BLU ENERGY XL - 5,000mAh Super Battery - LTE Smartphone - Silver

Update 3/25/17: IMPORTANT --> AT&T turned off 2G in January. That switch makes a lot of dual SIM phones SINGLE SIM. Why? When one SIM is selected for data, the other defaults to 2G for calls & text (selection is grey'd out, can't change in "Mobile Networks"-"Preferred Network Type"), since 2G no longer works on AT&T, the second SIM will not work at all (no matter what slot it is in). I called AT&T when my second SIM stopped working (Philippine SIM using AT&T towers to confirm that this is the problem). It happens to my main AT&T SIM as well. I have another SIM, US Mobile (T-Mobile towers), that still works as my secondary SIM because T-Mobile did not turn off 2G (yet). If anyone knows how to set the Blu Secondary SIM slot to 3G, please let me know in the comments. I expect when I travel over-seas, both SIMs will work fine, as other countries still use 2G. If Blu reads this, take note, future phones can't use 2G on the secondary SIM slot in the USA (on AT&T, I read that T-Mobile will follow this trend too, not sure when), please change the hardware to use 3G. Other than that, 7 months and this phone is still going strong, no changes to below information, great phone.I have an iPhone 6S+ but tired of Apple's political views & policies, so I'm looking for a new phone from an American company, hence, I bought this Blu Energy XL (I know, phone is made in China but like other USA phone companies, Blu is based in the USA). Here is my review after one day (and several Updates since purchase):In the box: phone (details below), fast charger & cable (fast charge charged 50% to 100% in an hour), phone case (hard clear plastic, but has some grip on the sides, nicely has a lip on the front so you can lay your phone face down without scratching it), headphones (Update: not good, can't get them to stay in my ear... didn't even try to listen to music while using), screen protector (won't use), OTG adaptor (tried it, was able to charge my iPhone from my Blu phone, very nice! Will try data transfer later).Phone: Beautiful looking gold, turned it on, inserted two SIM cards into the dual SIM tray (AT&T USA & Philippine Globe) as well as my 32GB SD card in the tray on the other side. Within 20 seconds, had signal on both SIMs (Philipine SIM working proves that the phone is indeed "unlocked"). Set cellular data to AT&T, got 4G LTE without having to touch the settings (APN). Excellent! Compared to my 5.5" iPhone 6S+, the Blu (physical phone) is only slightly larger than the iPhone, now I have a 6" screen for almost the same physical size!!! This really surprised me. Also, the weight is not nearly as heavy as I expected, hardly noticeable difference (Blu with case is 225g, iPhone with Apple leather slim leather case 210g)... same as the thickness (on the table, with slim cases on both, there's no noticeable thickness difference between the two). Screen is crisp, clear, HD.... Excellent!Dual Sim tray separate from SD card tray: This is THE reason I chose this phone over others, you can have 2 SIMs AND an SD card, separate trays (ie: some phones only have ONE tray where you can either have a 2nd SIM OR an SD card but not all 3).Performance so far: Fingerprint scanner was easy to setup and works surprisingly well. 3GB RAM is nice, Android is a hog, need the extra RAM. 64GB ROM is more than I need (especially since all my music is on my SD card). 1.3GHz Octa-core processor seems to be plenty fast, no issues thus far. I use Nova launcher on all my old Android phones, installed it on the Blu (I like it's customization of notifications, etc). Worked great.Data Speed (using Speedtest app): on WIFI, 29MB/s download. 31MB/s on LTE, 12MB/s upload (Varies of course throughout the day but shows that this is fast!)Update --> Bluetooth: Connects instantly to my F-150, Moto 360 & other boom boxes. Streaming is good, occasional brief glitches streaming music, not sure what that's about, maybe cell tower change.Update #2 --> Solved the skipping Bluetooth issue, surprised to see MANY Android phones have this issue too. Had to turn off WIFI while driving. Didn't have this issue with other Andriod phones, but it looks like an Android issue with some phones. Nonetheless, not a big deal.Update --> GPS: I Use Waze every ride, works flawlessly. Also use Navionics boating, loaded and ran, but not on the water yet.Update #2: On the water, Navionics GPS worked great. Kept cell signal as far out to sea as the iPhone, kept me on track identical to my $1,000 Simrad on board sounder/GPS. (My phone is my backup GPS on the water).Camera: Works as expected, pics look good to me, although I'm not an expert in this area.Update --> Pictures definitely not up to iPhone standards, as others have stated. Good but not great.Battery: really too soon to tell, but the huge 5000mA/hr should be great. I spent 4.5 hours on the phone last night, installing apps, setting it up, basically screen on the whole time. Went from 90% out of the box to 50%. Looking very good. It's 3PM now, I'm at 84% since unplugging at 8AM. Phone has had moderate usage today so this is looking real good!Update --> I'm trying to kill this battery (day 3) so as to cycle it from 0 to 100%, been running my GPS & Pandora for 3 hours, 11 hours since unplug and I still have 45%... better open some more apps ;-).Cons:1) LED notification light seems to set it's own colors. In Whatsapp, I set red, but it blinks green. In