BLU sent me three of their most recent budget smartphones—the BLU Energy X Plus, the BLU Vivo Selfie, and the BLU Studio C 5+5. In this video, we’re going to take a look at the BLU Energy X Plus to see if it’s worth its $139 off-contract price tag here on PhoneDog.com.

This is the BLU Studio Energy X Plus, the successor to the original BLU Studio Energy. It features a massive 4000mAh battery with a fresh new design. Some other specs include a 5.5-inch HD IPS display, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM, an 8MP rear and 5MP front-facing camera sensor, a microSD card slot for expandable storage, 4G HSPA+, and it runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.

We don’t need to slice off any tape for this guy, we can just slide off the top of the box and we will find the Energy X Plus sitting right on top. I’m going to set it off to the side for now. Underneath, we have an assortment of accessories—we have a BLU US wall wart, a micro USB charging cable, a pair of earphones with removable tips, a Quick Start Guide, a SIM card Removal Guide and a SIM card ejector tool. Further below these items, we have a plastic protective case and a screen protector. And that is all that is included in the box with your purchase. So you get a lot of goodies, which is always nice to see.

So now we can take a look back at the Energy X Plus. Take that out of the bag and remove the plastic from both sides of the device and we’ll see that it’s actually pretty thin considering it has a 4000mAh battery inside. And we do have a more premium-looking back cover that does look better than the previous generation in my opinion but it is still plastic.

Taking a look around the device, we have a microSD card slot on the left hand side, there’s a SIM card slot above a volume rocker and Power/Sleep On/Off button on the right hand side—these buttons are metallic buttons, which is kinda neat. The micro USB port and 3.5mm headphone jack are located up top with nothing on the bottom. On the front of this device, there’s a 5MP front-facing camera sensor with a flash and ambient light sensors (yes, that’s right, there is a flash here); a 5.5-inch 720p HD IPS display with software navigation buttons, and a BLU logo below. On the back, there’s an 8MP camera sensor with a flash, a BLU logo and a speaker grille. The plastic back cover is non-removable since we do have access to all the card slots on the sides of this device. It is plastic and it is very slippery but it doesn’t look too bad. Once again, it doesn’t look too bad in my opinion.

At first look of the Vivo Selfie (which hopefully you guys watch that video), it features a 4.8-inch 720p AMOLED display, the Energy X Plus here features a 5.5-inch 720p IPS LCD display and it has a larger screen size. First of all, the display does look less sharp—I can notice more pixels especially when I look up close. Viewing angles are solid and it’s fairly bright and vivid but it’s nowhere near as vibrant as an AMOLED display.

The software experience is also a little bit different. First of all, it is running Android 5.0 Lollipop but it’s not quite as pure as the Vivo Selfie. So we have no app drawer—all of the apps are displayed on the home screen. And the app icons themselves are squarish in shape. In the settings, we also have skin icons but the general layout of the notification panel and the settings drawer does resemble stock Android so that’s good. If you slap on the Google Now launcher, you will be able to eliminate many of the skin elements. However, if you like this look, you will be happy to know that you can further customize it by adding themes and effects. And once again, it’s running Android so you can customize pretty much every aspect of this device.

Performance is also very similar to the Vivo Selfie as it also features a quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM. I can navigate the OS just fine. Social media sites apps open up very quick. But it’s the demanding apps, like graphic-intensive games, that will really slow this guy down to the point where you will notice some hiccups and stuttering here and there.

The most notable feature of this smartphone is its 4000mAh battery. With such low-end specs, it really doesn’t require a lot of power so you quip it with a 4000mAh battery and it should easily last 2 days with moderate use. The one downside is its lack of turbo charging, which is found in smartphones who have Snapdragon processors, so it will take some time to charge up this large battery here.

But this is the BLU Studio Energy X Plus. Let me know what your thoughts are of this budget smartphone and if you think it’s worth its $139 off-contract price tag.