Smartphone company BLU has a habit of launching cheap Android phones with surprisingly decent hardware, but the new BLU Life One X might be one of the most intriguing to date.
The phone has a 5.2 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display, an octa-core processor, support for 4G LTE networks, and 2GB of RAM. The best thing about the phone? It’s priced at $150… although if you buy one by December 12th you can get one for just $100.
BLU is positioning the Life One X as a competitor to one of the most popular (among tech bloggers, anyway) entry-level phones, the Moto G.
Motorola sells the 3rd-gen Moto G for $180 and up, but BLU points out that its phone outperforms Motorola’s on most benchmarks.
The BLU Life One X has a MediaTek 6753 processor with ARM Mali-T720 graphics, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot, a 2,900 mAh battery, a 13MP rear camera, and a 5MP front camera.
It supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi and should work on AT&T or T-Mobile’s 4G LTE networks in the US.
If BLU has a weak spot it tends to be software updates. Android Police points out that BLU is promising to update the phone from its current Android 5.1 software to Android 6.0 by the end of the first quarter of 2016… but it’s not clear whether you’ll be able to count on software updates after that. The company’s past record hasn’t been great.
Still, Android 5.1 isn’t exactly outdated yet, and for $150 or less you can get a pretty good phone that will probably be useful for at least a few years.
Blu does not stand behind their promise to updates. The Blu Energy that came out in Feb 2015 was also promised a lollipop update this year and now there is silence when asking for status. You’re better off spending a little more and getting a phone that will not be abandoned from day one.
for $99 I could care less for updates. she’s had the I4 since it came out.
I actually got blocked by BLU on Facebook for commenting on a post about one of their phones with Lollipop to ask when my Studio Energy will be getting its promised update. They ignored every single one of my Tweets and it took them over a week to respond when I emailed them to ask why the update hasn’t been released yet.
Ignorantly, they responded, “at this time there are no updates available for your device,” even though my question made it clear that I already knew that there wasn’t an update available, hence my concern. I wanted to know IF and WHEN there will be in the future, and WHY we were being left in the dark after the supposed July release never happened.
After looking through their Twitter mentions and replies, I quickly discovered that BLU’s customer service caters to prospective customers pleasantly and helpfully to make some sales. When it comes to existing customers, however, the BLU customer service is slim to none. For that reason, alone, I will not be a repeat customer, even though the device itself has been great.
I suppose that customer satisfaction and loyalty are not on the company’s list of priorities. One-time sales are all that they want, apparently.
Is this any surprise? Cheap phones have razor thin profit margins. Customer support is expensive, as is providing upgrades and the additional customer support that entails when things don’t go smoothly. Something has to give. I doubt that enough of their customers care about an Android upgrade to make it worth their while investing in it. I suspect most users don’t even know which version of Android their phone is running.
When you buy a cheap phone from a tier 2 (3?) company, if you want to avoid disappointment, it’s best not to factor in any promised system upgrades into your calculations. Then, if it happens, it’s a nice bonus on what was already a good deal.
I bought my studio energy after they announced the lollipop upgrade. So I figured I’d suffer with kitkat for a month and then receive the update.
…I’m still waiting…
Blu, you suck!
Blu does not stand behind their promise to updates. The Blu Energy that came out in Feb 2015 was also promised a lollipop update this year and now there is silence when asking for status. You’re better off spending a little more and getting a phone that will not be abandoned from day one.
for $99 I could care less for updates. she’s had the I4 since it came out.
I actually got blocked by BLU on Facebook for commenting on a post about one of their phones with Lollipop to ask when my Studio Energy will be getting its promised update. They ignored every single one of my Tweets and it took them over a week to respond when I emailed them to ask why the update hasn’t been released yet.
Ignorantly, they responded, “at this time there are no updates available for your device,” even though my question made it clear that I already knew that there wasn’t an update available, hence my concern. I wanted to know IF and WHEN there will be in the future, and WHY we were being left in the dark after the supposed July release never happened.
After looking through their Twitter mentions and replies, I quickly discovered that BLU’s customer service caters to prospective customers pleasantly and helpfully to make some sales. When it comes to existing customers, however, the BLU customer service is slim to none. For that reason, alone, I will not be a repeat customer, even though the device itself has been great.
I suppose that customer satisfaction and loyalty are not on the company’s list of priorities. One-time sales are all that they want, apparently.
Is this any surprise? Cheap phones have razor thin profit margins. Customer support is expensive, as is providing upgrades and the additional customer support that entails when things don’t go smoothly. Something has to give. I doubt that enough of their customers care about an Android upgrade to make it worth their while investing in it. I suspect most users don’t even know which version of Android their phone is running.
When you buy a cheap phone from a tier 2 (3?) company, if you want to avoid disappointment, it’s best not to factor in any promised system upgrades into your calculations. Then, if it happens, it’s a nice bonus on what was already a good deal.
I bought my studio energy after they announced the lollipop upgrade. So I figured I’d suffer with kitkat for a month and then receive the update.
…I’m still waiting…
Blu, you suck!
Brad, is there a way to check on the reception for 4g lte here in Florida for this phone. I am thinking of getting one for my Mom in Miami. She does not travel much out of Miami and her Iphone 4 is quickly aging on her!
The only reliable way is to ask a neighbor with the same carrier as her to check for her. Coverage maps are useless. I live in a street which supposedly gets good LTE T-Mobile coverage (according to their map) yet I can only get it (some of the time) if I stand in one corner of an upstairs bedroom. Downstairs it’s often 2G only.
If she’s with AT&T and lives in the city limits, odds are she’ll be fine, but T-Mobile’s coverage is still more patchy.
Brad, is there a way to check on the reception for 4g lte here in Florida for this phone. I am thinking of getting one for my Mom in Miami. She does not travel much out of Miami and her Iphone 4 is quickly aging on her!
The only reliable way is to ask a neighbor with the same carrier as her to check for her. Coverage maps are useless. I live in a street which supposedly gets good LTE T-Mobile coverage (according to their map) yet I can only get it (some of the time) if I stand in one corner of an upstairs bedroom. Downstairs it’s often 2G only.
If she’s with AT&T and lives in the city limits, odds are she’ll be fine, but T-Mobile’s coverage is still more patchy.
I just bought one.
According to AndroidPolice and a few other news sites, BLU is claiming it’ll get Marshmallow by the end of Q1 2016. I’m also hoping it’ll properly support VoLTE for T-Mobile – it has Band 12 in hardware, at least.
Whoops. I read their review yesterday and forgot to check for updates before posting this today.
I’ve updated the article.
Looks like we can expect at least one software update, which is excellent news.
We are PROMISED one software update. See George’s post for Blu’s track record on actually doing the updates they promise.
I just bought one.
According to AndroidPolice and a few other news sites, BLU is claiming it’ll get Marshmallow by the end of Q1 2016. I’m also hoping it’ll properly support VoLTE for T-Mobile – it has Band 12 in hardware, at least.
Whoops. I read their review yesterday and forgot to check for updates before posting this today.
I’ve updated the article.
Looks like we can expect at least one software update, which is excellent news.
We are PROMISED one software update. See George’s post for Blu’s track record on actually doing the updates they promise.