12'

$99 Bluboo C100 announced 64bit, Lollipop 5.1, LTE

AndiApril 16, 2015

While most of this months launches are for flagship devices, there is also an entry-level device worth noting too. Here are the details of the Bluboo C100 direct from the launch.

It’s nice to look at the hardware of a flagship phone and drool over the specifications, but generally most phone users can easily get by on phones with much less power, and will benefit a good price tag over OIS or a 2K display.

We’ve seen phone prices drop this year, and this has meant that bargain bucket $99 phones are now actually shipping with some decent hardware.

The Bluboo C100 is one such device which has just been unveiled in Hong Kong. We had seen the teasers of the phone, and we are happy that what we guessed about the device is actually true. It’s a stunner for under $100.

Gizchina News of the week

Join GizChina on Telegram

At the heart of the phone is a Mediatek MT6735 SoC, this is the chipset that Mediatek claims has World 4G Mode and will give better support for users around the world. FDD, WCDMA and GSM signals are covered but we are waiting on the actual bands. The MT6735 is also a 64bit processor, just as well as Bluboo have loaded the C100 with Android 5.1 Lollipop!

‌

A 5-inch display up front has become common on budget phones, but the panel on the C100 benefits from being an OGS, IPS panel with a HD resolution of 1280 x 720.

Other details include a 2000mAh battery, dual band 2.5G/5G WIFI, Bluetooth 4.0, FM Radio, Dual SIM support, 2 mega-pixel front camera, 5 mega-pixel rear, 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory.

The Bluboo C100 comes in black or white and will be going on sale through international online resellers soon.

[ Bluboo ]

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author

Andi

balcobomber25
April 16, 2015
It kind of looks like the numerous Mi4 clones available. I’m curious to see some reviews of this phone, it sounds great on paper but need to see how the camera is and how well it performs.
- Michel
  April 16, 2015
  Doesn’t look at all at a Xiaomi clone. BTW every phone looks the same these days, i could also say it looks like a samsung s6 clone or a iphone 6
  - Airyl
    April 16, 2015
    - Muhammad Yasir
      April 16, 2015
      - Airyl
        April 16, 2015
  - balcobomber25
    April 16, 2015
    Compare it side by side with the Doogee Hitman or No.1 Mi4 (especially from the back and the top bezel), if you don’t see any resemblance at all you might want to visit an eye doctor.
    or you can continue to be obtuse, either way it’s not going to change my opinion.
- Muhammad Yasir
  April 16, 2015
  - balcobomber25
    April 16, 2015
    I have used a few with a very good camera’s, mostly from Gionee and THL but those were exceptions.
    - Muhammad Yasir
      April 16, 2015
      hmm… gimme a howler if any 64 bit phones come out with the same cam performance 🙂
      - balcobomber25
        April 16, 2015
        Personally I could care less about 64 bit as this point. It will take 1-2 years before both Android and Apps take full advantage of 64 bit.
        Muhammad Yasir
        April 17, 2015
        hmm… just like pc games with multicore cpus?
        balcobomber25
        April 18, 2015
        Exactly many games still don’t scale beyond four cores, many more don’t scale beyond two cores.

yoselife
April 16, 2015
i am asking myself all the time, why no new company make a front speakers and by that make a new phone level
- Stef
  April 16, 2015
  Actually few of the people use that feature, most use earbuds or their (expensive) headphones.
  See what happened to HTC phones, most people that own them mostly don’t use the speakers (it’s considered rude to blast music through speakers in public anyway), yet they’re left with the giant bezels that HTC created to house them.
  Giant bezels is bad for all (bad ergonomics), while front facing speakers are good only for some (people who are rarely in public or doesn’t bother them when they annoy people). It’s a niche feature.
  - yoselife
    April 16, 2015
    there are speakers already, if you put them on the back then everyone hear the music, but you- this is stupid.
    HTC does it, but their phones are expensive, a new brand can make it cheap and make a new level of phones, may be they should add infra, its cheap and make their brand special.
  - yoselife
    April 16, 2015
    a new brand can add a button that can function as a button for camera, calling, open app- like the 3.5mm button that cost 2$ but built in
  - Airyl
    April 16, 2015
    Then do them like the Moto E.
  - balcobomber25
    April 16, 2015
    I use my speakers all the time when I am working in the office or doing stuff around the house. Actually I very rarely use earbuds except when I am at the gym.
    - Stef
      April 16, 2015
      You do realize that there are speakers for these cases (travelsize or full size).
      The FF speaker are for when one is on the go (for example while exercising or walking) in which cases you correctly guessed that most use earbuds.
      Why would you permanently encumber your phone with a feature that it’s mostly not used or not used well?
      - balcobomber25
        April 16, 2015
        Why would I spend extra money for something I don’t need when my phone already has that feature. Should I also buy a DSLR camera instead of using the camera in my phone?. I would love to see the research you have done to support your claims of it being “mostly not used”. Everyone who I know that uses a smartphone uses the speakers at some point.
        Airyl
        April 16, 2015
        Should you buy a DSLR? Yes.
        balcobomber25
        April 16, 2015
        Waste of money for someone like me. My cell phone camera does everything I need it to. Just like it is waste of money to buy external speakers.
        
