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Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone

It became surprisingly beautiful, yet the bloody strap device is the UMIDIGI Bison. We tried it!

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone


Check out our test on YouTube too!


 

Introductory

UMIDIGI has been one of the better manufacturers so far, but in 2020 they were also thoroughly surprised by their two mobiles. One was the Umidigi S5 Pro, which debuted at the beginning of the summer, giving an AMOLED display, a fingerprint sensor under glass, lots of memory and a huge display for quite ridiculous money. Not by the way, it looks very good.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 1

The second surprise was the Bison arriving in the fall, which is something you may have come across in this article.

Bison means bison in Hungarian, which is a fitting name for a long-distance phone, because the bison reminds us of robustness. However, we have to state here that the name is quite misleading, because the UMIDIGI Bison is all but robust, even though it gives at least as much or even more than most rugged phones.

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This introduction is starting to get pretty spoiler enough, so let’s move on, let’s get to the substance of the article!


 

Packaging, accessories

The Umidigi Bison comes in a white box. I mean in a completely white box. On the slightly tested cover we can see the name of the manufacturer, at the bottom of the box the main features of the phone, but nothing else awaits us.

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The white color is elegant anyway, so there's nothing wrong with that, it fits me better than the tiri-variegated boxes.

They don't stack us with accessories either. A 15-watt EU plug charging head, a red Type-C cable from UMIDIGI, a SIM needle and a description in which we can't find a word of Hungarian, but English. This is also something.

We can move on to the outside, you can see the rest in the pictures!


 

External

Where do I start?

Let’s start, perhaps, with the fact that Bison’s biggest weapon in the fight for customers will be design. This mobile looks amazing!

Neither its size (162,5 x 79,9 x 12,8 mm) nor its weight (250 grams) suggests that it would be a rugged phone. Maybe it's just the thickness, though it's not really, because if we put a silicone case on any phone, it won't be much thinner either, the Bison doesn't need that, because it's durable anyway.

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On the left side there are four buttons, in addition to the standard volume and power switch, there is also a programmable one, on which we can set several functions.

At the bottom, a Type-C connector and a microphone, and at the top, only the headphone connector is waiting for us.

At the top right of the front is the SIM tray, where you can insert either two SIM cards or a SIM card and a memory card. Below it is the fingerprint sensor, and below it is a second button that can be used for underwater photography or other functions can be programmed on it.

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The display is large and, compared to a rugged phone, it occupies a fairly large percentage of the front panel. This is numerically, exactly 92,7 percent, which is an outstanding value among long-distance phones.

The self-timer camera sits on an average, drop-shaped island in the upper-middle part of the display.

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On the back we find the camera island and the speaker. The former is the usual UMIDIGI shape, which is slowly becoming a hallmark of the company, with four optics and a sized LED on it. The latter at the bottom left corner in a recess. At the lower edge there is a tab to which, for example, a wrist strap can be attached.

With the exception of the display and cameras, we find rubber covers everywhere. The thinness of the phone was preserved by putting a thick cover only at the corners, though here they also thought that the rubber would hang a little above the plane of the display, so it also protects this.

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Protection from the edges is provided by an extremely showy metal insert.

Of course, what’s described doesn’t say much about how good the device looks, but I hope the pictures speak for me as well.

The pattern on the back, the design of the speaker above the camera on the front, the camera island, the metal elements on the side, and I could even list the tiny but more carefully designed details that make the Bison a particularly beautiful phone.

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It’s a robust, but not yet, smart phone feeling, but somehow I don’t even feel like I have a half brick in my hand. They hit the proportions incredibly well, skillfully balancing between proper protection, rugged phone capabilities and sleek design.

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I dare say, one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, phones in recent years has been put on the table.


 

Hardware

Well, the hardware, or at least the central chip, no longer feels as cool as it does on the outside.

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The MediaTek Helio P60 is not a bad unit, but it is slowly starting to act over time. Its performance is, of course, plenty enough for a phone, especially a rugged phone. Eight cores, four of which are Cortex-A73, 2 GHz maximum clock and the Mali G72 graphics accelerator should be enough for almost everything.

