Blu Life One X Review - 1080p HD and a 13MP camera for $300

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Blu Life One X Gallery

Hardware and DesignImprovement is the most that you can ask for from a smartphone vendor. Actually, creating the perfect phone is the most you can ask for, but most of us will settle for something that does better than we've seen before and meets our most basic needs in most categories. The Blu Life One X isn't perfect, but it's a heck of a lot better than the Blu Life phones that I reviewed last year. It's an obvious example of Blu raising its standards, but do those standards align with the changing needs of people who may purchase this Android phone? Read the review below to find out.

While the Blu Life View looked like an HTC One was cross-bred with a Samsung Galaxy S4, the Life One X looks like it could be from Sammy's lab, but it doesn't have that direct copy cat appearance. At first sight, it reminded me of the Nexus S in shape but had a larger build and better feel that's all its own. There are actually some rare aspects of the phone, like the micro USB port being at the top of the phone, that makes this unlike most device. Other aspects are more common, like the three hardware navigation buttons for menu, home, and back at the bottom of the phone. The capacitive buttons are only noticeable when the screen is on and they light up.

Composed of an aluminum body that feels as though its from composite materials, the Life One X has a solid texture that feels comfortable to hold. The edges of the phone are smoother but angled to have a firmer grip. The design emphasizes the phone's rounded and curvy shape built for comfort. The curviness even comes into play with the camera ring that sticks up from the top of the device.

The Back of the phone houses a very small but loud speaker. Don't expect the bass and equalized tones found in other devices, but you can comfortably listen to music and watch videos in a quiet room without straining to make out what's been sung or said.

Blu Life One X 5-inch 1080p HD IPS display

Screen Quality

Blu has released multiple phones with 5-inch displays, but the Life One X is easily one of the best to look at simply because it's one of the few that has made the jump to 1080p HD. The 5-inch IPS display has 441 pixels per inch and some proprietary tuning to make viewing angles consistently clear. It looks better than anything we've seen from Blu to date. The display has surprising clarity and brightness on a device that's sub-$300. While the 720p resolutions on other phones have been "good enough," the Life One X upgrades the display closer to "great" status.

Performance

The Blu Life One X has a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. Normally, that might be cause to rest assured that the phone has top-notch performance, but that's not the case if you need a gaming powerhouse. The Mediatek CPU and PowerVR SGX544 GPU often struggle when it comes to premium gaming, which forced me to abandon attempts to play GT Racing before I even managed to get a car on the track. It's even too weak to run the Anomaly gaming benchmark app quickly, so don't plan on playing anything beyond the graphic intensiveness of Angry Birds Go.

Blu Life One X

The mere mortals who need only a solid web browsing experience will find using the Life One X a more reasonable proposition. The phone moves at a normal pace when reading Twitter or checking email. It also is surprisingly fast when using the camera app. Photos are taken in a split second and the start-up time is quick unless triggered from the lock screen. The Life One X lacks the blazing-fast appeal of a Nexus 5, so someone with experience using a high-end phone might notice there's not as much zip in its movements. Thanks to a high amount of RAM that is managed efficiently, there's not much lag and it loads content at a decent speed. Non-gamers can be confident in the phone's ability to get things done.

Key Specifications
- 1.5 GHz quad-core processor (Mediatek)
- Power VR Series 554 GPU
- 2GB RAM, 16/32GB internal storage
- 5-inch IPS display (1920x1080, 440ppi)
- 13-megapixel camera with Bright+ and LED Flash
- 5-megapixel front-facing camera
- 2,000 mAh battery
- Dual SIM 4G HSPA+ 42 (850/1900 or 850/2100), Bluetooth 4.0, micro USB 2.0
- Phone includes: screen protector, silicon case, and earphones

Blu Life One X Android 4.2 app drawer

Software and Apps

Android is the driving force of Blu's latest product but it sadly does not include the latest version of Android. The Life One X runs a mostly stock version Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. That's rather unfortunate because I really like how Blu has made very few changes to the OS, but I'm disappointed it lacks some of the refinements of Version 4.4 KitKat. There are no performance enhancements and under the hood additions, and things like the full-screen media thumbnail on the lock screen are absent as well. The lack of small touches and inclusion of old software is a bit of a letdown.