In front of me I have the recently released Blu Energy XL.
This is the first phone that I have ever tested from the company 'Blu'.
Its got a 6 inch screen size... and the reason I chose it to test was the huge 5000 mAh battery
which claims an incredible 30 day standby time.
Midrange phones are giving the flagships a run for their money these days.
The Note 5, which you see here, only has a 3000 mAh battery.
Almost half of the Energy XL.
Thickness wise its pretty standard.
Note 5 is 7.6mm.
Energy XL is a bit thicker at 8.4, and the worlds thinnest premium smartphone the is
the Moto Z at a 5.2mm thickness.
Since the battery on this phone is so big, you can use it to charge other devices directly
from you phone.
Like a powerbank.
Just plug in the correct cable, and you can charge cameras, like the Gear 360, or GoPro's.
You can even charge other phones, using the Energy XL . Like you see here with my Note
5.
Huge brownie points with the ladies if you can charge their dead iPhone with your Android.
Right now this phone is 300 dollars, but as with all electronics that price will drop
with time.
Ive put a link in the description of this video so you can check the current pricing.
Lets get on with the test.
Scratch test first!
This phone is using Gorilla Glass 3.
And doesn't scratch until a Level 6.
This is normal and pretty much expected at this point.
It'll be interesting to see how the Gorilla Glass 5 holds up on the Note 7 when it comes
out.
Ill be testing that as well.
The front 5 megapixel camera is covered by the same front Gorilla Glass.
So it is protected against scratches.
Ive had a few people ask about the hardness level of my razor blade.
It also scratches at a level 6, but the level 5 mark rubs right off.
So it has an equal hardness level as the screen glass, and thats why it does no damage.
The home button, and fingerprint scanner is not made of glass, and does scratch relatively
easy.
The bad part about this is that after being heavily scratched...
this fingerprint stops working all together.
It will not recognize my fingerprint anymore.
Which is unfortunate, because the Axon 7 and the Moto Z continued to function after being
heavily scratched.
The home button part works just fine, just not the scanner part.
So if you end up buying this phone...keep that in mind.
The sides of the phone are made from plastic, which is surprising.
I assumed they were metal at first from the weight of the phone, but you can see from
the color of the shavings and the sound my razor makes that it really is plastic.
The power and volume buttons are made of metal though.
The back of the phone IS made of metal.
Which gives the phone a quality feel to it.
The single color flash is plastic, just like normal.
And the 13 megapixel rear camera lens is made of glass, which is good, and will not scratch
easy.
Unfortunately the top and bottom segments of the phone are made of plastic...
It brings down manufacturing costs considerably when the phone isn't made out of a solid block
metal.
So this explains the midrage price point.
Its definitely not a 'solid metal' design, but Blu never advertised it as metal either,
so all is well.
Onto the burn test.
The glass on this phone is pretty thick, when you press on it, you wont see the AMOLED screen
ripple or flex with the pressure of your finger like you would on the LGG5.
I think the thicker glass helps it survive my flame for an impressive 37 seconds.
Onto the bend test.
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This phone feels like a tank right out of the box.
The huge battery gives it some solid weight.
So I am not surprised at all that the phone is very sturdy.
I see some minor flexing along the top, which I imagine is where the motherboard meets the
battery.
But the phone itself does not get permanently kinked, or catastrophically break either.
This phone passes the bend test, and it seems like a solid mid-range device from a hardware
perspective.
I do enjoy reviewing tech from the inside.
Tell me what phone you want to see tested next in the comments!
I'm always looking for more devices to stick on my 'Shelf of Shame' Thanks for watching!
Hope to see you around.