BLU Life 8 XL Smartphone - Unlocked - Global GSM - Black

I used to have a Blu Life Pure XL (one of the most expensive Blu Phones at around 500$ USD) and this is way better. This one has a much better operating system then the others heavily modded Jellybean. It also runs smoother, making it feel like a more expensive phone than it actually is. I sent the Blu Life Pure XL back because it was unusably slow. It could not run any apps, even the less demanding ones like Edmunds or Carbuzz. They were very quick to take it back, and very polite. That is why I was more than willing to buy this phone, and I am more than Pleased. Pros: Runs Android very good Excellent Battery life Great 1080p camera (Looks better than 8MP) Front Facing Camera (If you like that kind of thing) The Price Good Screen Very loud exterior speaker Cons: Being very critical it could have a better AUX port. It is a bit quiet. I would recommend this phone to anyone who needs a good, reliable phone at a low cost that could fool you into thinking it is double the price.

I bought this phone because I wanted a backup should one of our Galaxy phones go south or MIA or to take on our next trip overseas. I'd read the reviews, most by those who I supposed expected a $130 overtake a $700 Samsung Sx! Clearly, that was not my expectation. The first thing I did was restore it via Google and moved the SIM to this phone and used it for a few days. This is a large phone, comparable to say a Galaxy Note the screen is very nice, bright and sharp. The BLU phone comes with a more virgin android 4.4.2 operating system - to be upgraded to Lolipop before the end of the year. It's just amazing how much carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile screw up a perfectly good OS! Operationally, I could find nothing to complain about. The phone comes with a case, screen protector, ear-buds with mike, and AC charger. The battery is huge and last about 50% longer than our Galaxy phones. On top of that - it includes an FM radio. I can't tell you how many times I wished my Galaxy had this (they do in Europe btw) when I am at a ball game and the 80,000 fans are sharing the same network! Yikes. Bottom line - great phone at a great price!

I did a pre-order on Amazon. Arrived in about 3 weeks. Came very nicely packaged. This is an awesome phone. Comparable to all $300 phones out there. Beautiful 5.5 inch High-Definition display. Exceptional performance - 8 cores! Everything on Android worked perfectly. Wi-Fi performed very well. HD movies played flawlessly. Wireless carrier activation and performance had absolutely no issues. All sensors worked great. Power consumption appears to be reasonable after extensive HD media streaming as well as heavy app use. All apps related work, games and media worked wonderfully. Had soft protective case included with the phone (in addition to the standard battery back cover). I don't see any need to purchase additional protective case. Additional Glass covers are also included in the box, but those are really not needed. Came with pretty good headphones. There is micro-USB charger and cable included. I have already ordered a 64GB micro-SD card to go with the phone - that will be total of about 70+GB of memory (About 2GB is taken by Android OS)! Some have reported low volume on speaker phone - but I didn't feel that to be the case. The phone played comparable to my other very high brand name phones. Note that, this phone (like many new phones) takes only micro-SIM cards. So if you have old standard SIM cards, you may need to get those somehow converted to Micro-SIM at the store. If you don't see any further edits from me on this review, you can assume that all is well on this purchase. Highly recommended. EDIT: I got a 64GB MicroSD card (SanDisk). Followed the arrow signs on the MicroSD socket within the back of the open phone, and secured in. Formatted using Android Storage Settings. Card was recognized, and was easily mounted as a file system for data transfer. UPDATE: Internal microphone is dead after about 3 weeks. Requesting replacement. Headphone jack still works.