I've often discussed in my articles how important I think advertising is to a company. These companies with huge marketing budgets talk their name up so much that everybody else starts talking about them too. When people walk into a retail store, what do you think is the phone people ask the most about? The Galaxy phones, the iPhone, the Lumias, or HTC. They're the popular phones, and people are intrigued about them because they keep hearing about them.
But what about the phones that don't get as much attention?
You'd think that a phone that doesn't get as much attention would be that way because the phone wasn't good, but for one company in particular I find this to be the opposite. I've only recently discovered the BLU Products company, but after discovering them I find that they actually have a lot of unique factors about their phones that draw me to them more than push me away.
You may have heard about BLU phones, or maybe you haven't. I hadn't heard about them until I watched our own Aaron Baker do an unboxing on the BLU Life Play just a few days ago. Aaron makes a point to tell you that this phone makes a pretty decent alternative compared to higher end devices like the Galaxy S 4, the HTC One, or really anything other than the Nexus 4 when it comes to being an unlocked phone sold at a reasonably low price. The BLU Life Play is an Android device currently running on version 4.2 (Jelly Bean). The device sells for $229.99 and features a 4.7-inch HD display, 4G HSPA+ speeds, 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB of internal memory (allows expandable memory up to 32GB) and an 8-megapixel camera on the rear followed up by a 2-megapixel camera on the front. Are they the best specs? No, but for the price I would definitely be willing to overlook that fact. That's the trade-off; specs for money. In my eyes, it's still comparable to the Nexus 4.
Aside from the fact that the phone has decent specs for a cheap price, another thing that struck me as a win for this company is the fact that they actually include your first case and screen protector in the box. While that's usually something most companies don't include (because let's face it, accessories are a huge money-maker in this industry) BLU includes both of these for you. To me this shows that the company wants you to get the most out of your phone by protecting it. They know that these phones are an everyday thing for many people, and one drop could easily kill that. The case might not be an Otterbox, but hey, it's something to keep your phone a little safer until you get that case you really want. Or maybe this case works just fine for you! After all, the case matches the color of your phone. Regardless, the fact that this company, who's already giving you a pretty nice phone for a lot cheaper than we might expect it to be, decided to include a case and a screen protector to help your phone last longer. That's awesome.
Another cool thing that you don't always see come from OEMs these days is that this phone comes in a variety of colors. You can choose from blue, pink, yellow, white, or gray. Oddly enough, black seems to be left out of the mix. But aside from that, you don't get a lot of opportunities to choose what color your phone comes in (Nokia Lumia being the exception to the rule). Also an insignificant, but cool, factor.
If this phone doesn't suit your style, there's another version of the phone that's set to arrive in the market sometime later this year. BLU Products also plans to release the Life View, which would sell for for $299 and feature a 5.7-inch display, 12-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front-facing camera (now that's something you don't see every day) and 16GB of internal storage. The rest of the specs are supposed to be about the same.
The company doesn't seem to do a whole lot of advertising, and seems to rely heavily on word-of-mouth. While the phones don't have the highest specs, I could easily see myself picking up one of these devices due to the fact that it seems like a company that cares (maybe due to the fact that it's so small?) and the phone can still pack a punch without breaking the bank. It takes what phone manufacturers should do and actually puts them into play, and to me that's something worth bringing to people's attention.
Readers, what are your thoughts on BLU Products? Could you see yourself picking up a BLU Life Play or a BLU Life View? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Images via BLU
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