BLU Vivo 5R marries decent specs with $199.99 price, up for pre-order now

BLU has announced a new smartphone today. It's called Vivo 5R and the company says it's a "refreshed" version of the Vivo 5 launched in February. We assume the word "successor" isn't in BLU's dictionary, but that's exactly what the Vivo 5R is to the Vivo 5 in our book.

The new handset comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13 MP main camera with Sony IMX258 sensor, phase detection autofocus and a LED flash, an 8 MP selfie cam with LED flash, the MediaTek MT6753 SoC at the helm (with a 1.3 GHz octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU), 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, 4G, a fingerprint scanner on the back, and a 3,150 mAh battery with 10W quick charging. It runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Its dimensions are 154.5 x 75.6 x 8.15 mm.

According to BLU, the Vivo 5R is compatible with the networks of AT&T, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS. It's already up for pre-order at Amazon for $199.99 unlocked. It will become available on September 21. It's being offered in two color versions - Gun Metal Grey and White-Gold (both portrayed above).