I’ve got two of the latest and greatest BLU smartphones. I’ve got the BLU Life One and the BLU Life 8 XL. In this video, I’m going to go ahead and give you guys an unboxing of the BLU Life One and give you guys my first impressions and just the first look of the device. Without further ado, let’s go ahead and take a look at the BLU Life One here on PhoneDog.com.

This is the BLU Life One, a budget smartphone that costs just $149.99 off-contract. But you will actually be able to buy the BLU Life One for $50 off bringing it down to $100 off-contract starting June 11th ending on June 19th. So you have one week to take advantage of this discount.

With that said, the BLU Life One features some pretty decent specs including a 5-inch HD IPS display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 1GB of RAM, 4G LTE, a 13MP camera sensor, a 5MP front-facing camera sensor, and Android 4.4 KitKat upgradeable to Android Lollipop in the very near future.

So let’s go ahead and lift off the top of the box and see what’s inside, we of course have the phone sitting right on top, which I’m going to set off to the side for a moment. Underneath, we have some pieces of paper including a SIM card setup guide and a dedicated Life One Quick Guide to help you set this device up. There’s also a screen protector to help protect your phone from scratches right here included in the box. And there’s also an included case to help it survive against any sort of drops. So it’s always nice to see these accessories included in the box.

Next we have a black compartment filled with several other goodies. There’s a standard US wall wart, a micro USB charging cable which is flat and has a tangle-free design, and then finally we have a pair of earphones which are black and they feel pretty cheap. Chances are, you guys probably have better ones at home but if not, BLU has you covered here. So that’s about it for all of the contents of this box.

If we take a look at the BLU Life One, we can peel off the plastic cover which displays some more of its specs and its features. It feels pretty solid in the hand though, it’s fairly thin coming in at 7.5mm. I like the metal sides and the back (while plastic) has some texture and doesn’t feel terribly cheap. It feels kind of similar to the faux leather back found on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

If we take a closer look at the Life One, on the left hand side, we have nothing but a sliver of metal. On the right hand side, we have more metal specifically the metal Power/Sleep On/Off button and volume rocker. Up top, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack and below is a standard micro USB charging port.

The front is home to a 5MP front-facing camera sensor with a 5-inch HD display which uses software navigation buttons. There are no physical navigation buttons on this device. On the back, we have a 13MP camera sensor and flash with a BLU logo, a 4G LTE logo and a speaker grille below. The back is removable and will give you access to a microSD card slot and a micro SIM card slot. The battery is non-removable but it is fairly big at 2400mAh. So I’m just happy there’s a microSD card slot here.

If we power it on, the display is pretty good for the price. However, it’s not very good if you compare it to devices that cost $100 more and on. It doesn’t get very bright and colors look a little bit muted but once again, for the price, it’s really not too bad. Viewing angles are pretty solid.

If you’re a stock Android junkie, then you’re most likely going to really like this device as the skin on top of Android 4.4.4 KitKat is very light and very minimal. The most apparent changes are the icons, which are square-ish in shape and the fact that there’s no app drawer so all of your apps will be displayed on the home screens. The Quick Settings are very stock Android-esque. They don’t seem to be changed at all. The settings aren’t exactly stock but it’s very similar if you install, say Google Now Launcher, this will look and perform pretty much like a stock Android device.

Performance is pretty good. The Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor opens and closes applications pretty darn quick. I can flip through the home screens without any problems or lag or stuttering. If I plan on playing a lot of games running demanding applications, then this device will have some trouble. But for the casual user who uses social networking sites, makes calls and texts frequently, then this device will work just fine for you.

My biggest gripe has to do with the fact that it’s running Android KitKat. I really expected it to have Android Lollipop by now. We’re halfway through the year of 2015 so there’s really no reason why this device shouldn’t have Android Lollipop running out of the box.

But that is the BLU Life One smartphone that costs just $149.99 off-contract or $100 off-contract if you take advantage of the early bird discount on Amazon. Let me know what your thoughts are of this device.