and speakers.

For gaming, the Blu Vivo 6 was capable of running most titles but struggled a little with high-intensity apps.

This will easily play Candy Crush Saga, but it struggled a little more with games such as Real Racing 3 or Pokemon Go, where a lot of processing power is needed.

That said, all of the games we tested played and it was as capable as many other phones at this price point.

It won't be a gaming powerhouse, but if you want a phone that can handle almost everything you throw at it and doesn't cost much money the Vivo 6 is one of the best options.

Specs and benchmark performance

• Enough power to handle key tasks
• Will struggle with high-intensity tasks, but no more than other phones at this price

Under the hood of the Vivo 6 there's a MediaTek P10 octa-core chipset - the same we saw in the Sony Xperia XA, which is a phone that really struggled with some processing tasks.

The Blu Vivo 6 isn't noticeably slow with general use. If you're going to be playing intensive games or editing a lot of video you will notice it slow down, but for average apps the Vivo 6 wasn't disappointing.

There's an impressive amount of RAM in the Blu Vivo 6 - 4GB, which is enough to keep it running nicely.

That's as much RAM as most flagship phones offer and we expect this is why it performs better than the Sony Xperia XA and other phones using the P10 processor.

In terms of raw processing power, the benchmark scores on the Blu Vivo 6 brought up 2762, which is high for a phone at this price point. That's been beaten by the Bush Spira E3X, which scored 2891 in the multi-score test, but other options such as the ZTE Blade V7 Lite only scored 1164.

The recently released Wileyfox Swift 2 Plus also scored lower at 2073, so the Blu is a good choice if you're looking for a decent cost-to-performance ratio.

This isn't the phone to buy if you're looking to run the latest apps and games effortlessly, but it's a good option if you're after an affordable phone with a good hit rate at day-to-day tasks.