Even though Samsung is the number one Android smartphone manufacturer, Chinese companies are quickly catching up, mostly because of the compelling mix of powerful hardware and affordable price.
UMI is yet to become one of the leading Chinese phone makers, but its products are based on pretty much the same approach, as they attempt to offer the same performance of a device built by an already established brand at half its price.
The UMI Max, for example, uses styling cues from HTC’s phones, but comes with a price that instantly catches the attention of those looking for an affordable Android handset. The UMI Max can be yours for just $175 at Gearbest, and is available in two colors, gray and gold.
The phone is made from aluminum and, at first glance, it looks almost like a genuine HTC model, especially on the back where it uses the same antenna line design as the more expensive brand.
The UMI Max isn’t the most beautiful phone out there and it’s certainly heavy, as it tips the scales at 204 grams, mostly because of its huge 4,000 mAh battery. The phone measures 150 x 75 x 8.5 mm / 5.94 x 2.95 x 0.33 inches, which gives it a pretty good grip, although we’d like it to be a bit lighter.
Aesthetically, it’s hard to find the UMI Max impressive, but the hardware and software sides are substantially more compelling, so read on to find why it’s worth the money.
UMI Max display
HARDWARE
Although the hardware might not be so impressive on paper, it’s important to always have in mind that this phone costs less than $199 and runs Android 6.0, offering pretty much everything you’d normally find on a mid-range phone on a model that aims for the lower-premium segment.
#Display
The device features a 5.5-inch display with a full HD resolution (1920×1080 pixels) that is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The LTPS display is manufactured by Sharp, the same company that’s expected to build Apple’s OLED screens for the iPhone 8.
The LTPS display is, in essence, an IPS LCD screen and does not feature the same performance as a typical OLED, but is specifically optimized for longer battery life without compromising quality in a substantial manner.
Without a doubt, the display available on the UMI Max is a good choice for this kind of device, and given its price, you can’t really ask for more. It’s very responsive, color intensity is above average, but sunlight readability is terrible. This shouldn’t be a major drawback, though, as you should rarely use the phone in direct sunlight anyway.
#CPU, RAM, and storage
The UMI Max is powered by a Helio P10 octa-core processor clocked at 1.8 GHz and paired with 3GB RAM. Although this isn’t top-notch hardware, it runs smoothly most of the time, offering a very good ratio of performance/battery life.
The phone rarely gets hot and when it does, the cooling system kicks in and cools it down quite quickly. This is quite unexpected for an affordable Chinese phone, but it seems like the manufacturer spent a substantial amount of time working on the cooling system.
“Excellent hardware for the money.”
The CPU is obviously provided by Mediatek, while the RAM comes from Samsung, so it uses components from some of the best manufacturers currently out there.
But despite this, there are moments when the phone feels quite slow, especially when performing more demanding tasks. Full HD videos, for instance, make the UMI Max feel sluggish, and so does gaming, which obviously is more appropriate for high-end phones if they come with complex graphics.
As far as storage is concerned, the phone comes with 16 GB, and here’s the odd part – you can expand built-in storage with a card, but contrary to what you’d normally expect, it’s not microSD, but TF. It’s hard to understand why the Chinese manufacturer opted for TF card support instead of microSD, and this could certainly become a major drawback, but that’s the way it is.
#Camera
UMI says that this phone comes with dual cameras, but this isn’t the same thing as on the iPhone 7 Plus. The Chinese actually refers to dual cameras as in two cameras, one on the front and another one on the back, and their performance is just average, to say the least.
The main camera is a 13-megapixel unit with dual flash, auto focus, touch focus, and other features, while the front-facing one has 5 megapixels.
The camera module is manufactured by Panasonic and is clearly intended for mid-range phones, as the photos it shoots are nothing impressive, but still good enough for those who don’t want to create high-res wallpapers with a phone.
