Along with the BLU Pure XL, BLU sent me the Vivo Air LTE. I reviewed this device about a year ago at CES 2015 when it launched and it remains as one of the most popular BLU devices out on the market and for good reason. We’ll get to all the specs and stuff in a moment but this device is a little bit different than the previous model as it now features LTE. Let’s go ahead and unbox this device and see what it’s all about.

We can do so by simply lifting off the top cover and viola. We will see the Vivo Air LTE sitting right on top with the separated accessories. We have a lot of accessories here on this box so I’m going to set the Vivo Air LTE off to the side for now. We first have a SIM card removal tool packed away in this cardboard cartridge. We have a Quick Get Started Guide that will help you get to know this device and set it up. There’s a protective hard shell clip-on case that has a nice texture to it. I always love to see cases included in the box. And to go along with the case, we have a screen protector here so you get all around protection.

On the right hand side of the box, we have a US wall wart. There’s a micro USB charging cable and a set of earphones with removable tips and music playback support. I have yet to test these earphones but they look very nice based off first impressions. Looks can be deceiving though.

So let’s take a look back at the BLU Vivo Air LTE and unwrap it from the plastic. The previous model I tested was the white variant so it’s kind of neat to see the jet black color here. It’s very sleek, very stylish. It only measures in at 5.1mm thick and it weighs only 98 grams, making it the lightest and the thinnest LTE smartphone in the market.

Taking a look around the device, you will really notice the sheer thinness of the device. We have a volume up and down button on the left hand side. There’s a SIM card tray and Power/Sleep On/Off button on the right hand side. Nothing is up top but a microphone. And on the bottom we have another microphone, a micro USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The front is home to a 5MP front-facing sensor with ambient light sensors, a 4.8-inch 720p HD Super AMOLED display. On the rear, we have an 8MP Sony IMX 219 camera sensor with a 4p Largen camera lens and BLU glass filter which will hopefully enhance picture quality. There is a flash here as well and BLU and 4G LTE logos. The back cover itself is composed of Gorilla Glass 3, which gives it a very premium feel in the hands. It kind of reminds me of the Galaxy S6 or Galaxy Note 5. And similar to those devices, the back cover does pick up fingerprints. The black color configuration makes the back a fingerprint magnet. You might consider the white variant to avoid this problem.

But in terms of how the device performs, first of all, the display is very nice. It’s an AMOLED display, colors look very vibrant, and blacks are very deep and just very accurate. I don’t see any yellowing to the white colors. It’s a very good looking display.

Packed inside the Vivo Air LTE is a 64-bit Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM. I’ve tested this processor a number of times on a number of smartphones. And for the price, it performs very well. I’m really happy to see that we now have 2GB of RAM as opposed to 1GB of RAM found in the previous model. There’s a noticeable performance boost. We also have a near stock Android Lollipop experience. And BLU says that the Vivo Air LTE will get Android 6.0 Marshmallow in Q1 of 2016, which is great news. You buy the smartphone now and you have peace in mind knowing it will be upgradeable to the latest and greatest Android OS. So that is pretty cool.

For only $200 off-contract, the BLU Vivo Air LTE is probably going to sell like hotcakes now that it supports LTE with bands 2, 4, and 7; meaning it is supported on T-Mobile and AT&T here in the US. The aluminum frame and the glass front and back cover just makes this device feel really sleek and premium even though it carries a budget price tag.

So if you guys are curious and want to learn more about this device, maybe you want to pick it up for yourself, I’ll leave a link to the Amazon listing down below in the description when it becomes available. But let me know what your thoughts are about this device.