We received word today that the UMi Zero has received a significant price cut, from the original RRP of $299.99 to not just $199.99!
At almost $300 the UMi Zero was a hard purchase to swallow, but now at the more affordable price of $199.99 the price is actually really very good for the hardware and build the phone offers. The UMi Zero is the latest phone from the company and easily the best made to date.
UMi have gone for an alloy body with the Zero which will accept either dual SIM or a single sim and micro SD card combination. The AMOLED display is a FHD unit with a Gorilla Glass panel, plus there is a 2.0Ghz octal-core processor, 2GB RAM and fast charging! Not a bad spec.
Gizchina News of the week
We have had one in the office for a few days, as has GizChina.de (full reviews on the way), but so far we have ran in to a few complications and oddities. The Zero which our sister site is testing is unstable, and the camera on our review model is an F2.2 aperture and not the advertised F1.8!
UMi Zero unboxing and hands on
Something else we wonder is how do those fans who bought the Zero at full price now feel that they have basically lost $100?
[ Source ]
Not 199.99
They charges you shipping cost and a insurance that takes the “offer” around 245.00 USD
Don’t be fooled!
They are not “fooling anyone” the price of the phone itself is $199. Shipping is always extra no matter what product you buy on the internet and the insurance is completely optional which is why there is a check box next to it. $225 delivered by DHL still looks like a great “offer” to me compared to the $299 original price. I guess you would rather pay the $299?
I’m just making an statement, as a Lawyer that i am. If you offer “free shipping” you must fullfill it. In other hand, the insurance is a choise but in this case is a must, why? Since there’s a large amount of people queued in pre-order so the e-market is asking you (they told me to do it at their facebook fanpage) to chose that option as mandatory because they know that is very possible that they couldn’t delivery on time or get lost in the hollidays parcel caos, if this happends you can ask for refund and if there’s insurance you can get your money back as soon as possible.
Check any other item, “free shipping” at checkout.
As a “Lawyer” I would expect you to read all the fine print. If you click on the insurance orange text it tells you the insurance has nothing to do with delivering on time. It has to do with custom duties, if they are more than $10 you can get a refund for however much you had to pay over the $10. They are not forcing you to select it they are suggesting that you do. I just looked at their Facebook page and nowhere did I see them say you have to check the box, also they explain why they don’t offer free shipping on this product.
delete this guys bullshit ffs, antelife seem to be very good team to deal with, the order has worked fine for me.
@MrLawyer its coming up to cmas order time and it would be safer to use DHL and also to make sure you get your phone on time. yes they should honour the free shipping , but in this case I think they are looking out for the customers in making sure the phone gets to you as fast as possible. (because Im not sure any company yet knows if 20th Nov will be real release date!)
Can you explain this insurance to me balcob25? I might add it, its only 10% …is this for customs in my country so that i can claim back from antelife when DHL ask me for Tax payment?
The insurance basically works like this:
They estimate that the total amount of the tariffs (import taxes) will be $10 or whatever amount they charge. If you go to pick up your phone and it is more than $10 they will refund you the difference if you submit the bill to them. So basically if you buy the insurance and your total tarrif is $40 they will refund you $30. I have ordered products from Antelife in the past and never had a problem with them, other have so it is really hit or miss. Out of the dozens of products I have ordered from China I never once paid import tax in the US and only once had to pay it here in Thailand so I never bother with the insurance. But it all depends on your country/city/mood of the customs officials.
really? they will refund my countries import tax? I better do it so because I never get away with it with DHL on my last three phones, DHL report every package to Irish Customs and once it was opened and valued, other times they just guess and value it aroud 100euro and i pay 21% so 21 euro to DHL or else they drive off with my package and i have to pay the customs tax for collection.
Its seems in Ireland since 2 years ago DHL have strict orders by customs to open and value products and collect the tax for the country! i guess DHL get a commission% from it because they are fuckers for it even when I have “gift” (with my chinese friends name on order) or cpu part value $15 on it. they see ShenzhenChina on packages and know its a electronic device worth $$tax
Here in Sweden DHL does earn money on the “service fee” they charge when valuing a package. It’s 10-12 Euro, so not extreme when you order one expensive item. Ordering a lot of items and the costs multiply. Add in the fact that it creates a huge incentive for them top do this and you see why i very rarely use DHL any more.
DHL will charge you; Custom brokerage, insurance, warehousing, bank fees, bank interest, custom fees, direct delivery fees, warehousing,
custom tax, CO2 offset, earthquake insurance, etc.
In Greece handling fees are 36 euros!!!1 regardless of the sum u pay,plus 23% tax,screw DHL!!
I had some issues with DHL, especially when I am in Thailand so I attempt to avoid them at all costs if I can.
Nobody’s fooling you. The price if the phone is $199. You always have to pay for shipping, even before this when the phone was $299.
