The Blu Pure XL features a six-inch quad HD display, a 24MP camera and 3GB of RAM for only $349, placing it in the same market as other more popular "affordable premium" smartphones such as the OnePlus 2 and Motorola's Moto X Pure Edition, which cost $300 and $400, respectively.
Blu is not a household name and is not the first brand that will come to the mind of consumers when they think of purchasing a new smartphone, despite the Blu Pure XL's flagship-level specifications. Blu is not as popular as Apple and Samsung, and in comparison with the Snapdragon 810-powered OnePlus 2 and the Snapdragon 808-powered Moto X Pure Edition, the Blu Pure XL packs the MediaTek Helio X10, which is also not as popular as Qualcomm's chipset offerings.
Beau Hamilton of mobile phone website PhoneDog compared the Blu Pure XL, OnePlus 2 and Moto X Pure Edition to test their speed outside of the specifications listed on paper by putting the devices through a variety of benchmark applications and a real-world performance test.
While the benchmark tests resulted in different outcomes. The first benchmark was Geekbench 3, where Hamilton noted the 4911 rating that the Blu Pure XL obtained as its multi-core score, which is one of the highest that he has seen in the test. The second benchmark was AnTuTu, where OnePlus 2 comfortably came out on top. The third and last benchmark test was 3DMark, but since the Blu Pure XL is not yet officially released and so will not work with the application, only the OnePlus 2 and Moto X Pure Edition participated, with the Oneplus2 almost doubling the Moto X Pure Edition's score.
For the real-world performance test, Hamilton had all three smartphones run the same series of apps in succession, opening apps and performing a task before switching to another one in a predetermined order.
The winner of the real-world performance test was Blu Pure XL, which finished the series in 59.9 seconds, with the Moto X Pure Edition coming in at second with a time of one minute and two seconds and the OnePlus 2 trailing at one minute and 14 seconds.
The real-world performance test goes to show that the benchmark applications are not the only way to test the performance of devices. Granted, there is always the possibility of human error and as such, the Moto X Pure Edition could have come out on top.
However, as Android news website Phandroid said, having the Blu Pure XL keep up with the Snapdragon-powered OnePlus 2 and Moto X Pure Edition is a feat on its own and proves that the MediaTek Helio X10 that the smartphone is packing is the real deal.
