Introducing the all-metal Vivo 5 at CES 2016 this week, discount smartphone maker Blu just joined the premium crowd.

Brazilian entrepreneur Samuel Ohev-Zion founded Blu seven years go on the idea of making mobile devices that mix style and low cost. The latest smartphone unveiled by the company at the Consumer Electronics Show 2016 this week, the Blu Vivo 5 epitomizes that mission.

With the Vivo 5, the Miami-based smartphone maker known for its popularity in much of Latin America, as well as U.S. retailers like Wal-Mart, officially joins the "premium" device category -- at least in the design department.

The Android-based Vivo 5 is Blu's first smartphone with an all-metal build, a design style first popularized by Apple's iPhone, and then imitated by flagship smartphone lines from HTC, Samsung, and many others.

But the Vivo 5 is a Blu phone: It isn't a high-powered flagship, but it's also not high-priced.

The Vivo 5 will begin offering a premium look and feel to consumers in the U.S., Latin America, and much of the rest of the world when Blu releases it in February 2016, with full a sticker price (unlocked) of $199.

The Vivo 5 unsurprisingly skimps on some of hardware to reach the $200 price point, but beyond the attractive aluminum unibody construction, there are some great features it offers to bargain hunters.

First off, it's got full LTE capability, with VoLTE support, dual-SIM card slots, and compatibility with all GSM networks operating in the western hemisphere. In the U.S., that means T-Mobile, AT&T, or any subsidiaries.

The Vivo 5 is powered by an octa-core Mediatek 6753 System on a Chip (SoC) running at 1.3GHz with 3GB RAM. While Qualcomm SoCs are better known, Blu claims its Vivo 5 outmatches the Snapdragon-powered third-generation Moto G -- which Latin Post highly praised as a great budget phone in its own right -- in benchmarks across the board.

The device runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box on a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display at 720p, protected by Gorilla Glass 3. It comes with 32GB of internal storage, but is expandable with a microSD card slot.

The 13-megapixel main camera and 5-megapixels selfie shooter are pretty standard, but the camera's phase detection autofocus is an unusual bonus for a budget phone. And on paper at least, the Vivo 5's 3150mAh battery is an impressive addition, as is the decision to include a fast-charging USB Type-C port.

The Vivo 5 is as slim and light as some of the top Android smartphones on the market right now, and Blu will offer either Silver or Gold color options.

This week Blu also unveiled the Vivo XL, which offers almost the exact same hardware specs as the Vivo 5, but no unibody build, less RAM and ROM -- and a price that's $50 lower.

The Vivo 5 is entering into an increasingly crowded unlocked "premiumish" budget smartphone market, as Motorola plays on the same strategy with its Moto G and Moto X smartphones and even HTC has tried to get in on the act with the late-2015 HTC One A9.

In the U.S., the Blu Vivo 5 will be released in February on BestBuy.com and Amazon.com.