At $299 unlocked, BLU Life Android phones look to make a dent in the market

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At $299 unlocked, BLU Life Android phones look to make a dent in the market
Okay, we know what you're thinking. Right off the bat, if you hear about a $299 unlocked Android smartphone from a company that you've never heard of before, you assume there are some major downsides in the design that lead to such an inexpensive phone. But, Florida based BLU Products is looking to change that with three new handsets that it has just announced. BLU is looking to go around the traditional distribution system in order to offer quality products at lower cost, similar to what we've seen from Warby Parker. 

The BLU Life One is the 5" offering, featuring an aluminum body measuring 144 x 73 x 8.9mm (5.7 x 2.9 x 0.35") with a 5" IPS HD display and Gorilla Glass 2, MediaTek's MT6589 1.2 GHz Quad-Core chipset, which is an ARM Cortex-A7 with a PowerVR Series5 XT GPU, and HSPA+ 41Mbps modem. It is also said to have a 13MP rear camera, a 5MP front camera, 16GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, SD card expansion, and a 2200 mAh battery. It will retail for $299 unlocked.

The BLU Life View is the phablet offering with a 5.7" IPS HD display. The other specs are the same as the Life One, except the rear camera is listed at 12MP. Also, the body of the Life View apparently only has an aluminum back panel, and isn't completely aluminum. The Life View measures 161 x 82 x 8.9mm (6.3 x 3.2 x 0.35") and has a 2600 mAh battery. It will also retail for $299.

The BLU Life Play is the "budget" choice and clocks in at just $229. The savings here come from lower quality cameras (8MP rear, 2MP front), no Gorilla Glass, only 4GB of storage, and a smaller 1800 mAh battery. 

All of the phones will be running stock Android 4.2, and will offer advanced Dual-SIM, and Dual-Active functionality which allows users to make and receive calls on two SIM cards at the same time. 

The devices are expected to start shipping the last week of April, and will be available through Amazon and other online retailers.

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