We got the UMI Plus for review from a Chinese store, Efox, here we will present our review of the Umi Plus Smartphone after using it for about a week. We are here to help you make an informed decision if you are considering buying a new phone.
Design
Umi is a relatively new entrant into the highly competitive cell phone market in China. It is quite clear that Umi is attempting to distinguish themselves from other by offering a phone with great value. The first thing we will look at is the build quality, UMI Plus offers a nice sturdy feel when held in hand. The sleek brushed full metal uni-body, and the great job they did to hide/seamlessly integrate the two plastic antenna panels on the top and bottom of the device adds an additional premium feel. The body of the phone has a beautiful curved screen which is also seamlessly transitioned to its smooth curved metal body. On the side we have a dedicated shortcut button which is a great feature that is not offered on a lot of phones. It is customizable to work with nearly any app/function that phone has, and can also be disabled via the settings screen. On the bottom we have the USB type-C connector which becoming more and more common on phones, as well as mainstream consumer electronics like the newly announced Apple MacBook. One comment about the Type-C Connector is that it seems to be a little more recessed-in than normal. There are some cables/adapter that may not plug in / connect securely because of this.
On the back of the device we also have the back facing 13mp Samsung camera. The camera is extremely fast at taking pictures with little to no shutter lag. Overall it takes acceptable basic pictures, however the colors can be slightly off if there is insufficient lighting. In low light settings the pictures can be grainy or noisy at times. Video-wise we have similar performance as the camera when it comes to picture quality; however it does shoot in full 1080p resolution and has image stabilization to help you while recording.
On the Front of the phone we have the slick curved 2D glass display which we thought was Gorilla Glass, but after some research we found that they used Dinorex T2X-1 chemical strengthened glass made by Nippon Electric Glass of Japan. Other online blogs have tested this against competitors such as Gorilla Glass & DragonTrail Glass, and you can be rest assured that Dinorex will protect your screen just as well as its competitors. Under the glass we have the Sharp 5.5 inch display which offers great viewing angles and immersive colours at its display resolution of 1080p FHD. On the top we have what they call “Harlequin LED Notification” which is a multi-coloured LED notification light that can blink, pulse and transition to other colours. On the bottom we have the on screen navigation bar which is also customizable in the settings. There are also two hidden capacitive buttons next to the home button, which act as the back and menu buttons. In the center we have the highly accurate and responsive fingerprint scanner that also acts as a home button.
Hardware
Specs-wise the phone’s Helio P10 Octacore cpu and 4gbs of ram is enough to allow the phone to run most apps and processes regardless if running in the foreground or background. Our original Antutu Score during our unboxing was 49716 but somehow after having everything loaded onto it, it came up with a slightly higher score of 49877. When coupled with itss the large 4000mah battery we are able to run this phone on medium use for an entire 24hour day, while getting about 6-7 hours on heavy use (Games, Email, GPS, etc). In terms of charging it can charge from 10% to 100% in about 2 hours depending on the output capacity of the charger being used.
Network and GPS
Some have mentioned that the Umi Plus’ has issues with reception and it’s GPS. Based on our tests cellular reception and 4G Data connectivity is perfectly fine. Speed tests show download speeds of nearly 60mbps and upload speeds of 40mbps. With WIFI reception can pickup wifi that is quite a distance away, but it sometimes struggles to keep that specific connection active, signals that are near have no issues. In terms of GPS it works fine , only issue is that it take slightly more time to get the initial gps fix (6-7 seconds), but once it does it’s tracks perfectly
Sound and Audio
Lastly I would like to look at the audio on the Umi Plus. With the headphone jack, the audio output is really helped out by the amp and the sound is crisp, clear and deep. However the output from the external speaker falls flat. Without using the Equalizer settings the sound can be loud and clear but lacking depth. This shouldn’t matter too much to the casual listener but it’s something that should be taken into account when deciding whether this phone is the one for you.
Camera Sample
Conclusion
So to summarize, the Umi Plus offers great specs for a sub $200 price. It has a premium feel because of the rounded metal unibody, and rounded glass. It has good mediatek helio p10 cpu and 4gb of ram which will run any apps you require and the 4000mah battery will allow you to run all day long without the need to charge it constantly. It has good cellular and wifi connectivity with slightly slower initial GPS fix. Only slight shortcomings are that the camera doesn’t always display true color and the speaker is really flat sounding without the use of EQ. Thank you for watching and we hope to see you again soon. By the way, you can use this 6 euro coupon code: UPL6 to catch it from Efox China warehouse at €179.99, and 10 euro coupon code: IGEEKUM to grab it from EU warehouse at €199.99.