BLU Studio 5.5

BLU Studio 5.5

BLU has announced its Studio 5.5 affordable smartphone, which offers a large screen and a quad-core CPU at a very attractive price point. It's built around a 5.5" TFT display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels, which makes for a pixel density of 178ppi.

Is that big-name giant smartphone way beyond your price range? No problem: BLU Products has just shipped the Studio 5.5, one of the more affordable large phones that we've seen in a while. The Android 4.2 device won't impress with its 854 x 480 resolution, quad-core MediaTek chip or 4GB of expandable storage, but it also costs just $179 contract-free -- much less than many rivals. The bright colors and dual unlocked SIM slots don't hurt, either. If you're interested in BLU's big budget handset, you'll find it at Amazon and Best Buy in the near future.

Under the hood, the BLU Studio 5.5 packs a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU and a PowerVR SGX544 GPU on the MediaTek MTM6589 platform. There's 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, which is expandable via the microSD card slot. At the back, there's a 5MP shooter with an LED flash and 1080p video recording, while at the front sits a VGA camera.

Popping the battery cover reveals two SIM card slots as well as the 2,250mAh Li-Ion battery, which BLU says is good for up to 300 hours of standby or 4 hours of 3G talk time.

The Blu Studio 5.5 measures 157 x 79.5 x 9.5mm and weighs 184 grams. It runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, but BLU hasn't detailed its plans for future updates at this point.

Available win a number of bright colors including yellow, blue, red as well as black and white, the BLU Studio 5.5 will retail for $179 off-contract. You can grab it from Amazon and Best Buy in a couple of months.