This is the BLU Studio Energy, a smartphone that has one killer feature that separates it from the rest -- and that is its battery life. If features a 5000 mAh battery, which has two real functions. It can power your smartphone for days on end or it can power other smartphones or devices in general as BLU set this device up with reverse charging, meaning you can use the BLU Energy as a power bank or external battery -- which I thought was really neat.
They also include this reverse charging microUSB to USB adapter in the box so you can successfully do that. And yeah it works. The battery itself though can last for a really long time. I was able to get more than 14 hours of screen on time with the brightness cranked up. I wasn’t able to test the standby time but BLU says it can last 45 days on standby with 96 hours of standard usage, meaning on and off usage. That’s 4 days on a single charge, which is pretty amazing.
Now with such a big battery, you’d think this device would be super chunky, but it’s really not too bad considering it does measure in at 10.4mm thick, a few mm thicker than the average flagships smartphone -- but it’s really not too bad. There’s a soft touch plastic back cover which feels very warm and comforting in the hands -- if that makes sense. It almost feels fuzzy to the touch, which I know sounds really weird but it’s the best way I can describe the back cover. The flat edges and thicker design allow it to have great grip-ability -- it’s really not a bad constructed device even though it is a budget smartphone. It costs just $149 off contract- and can be purchased in black, white, or gold. I usually conclude my review with the price and sum up the specs and whatnot but I want to do is backwards because a lot of the specs of the BLU Studio Energy are consistent with the various other budget friendly BLU devices, with the exception of the massive 5000 mAh battery.
For example, we have a 5-inch 720p IPS LCD display, quad-core Cortex A7 processor with 1GB of RAM. A microSD card slot for expandable storage, and an 8MP camera sensor.
The performance is decent but nothing special. This is not a fast phone but it’s not slow either, it gets the job done, which all you can really ask for at a $150 off-contract price point. The display also doesn’t look bad but once again, it’s nothing special. It’s a 720p display, images and text look good but they don’t pop or really surprise you or making you think, “ooh wow this is a nice display” -- No that’s reserved for Samsung. With that said, the display doesn’t look bad, it too gets the job done. It does have a slight blue tint to it and it doesn’t get very bright so outdoor visibility suffers quite a bit.
I do like the minimal BLU Software on top of Android 4.4 KitKat, it resembles stock Android in a lot of ways but there are still plenty of added BLU software features in the notification panel and in the settings. For example you can enable double tap to wake up the screen as well as an option to draw the shape on the display when the phone is asleep to activate a certain app. If there’s one thing BLU can do to improve this device is update it with Android Lollipop soon. That would be make an even more tempting purchase.
The camera is an 8MP sensor and it captures decent images in well-lit areas, low light images are terrible but that is generally the case with smartphones. There’s a fair amount of detail in each of the images and they seem to be properly exposed most of the time -- the colors just aren’t the brightest and most vivid. But you can definitely get by using this smartphone to take pictures here and there.
The speaker phone on the back is loud enough, I would like to see front-facing speakers as usual but the sound is adequate but can be rather tinny.
So overall, the BLU Studio Energy is for the power hungry user who values battery life above everything else. Whether you use this device as an emergency smartphone that you can always rely on to have a charge, or as your daily driver. Considering the specs you get for the price tag, it really is worth it if you’re in the market for a sub $200 smartphone for T-Mobile.
Let me know your thoughts of the BLU Studio Energy by leaving me a comment below and if you have any questions feel free to ask them there as well, and I’ll do my best to help answer them.