In connection with the proci, it is worth mentioning that the phone has also received liquid cooling, which helps to distribute and spread the generated heat, so we will not have a problem with heating either.

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If you’ve been whining about iron so far, you won’t be from here on out!

In addition to the proci, they add 6 GB of LPDDR4X dual-channel memory and 128 GB of storage, the latter being UFS 2.1.

The display is large. The IPS panel has an image diagonal of 6,3 inches and a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels, or FHD +. Above the display, of course, is Gorilla Glass.

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Hardware tests

Don't even move on, let's see quickly how the phone passes the tests!

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As I wrote, the Helio P60 isn’t the pinnacle anymore, but it can quite quite stand it. The better results, as usual from MediaTek's tiles, came from 3DMark's tests, which model everyday use, while the weaker ones came from those who tested the resources needed for games.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t play with the phone, but for newer titles you’ll have to fool around with the graphics so that the game doesn’t get stuck. If you can live with that, I guess you won’t complain about the performance!

UMIDIGI BisonXiaomi Mi Note 10UMIDIGI S5 Pro
Processor (SoC)MediaTek Helio P60Qualcomm Snapdragon 730GMediaTek Helio G90T
test Program
AnTuTu Bench. 7.x175376 point263723 point289 241 points
AnTuTu Bench CPU / GPU / UX / MEM64650 / 30004 /
34025 / 46697 points
93442 / 70193 /
49522 / 50566 points
95164 / 82546 /
56063 / 55468 points
Geébench 5.x (score / single / multi)1284 / 567 / 1769 points1112 / 540 / 1716 points1652 / 499 / 1652
PC Mark Work 2.06606 point7355 point10 431 points
PC Mark Computer Vision2633 point4455 point6768 point
PC Mark Storage13805 point12969 point8318 point
3DMark Sling shot / extreme opengl / Vulkan1672/1268 / x points3405 / 2387 / 2255 points2831 / 2723 / 2423
3D Mark Wild Life641 point
3D Mark API Overhead OpenGL / Volcano 320272 / 297784 points87 060 / 551 384

 

Kamerák

On the front panel, the self-timer camera works with Sony’s 24-megapixel sensor.

On the back, as I mentioned, we find four optics, of which the main camera has been given Sony’s very popular 48 megabyte solution, next to which we find a 16 megapixel ultra wide angle viewing unit, a 5 megabyte macro and a 5 megabyte depth sensor.

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Surprisingly, the better-capable Umidigi S5 Pro features a 48-megapixel Samsung sensor, while the Bison features the Sony IMX582 EXMOR RS. In my opinion, Sony's solution is better than Samsung's, although there are no big differences.

The main camera lens system has six members, which is perhaps more than average, although we already find one in most devices in this category.

Looking at the images, you can see that you can shoot photos that can be used in normal lighting conditions. The colors are good, the distortion is minimal, so this camera will not disappoint. Of course, everyone can guess that we don’t get a perfect camera in this price range. In the case of Bison, the center of the images is sharp and detailed, but the finished photo blurs towards the edges.

At the same time, the result obtained is not unacceptable, but we have seen better.

The ultra-wide optics and 16 mega sensor aren’t nearly as good anymore, but even that can still be used. In fact, you need to add light, the fact that the colors climb a bit and the detail, the dynamics aren’t very good either, but no one will tear your hair out of it.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 15

The 5 mega macro is a surprise in that, for example, the Xiaomi is forcing 2 mega macro cameras that can be used for nothing in both the middle and lower categories. They could get used to it, but really. The UMIDIGI 5 megabyte solution is one better, and not just because of the resolution. The colors are better and the sharpness is better, so in general everything is better than with Xiaomi.

Of course, part of the truth is that surpassing the Xiaomi 2-mega camera isn’t a big deal, but that’s a fact, UMIDIGI’s five were more successful.

What we can complain about is the video capabilities. With FHD 30 FPS, it's worth giving more, not to mention the lack of vibration damping.

