* in the Baltics :)
Today I will tell you about the grandmother's phone with big buttons on the Just5 Blaster 2 smartphone. The reservation on mobile phones with large keys was made for a reason - it was thanks to devices of this kind that the Just5 brand won fame. Or, if you want, even popularity. Since 2009, when the first model Just5 CP09 appeared on sale, more than 2 million various Just5 mobile phones were sold in the world. Say, not enough for 6 years? And I think just the opposite. In the last five years, an avalanche-like growth in demand for smartphones was observed, and ordinary push-button telephones gradually ceased to interest buyers. And just on this (very difficult!) Background Just5 managed to achieve this result.
Just5 CP09In order for you to understand the joke of the button-makers for Just5 authorship, I’ll just give you some of the most curious models. So to speak, for common development.
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Here, for example, the only phone in the world with a jumping screen Just5 CP11.
Just5 CP11And here is a collection of hipster babushkofonov color design apparatus Just5 CP10s, including a striped model Best In Space. She really looks very cool - he departed with her for half a year (until his wife took it - she said that in the clubs and parties such a phone simply could not pass unnoticed, unlike the iPhones that had long been drunk).
Just5 CP10sWell, this is the Just5 Brick model (“Brick”), designed by ... Artemiy T. Lebedev. Retractable antenna and general style mobile 90s attached.
Just5 BrickIn general, it always seemed to me that in Just5 they create phones not only for the sake of business, but also for their own pleasure. This is evidenced by non-standard chips and non-trivial design of push-button models. And yet it is worth understanding that now you will not be full with only “button-makers”. Everyone wants smartphones - with the Internet, social networking, games, video and so on. In Just5, they responded to inquiries from the market back in 2013, when the sales of the first Android background of the brand called Just5 Spacer began. He became the first Russian device on the latest (for those times, of course) MediaTek MT6582 platform.
Thanks to direct sales to end consumers through their own online store, bypassing the horse “cheating” of retail networks (up to 30% of the price tag), Just5 Spacer cost 5 thousand rubles. For comparison: close analogues in performance at the end of 2013 cost 7-8 thousand. That is 1.5 times more expensive. By the way, direct sales without horse cheat retailers - this is one of the long-standing brand features Just5. That is, the brand can be called “Russian Xiaomi”.
Thanks to such a non-trivial pricing policy, that is, the extremely tasty Just5 Spacer price tag sold 40,000 copies in one year. And in Latvia, in general, Spacer became the best-selling smartphone in 2014,
overtaking all iPhone models and all Samsung models. Not bad for a relatively small brand, right?
Just5 SpacerAt the end of 2014, at the very beginning of the crisis, with wild jumps in the ruble exchange rate, the second Just5 smartphone model, Blaster, was launched to the market. At that time, it cost 11 thousand rubles, when analogs (models with 5-inch HD-screens, LTE support and 13 megapixel cameras) were estimated to be at least 16 thousand (that is, approximately 39% or 5,000 rubles more expensive). Such a pleasant price for Blaster was achieved, again, thanks to direct sales without any markups from our retail chains. The result was not long in coming: Blaster again became the best-selling smartphone model in Latvia, but by the end of the first half of 2015.
Just5 BlasterAnd now, in the summer of 2015, Just5 Blaster 2 goes on sale. Do not take it as a completely new model. In motoring slang, this is called “facelift”, and if to speak Russian, then Just5 Blaster 2 is an upgraded version of Blaster. By the way, Motorola does the same thing: once a year it releases new models that are not much different from previous ones. This is when viewed as a whole. But in the nuances of the differences is complete, and almost all of them are very, very pleasant. The same is true of the two Blasters. Let's look at the Just5 Blaster 2 model and evaluate what the developers have done. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: the model costs 159 euros, that is, about 11 thousand rubles.
Delivery to Russian consumers (and indeed in the CIS and Ukraine) is carried out from a warehouse in Riga. And in Europe, Just5 Blaster is about 20% more expensive than in Russia. And again: if Just5 acted not under the direct sales scheme, but Blaster 2 would “push” through some kind of Euroset and M.Video, the device would cost 30 percent more - that is, 15 thousand or even more . It is in this price segment and it is worth looking for competitors of this model, if you want to compare Blaster 2 with something similar.
Well, I'll start with the delivery. And before that, we must again recall the absence of a barrier in the form of retail networks between the brand and the consumer. Why do you think most smartphones are only equipped with charging and a headset? Because retailers put pressure on manufacturers: they want to sell additional accessories (covers, and so on) on their own, earning some tangible money. Just5 doesn’t have such a barrier, and he can put exactly what he wants into the box with the device. It turned out that with Just5 Blaster 2 there are three interchangeable rear panels and a bright orange bumper made of very pleasant rubber. (Let me remind you that the first Blaster was equipped with the same bumper, but black.) To buy it all for some other device, you will have to pay 3 thousand rubles. And here everything goes for free - and in our times of crisis it is very cool.






