Blu Studio Energy - 5000mAh battery phone, now available in the US for $149 Unlocked

[wicked]

The Blu Studio Energy is now available in the US. This midrange handset offers a 5000mAh battery in a relatively compact body.

According to Blu, this battery can provide up to 96 hours (4 days) of standard usage, or up to 45 days of standby time. The Studio Energy can also be used as a power bank to recharge other devices (a reverse charge cable is included in the box).

Other Features:

• 5.0" HD IPS Display (300ppi), 8MP Main Camera + 2MP Front Camera, 1.3GHz Quad Core Processor
• Unlocked Dual Sim Phone, Android 4.4 Kit Kat upgradeable to Android 5.0 Lollipop, 8GB Internal Storage 1GB RAM with Micro SD Slot up to 64GB
• GSM Quad Band 4G HSPA+ (850/1900/2100): US Compatibiliy: AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS, Tracfone, and others, including most 3G UMTS/HSPA+ Networks when roaming outside the US
• Includes Headphones, Screen Protector, Protective case, and USB OTG Cable to work as a Portable Power Bank and Charge Other Devices on the Go

You can grab a black or white Blu Studio Energy from Amazon for just $149

 

[wicked]

Here are a couple of videos showing the Blu Studio Energy:

Hands-on from CES:



Unboxing:

 

[FoxKat]

Wow is definitely a good word for that phone. Not so much wow as in regards to specs, it certainly falls far behind in RAM, PPI (although not that bad), clock speed and cores, and in regards to the camera it's not going to win any megapixel wars, but we all know pixel count does not beget picture quality at a given resolution. Still where it does wow is in price, battery life (double-wow), the ability to use it as a power source (triple-wow), and in form factor (i.e. size and resultant screen size), not to mention dual SIM (Removable back, is the battery removable?), and Lollipop in its future. This hits a very sweet spot in the market - one I think the big dogs are turning their wagging tails at and they may be missing the opportunity.

Let's see how this does, and I'll be watching Blu Studios for some even bigger and better things to come as well.

 

[Jeffrey]

Looks like a great entry level device, tho a bit heavy due to the battery size. One review stated that the battery @ 10% takes forever to charge. My assumption is "takes forever" is more than a typical overnight charge.
All in all, quite acceptable @ $149.

 

[cr6]

One could argue the iPhone 6 specs really aren't much better than this device, yet it easily competes with today's flagship Android devices.... so this baby could very well be a sleeper!

S5 tap'n

 

[BenRx]

I guess I'm asking what might be obvious to everyone else, but Will it work on Verizon?

 

[Jeffrey]

I guess I'm asking what might be obvious to everyone else, but Will it work on Verizon?

As stated above:

• GSM Quad Band 4G HSPA+ (850/1900/2100): US Compatibiliy: AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS, Tracfone, and others, including most 3G UMTS/HSPA+ Networks when roaming outside the US

 

[FoxKat]

Looks like a great entry level device, tho a bit heavy due to the battery size. One review stated that the battery @ 10% takes forever to charge. My assumption is "takes forever" is more than a typical overnight charge.
All in all, quite acceptable @ $149.

Perhaps a leap to get to a true representation, but I will go at it this way. The Droid MAXX battery is 3,300mAh, and it is recommended to charge from completely empty (0%), to full (100%), in 5.5 hours based on a charger that puts out 780mAh. If I divide the recommended 5.5 hours by 3.3 (3,300/1,000), it says that it should take about 1.667 hours per 1,000mAh, at the real charging rate.

So for a 5,000 mAh battery, 1.667 * 5, it should take about 8.33 hours but that's from a dead zero (0) charge to a 100% full charge. It might actually take more like 7-7.5 hours from 0% to 100% and maybe 6.5 hours for 15% to 100% because it's not a linear but rather an exponential increase. In other words, a battery twice as large doesn't take nearly twice as long since the bulk of the charging is done at high current but there is a portion of the final charge cycle (maybe from 85% to 100%), that's done at a reduced current rate.

Now, of course if they increase the current of the charger to let's say 1,000 mAh, then it would reduce the charge cycle for a 5,000 mAh battery by about 22% to perhaps as short as 5 to 5.5 hours for 15% to 100%. If they increase the current even higher, it could be shorter still but then you will see faster degradation of the battery over its lifespan.

 

[FoxKat]

I guess I'm asking what might be obvious to everyone else, but Will it work on Verizon?

As stated above:

• GSM Quad Band 4G HSPA+ (850/1900/2100): US Compatibiliy: AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS, Tracfone, and others, including most 3G UMTS/HSPA+ Networks when roaming outside the US

In other words, GSM generally means NOT Verizon, CDMA means Verizon.

 

[BenRx]

In other words, GSM generally means NOT Verizon, CDMA means Verizon.

Thanks. That's what I needed to know. I had already seen the quote the previous poster was kind enough to assume I hadn't read. </sarcasm> I felt like if Verizon was included it would have been stated, but it does say "and others" at the end. So I felt it was worth the asking. I like looking at the phone stuff, but I'm so into them as to know who has GSM and who has CDMA. Thanks again.

Back to lurking

 

[FoxKat]

Thanks. That's what I needed to know. I had already seen the quote the previous poster was kind enough to assume I hadn't read. </sarcasm> I felt like if Verizon was included it would have been stated, but it does say "and others" at the end. So I felt it was worth the asking. I like looking at the phone stuff, but I'm so into them as to know who has GSM and who has CDMA. Thanks again.

Back to lurking

Hehe, @BenRx ...it's OK. I saw that "and others" too and wondered if they were implying without saying that it could possibly work in some capacity with Verizon, however after thinking about it I decided if it had any functionality with Verizon given its dominating presence in the US, they would have wanted us to know for sure.

Figure it this way, you would always want to "put your best foot forward", so they would list the biggest carriers it supports first and then the lesser popular carriers in descending order after. So the phrase "and others" is short for saying "A hoard of tiny little carriers of various moderate to insignificant names and sizes that might be in any region of the world but are too numerous to list here...figure it out for yourself!" HAHA.

 

[wicked]

BLU Studio Energy blows away the competition in our battery benchmark test

 

[FoxKat]

There is a lot to be said for the battery size, but also a lot to be said for lower specs (which may be quite suitable for the purpose), that likely use less power such as the screen resolution and the processor speed, 1GB of RAM to refresh instead of 3GB, etc. The combined result is a massive performance in battery longevity.