        Stef
        April 16, 2015
        Because if not it comes at the price of ergonomics and looks of the phone. Having giant bezels makes it harder to use, less pocketable and plain ugly imho.
        You always handle the phone , why should you choose to leave your phone with a permanent disability (i.e. huge bezels) instead of using external speakers whenever you’re stationary (if you found a phone’s sound so important)
        Anyway you kinda proved my point, FF speakers are for on the go use and not even you use it like that (you admitted to use earbuds when exercising).
        And it’s not as if side speakers are that bad, they’re certainly worse that front speakers, but many times better than rear speakers, plus they don’t make your phone look like a table.
        Anyhow, like I said they’re a niche. So -yeah- there must be phones having this feature for those weird enough to *need* it, but it certainly should not become a trend, phones are unnecessarily big as it is, I don’t need to have to carry manpurse for my phone, enough of this silliness.
        
        balcobomber25
        April 16, 2015
        I could care less about large bezels if they provide a purpose such as housing speakers. Most phone already have large top and bottom bezels. It is more ergonomic for me to carry around just my phone than to have to carry speakers everywhere I go. But that’s just me.
        I don’t always handle my phone, when I am working it sits on my desk next to me. When I am cooking or cleaning it sits on the counter. I didn’t prove any point. You chose one thing I mentioned and fixed in on it while ignoring the rest. When I am sitting at my desk working and listening to various pod casts or when I am cooking and listening to music front facing speakers are perfect because I don’t need to continually turn the phone over to change the song (or suffer with muted audio).
        You will need your man-purse to carry those speakers with you (travel or full size) everywhere you go. The only sillyness is that you think you speak for the entire phone community. Your opinion is that you prefer to buy extra accessories to use your phone, I personally don’t *need* any of those.
        
        Stef
        April 16, 2015
        No I would not. Since your use case is that of “a stationary phone” while you’re using FF speakers you could simply connect this to a speaker to wherever you wish to make use of this feature. Say have a mini speaker on your office, and/or in your kitchen, (see no need to take it with you?) much better than to have it permanently attached to your phone making an already huge phone, huger.
        And -no- actually, makers like LG, Sharp even Samsung some of the times actually make great use of the top/bottom bezels. LG G3 for example manages to be lower than HTC One all the while having 0.5 inches of screen over it.
        Also I’m with you, rear facing speaker are garbage. You’re correct, one has to continually turn the phone, that’s why I called the side speakers a good compromise. They’re not as good as FFS but much better than RFS and they don’t encumber our phones with an even larger bezel.
        Lastly I didn’t call for the extinction of the front facing speakers, they certainly have a place, I just don’t want it to become a standard, the front of the phones is encumbered with enough silliness …
        
        balcobomber25
        April 16, 2015
        So I have to have a pair of speakers for every room in the house and my office? This is getting pretty costly to use my phone. What if I take my phone somewhere there isn’t a mini speaker, do I have to guy buy an extra one for that?
        Side/Bottom speakers are a decent compromise but still not as good as front facing speakers. Who says they need to have huge bezels though? The HTC M7 and Nexus 6 both feature FFS, neither has huge bezels.
        
        Stef
        April 16, 2015
        Like i said i don’t “vote” for the extinction of FFS i merely don’t want it to become a “thing”. Yes they don’t have to be big, but they mostly are.
        So let a few phones have it and i would like the rest (most phones) to have side speakers. We agree on the fact that RFS are like a cancer that should get ridden of.
        balcobomber25
        April 16, 2015
        At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter what your or I want, it’s all about what sells and innovates. The technology is out there for FFS that don’t need huge bezels (as seen in Nexus 6). As audio processors continue to improve in mobile devices we will eventually see better speakers and the demand for greater audio fidelity. There is only so much that can be done with side and bottom speakers so eventually the trend will be FFS.

realjjj
April 16, 2015
Nice price for the specs, the one thing that doesn’t fit is the 5MP cam. They should have went with at least 8MP to fit with the other specs. A 5MP cam must be some 3$ so adding 1-2$ to costs in such a tight budget is not easy but they should have done it nonetheless.
- balcobomber25
  April 16, 2015
  I am interested to see how well the camera performs. I know plenty of 8 and 13mp units that take horrible pics. We need to see it in action before we judge it. It could be horrible, it could be decent.
Xalis
April 16, 2015
A phone with a 5MP camera has no resell value if it cost you 90+ dollars.
I was hopping that this would be a nice seller, but nope.
- balcobomber25
  April 16, 2015