Well, of course, it didn’t do without the usual USB cable, charging unit, headset and waste paper. Including warranty - the warranty on the device, by the way, two-year! And not a year like the vast majority of competitors.
Complete headphones are not so hot, and to reveal the musical potential of the device, it is worth buying something more serious. I've used the “ears” from the Sony Walkman NWZ-S763 player, and the smartphone has successfully replaced me this player every day for a week.

The box is like this. I must say, very high quality - and on cardboard, and on registration.


The design of Just5 Blaster 2 does not conceal anything extraordinary, but still the device is pretty. Okay, not too fat, pleasant to the touch. Sensations from touching the case, by the way, can be different. The yellow and white back covers have a glossy finish, but the dark gray panel is matte and slightly rough. There are no covers from the soft-touch kit, but it doesn't matter - its role is played by a rubber bumper. The latter, by the way, does not greatly increase the size of the apparatus. Large Blaster 2 in this "holster" does not seem.

I emphasize that during the week of testing I changed the caps 100 times back and forth, and they did not become loose. Sit like a glove and do not think to creak. That's just on the glossy panels, white and yellow, micro-scratches appeared. But for such a surface is normal. The main thing is that you can see this "web" only at a certain angle, and even then if you try.
A set of buttons and connectors is quite standard. The volume and power buttons are on the right, and they are built into the back covers. So the color of the keys changes depending on the color of the set back. Both buttons are on the same face of the case, and there is not too much distance between them. At first, I regularly missed and / or hooked the adjacent button with my finger. But after a couple of days I got used to it, so this is, in principle, not a problem.

The microUSB port is located on the bottom, so that when talking on the phone with the charging connected, the cable will not interfere. Here, below, is the microphone. Voice quality is normal, although there are no noise suppression systems in the second Blaster.

On the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Above the screen, a voice speaker, front camera, light sensors and proximity. This is quite a standard set of components for a modern smartphone.
On the front panel below the display is the most interesting. Well, that is how interesting? Also nothing extraordinary, but still such an organization of control elements can not be found in every first smartphone. Just5 Blaster 2 has three touch buttons: “context menu”, “home” and “back”. The two extremes have pictograms in the form of very dimly lit points, the central one is marked with a circle with bright blue backlighting. It plays the role of a LED indicator - it reports new letters, missed calls, etc.

On the back panel there are holes for the lens of the main 13-megapixel camera, LED flash, as well as the multimedia speaker. The latter is moderately loud and not very bass. From a pocket of a winter jacket, I suspect that the call can be missed.

Under the back cover in Just5 Blaster 2 there are two MicroSIM “simok” sockets, as well as a slot for a MicroSD card of up to 64 GB. And here there is a removable battery of 2 700 mAh - the volume, I emphasize, is higher than the average. Therefore, the smartphone is quite able to work a day with a little with a fairly hard use.


Finishing the conversation about the case, I will note that there are no differences from Just5 Blaster of the first generation. Is it good or bad? In my opinion, normal. There is nothing special to improve here: there are no problems with ergonomics, too, with the build quality, the design is neutral and pleasant.
But with the screen the situation is as follows. Just5 Blaster was installed just a good IPS-display with a diagonal of 5 inches and a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. In the model Blaster 2 this screen is used according to the characteristics, but it was released by the Korean LG. And it seemed to me that the picture is a bit more saturated than that of the first “Blaster”. With viewing angles, everything is fine: they reach about 170 degrees. I also note that the Just5 Blaster 2 display uses the One Glass Solution (OGS) technology, that is, the LCD matrix is ​​combined with the sensor layer and protective glass into one. This has a very positive effect on the quality of the picture.

