Extremely nice exterior, large battery, strong chipset plus a little compromise.

The introduction of a mid-range phone is coming now, and as it happens more and more often, there will be a few surprises in the article. Anyone interested in Far Eastern devices is already familiar with UMiDigi, but there are likely to be more people who haven’t heard of them yet, so let’s get started with a quick introduction. The company was founded in February 2012 in Shenzhen - commonly known as Silicon Valley in China - as UMI, and then in July of that year, they unveiled their first mobile phone called UMI X4. We can’t talk about diversified activity with them, in addition to smartphones, they only presented a smartwatch and a QI charger. Over the past six years, the role of novice and small manufacturer has grown, more and more models are present in international markets, and they have also appeared in European countries with their own stores.

Introductory

Deja vu. This first came to my mind when I saw the phone. Many may have thought the same thing, which is completely understandable. It would also be hard to list how many devices we’ve seen with similar designs this year, but that’s the trend Apple launched last year with the iPhone X. That island already seems overwhelming compared to that, which seems particularly pleasant in this form. I confess, at first I was averse to the sensor island, but my opinion is starting to change, I am slowly becoming friends with it. But let's see what the manufacturer has put on the table (webshop), which is why it is worth taking a closer look at this device.

Exterior

The mobile is 156,8 x 75,6 x 8,35 mm in terms of physical parameters and weighs 205 grams, so a “average big screen” phone comes back to us. 91,5% of the front panel is occupied by a 6,3 ”19: 9 display with a resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels (271 ppi), which is a bit small for this size today. The top bar of the panel is interrupted only by the discrete drop-shaped sensor island, which hides a 16-megapixel f2-aperture camera (S5K3P3) from Samsung, a proximity sensor and a light-sensing sensor, and a speaker. The camera supports face-based unlocking, so we can get the phone to work quickly and easily.

There is nothing unusual on the back, only the 12 + 5 megapixel f2 (OV12870), horizontally placed dual camera from OmniVision, with the LED flash below. The resolution of photos is the usual 12 megapixels, the professionals were not very generous in terms of video, we have to be satisfied with the maximum resolution of 1080p / 30fps, although I think this can be enough for most people.

There is only a second microphone on the top of the device, but at the bottom we can greet an old acquaintance in the person of the 3,5 mm jack, next to it the primary microphone, the USB-C connector for charging, and the built-in (supposedly) stereo speaker. Thanks to the two microphones, no one will have a problem with the sound quality of the calls. We have become accustomed to the fact that the SIM tray is located on the right, which can hold either two nano-SIMs or a SIM and a memory card. You may have noticed that there has been no talk of a fingerprint reader on either the front or back (built into the display) so far. This has been integrated by UMiDigi into the power button on the right, making it easy to unlock the phone without having to touch the back or unlock the phone a little awkwardly under the display, risking dropping it. In my opinion, this is a good solution and its use is also at hand. Above the power button are the volume buttons as usual.

intrinsic value

The phone is powered by the already known MediaTek Helio P23 central unit. The processor manages eight cores, which are located in two clusters. In the lower group, four Cortex-A53 cores work at a maximum clock speed of 1,5 GHz, while the other group consists of four more A53 cores, which can operate at a maximum clock signal of 2 GHz. If you want to know more about this processor, ITT you can read a more article about it. The role of the GPU is played by the Mali-G71 MP2, which runs on 700 MHz, and this cocoa is plenty enough to power the pixels on the display. In addition to these, we get 4 GB of internal memory (LPDDR4X), which is no surprise to anyone today, mid-range phones are worth it as well. However, what sets it apart from mid-range phones is the size of the internal storage, which is not less than 128 GB, and if that weren’t enough, we can further expand it with a memory card of up to 256 GB. That is more than enough. The designers did not save any time with the battery that ensures the operating time, specifically we get 4150 mAh, with which we can pull it out a lot for a day or two so that we don't have to look for an outlet.

The power of the phone is restored by the 18W fast charge on the cable, and as a big positive we can also mention that we also get a wireless charge, of which 15 W is built into the phone. We cannot complain about further specifications either. There will be no problems using 4G at home, as the B20 is supported by the phone, the Bluetooth version is 4.1 standard, the wifi is available at a / b / g / n 2,4 and 5 GHz, the navigation is GPS and GLONASS module helps us find the right direction.

NFC has not been left out of the repertoire either, so no one has to give up secure contactless payment. Fortunately, this is already being thought of by manufacturers preparing to conquer global markets, as it is the most common method of payment outside of China.

In terms of software equipment, the company prefers factory Android, so we get a version 8.1 free of frills with factory applications. This way, everyone can customize their device if they don’t like the “puritanical” stock Android.

Cue

It would be hard to hide whether the phone is very similar to the OnePlus 6T or the Huawei P20, only a few small differences. But I don’t see this as a downside, both other phones can be said to be beautiful devices just like this one. The UMiDigi One Max is available in two colors, either with the back cover with the fancy name Twilight - which is gradient from purple to blue - or with a more solid carbon pattern back cover. If I had to choose, I would buy the Twilight version, although I like the phone to be more subdued, solid in color, but for some reason it’s very catchy. All in all, this is a great put together phone with all the good features. As a negative, we might mention the display, but for so much money (the price will be at the end of the article as usual) this is smoothly acceptable. For most people, this resolution is enough anyway, and it also allows us to use the phone for a long time. This “downside,” in turn, is offset by a huge battery - with Qi charging - as well as huge internal storage, NFC, and face-based unlocking.

Last but not least, the price of the phone is extremely convincing. To buy a device with such equipment for so much money…. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it either comes with a lot of compromises or comes from a manufacturer that even the Chinese have a slanted eye on.

If you want to buy the phone at a very good price, you can do so on December 2018-10, 17 at GearBest. In the introductory campaign, you can hit it for 51 thousand forints and the Priority Line (which is guaranteed to be duty and VAT free) delivery is only 300 HUF, the device will be mailed to the customers on December 27th.

It is also important that during the above period, the first 5 customer will leave 25 600 every day at the checkout. The beginning of the day is, of course, not a home but a Chinese time!

If you are convinced of the above, click here for the introductory action details: UMIDIGI One MAX introductory action

You can also buy the phone here: UMIDIGI One MAX Shopping