Beau HD takes a first look at the Studio 5.0 HD LTE smartphone from BLU Products. The BLU Studio 5.0 HD LTE features a Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, 13-megapixel rear facing camera and 5-megapixel front facing camera, 5-inch HD IPS display, microSD card slot, and it runs Android 4.4 KitKat. It also carries a budget-friendly price of $199 off-contract.
The BLU Studio 5.0 has been unboxed to showcase its features and specs. As a fairly mid-range device, the BLU Studio 5.0 HD LTE comes with a 5-inch HD IPS display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor clocked at 1.2 GHz with 1 GB of RAM, 13 MP rear camera, 5 MP front-facing camera, a microSD card slot expandable by up to 32 GB, 4G LTE, and Android 4.4 KitKat. Hopefully, it will be equipped with Android Lollipop in the near future.
To open the box, you simply need to slide off the top cover. Beneath the phone is its 2200 mAh battery pack, a wall wart with USB port on one side, a micro USB charging cable, earphones with removable tips, white protective case, User Manual, and a screen protector.
When you remove the plastic from the phone, the BLU Studio 5.0 HD LTE reveals a simple device with round edges. Its bezels aren’t too chunky or too thin as the Studio 6.0 HD LTE model.
On the left side of the device is where you will find the volume up and down controls. The Power/Sleep On/Off buttons are on the right. The top has a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the bottom is where the micro USB charging port is found. The front of the device shows a 5 MP front-facing camera with HD IPS display, presumably 720p display. The capacitive touch buttons on the bottom control commands for Menu, Home, and Back. The display comes with a pre-installed screen protector.
On the back of the device is where the 13 MP camera can be found, along with a flash and a speaker port on the bottom. The BLU and 4G LTE logos are embedded in between these.
The Studio 5.0 HD LTE is made up of plastic—with its edges bode in a little bit so that it isn’t too flat. This also provides a good grip on the device.
The microSD card and SIM card slots are found on the back of the device, where the battery pack can be inserted.
Compared with the Studio 6.0 HD LTE, the device produces less lagging. This is probably because its Qualcomm processor does not need to push as many pixels since its display is not as high resolution as the other devices. Thus, it appears to be much faster and have a smoother animation.
Despite the fact that you can see some pixels, its display isn’t so bad. It doesn’t have a vibrant display either, but for a device that costs $200 off-contract, it isn’t that disappointing. In fact, removing the screen protector just might do the trick of making the display look slightly better.
