Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone is the latest example of BLU's program of providing maximum bang for the buck phones at very affordable prices. The BLU formula is to package all the technology details currently desired by most buyers into products that don't waste money on luxury touches, and that may utilize the most generic or one generation behind examples of each component, but nevertheless hit the ball out of the park on features, design and value. Using that metaphor I would call the BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone a solid home run. It is in many ways an astounding product for only $139.00 (the price on Amazon at the time of this review). I was interested to note some reviewers going on about how the BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone is inferior to an iPhone. Some of this is due to differences in the Apple iOS and the Android OS, some of it the difference between a phone supplied with a generic Android interface and a phone supplied with an interface festooned with all kinds of add ons and extras. Of course an unlocked iPhone sells for four times as much as an unlocked BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone. On that basis the BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone is the clear winner for price sensitive buyers. I was also amused, and annoyed, to see a few reviewers take looking down the nose attitudes about the BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone while also promoting news of their own affluence by noting that they were insensitive to price and did not care whether or not they had to make two year extortion contracts to get an iPhone. Silly rich people, this phone is not made and marketed for you. It's for real people who have to pay bills and make budgets and split the difference between what they want and what they are able to spend. But, to the phone: the BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone is easily the nicest smartphone that I have ever seen from BLU. The screen, a component where BLU has in the past cut corners, has excellent resolution and touch response and solid viewing from almost any angle. The battery is sealed in, you can't open the back or remove the battery. The micro SIMs and the SD memory card are installed iPhone style in side mounted slots with dust covers. The body is slim and seems to be quite rigid. The 8MP camera was generally very good and the built in camera app is more than adequate, although adding a after market camera app like ProCapture would improve results. All the usual radios for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Wireless and the phone worked perfectly well. The phone supports up to 64GB additional memory via the micro SDcard slot. Interface and app response was excellent due in no small part I am sure to the quad core processor. Battery life was excellent, one advantage of a larger form factor and shell. Sound is excellent, much better than some of BLU's smaller phones. Things that the generic Android Lollipop 5.0 interface deployed by BLU does not have: NFC, KIES, screen mirroring or sharing, call blocking or filtering, SMS blocking or filtering, SPAM word or blocked caller lists, separate lock screen and home screen wallpapers, and so forth. The wireless is 2.4Ghz a/b/g/n band only, not dual band. That said, the implementation of Lollipop 5.0 on this phone has a few extra features and slightly better aesthetics than Lollipop as seen on the recent BLU Studio C 5.0-Inch Smartphone, for example. The Android 5.0 Lollipop revision of the Android OS has introduced a slew of new interface norms and behaviors, and the loss of some old favorite ways of doing things. Users coming from phones with past Android OS versions, and users migrating from Samsung phones, should be prepared for a shock. Things just don't work quite the same way. Swipes do different things than before, icons are different, all kinds of navigation behaviors are changed. The relationship of various settings have changed. Some settings or options that used to be obvious are now not quite so obvious. The notifications scheme and settings have completely changed. All white app, dialog, notification and alert screens and backgrounds are now the norm. Pastel colors are everywhere. Google has also decided that there is no need for a nighttime or dim room mode for use in darker environments. Discreetly using a Lollipop OS phone in a dim room is a thing of the past. A lighthouse to the world you will be. I would recommend adding a custom launcher like "Nova Launcher" on any Lollipop phone. I found the phone much easier to use after retro fitting the interface with a launcher. Out of the box the generic Android 5.0 Lollipop OS interface as Google imagines it without any phone maker or third party enhancements is really, at least to this user, rather annoying. A phone with a screen this size is really a Phablet, half phone and half small tablet. Although a gender norm stereotype, this "phone" would be much easier for a woman to own due in no small part to a woman typically having a purse to stash a phone this size in. For a man without a messenger bag or cargo pockets the question of where to put the thing to carry it around is problematic. Winter would be easier than summer, coats with pockets and so forth, and summer time would probably produce more lost phones falling from small pockets and phones left behind on tables. Not the phone's fault of course. But an issue worth thinking about when contemplating the phone on steroids category. The look and fit and feel of the phone is generally excellent. It really is an astounding package for the money. The BLU Energy X Plus Smartphone delivers huge value for the money. It's a solid buy for users wanting a good quality Phablet phone/tablet at a very attractive price. RECOMMENDED.