Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs, and Liliputing may earn a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on those links. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.

Budget smartphone maker BLU’s latest Android smartphones feature quad-core processors, Android 4.2 software, and relatively low price tags. The BLU Life Play is now available from Amazon and eBay for $229.99 — and that’s the price for an unlocked, dual SIM phone.

BLU will launch two new models, the Life One and Life View soon for about $300 each.

BLU Life Play
BLU Life Play

All three phones feature MediaTek MT6589 ARM Cortex-A7 quad-core processors, 1GB of RAM, dual SIM card slots, IPS displays, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software. BLU’s phones also tend to ship with a version of Android that’s pretty close to the stock experience you’d get with a Nexus device.

The phones support GSM and HSPA networks, and should work on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks in the United States, although you may not get HSPA speeds on T-Mobile in all areas.

BLU Life Play

The cheapest member of the BLU Life family sports a 4.7 inch HD display, 4GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and an 1800mAh battery.

It has an 8MP camera on the back, with support for auto-focus and an LED flash, On the front, the BLU Life Play has a 2MP camera.

The phone measures about 7.9mm thick, and it’s the first BLU Life phone to go on sale in the US.

BLU Life One

For about $300, BLU offers a model with a 5 inch curved HD display, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and a 2000mAh battery.

This model has a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. It’s a little thicker, at 8.9mm thick.

BLU Life View

BLU’s also got a $300 model that rivals the Samsung Galaxy Note in the big-ole phone space. It has a 5.7 inch curved glass HD display, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and a 2600mAh battery.

The BLU Life View has a 12MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera, and measures 8.9mm thick.

While none of these phones is going to give the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4 a run for its money in terms of specs, it’s hard to beat these prices for an unlocked phone with a decent processor and up-to-date Android software unless you order a phone from China.

via Droid Life and BLU (on Facebook)

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

3 replies on “BLU’s unlocked Android 4.2 smartphones start shipping for $230 and up”

  1. 1gb of ram is the biggest problem. Modern android devices should have 2+ to increase their useful lifetime. 1gb means the device will become unusable much sooner.

  2. I looked at picking up a Blu phone (primarily as a backup) but reading the reviews on Amazon they seem to have a quality control problem. Not to mention the lack of accessories. If they could get their quality control problem fixed it would be worth it to buy one as a spare phone. Apparently those who receive one that works consistently are fairly impressed for the money.

  3. You get a Nexus like experience because customizing the interface would require time and resources, neither of which being things Blu is interested in. They just take the reference design and plop a logo on. Which is both good and bad, depending on how good the reference design is.

Comments are closed.