Let’s say if we reconcile with that, we get relatively good colors and enjoyable images, just have a tripod to keep the mobile from shaking in our hands.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 16Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 17
Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 18Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 19
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Other skills

Fortunately, Wi-Fi already supports the ac standard, which is called Wi-Fi5 under a new name. Bluetooth is still 4.2, it could be better. GPS, GLONASS and Galileo support are available for navigation. This is on the positive side, because we may benefit more from European Galileo than from the Beidou support in Chinese telephones, which means the Chinese navigation system.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 22

We have a lot of sensors. Fingerprint, proximity sensor, light sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, and the end of the foam on the cake to get a Bosch sensor for barometric pressure measurement as well. There is also an FM radio, but no notification LED. At the same time, we get NFC-T (hooray, hooray), which can also be used for mobile payment.

The phone comes with a 5000 mAh battery, which is of course enough for one day of battery use, saving a little for up to two days.


 

Szoftver

The UMIDIGI Bison comes with Android version 10. Both the security package and the last system update on my device last fall.

The system itself is the usual, completely basic Android, spiced with some strap phone frills. The frills here are to be understood in a good sense, as we get a correct software package with which we can take advantage of the capabilities of the phone.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 23

In the directory called Toolbox there is a noise level meter, a flashlight, a water level meter. We can measure the height of distant buildings, mountains, there is a magnifying glass, alarm, spirit level, protractor, compass, barometer and finally a pedometer.

In addition, we only get an app called Zello plus, which is a messaging app that the manufacturer has found to be compatible with smartphones.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 24

The biggest difference between the settings is due to the plus buttons, on which we can set different functions. There is a one-touch emergency call where we can forward a pre-written message to a pre-specified phone number. But you can also use these buttons to control underwater photography, for example, because you can't use the touch screen underwater.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 25

Another interesting feature is that we also find a glove mode, with which we can control the phone through the display, even in not very thick gloves.


 

Durability

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I left the endings to the end. These are essentially the same capabilities as today’s better strap phones, both in terms of shock and water and dust resistance. In addition to the completely basic IP68, it also complies with the IP69K and MIL-STD-810G military standards, so the phone is resistant to high-pressure water, direct sunlight, acidic environments and vapors.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 27

In terms of water resistance, the mobile must remain operational for 30 minutes up to a depth of one and a half meters.

So, to sum up the thing a strong phone today needs to know, Umidigi Bison knows it too!


 

Summary

I think I’ve already described everything about the exterior. I really like the Bison, it really stands out from the half-brick-sized strap devices. We can safely say it is also elegant, so much so that using this mobile phone they will not look at us even if we are not brought out at a construction site or while climbing, but at a meeting table.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 28

There is nothing worth mentioning about telephony capabilities. During the week of the test, I used it as my primary device, so I could try out phone calls, navigation, and usually everything I needed. I didn't find a mistake.

The fingerprint sensor is fast, but face-based unlocking also works perfectly well and quickly. In low light conditions, the display automatically switches to a completely white background, which illuminates our face. Perfect.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 29

Although the display is only IPS, it is not bad at all. The colors are good, the backlight is also fine, although it would be an exaggeration to say that I haven’t encountered a brighter glue anymore. It can also be used in the sun, but of course the disadvantage of IPS compared to AMOLED is obvious.

Umidigi Bison test - the most elegant long-distance phone 30

So the bottom line is, UMIDIGI Bison breaks all taboos, upsets every idea we’ve thought about strap phones so far.

Despite its durability, it has become a very nice mobile, and most importantly, we are not dizzy even at the price tag. Currently, they are asking for $ 150, or 44 forints at the time of writing, which is a friendly price, to put it mildly.

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If you liked it, you can buy it at the link below. Pay attention to the selection of the delivery method. If you want the store to pay sales tax and customs, choose the EU Priority Line delivery, which costs 900 forints.

Buy here:

UMIDIGI Bison 6/128 GB

 

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About the Author

s3nki

Owner of the HOC.hu website. He is the author of hundreds of articles and thousands of news. In addition to various online interfaces, he has written for Chip Magazine and also for the PC Guru. For a time, he ran his own PC shop, working for years as a store manager, service manager, system administrator in addition to journalism.

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