Unfortunately, camera performance in low light is terrible and subjects can barely be spotted when no light is available. The lower the amount of light, the worse photos become, but you can shoot decent pictures in optimum light.
UMI Max camera sample
Colors, however, are not at all vivid, and pictures lack the contrast you usually see on high-end phones. Post-processing makes no wonders, so don’t expect any super high-quality shots with the UMI Max. The camera also lacks OIS, so videos might look quite shaky if you record them in motion.
There are several nice touches to the camera, including modes to automatically take a photo when subjects make a gesture, such as the victory sign.
There’s also face detection, smile shot, auto scene detection, a self timer, an option called zero shutter delay to instantly take a photo, and more advanced options to set exposure, white balance, and ISO level.
#Battery
The UMI Max ships with a 4,000 mAh battery, and this is one of the reasons the phone feels so heavy, especially when holding it in hand for the first time.
There is no fast-charging mode, but the device comes with a USB Type-C port that should guarantee faster charging speeds anyway.
“One day of battery life easily.”
Battery life is impressive, to say the least, and you could easily get around 2 days of full battery life if you don’t keep the screen always turned on. The best we could get was 72 hours on average, without actually making any compromises, and there’s no chance you wouldn’t get at least through the day.
Charging usually takes approximately 2 hours, but this is not at all a problem since you rarely do it, so battery life is undoubtedly one of the best things about the UMI Max.
#Other features
One of the best things about this phone is the notification light, which comes in the form of a circle located at the bottom of the device where you typically find the home button.
There are settings to change colors of the LED notifications light, which UMI calls “Harlequin LED Notification,” and you can also customize the bottom bar to either show on screen or become invisible and accessible physically from the lower part of the phone, as it happens on Samsung devices.
This LED notification is so awesome that the company has even included a setting to keep it pulsing in standby mode, and this is super cool during the night.
Additionally, the phone also features a fingerprint reader, which works correctly most of the time, but which fails with a wet finger or if you don’t touch it correctly. This is reasonable performance for its price.
There’s just a single speaker, despite the double grille, as well as an ambient light sensor, a gravity sensor, GPS, Wi-Fi, and the typical features that you find on today’s smartphones.
SOFTWARE
The UMI Max comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and contrary to what you normally expect to find on a phone manufactured by a Chinese company, there’s no bloatware in there.
This version of Android is nearly stock, and the only thing that comes as extra is a flashlight app and a browser, which you can’t remove but shouldn’t bother you anyway.
“Stock Android, no blotware.”
Furthermore, this isn’t a Chinese ROM, so you can install apps from the Google Play Store freely without any limitation, contrary to what we’ve seen on phones manufactured by Chinese companies, like the Xiaomi Mi5, which required plenty of tweaking to be able to install apps from the store.
Other than that, it’s the typical Android experience, and you can always install a launcher to feel like you’re using a Nexus or a Pixel. For instance, we installed the Google Pixel Launcher, and you couldn’t even tell that we were using a Chinese phone.
THE BOTTOM LINE
In the end, the UMI Max is certainly worth the money, but it’s very clear that you shouldn’t expect it to provide the performance that you usually find on high-end models.
This Chinese phone is made of metal, but it’s quite hard to describe it as a beautiful piece of art, and aesthetically, there’s a lot to be improved about it. The huge 4,000 mAh battery adds to the weight of the phone, which exceeds 200 grams, so it often becomes quite difficult to carry around or to use with one hand.
Hardware-wise, the UMI Max comes with specs that get the job done, and you really don’t need more if you don’t play games or watch 4K videos.
The camera is good enough for occasional photos, but once again, it lacks the performance of more expensive units. It’s good it’s there, but nothing quite surprising.
In the end, the UMI Max seems to be the perfect device that you give to your parents or your children as a smartphone that you really don’t care about if it breaks down. It runs Android 6.0, it has the standard feature package, boasts a long-lasting battery, and doesn’t cost a fortune.
