Beau HD unboxes the new Studio Mini LTE smartphone from BLU Products. The BLU Studio Mini LTE features a 4.5-inch IPS display, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, microSD card slot, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. It also carries a budget-friendly price of $120 off-contract.
The BLU Studio Mini LTE is the fourth and final device to receive the LTE update. In terms of specs, the device is a little bit on the low-end as it comes with 4.5-inch IPS display, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor with 1GB of RAM, 5MP rear-facing camera, 4G LTE, a microSD card slot, and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.
The top cover of the box can easily be removed by sliding off. This reveals the Studio Mini LTE wrapped in a little bag. Underneath it is an 1850 mAh battery pack and a cover for the Studio Mini LTE. Included in the box are the standard micro USB charging cable, wall wart with USB port on the end, and a pair of earphones that sort of look like the old Apple earphones. There is support for a mic so it looks like you may make phone calls with these. Below these is the standard BLU User Manual and an included screen protector.
Once the plastic peel on the phone has been removed, it reveals a simple, chunky little budget smartphone constructed with plastic. On its left hand side are the volume up-and-down controls above its Power/Sleep On/Off buttons. A 3.5mm headphone jack and micro USB charging port are found on top of the device. Meanwhile, both right and bottom portion do not have any buttons.
There is a VGA front-facing camera in front its 4.5-inch IPS display along with the capacitive touch buttons below for Menu, Home and Back commands. The back area contains its 5MP rear-facing camera and flash. Similar to the previously reviewed BLU devices, the BLU, 4G LTE logos, and speaker grill can be found on the back as well. The back cover can be pried off to insert the 1850 mAh battery pack. The microSD card and SIM card slots can be found on this area too.
For $120, the Studio Mini LTE appears to work well. Its display is nothing to boast about but it does have a fairly bright and vivid display. A scroll through the apps reveal that there are no lags or stuttering, which is always a good thing.
The only disappointment though is that the BLU Studio Mini LTE runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and not Android 4.4 KitKat, meaning it is two Android versions old. This means it doesn’t showcase the new improvements found on KitKat or Lollipop. But again, for its $120 off-contract price, there are really no complains.
