BLU - Studio X Plus 4G Cell Phone with 8GB Memory (Unlocked) - Black

I purchased this for use on Straight Talk. I wanted a reasonably powerful phone that would be somewhat future proof, and portable between carriers (pre-paid, contract if I decided to go back to ATT, etc). After a day of use, here are my thoughts: EXTRAS: It's not advertised in the site at this time, but the phone comes with a thin rubber bumper case and a cheap screen protector to get you started. While you may want to get a better screen protector, It was a nice consideration for the manufacturer to include both of these. 1. Screen: It's NOT Gorilla glass, and not scratch resistant. I strongly recommend putting the provided screen protector on right away. Functionally, at 5.5 inches, this phone is dipping into the "phablet" range. Images are crisp, and I don't see any obvious pixelation. The 720p resolution isn't quite as impressive as, say, the 1080p on my old Samsung Galaxy S5, but come on...it's $150, and it's a phone. This screen is GREAT compared to the 320x480 you'd get in this price range even two years ago. Touch response was very good using the screen cover provided in the box. A note: The provided screen cover DOES work, but it collects dust like NOBODY'S business. You may want to order a better one online, since no Zagg custom covers are available at this time. 2. Speed: The phone has been snappy and responsive. The quad-core processor in this is more or less last year's high-end model, but it's up to any task you throw at it, and hasn't stuttered once on me while jumping between browser windows, phone calls, texting, and back. Thing only thing I couldn't recommend this phone for would be graphics-intensive 3D gaming. 3. Phone calls: People heard me. I heard them. Nobody had to repeat anything. Haven't made many calls, but the short ones I had were just fine. 4. Phone Build: I have big hands, so this large phone fits pretty comfortably in my grip. It feels nice, but a bit plasticky, and doesn't scream "durability". They give you a thin plastic bumper case in the box. You should use it. 5. Speakers - For playing Yutube videos and music, the speakers are adequate. That's why there's a market for headphones and bluetooth speakers. 6. Camera - I was actually pleasantly surprised with the camera. 8 megapixels isn't GREAT, but it's not bad either. The phone DOES include a flash, and does perform pretty quick auto-focus and tap-to-focus. Shutter speed was pretty good too. I haven't taken a lot of bar, nighttime, or low-light pictures yet, but sunlight and fluorescent lighting have given good results. BOTTOM LINE: For $150, this phone is a GREAT value and doesn't leave me feeling like I'm "compromising" on anything. On Straight Talk, using an AT&T SIM card, it's been working just fine. (Charlotte, NC area). I gave it 4/5 because no mid-range phone will ever truly be a "5".

I purchased this phone after my Google Nexus 5 decided to give out on me. I was in a pinch and really needed a phone and I wasn't looking to spend $300+ to get another unlocked device to work with my prepaid service. After reading a few reviews I decided on the Studio X. I knew up front I would be sacrificing a few features, some performance and LTE, but I knew that going into the phone so it was no shock to me. The LTE support would be great, but honestly I'm not in very many places that I don't have access to Wifi for data. The phone out of the box comes with Android 4.4, up-gradable to Android 5.0. The update went very smoothly, and because I use all google services I get my contacts, pictures, etc, back the minute I signed into the phone. Performance is very good given the overall low price of the device. All of my routine tasks perform just about as quickly on the Studio X as they did on my Nexus 5. Youtube videos play smoothly, email works just fine, web browsing looks the same and performs very well. The camera is decent, and is good outdoors. Low light photographs suffer with the single LED flash. Shooting video is also so-so, and a fair amount of artifact is present in video shot at 1080p, however, the video does play back smoothly, and again given the low price of the phone is very acceptable for a device like this. Overall this is a very decent phone for the money, and offers decent performance for everyday phone tasks. If you are looking into getting a replacement phone and are operating on a pre-paid or off contract scenario and not wanting to shell out $300-500 for a unlocked phone, this is the deal for you. Blu has some other phones in the $100-150 range that will give you LTE support if you really need it, however if you are in decent range of Wifi at home and work, skip the LTE and get this bargain phone.

I start my review by stating that this phone may work for you, it just wasnt for me. My carrier is AT&T, and i also work for them so i thought id give this underground phone a try (I love unlocked phones and underground companies mind you) and coming from a Oneplus One, I thought id be happy. My frustration started as soon as i left the store and tried setting the phone up parked in the lot. I got my sim card in, and away my patience went. This phone picked up 3g asap and thats fine, whats not fine is that my speeds were under 3mbps download and under 1mbps upload, I could get by with that seeing as im in Wi-Fi 90% of the time. The next issue was GPS...... Didnt work, I drove a total of 12 miles before gps signal was found and by then, someone may have gotten lost (and I did get lost in downtown detroit because of this....) So being the person I am, I gave it another go. I swapped the phone out for another one thinking mine was defective..... nope same issues yet again. so I tried the Blu Studio 5.0 LTE thinking this would be better having better specs. Same issues!!!!!! no lte connection (this phone only works on t-mobiles 4g network) and again the gps wouldnt work. I even let me other att buddies try it out, I changed APN settings, factory reset, and I also let best buy mobile check it out and to my suprise they didnt even know about the product they were selling. I dont expect them to know about it because they are a tucked away product that im sure doesnt get much love. I would be best spending the money on a moto g because they work better with the att network, and with that being said i hope i can save someone the headache of trying to get this phone to function with ATT service.

