I'm not buying flagship phones anymore.

By the time the samsung galaxy s2 (i9100) where released to the market... I did what I could to get my hands on one of these devices. Everything that kick ass about android started with this phone.

• First one with multi-cores processor
• first one with 1 gb or ram
• and I don't remember what else on the list....

however, the point is that this phone was a milestone for Samsung and Google.  And based on the success of the S2, the S3 kicked ass as well as the S4.  So I ended with an S4 Google play edition...and the S2 where given away to my mother...

... on Wednesday evening.. .I dropped the S4  and the LCD got cracked... It didn't matter the expensive protective casing... LCD cracked and the phone is unusable.

As I live in the Republic of Panama, the i9505 is not the S4 of this market... which means no spare parts available.



So after walking around looking for a tech shop that will replace the screen... I ended buying a temporary phone until the parts arrive etc.... I ended buying a cheapo BLU Life Play!

And this is why I mention the S2... this BLU Phone feels slightly faster than the galaxy S2 (that I had cyanogenmoded etc)...and the good thing.. 229 + taxes locally available... ( amazon has it like in 200 bucks or something)

.. and the packing include a screen protector screen and a silicone case... talk about best bang for the buck here!

EVERYTHING is included on the box.

It is not a powerhouse as the S4.. and I might not install any ROM I wanted here... (well... eventually  I will) but taking in consideration that stock android 4.2.x and beyond is pretty capable (and it really doesn't matter as you get the same user experience with the upgrades of google search and launcher)

Phone is packed with a  quadcore CPU based on cortex A7 architecture and 1 gig of ram... I might compare it to the galaxy S3 (i9300) but without benchmarks....

the only drawback is that internal memory is only 4Gb... this is not a deal breaker as you could install a SD card (up to 32 gigs) and set it like the default storage on the settings...  but.. i mean... 4gigs? 

anyway,  considering that a  new screen for my phone is about 200 bucks onebay...

 

You get the widgets on lock screen. :D

 

Phone is running Apex Launcher smoothly..

 

Pretty looking stock here...

 

Here, not so much... however, you don't deal with these screens that often.