Blu - Life View Cell Phone (Unlocked) - White

For $300, you can get an unlocked cell phone that is worthy of your time. This phone has most of the bells and whistles you want. You first get an unlocked dual sim card device for $300 which is impressive. This device is a 5.7 inch IPS 720p display covered with Gorilla Glass 2 and is very bright and clear. 258 PPI vs phones that have 320+ is a downer, but the screen quality makes up for it. 1.2gHz quad core Mediatek 28nm processor with 1GB of ram. You get all the wireless goodies- bluetooth 4.0, wifi b/g/n, GPS, and of course HSDPA 41+ speeds. There is no NFC but for the price, I wouldn't expect it. Google certified of course as well. Now for the good. Very nice bright display. Very impressed by this. Gorilla Glass 2 is a very nice addition, and you can feel the quality. Quad Core processor with 1GB of ram is plenty fast and reliable (2GB would have been better), No LTE sadly, size is very nice as 5.7 inches is the perfect size for a big device, while not venturing into tablet size, weight is evenly distributed through out the device, metal backing makes the device feel like HTC's One which is very pretty to say and it does make the phone attractive. 12MP back shooter with a 5MP front shooter. You do get the mobile hotspot and tethering feature right out of the box. 95% stock Android so the UI is fluid and fast. 4.2.1 out of the box, and to be honest 4.2.2 should have been installed. Bad. There is NO micro SD card slot which is a huge bummer as some retailers have stated that there is one, well sorry to say there isn't. This utilizes the old school size sim card, so if you have a mini or micro sim card, you will need to get a different size from your retailer. There is 1GB of ram, but to make this future proof, I'd like have seen 2GB. The Mediatek processor may not be clocked fast like the S4 @1.9gHz, but this CPU can handle anything you through at it. Camera images are a bit washed out and color looks odd sometimes, but still very acceptable. Battery is not accessible. Those wanting to keep a spare battery on hand, this is not the handset for you. Bottum line- GREAT phablet for someone who does not want to drop $600 for a phone not on a contract. The specs may be 2012, but this will last you sometime. Blu seems to have good communication via Twitter and FB so you will get your questions answered. I will be returning this because of the lack of SD card slot and the old sim card sizing, but otherwise very nice device from a company you may not have heard of.

I was hesitant to buy this phone since there is NO Micro SD Card slot. However, I am using Google Drive and storing all my files and music on there. In the box was: The phone, earbuds with several size buds,instructions, charger and USB cable, screen protector, and a jell case. Its very sturdy and fits nicely in the hand. I love the fact that it has Gorilla Glass. The phone as a great camera. Its a huge improvement over the camera on the Quattro. I also love the updates to the Android OS. It is smooth and very responsive. I like how you can setup the security to use your face to unlock the phone or a phrase. I installed a couple of programs that you might want to check out (free): 1. Advanced Task Manager. This kills running programs and frees up the phone memory. 2. Open Mic+. I'm experiment with this. Its an add on for Google+ so that you can do hands free voice commands. Similar to MotoX 3. Clean Master. This will automatically tell you when to move installed programs from the phone memory to the larger section of the phone memory. It also cleans up the storage and gets rid of junk files. Very good program! On most of the Blu phones, they state that there is an FM radio. I've had the Blu 4.5 Quattro, 5.7 Quattro, and this phone. This is the only one though were I found the FM radio. It is great reception! You must use the earbuds in order for it to work. I suspect because they act as the antenna. The phone network speeds on this phone is improved over the 4.5 and 5.7 Quattro, due to improve protocol. Things I dislike about the phone: 1. No Micro SD Card slot (No biggie since I am using Google Drive). 2. They divide the phone memory into two partitions. A .99gb and a 12.83gb partition. The main partition is the .99gb one. I have tried to figure out how to combine them but have been unable to yet. I don't know why Blu does this. You have to carefully manage your installed apps or you will quickly run out of room. That's why I recommend Clean Master. 3. The battery can not be removed. I guess that once the battery dies,you have to contact Blu to see about them replacing it or you just throw it away. 4. The screen dims automatically after about 15 seconds. I have tried every setting and every program on the Play Store to prevent this. Nothing works. You must constantly touch the screen to keep it at full brightness. I don't know if its a Jelly Bean thing to save battery life or a Blu hardware setting. It's annoying but I've gotten used to it. Note: It won't dim while watching a video. 5. Blu still hasn't come out with any cases for their phones!!!!! COME ON BLU!!!! Overall, a great phone. I think it's the best Blu phone that I've tried so far.