You may have heard of Umi – a small Chinese manufacturer that has not been in the industry for years but it has been known for good understanding of how to design the phones. Firstly, the company attracted a lot of attention with its Zero model, which spotted some premium materials and decent specs at affordable price. Since that it has become clear that Umi will try to stay in the competition with a nicely designed handsets and thus lure some consumers. Their newest model Iron is no exception. Let’s take a look what we’ve got.
We wanted to say thanks to Pandawill.com for sending Umi Iron for a review!
Umi Iron Review: SPECS
Display
5.5″ 1080p
Processor
MediaTek MT6753, 1.3GHz, octa-core, 64-bit
RAM
3GB
Camera
8MP Front/13MP Back
Connectivity
Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+
Battery
3.350 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions
152.3 x 76.5 x 7.9mm/ 148g
OS
Android 5.1
Storage
16GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 64GB)
Umi Iron Review: UNBOXING
The packaging is a bit different than the majority of boxes as you have to pull one side to open it up. Then you will see all the items packed neatly.
The accessories that are in the box include the instruction manuals, USB plug along with the USB cable. Last but not least the company added USB OTG cable. Well, any extra accessory is a great thing.
Overall, the contents look to be of good quality (but not the best).
Not sure if it is included in every package but I have also received a decent quality leather flip cover case. Not sure if it is a real leather but it definitely feels like.
Last but not least I received a tempered glass screen protector. I will inform you if each smartphone comes with a free extra leather flip cover case and this glass protector or it was just me.
Umi Iron: DESIGN and DISPLAY
The device comes with a 5.5″ display, which is very bright, sharp and vivid. Also, it has great viewing angles and natural looking colours. Overall, it is a superb panel for a budget device and you will notice it immediately once you turn on the device.
On the top side there is a proximity sensor, 8MP camera sensor, earpiece and front firing LED flash for night selfies.
On the bottom side there is really nice looking notification LED light, which has a great looking pulsing effect. It flashes green for notifications and red for charging/low battery as default but it can be changed!
The LED has plenty of customisation options, which is a really neat feature if you want to assign the colours you want for particular things. Also, you have a lot of colours to choose from. I have to tell that it really makes the device stand out as the the LED is bright and looks great with a pulsing effect.
Here is why we call this model Iron as the back plate is made out of metal. It definitely feels like a high quality material and adds a bit of a premium look and feel. Also, it is feels great in the hand (I may be subjective as I just love metal phones).
However, the top and bottom parts are made out of plastic as this is the solution Umi chose to implement to get a normal antenna reception.
On the top side there is a 13MP Sony IMX214 shooter along with dual tone dual LED flash and a noise cancelling mic. It is worth mentioning that the camera lens are surrounded by a quality stainless steel ring.
On the bottom side there is an UMI logo along with the loudspeaker.
The metal shell continues to the sides of the device and it is tightened up with screws, which also provide a nice looking industrial design.
In addition, you can find a nano SIM card/microSD card (up to 64GB) slot , which you have to open up with a pin.
On the left side you can find a metal made power on/off switch along with a volume rocker.
On the top side there is just a headset jack.
Finally, on the bottom you can find a micro USB charging port along with the main microphone.
Umi Iron Review: UI
Umi Iron runs Android 5.1 with a light Umi skin on top of it out of the box. The experience of using this device for a few weeks has been good so far. I didn’t have any lags or hiccups if I was doing non-demanding stuff, e.g. browsing the web, Facebook, Youtube etc.
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In addition, all the apps are opening up and closing fast, transitions are smooth and I have no major complaints.
Umi marketed this model “as the world’s first” to have Iris scanner. Well, at least on a budget device. However, I could not test it as it simply does not work. It may be due to non-final software (the device is not on sale yet). Hopefully, it was not just a gimmick and it will work with a future software update, which I actually received one already.
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It may sound funny but there is a software bug in the software update department. I could not download an update without inserting a microSD card. That is really strange. On the other hand, after inserting the microSD card, the update was successful.
Overall, I am pretty happy with the overall UI performance as it is working fast and snappy almost all the time.
Umi Iron Review: BENCHMARKS
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Umi Iron Review: PERFORMANCE
The most graphically tasks like gaming could be better. The graphics look quite good but there is occasional lag and stutter during gaming sessions. You can still enjoy gaming but for more serious gamers out there, it may be annoying at some times.
On the other hand, the device gets warm as usual but not hot at all even after 30 mins of gaming, which is quite an impressive achievement in terms of thermal management considering the fact that the device has a metal back plate.
Umi Iron Review: MULTIMEDIA
You can enjoy multimedia like 1080p video, Internet browsing, scrolling through gallery and even listening to FM radio (a feature that slowly disappears in today’s device) on this device without any issues.
The music playback is kind of the star of the show on Umi Iron. The company is really proud to implement a DIRECTPATH HiFi Audio chip on a budget device. Well, it indeed sound awesome. But what about the sound quality via earphones?
The sound is definitely great, you can hear some richer tones with a lot of depth, especially when you know how to play with the equaliser.
However, once you crank up the volume (the volume output is very loud)….. the device freezes and turns off after like 5 seconds. I’ve tested it like 5 times in a row, same result. In addition, I tried turning on/off equaliser enhancement (it is a separate app from the stock Android music player app), same result again.. It happens once you crank up the volume more than a half. A good thing is that I could barely keep the earphones in my ears as the music was so loud. On the other hand, it is a serious bug and I hope it is software related and will be fixed with a final retail unit.
The loudspeaker is loc