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Around a week ago, BLU issued a broken software update for its Life One X2 phone. In at least some cases, users who applied the update were locked out of their phones. Late this afternoon, BLU's official Twitter account—which, much to the chagrin of affected users, was silent on the subject for almost a week—issued a statement that the problem had been fixed via a new update.
As infrequently as budget phones are updated, owners of low-cost phones should be glad their phone is continuing to receive support. However, a software update released on November 28th for the BLU Life One X2 has users less than thrilled. On first boot, the phone displays a new password screen—unfortunately, nobody has the password. Without a way to unlock the phone, users are resorting to factory resetting the phones with mixed results.Multiple user reports on Reddit, iFixit, and Amazon have indicated that the affected phones crash on a screen in which you can enter your email address to receive updates from BLU. However, not all users appear to be affected by this bug—others have reported success after removing the microSD card. Additionally, given BLU's massive product portfolio (the company has released upward of 40 phones this year) and unintuitive naming scheme, it is somewhat unclear what models are affected. One Amazon user wrote a review indicating that the BLU Advance A7 was affected, while another user has posted about the Advance A5 at iFixit.For now, not updating your firmware is advisable. This incident was foretold in 1999 by electronic oracles Eiffel 65, with their song "Blue (If I update, I die)."This incident follows a tumultuous history for BLU Products. In November 2016, some Blu devices were identified by the security research firm Kryptowire as carrying spyware which transmitted user information to a Chinese company. As a result, sales of the BLU R1 HD were suspended for one month at Amazon. Amazon again pulled some Blu devices in July 2017 when the co-founder of Kryptowire claimed at Black Hat 2017 that the apps were still present on the phones, but that "They replaced [the malware] with nicer versions." Amazon restarted sales of the affected phones after a week. BLU has consistently denied responsibility for these vulnerabilities.Android Police has reached out to BLU Products for a statement on this update situation. We'll let you know if we hear back from them.Source: Reddit (1), (2), (3), (4), iFixit, Amazon
BLU has a history of producing affordable phones with decent-enough specs. Some may have had software issues in the past (including a spyware incident), but they're solid phones for the money. Following that trend is the Life One X2 Mini, which offers some pretty impressive hardware for the low price of $180.
If you need a cheap backup or replacement phone (the former is always my go-to excuse to justify buying phones), then Amazon has you covered in one of its offerings in the Gold Box Deals for today. The 16GB/2GB BLU Life One X2 is currently going for $119.99, which is a respectable savings of $30. For that money, you get an unlocked GSM dual-SIM phone with a 5.2" IPS FHD display, Snapdragon 430, 16GB of storage (expandable via microSD), 2GB of RAM, 16MP/8MP cameras, a 3,150mAh battery, and Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. Not a bad value at all. The "skin" running on top of Marshmallow here is pretty polarizing, so bear that in mind if you haven't used it before.The deal is valid only until the end of the day and is good for both the grey and rose gold models of the phone. I feel it deserves mentioning that the 64GB/4GB model is only another $60 more (a sale price of $179.99, which makes it $20 off). The rest of the specs are the same, and that's not a bad price whatsoever. Regardless, hit up the source link before the end of the day.Source: Amazon
Blu has a history of making phones with excellent specs for extremely low prices. We recently reviewed the Blu Pure XR, and while the specs on that device were good for a $299 phone, the software experience left a lot to be desired. Blu has just revealed their newest device, the Life One X2, and it is very impressive at the price point.