BLU is a company that has relatively great phones, especially for their pricing. I recently reviewed the BLU Life Play and I was quite intrigued by just how good it was for a phone under $200 unlocked. When you see a phone that’s sub-$200 unlocked, you normally think it’s a crappy phone. But it was quite the opposite with the Life Play, and I’m expecting the same for the Studio 5.5.
The BLU Studio 5.5 has a 5.5-inch display as the name eludes too. It’s sporting a FWVGA LCD display and it’s just 9.55mm thick. It’s also featuring a 1.2GHz quad-core processor (probably from MediaTek). It also supports HSPA+ 42mbps, so it’ll work great on T-Mobile’s network. Especially since their network supports HSPA+ 42mbps while AT&T’s only goes to 21mbps. The Studio 5.5 also features a 5MP camera on the back, and a microSD card slot (there’s only about 4GB of internal storage). There’s also 1GB of RAM and dual SIM functionality, which is pretty popular over in Asia.
The Studio 5.5 is also running stock Android 4.2. Yes their skin is basically stock. A few things have been changed, but it’s as close to stock Android as the Moto X is. It’ll be available soon in 5 different colors starting at just $179 retail. It will be sold through Amazon, Best Buy as well as “thousands of Operator and MVNO dealer stores throughout the US”.
BLU focuses heavily on the “Bring your own device” movement and helps those that want a phone without a contract and without a $500 price tag. When you buy one of their phones. Don’t expect a device that can compete with the Galaxy S4 or Galaxy Note 3, not at sub-$200. Expect a device that works and does what it’s advertised too do. I’m excited to see what BLU will do in the future, I’d like to see them do a high-end device for around $300-400 off-contract. That would directly compete with the Nexus, and perhaps be a bit cheaper.