settings (Advanced settings, LED Light) for the phone, there is no place to change the color. I need to investigate. But, it works, I really love this feature of Android phones! Update --> It seems that there are only 3 colors, RGB. Hence, can't customize.2) Update --> Back button & recent apps tray button do NOT illuminate. At first this was no big deal, but at night, I constantly miss the buttons with my thumb. My other cheap Xiaomi phones had these buttons illuminate and you could even set the time that the backlight stays on (5 seconds, 10 and so on). Not a big enough issue to remove any stars, but suggestion to Blu to add in future phones...Conclusion: 5 stars, for $299, this is a great deal! Hope this review helps, it's as honest as can be!!!Update: After a week, I like this phone more and more!Update After 1 month: No slowing down, perfect. When Blu refreshes with ALL LTE bands, I will buy again. With only 2/4/7 bands, I do get alot of cell tower switching (LTE to 4G and back), not a problem, Apps work fine on 4G, but speeds definitely ALOT slower than LTE. Also, My company has announced that as of 1/1/17, no phones are allowed to access company info unless on Android 6.0 or higher, this is still 5.1. I hope Blu fulfills their promise to update this to Marshmallow by the end of the year.Update 1/4/17: Phone still going strong, no issues, still loving it. No update to Android 5.1 yet, at this point, with everything working so well, as long as I can still connect to my company's systems (still can), I'm happy staying with 5.1. As I stated above, I will buy Blu again, when a new 6" update arrives, keep everything about the Energy XL, add all LTE bands, illuminate bottom buttons, add multi-color and programmability to the LED notification light, maybe camera improvement.

I struggled with this review because there is so much to like about this phone but, then it lacks some functionality and it is also an OS release behind (Lollipop v. Marshmallow) and is soon to be two releases behind (Nougat). BLU does an excellent job at providing a premium like phone on a flip-phone budget but, it falls down elsewhere.So, let's just get the elephant in the room out of the way - this thing has a massive battery and it is so massive indeed that BLU provides a Type-C to USB dongle to allow you to charge other devices. I think that is really cool and really amazing but, then they leave out something like Qi Wireless charging. I was disappointed to discover that QI charging is not a supported feature of this phone unless I added one of those cheesy looking wireless receiver strips between the case and phone back. You can't put it inside the phone like others because the back is not meant to be removed. I suppose with some work and modifications you could but, why go through the trouble when other similar priced models support QI charging?The other main detractor is the proprietary version of Lollipop BLU has used. There is functionality missing that I really like such as the app drawer and home screen. While omitting these things, it gives the phone more of an IOS feel and wasn't a deal breaker for me because fortunately, I was still able to put my widgets on the first menu screen to give it the feel of a home screen. In the real world this makes sense too so, it's not a negative but rather something to be aware of before buying this phone.The lack of limited phone cases really turned me off as well - aside from the few scant offerings on eBay, I couldn't really find a case that I liked. I usually stick with Spigen and well, they just do not offer a case for this phone. BLU does provide a screen protector and case in the box but, the case is cheap and had already started to crack after removing and replacing on the phone three times. The case is not designed to hold up very well either as it is a hard plastic and slippery in the hands.One other feature I really liked was the effects you can apply to menu screen transitions. Even my staunch IOS buddy commented on how cool that was - IOS doesn't have really cool transitions between menu swipes. Nice that BLU included that so you don't need to load a third party launcher. Another thing I really liked was the massive 6" display - Can you say "real estate, Baby!"? The display is crisp and has eye-popping colors.The phone boots up as fast as any other phone and all functions and speed are acceptable. There is plenty of RAM to do anything really. Play games, surf, check email, etc. The phone does everything it should. There is not much bloatware either which is something I was glad to see. BLU also provides 64gb of storage which is also great at this price point. I also got 4G LTE on Cricket Wireless with no issues. It was simple enough to just insert the sim card and away I went.Overall, the Energy XL has a premium feel but, falls short when stacked next to the big boys. However, you are not shelling out $800 either and that is something to definitely be weighed if you are on a tight budget. This is a great mid-level super phone for those wanting to step up. If you are stepping down from a premium super phone, you may find some short comings. The things to love are the massive high quality display, the great battery life, the overall premium look and feel of a super phone, the fact all the accessories are provided. The downside is the proprietary version of a soon to be outdated OS, the cheap phone case they provide and the lack of case choices.