The protection of the screen is glass, oleophobic coating, apparently, is. The finger slides easily on the surface, there are no unpleasant "roughness". Multitouch 5-point.
And finally, I will add that Just5 Blaster 2 provides tools for adjusting the image parameters - sharpness, color temperature, and so on. All this is available in the "user" mode, while there are two options with fixed settings: "standard" and "bright." It affects the appearance of the picture, I advise users to experiment. As a result, I stopped at the "standard".




What is next? Well, let it be a hardware platform. Like its predecessor, Just5 Blaster 2 is based on the MediaTek MT6732 chipset with a 64-bit four-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU. The cores can accelerate to 1.5 GHz. For graphics processing, the Mali-T760 accelerator with a frequency of up to 500 MHz is responsible. The amount of RAM is 2 GB. I also remind you that the MT6732 includes an LTE-modem (Cat. 4, up to 150 Mbps), a GPS / GLONASS receiver, Wi-Fi 802.11n modules (2.4 / 5 GHz) and Bluetooth 4.0 LE. Next, the points.
Here are the performance tests. Is it a lot or a little? I will say this: the majority of devices for 11 thousand rubles gain 30 percent less - about 20 thousand in AnTuTu. To be honest, I don’t give a damn about all these benchmarks for a long time, since the speed of work depends a lot on the OS version and the quality of the firmware. Just5 Blaster 2 has it all right, and the device works smartly.






Several screenshots of games. All the toys, where the possibility of choosing the quality of graphics is provided, without any lags went on maximum tinctures.


Navigation is quite efficient, but there is also an unpleasant nuance. The smartphone is not looking for satellites very quickly, especially if it is forbidden to request assistance from base stations.

With LTE and dual SIM support, everything is great. Both SIM cards have the same priority: any of the cards can work in 2G, 3G and 4G networks. Previously, as it was: one slot in smartphones was intended exclusively for 2G networks, and the second - for 2G, and for 3G. In modern devices, which is the second “Blaster”, this drawback is eliminated. By the way, it was eliminated in the first "Blaster", and then it all looked very cool.
The built-in memory in Just5 Blaster is 16 GB, of which about 12.4 GB is free. MicroSD card capacity can reach 64 GB, this is the standard for 2015 devices.
Gently go to the camera and see ... On paper, we see the same as Just5 Blaster, - 5 megapixels in front and 13 behind. But not everything is so simple: the main module is now “thoroughbred”, it is released by the Korean company Samsung. I don’t know if it’s a matter of origin, or just the developers put on a more sophisticated camera, but the quality of the pictures has significantly increased. There is an automatic focusing system and LED flash (single section). Video Just5 Spacer 2 records in maximum resolution Full HD 1080p.
Photo examples:









The camera interface is standard for devices on MediaTek chipsets. It looks like this:




In this place you already have the right to ask: so what is the main difference between Blaster 2 and Blaster? The LG screen and the Samsung camera, as well as the red bumper instead of the black one - are, of course, great, but are these changes enough for the “two” in the title? To this I can answer as follows: the main difference between Just5 Blaster 2 and Just5 Blaster is the version of the Android operating system. In the older device, 4.4.4 KitKat is used, and the newer one uses 5.0 Lollipop. The same one with the Material Design interface, an updated energy-optimized notification system (Blaster 2 works 15 percent longer) and so on. At the same time, Android, as it is now fashionable to say, is “uncomplicated”: no shells, no left modifications — everything is exactly the way Google intended. More precisely, I lie: there is a refinement, it is called “smart awakening”. If on the off screen to dial the specified letter, the display is activated and any application will start. Well, another important point: there is support for firmware updates over the air, which was absent in the Blaster and Spacer models.








Summarize the experience. Over 11 thousand rubles - well, finally, as they say! LTE, Android 5.0, a good camera, a bright screen, a wide range of equipment - all this allows us to state that just 12-13 thousand Just5 Blaster 2 would be a good deal. But it costs 11, and therefore it is quite possible to put the device 5 out of 5. There are enough smartphones on the market, which at such a price is not something that LTE doesn’t support, but also come with outdated Android 4.4 KitKat. And from the accessories offer only ears and charging. So - yes, I recommend. Unless, of course, you do not confuse these minor problems with ergonomics and a little thoughtful navigation.
