UMI Rome – Full Review and Video
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After several weeks of using the UMI Rome as my Daily Driver I’m quite confident of being able to provide an insightful conclusion on this device, read bellow to find out what I discovered.
Hardware/Looks
This is where the UMI Rome shines the brightest. I’ve held many smartphones, from entry-level to flagships, and this one was clearly on my Top 3 when it comes sheer pleasure of wielding in my hand.
Not only does it fit perfectly thanks to the round edges of the back but it’s also a very stylish smartphone, and I never thought I’d be talking like this about a smartphone.
The main hardware is comprised of a Mediatek MT6753 1.3Ghz SoC, 3gb of RAM, 16gb ROM (expandable) and a 2500 mAh battery (we’ll talk about the 8 Mpx camera and screen later) and performed above my expectations.
This Dual SIM smartphone also has a front facing flash and dual flash on the back, unfortunately it’s missing a notifications’ LED.
Performance
I wasn´t sure what to expect of this Medium / Low level SoC, but at least when coupled with 3gb of RAM you’re in for a smooth ride. It goes through everyday tasks without any hiccups and I even managed to game without any major issues, and this includes games like N.O.V.A 3 and Asphalt 8.
Battery
It’s hard to judge a batteries performance as it varies from person to person, but what I can tell you is that it always lasted a full day with more than 3 hours SOT.
I also kept the Wi-Fi on for most of the day, the screen brightness on automatic and I send about 100 sms’s every day and make around 30 minutes of calls. The remaining time is spent mostly surfing the web, checking email, social media and some light gaming. There was one strange thing with the battery, it drains a lot faster bellow 15%.
In the first three screenshots you can see the SOT surrounded as well as the remaining battery.
In the last two I tried to measure how much 15 minutes of playing Hearthstone + 15 minutes of Need for Speed drained the battery, when it was full or at the end of the day.
Full battery -> 20% drecrease
17% Battery -> Could´t finish the test, I was left with 1% after 12 minutes
Camera
The sensor in this smartphone is an 8Mp unit but UMI decided to interpolate it to 13Mpx, albeit this is becoming a normal tactic utilised to make the specs look better, most brands give users the possibility to choose between the original 8 Mpx or the software “enhanced” 13 Mpx, but not UMI, your stuck with the “software enhanced” version which sometimes left me wondering whether all the noise would be there otherwise. Nonetheless it’s still a capable camera in daylight, and like most smartphones it’s when the darkness arrives that the struggles begins. I’ll leave you with some samples.
Screen
One of the big questions about the phone is, how did UMI managed to put an AMOLED screen on such a cheap phone, and now the answer is quite clear, it isn´t AMOLED. The lateral light sources are visible in a dark environment, especially when compared side by side with a Samsung Galaxy S6.
Unfortunately, this isn´t the only problem, the screen is only a 2-points multi touch screen which might not look like much of a problem, until you start to quickly swipe around (like you must do on several games) or try to type SMS’s at a reasonable pace, because it’s in this situations that the screen will leave you hanging. The apps won´t recognise all of your swipes and almost 1 in every 3 letters simply won´t be registered. This is a very annoying problems which has filled UMI’s forums with complaints, unfortunately no official answer has been given.
The brightness was sufficient to be usable outside without any major issues.
Connectivity
The 4G connectivity is stable and I never had any issues with calls, texts or SMS’s. The Wi-Fi and GPS are completely different stories. Let’s start with the easy one, GPS, if you use it for any other thing than letting your weather app or social media know where you are, you’ll stop doing it with this phone. My GPS was unusable, it actually locked to the satellites rapidly but not only was it unable to keep an updated position the error margin was huge. So when I tried using it as driving aid my position was only updated every 3 or 4 minutes and several meters wrong.
The Wi-Fi also wasn’t great and had a particular struggle with the Gmail and 9gag apps, taking ages to update them. But what really bothered me was that in more than one occasion I was the only one in a room that wasn’t able to stay connected to a network, or the connection kept on falling. The download speed was also a lot lower than what I was accustomed to with my Redmi Note 2, not the connection speed itself, which was similar to my RN2 but for some reason it took a lot more time to download the same game from the google store.
Sound
I never had any difficulties during phone calls always with good volume and clarity. I was actually impressed with the sound quality over earphones, far superior to my Redmi Note 2. The speaker has an ok quality, as was to be expected.
Conclusion
It’s not the perfect phone, the screen does not seem to be AMOLED, the screen sensitivity is very annoying and the GPS is unusable as a driving aid but on the other hand the performance is very good as is the construction and overall design.
If you don´t need the GPS, and managed to get this phone on the pre-sale price (<100€) you can be confident to have made a great purchase! If this isn´t your case don´t worry, it’s possible to buy this phone for around 120€ and I still think you would be getting more than your money’s worth at this value. This final grades are in accordance to this price point. If you want to check the performance in real time you can check the video review bellow.
More exciting news will
be coming soon: http://ahappydeal.info/
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