Score: 7/10 (Good)
Pros Stylish design, 720p HD display is bright and colorful, expandable storage up to 32GB, strong 1800 mAh battery, dual-SIM, near-stock Android experience, no bloatware price cannot be beat. | Cons Slower processing speeds, 8MP rear-facing camera doesn't impress, poor call quality, no sign of being updated to future iterations of Android. |
Apple, Samsung, Nokia, LG, Motorola, HTC, and Sony. These are the names of the biggest and baddest smartphone manufacturers out there. When you're in the market for a new handset, you're more than likely going to be picking a smartphone from one of the companies that is mentioned above. This is because these companies' smartphones are released with service carriers, have big marketing campaigns, and the manufacturers have been in the industry for many, many years. The phone I am going to be reviewing today has none of that. You won't find the BLU Life Play on any carriers, you won't see any advertisements for it, and BLU has only been in the smartphone business since 2009. With that said, the Miami, Florida-based company has proven that you don't need big advertising or years of experience to still be able to kick out some pretty solid smartphone offerings. The BLU Life Play, one of the company's latest smartphones, is rocking a 4.7-inch 720p HD display, quad-core processor, 8MP camera, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean for the low, low price of just $220 completely unlocked. Does the BLU Life Play have what it takes to stand up to the other big, bad smartphones out there on the market? Find out in our full review!
Design/Build Quality
One of the areas where the BLU Life Play impresses me the most is in its design. While it may not be revolutionary with its all plastic construction, the Life Play proves that a phone doesn't need a high price tag to have a solid build quality and design. Measuring in at just 7.9 millimeters thin, the Life Play looks incredibly slim and trim. This, along with the phone's beautifully rounded corners, make the handset feel great in the hand. The phone also looks really good. With the choice between Blue, Grey, Pink, White, and Yellow color variants, the Blue Life play has an option for everybody. I got the Blue BLU Life Play, and it is actually quite striking. Most smartphones that are released are only available in stale black and white color options, so bright colors like blue, yellow, and pink really makes the phone stand out from the rest of the crowd.
Hardware
The BLU Life Play is rocking a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 HD display with a total of 312 pixels per inch. Although it isn't 1080p FHD, I'd be lying if I said that I was disappointed with the display on the Life Play. Colors on the Life Play's screen are vibrant and text is easy to read. Since the phone's display is an IPS panel, blacks aren't quite as deep as you'd find on a phone with an AMOLED panel, but they still look fine. All-in-all, especially for the price, the Life Play has a great display.
While the screen may be solid, I can't exactly say the same thing about the processing speeds. Although the BLU Life Play has a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and 1GB of RAM, I found that the phone could be a bit slow at times. Swiping through home screens and browsing the Web is generally a smooth experience, but there were a few occasions where I did notice some instances of lag. The processor really shows its lack of power though when it comes to playing games. Although still playable, every game I threw at the phone was met with slow frame rates that take away from the overall enjoyment of gaming on the phone. This is one area when the cheapness of the phone shows itself in a negative manner.
One area where the Life Play hits it right though is with its storage. Although the BLU Life Play only packs in 4GB of internal storage, popping off the back cover will reveal a microSD card slot which allows you to expand your memory up to 32GB. As phones are continually released, it seems like expandable storage is a feature that we see less and less, so I really appreciated having it on the phone.
Another area where the Life Play struggles is in its optics. The BLU Life Play is equipped with an 8MP rear-facing shooter, as well as a 2MP camera on the front. The pictures that the Life Play takes aren't horrible, but they aren't great either. Details in pictures are fuzzy, shots taken in low-light situations produce a lot of digital noise, and I often had trouble focusing the camera in on the object I was trying to take a picture of. In regards to the camera's software, the Life Play includes your standard set of features such as HDR, Panorama, Smile shot, and Best shot, as well as a list of color and phone booth effects. The Life Play doesn't have the most groundbreaking camera software we've seen on an Android handset before, but it should satisfy most people with the features that it does offer.
Call quality on the BLU Life Play was a tad disappointing as well. When talking on the phone, I found that I had to hold it just a certain way against my ear to fully hear what was being said through the speaker. The audio is a tad quiet compared to other phones on the market, and the quality isn't the best either. Thankfully, the Life Play gets some points for being a dual-SIM handset. The Life Play has one Micro-SIM and one Standard-SIM card slot for the preferred GSM network(s) of your choice. This is especially useful for when you travel out of the country, as you will be able to pop in a temporary SIM card from that country without having to remove your primary one from the phone.
Another high note of the BLU Life Play is its battery. The Life Play features an 1800 mAh removable battery, and why that may sound small in 2013, I was actually quite pleased with the battery performance I got out of the Life Play. After a solid day of a constant Bluetooth connection, 3G data, email, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, I had 13% battery life remaining after 11 hours and 30 minutes of use. For a battery this small, and with the phone having a price this cheap, I was very happy with the usage time I got out of the Life Play.
Software
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The BLU Life Play is running Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, and is running a fairly stock-looking version of Android at that. Aside from some tweaks in the settings and messaging apps, the overall look and feel of the user-interface is very similar to that of stock Android Jelly Bean. Unfortunately for the Life Play though, there doesn't look to be any talk or plans for it to be updated to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or 4.4 KitKat. Although BLU hasn't officially ruled it out, the company hasn't been that well known for keeping all of their devices updated to the latest and greatest version of Android.
Since the Life Play is an unlocked handset, there is virtually no bloatware pre-installed on the device. The only apps that BLU bakes into the phone's software are Compass, FM Radio, Music, and Torch (flashlight). Aside from those 4 applications, the is no other bloatware to speak of on the Life Play.
Since the Life Play is an unlocked handset, there is virtually no bloatware pre-installed on the device. The only apps that BLU bakes into the phone's software are Compass, FM Radio, Music, and Torch (flashlight). Aside from those 4 applications, the is no other bloatware to speak of on the Life Play.
Final Verdict
Although the BLU Life Play may have its obvious flaws, there is one thing that we cannot overlook: The price. The BLU Life Play can be picked up off of Amazon for just $210 completely unlocked. Phones like the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Apple iPhone 5S cost at least $600 unlocked. The BLU Life Play costs 1/3 of that price. When you consider the insane amount of value you're actually getting out of the phone, its shortcomings become a bit more understandable. It isn't the fastest phone, it doesn't have the best camera, its call quality isn't amazing, and you probably won't see it get updated to the latest version of Android, but the phone only costs $210. However, the Life Play also has a great design, beautiful 720p HD display, expandable storage, dual-SIM card slots, an impressive battery, and costs just $210. If you're in the market for a new unlocked phone, don't want to spend a lot of cash, but still want to get relatively decent specifications, you really can't do much better for than the BLU Life Play. When placed next to something like the Samsung Galaxy S4, the thing doesn't have a chance. However, that isn't BLU's goal with this phone. BLU made the Life Play to offer solid specs in a sexy design for a cheap price. And at that, they most certainly succeeded.
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