Bluey Phone Review

Hey, what's up?

MKBHD here and welcome to a hands-on

and first impressions of the Blu phone made by VTech.

So, I was just scrolling top-rated phones on Amazon a couple days ago

and I saw this one has gotten incredible ratings

and I haven't gotten my hands on it yet.

Maybe I'm not on their review program list or something.

So, I ordered one and now it's here.

It costs $10.99.

That's uh $10 and $0.99.

So, first of all, the unboxing experience is interesting.

The phone actually ships exposed in this open-faced cardboard box, which is unique.

I don't think I've ever seen that before.

But, then actually getting the rest of the way into the box was kind

of unintuitive and difficult to be honest.

I had to rip some cardboard to get to these fasteners behind the phone

holding it in and untwist those.

Didn't feel very premium, but I suppose that's forgivable at this price.

And then there is no charger or cable included in the box.

And while it's a rare 2026 phone that does have removable batteries,

there's also a tool required to open the back

and replace them and that's not included either.

Thankfully though, it does actually come with enough juice from the factory to just

fire it up out the box.

>> Want to play with us?

Let's do this.

>> So, the phone itself is definitely on the big side, but not too big.

We've seen phones like this before.

It's roughly the same size as a Nexus 6, a little bit smaller actually.

Uh but this phone must clearly be some type of minimal phone

because it's actually rocking a 1.7-in black

and white display up here.

And despite this antenna up here at the top, there are no cell radios,

no internet connection, no cameras at all, and exclusively physical buttons.

It doesn't even have Bluetooth, which in a Blu phone,

you'd think maybe it would.

But, you know, I do know a few people in real life

that are trying to use their phone less by switching to a minimal phone.

And that makes sense,

but you look at the minimal phones these days

and they all still have these huge touchscreens

and cameras and internet connections

and apps.

Cowards.

So, yeah, this Bluey phone, it takes us to the next level.

When you type numbers on the Bluey phone, instead of making any phone calls,

it just says the numbers out loud to you.

>> Six.

Seven.

>> So, that's nice.

Uh the speaker on the back has three volume levels

and ordinarily a single rear-facing speaker wouldn't be

that nice,

but the grill and the opening are more than big enough to ever accidentally

block it with your fingers,

so that's thoughtful design.

It also does have a few games built in,

which might sound counterintuitive for a minimal phone,

but these are much healthier than doomscrolling TikTok or Instagram or something like that.

My personal favorite is the one where you can blow bubbles by blowing into

the microphone.

Sweet.

Also, look how fast this boots up.

This is power.

>> Want to play with us?

>> Already on.

So, one of the fastest booting phones.

Bubbles right there.

Okay.

>> Now it's your turn.

>> Now it's my turn.

>> You did it.

>> I did it.

It also has a chat feature built in,

which again might sound backwards for a minimal phone, like, really?

Chat?

AI slop?

But no, it's not AI.

The only person you can talk to is Bluey and Bingo, the dogs.

You look, I think

if other reviewers are reviewing this phone up against other more expensive flagships,

they're making a mistake here.

It's not going to have the thin bezels

or high benchmark scores to compete with the 13,

15, $20 phones.

I'm not even sure this thing's processor can run a benchmark, to be honest.

But, as a minimal phone,

this one really commits to that idea more than any other that I've seen.

Like, e-ink's cool and everything,

but you could technically still find your way over to Instagram on the Boox

Palma.

But if you have less than a thousand total pixels across your whole display

and never go above three to four frames per second,

and also have literally no cameras and no internet connection,

then battery life becomes weeks instead of days,

and screen time becomes minutes instead of hours,

and total doom scrolling is effectively reduced to zero.

This This is good.

This is a good minimal phone, especially for the price.

It's undercutting the competition by, from what I can tell, quite a bit.

So, good work, Booi.

Thanks for watching.

Catch you in the next one.

Also, check the date.

>>