What BLU offers in Life Mark!
American smartphone manufacturer BLU recently launched its new Life Mark Android smartphone in India at a price tag of Rs 8,999. At this price tag, the phone is competing against the likes of the Coolpad Note 3. But can it succeed? We’ve been using the phone since past few weeks to find that out.
Specifications
| Dimensions | 142 x 72 x 10 mm |
| Weight | 163g |
| Display | 5-inches, 1,280 x 720 pixels |
| Processor | 1.3GHz quad-core MT6735 |
| RAM | 2GB |
| Storage | 16GB, expandable up to 32GB |
| Primary camera | 13MP |
| Secondary camera | 5MP |
| Connectivity | Dual-SIM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS |
| Battery | 2,300mAh |
| Operating system | Android 5.1 Lollipop |
Design
The BLU Life Mark comes with hard plastic body, with an Aluminium metal frame. The rear part has glossy plastic body with slight curves, offering better handling and also making the phone less slippery.
The display screen has a noticeable amount of bezels around it. The front doesn’t have any capacitive buttons, and you get on-screen buttons for navigation.
The volume rocker and the power key are on the right side of the smartphone. The microUSB port is at the bottom and the 3.5mm audio jack is at the top.
Overall, the BLU Life Mark has an average design, despite the metal frame. Also, at 163g, the smartphone feels little bulky to hold.
Display
The BLU Life Mark comes with a 5-inch IPS display with 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 294 ppi. The screen looks vibrant and colourful. The viewing angles of the device are also good even in daylight.
Software
The smartphone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with slight modifications. The UI runs smoothly and didn’t lag during the period of our review. Our only disappointment is the bloatware which the company has preloaded in the phone like Amazon Kindle, Amazon, and Truecaller etc.
Camera
The smartphone comes with 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. Talking about the performance, the rear camera takes descent quality images in daylight, but the low light images are poor in terms of colour, contrast and intensity. The front camera takes good images for basic needs.
But the camera app isn’t very user-friendly as it’s quite old, which used to be available with Android KitKat devices. The app lags in terms of features and modes.
Performance
The BLU Life Mark is powered by a 64-bit quad-core Mediatek MT6735 processor clocked at 1.3GHz, and is coupled with 2GB of RAM. It has 16GB of inbuilt storage and a 32GB expandable memory card slot.
The smartphone runs very smoothly and is good in terms of performance. The given RAM works fine and we didn’t find any lagging issues while using the phone. Multitasking also works fine and apps open quickly.
High-end games like Asphalt 8, Modern Combat and Dead Trigger 2 runs smoothly. But, on increasing the game level, there were noticeable jerks. The heating issue is very less in this device.
The AnTuTu and Quadrant Standard benchmark scores are 35327 and 35758 respectively.
The BLU Life Mark comes with Fingerprint sensor that unlocks the handset quickly.
It supports dual-SIM with 4G LTE connectivity on both of them. Other connectivity options are Wi-Fi, GPS, microUSB and Bluetooth 4.0.
A 2300mAh of battery powers the smartphone, and ensures that it can last for a good amount of time. It can deliver up to 8 hours of running time on moderate usage and around 11 hours on normal usage.
The sound and call quality of the smartphone is good and we didn’t face any type of call drop or sound problem in it.
Verdict
The BLU Life Mark is a good option below Rs 10,000, but it’s not the best, especially when compared with devices such as the Coolpad Note 3. If you increase the budget slightly, then the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and LeEco Le 1s also offer better value for money.
