Budget smartphones have come a long way in the past few years. Smartphone maker BLU’s latest is the BLU Life One X2 Mini. It sports a 5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chip.
Sure, that octa-core processor mobile platform isn’t exactly going to win any speed records. But it’s not bad for the price: the BLU Life One X2 Mini sells for just $180.
The phone also sports a 13MP rear camera with phase detection autofocus an 8MP wide-angle front camera with a flash bulb, a fingerprint sensor, dual SIM support, and a microSD card slot.
Like most BLU smartphones, the Life One X2 Mini is a GSM device, which means it’ll work on AT&T or T-Mobile’s 4G LTE networks in the US, but it doesn’t support Sprint or Verizon.
The phone is basically a slightly smaller version of the 5.2 inch BLU Life One X2. There are some key differences though:
The Mini has a 2,300 mAh battery while the larger phone has a 3,000 mAh battery. Update: Amazon says 2,300, but the BLU website says both phones have 3,000 mAh batteries.- The 5.2 inch BLU Life One X2 also sells for $180 with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. But there’s a cheaper $120 model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.
A few more things to know before spending your money on either of these phones? The 5.2 inch and 5.0 inch models each ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow rather than Google’s newer Android 7.x Nougat software. And while they support 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and FM Radio, there’s no support for 802.11ac.
But did I mention that they sell for just $180?
via Android Police
Wow, $180 BLU Life One X2 sounds brilliant.
I’d personally prefer to pay $20 more, if they could sell it for $199 but simply upgrade the processor from the QSD 430 to the QSD 650/652/653.
I know it might be too tall order to ask for an (1.8GHz) underclocked QSD 820 instead like the Xiaomi Mi5 does.
Besides that one, my only other gripe with this is that it has a Home button AND on-screen buttons.
That’s wasted space.
Either keep the on-screen buttons, and shave the bottom bezel off.
Or keep the home button (and flank capacitive on the sides) to give the screen more room.
PS: BOTH the X2 and the X2 mini have 3,000mAh batteries.
This article is wrong. Check the official blu website for confirmation:
https://www.bluproducts.com/devices/life-one-x2-mini/index.html
Weird. Amazon shows 2,300 for the Mini, but you’re right the BLU website (and sales guide) show 3,000.
I’d have been glad to pick one of these up. I switched to the iPhone earlier this year from my GS7 Edge due to my hangups with Android (super late or non existent updates, lag/hangups/slowdowns in $800 devices) but I miss Android so much (seamless sharing from every app, Google Assistant/Google Now, Widgets on any screen, Live, truly wonderfully animated Wallpapers, Screen Customization or really just a damn App Drawer, super easy no having to work-around-this-that-and-the-other ability to add free ringtones) that I keep one on me anyway. I’m slowly going up the spec tree in terms of the device I keep. It was my ollllllllld Nexus 4 but that finally bit the bullet. Right now I found an Ascend XT with 2GB RAM and 16GB storage + SD slot for really, really, really cheap (1/2 the price of this) but this has roughly double the RAM which is always a good thing on Android. Granted, I would still likely never see an update on either of these but still, I’d have probably grabbed this had I not purchased the one I currently carry. I’m so close to switching back to Android, I can almost hear Siri begging me not to. Perhaps with the next Pixel – all it needs to be is the right size really (5.7″+).
Android Police says this comes with Marshmallow – if so, no thanks.
There’s probably a ROM out there for it. Pretty good specs for the price. Twice the memory of my Moto G4 which can’t even play Pokemon, or let me look something up in another tab without losing the comment I was typing when I switch back. Keep hearing that India got updates and waiting, but Motorola stinks at that too.