I bought this phone prior to a month long trip abroad due to the specs and especially the dual-sim aspect. It's a GREAT phone for the money and the dual-sim worked flawlessly. I put a tracfone sim in for US and a giffgaff sim in for UK/EU countries and with a flick I could go between them and use all my apps as normal and have coverage in all of US and UK as well as cheap roaming in all the EU countries I visited for a total of about $40/month to keep BOTH sims flush and use the phone without restriction sending pics, chats and calling as I liked. (I did use Wifi when I could, though.) It immediately updates itself to Lollipop and runs fairly flawlessly-- I don't do too many things like games or high rez movies to test its bounds but for chat, email, phone functions, Skype, GPS, maps etc- it's great. It does have one flaw, it comes up with a sensor/red zone error every now and then when shut off for any longish period of time. You just have to pop the battery out and put it back in, and restart the phone and it goes away-- but it is annoying when you need your phone immediately. I put a tempered glass screen protector on it and it comes with a nice semi-hard rubber case made by the manufacturer-- and I've dropped it quite a few times with no harm done. It's large in size, but so are my hands. I had to buy a special crossbody purse thingy to be able to carry it easily as it's not going to fit in a standard wallet/checkbook size planner or wristlet. Overall, I couldn't be happier with it for the price- it didn't let me down even once on my travels.

I originally purchase the Blu studio G and returned it for this phone. I like everything about this phone, except for one thing. The 5.5 inch screen is great. 1G of ram with not lag. expendable storage. 8mp camera. This phone is not joke, especially at $149. This replaced my Galaxy S5 and I don't miss it. This phone is pretty amazing. BUT. there is one think I don't like about this phone. It may not be completely the phone's fault though. It says it is 4G (HSPA+). not LTE. Well I was using the phone with ATT and Tmobile service. not completely sure of the coverage in my area with those 2 provider when it comes to their HSPA+. so the only thing I ever got was 3g speed. HSPA+ was not existent. I am talking about 2-3mbs. The odd thing is, I did return this phone for the Studio 5 HD LTE, and it worked perfectly in the same area with both providers. LTE coverage. My conclusion is either the phone is not 4G at all or both of these providers have no HSPA+ coverage or network. If you need to choose between the two phone studio X plus and the Studio 5 HD LTE, go with the 5 HD LTE. The internet speed difference with huge. and they are the same price. small screen but worth it.

I've had this phone for a few weeks now and I'm totally in love with it. I've had over the last few years a iPhone 4, 5S, Samsung Galaxy S4, and prior to this Studio X, a HTC One M7, I would say spec wise this phone compares to those flagship model phones. The phone is made of plastic, but has a nice weight, screen is crisp, responsive, and the 5.5 inch size makes it great for reading, playing games, and watching videos on. The stock android experience with very minimal bloat ware is great. It has a 2600 mah battery and it last all day for me and I'm on my phone a lot. The 8MP camera really surprised me with some great features and quality shots. Yes I will say this is no Samsung S6 or HTC M9 but you are also paying about a 6th of the price of those phones if you where to buy them unlocked. The one downside I will say to this phone is the single rear speaker for music and video is lacking, but for calls on speaker it performs well. So in short, I would say if you are looking for a unlocked Android based device, I would take this over the slightly smaller and more expensive, Sony Xperia T2 and Motorola Moto G phones. It performs better and comes at a lower price. Also the included phone case, screen protector, headphones, charger, and cable are all of good quality. Honestly try one of these out, for under 200 bucks you can't complain.

I have had this phone for a little over a month and I LOVE it. This phone has no bloatware on it to take up all of the internal memory. I was able to get it activated through Cricket Wireless/ ATT quickly with no hassles. BLU released the update for Lolipop last week so the OS is up to date with other more expensive models. I was skeptical about the camera quality since it is only 8MP but the pictures look fantastic. I took a picture of my cat's face close up and you can see every little hair on her. Much better quality than my 13MP camera on my previous phone. The size of the phone took some getting used to but the thinness of the phone makes up for it. I am still able to put the phone in my back pocket with no problems. My only complaint is that there is hardly any accessories available for this manufacturer. The phone does come with its own TPU frosted skin/ case but I wish there were other options available for purchase. don't hesitate to get this phone, you wont regret it!

Overall this is an excellent phone with a solid feel and decent performance. it might not be as powerful as the big names, and it doesn't offer LTE, but throw a 32GB card in and it's just as capable as a Nexus 4 or 5. In a nutshell, this is last year's tech at a quality price. The one problem to really note is something most people won't worry about - the default runtime (Dalvik# works fine, but changing over to the ART runtime seems to cause problems with certain apps. ART is supposed to be the default with Lollipop, so hopefully this won't be an issue when things get upgraded by BLU. Otherwise, the phone runs well, the battery performs as expected #not quite a full day of moderate to heavy use) and the camera is decent and responsive. Definitely would recommend this phone to someone on a tight budget who needed to replace a phone without getting bound to a contract.