Gadgetory

when it comes to affordable smartphones available in the US blue is sure to stand out with a large collection of devices blues most recent edition third lineup is the life 8 XL a $130 unlock smartphone with an upcoming upgrade to Android 5.0 lollipop this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and this is my full review of the blue life 8 XL the life 8 excels design is incredibly similar to that of its older brother the life 8 as you may have guessed the excel tag indicates a slightly larger form factor with a 5.5 inch display in addition to the larger sides the 8 XL also opts for on-screen buttons rather than capacitive keys it is available in five flashy colors and is one of the thinner options available at 7.7 millimeters the 8 megapixel camera does protrude from the back however which may be something you dislike considering that it does make the phone wobble a bit when you set it on a flat surface the matte plastic rear cover does feel nice to the touch and I was happy to find that blue retained its removability despite having it wrap around the chin of the device speaking of the chin it's pretty large especially when you consider that we're dealing with on-screen buttons taking off the back cover you can access dual Micro SIM slots a micro SD card slot which supports up to 64 gigabytes and the 29 20 milliamp battery the full metal band isn't all that convincing and there are noticeable parting lines on both the top left and top right corners of the band the power and volume buttons which are on the right side of the device are fairly clicky but they do rattle if you shake the device there is an orange notification LED at the top left of the phone however it isn't really bright enough to see unless you're in a poorly lit environment there's also a 2 megapixel front facing camera as mentioned just a minute ago this phone does have a larger form factor than the light 8 instead of packing a 5-inch display the life 8 XL features a 5.5 inch 720p display which of course makes the device much larger the screen itself isn't the worst scene but it's certainly not the best either well it does get plenty bright sunlight readability is still poor and viewing angles could be better the resolution does make for a pretty low pixel density of 267 PPI and it's difficult to advocate that resolution for display this large blue does include a pre-installed screen protector as well as a replacement in the box which may be helpful considering that the device does not have Gorilla Glass the life 8 XL does include mediatek mt6752 1 gigabyte of ram can be a problem when trying to run more than a few apps at once for the average user though the one that checks Facebook can plays candy crush the life 8 XL is a great performer with the Mali 450 MP GPU the life 8 XL does handle higher-end games quite well for the price even with settings set to hide the life in Excel did not drop frames as easily as a few other budget devices that I've tested in addition to support for GPS 802 11 and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 the 8 XL also supports GSM networks it fully supports 18 T's HSPA+ network while partially supporting t-mobile's HSPA+ network I was impressed by the rear speaker volume which was actually loud enough to hear in a driving car it is pretty 10t however and it is easily blocked on a flat surface the 8 megapixel rear camera took some okay-looking images you really aren't going to find anything much better in this price range unfortunately so don't expect to get any quality shots from this phone I did notice that it had some issues focusing on closer objects and the overall quality just isn't very good the user interface for the camera app is pretty simple but you do still have control over things like white balance and ISO with a twenty nine twenty milliamp removable battery low resolution display and power sipping processor the life 8xl provides excellent battery life I was able to get in just over four hours of screen on time starting from about 7:00 a.m. and ending at about 1:00 a.m. the next morning it should get virtually all users through a full day of use and some may even be able to get it last into the next day a bit out of the box the life 8xl runs stock Android 4.4.2 kitkat with the exception of a few pre-installed apps most of which can be uninstalled the a texels ROM is completely stopped that's pretty refreshing coming from other devices blue has promised to deliver an Android 5.0 lollipop update in late July so hopefully we'll see that soon blue is releasing the light in Excel on June 22nd with 8 gigabytes of internal storage for a hundred and twenty nine dollars on Amazon to make that deal a little sweeter blue is offering $50 off for the first week making the phone $79 this pricing is only valid for the first week though so be sure to act fast if you want to get your hands on this device to conclude the blue life in Excel is a good option for those on a tight budget with flashy color options stock Android 5.0 lollipop and excellent battery life the blue light in Excel is a good value for $79 however it does use an outdated processor as a mediocre camera at best and lacks 4G LTE support personally it's hard for me to imagine someone choosing this phone for 129 dollars when you can buy slightly more expensive options like the Moto G 2nd generation or Asus zenfone 2 they are 50 to 70 dollars more but if you consider the some cellphone service ranging anywhere from 30 to 80 dollars per month that isn't so much of a reach so is it worth it if it suits your need that $79 then yes it's probably worth it at a hundred and twenty nine dollars however I think it would be better for most users to pay a little more upfront to get a lot more phone in the end thank you for watching this video and please make sure to give it a thumbs up below if you found it helpful or informative also please make sure to subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see more content and feel free to leave a comment below finally be sure to visit the Android Authority website for additional coverage as we are your source for all things Android