BLU Studio Energy - With 5000 mAH Super Battery - Global GSM- Unlocked Cell Phones (Black)

Overall (TL;DR):I like the Blu Studio Energy overall. Blu has managed to put a huge battery in a midrange phone and has done so at an excellent price. The performance on the phone isn’t great, but it’s good enough. The additional software features Blu has included are really nice and actually useful (looking at you Samsung). The Blu Studio Energy would be an excellent phone for someone who just wants a reliable smartphone for everyday use. Think of your grandma, kids, or that other family member who are taking their first steps into the smartphone world. This is perfect for them! If you are into high end phones with the best cameras and super-fast processors, this is not the phone for you.Pros + Cons:+A 5,000 mAh battery!+Useful add on features+Mostly stock Android+Feels great in hand+Lots of freebies in box-Performance is lacking-Needs more RAM-Takes quite a while to charge the batteryBody and Screen:The back and sides of the phone are plastic but it looks nice and feels quite well built. I did notice that the volume and power keys had a bit of a wiggle but what can you expect for a phone this price. The phone feels nice in your hand due to the curved back.The screen is only 720p but text is perfectly clear and legible. The colors do pop quite a bit but there is a slightly washed out look to the screen. Don’t worry though, it isn’t bad and you won’t notice it much after a while.Features:This phone really surprised me on the features. One of the biggest surprises for me is that you can enable a double tap to wake in which you tap twice on the screen while it is asleep and it wakes the phone. Blu has also included the ability to launch apps by drawing one of four specific shapes on the screen while it is asleep. You can choose to launch either an app or a pick a contact to dial directly.Beyond the smart gestures, Blu has included a task killer and customizable quick toggle settings shortcuts on the settings portion of the pull down notification shade. You can customize the order of the quick toggle settings but, unfortunately, you cannot remove them from the screen. Blu has also included a guest mode setting that can be customized to include access only to certain apps. This may come in handy in situations such as sharing your phone with a stranger or with a child.Performance:Performance on the Blu Studio Energy is somewhat lacking. The phone works fine for most things but every once in a while there is a slight stutter when flipping through home screens or when multitasking with multiple apps. If you’re only checking the web or using Facebook, and you can stand an occasional screen stutter here and there, then this phone will be fine for you.Speaker:The speaker on the phone is loud enough, but not overly loud. The sound is adequate but somewhat tinny at loud volumes.Camera:So far, the shots I have taken with the camera have come out clear with plenty of detail. The colors aren’t incredibly vivid, but the pictures do look pretty nice. The front facing camera … works. Then again, who expects to take great pictures with a front facing camera?The camera software is quite nice. You can enable the camera to take the picture by normal button press, touch anywhere on the screen, when someone smiles, or when someone makes a V with their fingers (I couldn’t get this one to work). Capture modes include panorama, eraser best face, face beauty, best shot, and EV bracket shot. You can also pick from a number of cartoonish picture frames if you would like. Lastly, the camera includes all the standard camera features such as white balance, color tone, and quality settings.Battery:I haven’t had time to evaluate the battery completely but I am sure the 5,000 mAh battery will last for a couple days easily. Four days though? Maybe, but I will have to wait and see. Also, the phone can be used to charge other devices.

I hate giving this a three-star review, but there is a major drawback that is quite unfortunate, and probably constitutes false advertising. The product description clearly says "At launch the Studio Energy will have Android v4.4 KitKat but it will be upgradeable to Lollipop v5.0  in June 2015." However it is now October of 2015, and Blu has made no mention of a Lollipop release for this phone. I emailed Blu tech support to ask when it would be released, and the answer I received was "We are still checking to see if this device is compatible with the Lollipop update, if it is, we should be releasing within the following months. Please refer to our Facebook page or website in order to hear any news on upcoming software updates."Truth be told, this is an amazing phone. The features, the battery life, all-in-all I love it. But when I was in the market to buy a phone earlier this year, Lollipop was high on my list of requirements. I reluctantly bought a phone that was not on Lollipop solely based on the understanding the upgrade was going to be available. At this point, I feel cheated and very let down.Also as a side note - if you live in the United States, you DO NOT want this version of the phone. It doesn't have the frequencies that most carriers in the US use. You'll still be able to use it, but you won't get nearly as good of coverage. Thankfully I live in a major metropolitan are that uses some of the frequencies. If many places outside of major cities you'll be lucky to get 3G, and even if you get 3G you probably won't get any data. If the Lollipop upgrade isn't important to you and you want to buy this phone - do yourself a favor and buy the US version, don't make the same mistake I did.

I am compelled to share my experience with this phone. Taking into consideration everything about the BLU Studio Energy, it is a great phone.For personal use, I have a 2014 Moto X, which I bought in the last quarter of 2014. I use the BLU Studio Energy for work. I honestly think that if I had access to the BLU Studio Energy beforehand, I probably wouldn't have gotten the Moto X.I have gone a full week on a single battery charge. I haven't had the time to figure out just how far I can push it, though, but I expect it would last up to a week and a half. I'm not talking about just once! I've unplugged it on Monday morning and charged it overnight the following Sunday for three weeks in a row. Each time before plugging it in, the system reported between 25-40%. I couldn't be happier."For work?" Ok, not just for work. I've been using it for personal use, too--mostly because I ride on public trans in Chicago and would much rather have my $150 work phone snatched from my hands than my personal phone. I've considered moving my personal sim from the Moto to the Blu for convenience, but the risk is losing everything at once.I am not trying to conserve battery life:- For work, I use a standard "not-so-good" enterprise app for secure communications before, during, and after work. ;)- I use Bluetooth headphones to listen to Spotify, Pandora and other streaming services during my commute.- I never turn off Wifi.- I hardly ever remember to turn off Bluetooth. In fact, this week I finally decided to "forget about it."- I subscribe to, listen to, and automatically sync podcasts- I use Google Voice for calls (so I didn't have to update my phone number at work)- I use Google Hangouts SMS for texting with co-workers.- I regularly use Play Newsstand, YouTube, Pocket, and Chrome during my commute.- I regularly play games during my commute and often after. Games include side-scrolling shooters, puzzle games, and rogue-like RPGs.- I sometimes use a handheld game console emulator to play games.That about sums up my experience. Here are some other things you may want to know:Is it slow? No.is it slippery fast? No.Does it lag? Sometimes, but not enough to break the user experience.Does it work with T-mobile (Chicagoland)? Yes.Is it heavy? A bit. Certainly not cumbersome.How's the case? Not bad at all. Glad it came with one!Will it upgrade to Lollipop? BLU says the update is coming in June.Did you root it? No, due to the strict requirements of the enterprise app.*How does Bluetooth sound? Volume is a bit low. I'd like it to be a notch or two higher, but I haven't checked to see if there are settings I should change.Would you buy it again? Yes.Was it worth the $150? Abso-f-ing-lutely.* UPDATE: Bluetooth is fine. My Bluetooth headset has it's own volume control that I thought was synced with the phone volume. Turns out I can turn it up on my device even farther than the phone.