I feel like the new Life One X was somewhat of a turning point for Blu—they've always offered good phones for the price, but the LOX is a truly great phone for the money. It launched at just $99 for the first three days, which was an absolute steal; even now at $149, it's still a great deal for a phone that performs much, much better than its price suggests.

Today, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Blu pretty much confirmed my thoughts (that they're going to start offering even more bang for the buck moving forward) with the announcement of the Vivo 5 and Vivo XL. The Vivo line has long been my favorite from Blu, as everything that carries the name is pretty much guaranteed to be beautiful. The 5 and XL are basically no exception, with metal bodies and elegant design all around.

Despite names that may suggest otherwise, both devices actually feature 5.5-inch 1280x720 Super AMOLED displays, as well as the same 1.3GHz Octa-core Mediatek MT6753 processor with Mali-720 GPU, 3,150mAh battery, USB Type-C 2.0 charging (with Mediatek Fast Charging Technology), and 13MP rear/5MP front cameras.

From there, however, the Vivo 5 takes the lead as the "flagship" of the pair, with 32GB of storage plus microSD card slot, 3GB of RAM, and unibody metal construction. The Vivo XL, on the other hand, will ship with 16GB of storage (and microSD card slot), and just 2GB of RAM. It also features a patterned metal body, though it's not full unibody construction like the Vivo 5. Both devices will run Android 5.1 out of the box, but Blu is already planning on Android 6.0 updates shortly after release.

Like with most Blu phones, most of the value comes into play when you start talking price: the Vivo 5 will be released in February for just $199, and the XL in January for $149. As always, these sound like they're going to be great phones for the money—we should have review units as soon as they become available, so keep your eyes open for a closer look at these phones in the coming weeks.

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