I’m just making an statement, as a Lawyer that i am. If you offer “free shipping” you must fullfill it. In other hand, the insurance is a choise but in this case is a must, why? Since there’s a large amount of people queued in pre-order so the e-market is asking you (they told me to do it at their facebook fanpage) to chose that option as mandatory because they know that is very possible that they couldn’t delivery on time or get lost in the hollidays parcel caos, if this happends you can ask for refund and if there’s insurance you can get your money back as soon as possible.
Check any other item, “free shipping” at checkout.
there are sites with free shipping,choose them
Coolicool has it for $225.
I bought mine from efox shop at €170 using a €25 euro off voucher which I bought in Oct for a €. So with shipping its costing me €152, so in £ costing me £125! Not sure I’ll keep it but intrigued to see how it fairs against a 2014 dual sim moto g.
From reviews it seems that Chinese manufacturers/mediatek still can’t get really good GPS! Non working air gestures and stock un customised ROM mentioned in Gizchina review are non issues for me.
At 200USD there should have been 4G FDD LTE on board- Big mistake!
Most $200 unsubsidized phones don’t offer LTE. The place this phone will sell the most (Asian markets) LTE isn’t that big, if it is available it is unreliable and expensive.
As some guys in xda told if you flash UMIZERO.V3.01 update firmware the aperture of camera turns to f/1.8
and the screen to 4k 5.5″ 🙂
sure its the same lens used in Oneplusone camera and some oppo models and alot of other high end phones, they list it useing aperture 2.0. can software change this to make it focus better? im unsure how it works, i thought the lens aperture was set in build of lens not changable by software?
It all depends on how the camera was made. Most phones today use a fixed aperture because it is much cheaper to produce. But there are variable aperture cameras in which the software can manage what the aperture is. Someone is going to have to take one apart to see what the camera really is made of.
Like balcobomber25 said the most phones have fixed aperture, but I’ve seen in some reviews that the photo’s exif shows variable aperture in chinese smart phones.
Considering we’re in a time of camera revolution in smarts I wouldn’t miss that change of a possible unfixed aperture, actually that’s better for the camera performance.
I have a Nokia 701 and in it’s back just above the camera lens says F 2.8/4.3!!!
Not 199.99
They charges you shipping cost and a insurance that takes the “offer” around 245.00 USD
Don’t be fooled!
They are not “fooling anyone” the price of the phone itself is $199. Shipping is always extra no matter what product you buy on the internet and the insurance is completely optional which is why there is a check box next to it. $225 delivered by DHL still looks like a great “offer” to me compared to the $299 original price. I guess you would rather pay the $299?
Nobody’s fooling you. The price if the phone is $199. You always have to pay for shipping, even before this when the phone was $299.
I’m just making an statement, as a Lawyer that i am. If you offer “free shipping” you must fullfill it. In other hand, the insurance is a choise but in this case is a must, why? Since there’s a large amount of people queued in pre-order so the e-market is asking you (they told me to do it at their facebook fanpage) to chose that option as mandatory because they know that is very possible that they couldn’t delivery on time or get lost in the hollidays parcel caos, if this happends you can ask for refund and if there’s insurance you can get your money back as soon as possible.
Check any other item, “free shipping” at checkout.
I’m just making an statement, as a Lawyer that i am. If you offer “free shipping” you must fullfill it. In other hand, the insurance is a choise but in this case is a must, why? Since there’s a large amount of people queued in pre-order so the e-market is asking you (they told me to do it at their facebook fanpage) to chose that option as mandatory because they know that is very possible that they couldn’t delivery on time or get lost in the hollidays parcel caos, if this happends you can ask for refund and if there’s insurance you can get your money back as soon as possible.
Check any other item, “free shipping” at checkout.
As a “Lawyer” I would expect you to read all the fine print. If you click on the insurance orange text it tells you the insurance has nothing to do with delivering on time. It has to do with custom duties, if they are more than $10 you can get a refund for however much you had to pay over the $10. They are not forcing you to select it they are suggesting that you do. I just looked at their Facebook page and nowhere did I see them say you have to check the box, also they explain why they don’t offer free shipping on this product.
delete this guys bullshit ffs, antelife seem to be very good team to deal with, the order has worked fine for me.
@MrLawyer its coming up to cmas order time and it would be safer to use DHL and also to make sure you get your phone on time. yes they should honour the free shipping , but in this case I think they are looking out for the customers in making sure the phone gets to you as fast as possible. (because Im not sure any company yet knows if 20th Nov will be real release date!)
Can you explain this insurance to me balcob25? I might add it, its only 10% …is this for customs in my country so that i can claim back from antelife when DHL ask me for Tax payment?
The insurance basically works like this:
They estimate that the total amount of the tariffs (import taxes) will be $10 or whatever amount they charge. If you go to pick up your phone and it is more than $10 they will refund you the difference if you submit the bill to them. So basically if you buy the insurance and your total tarrif is $40 they will refund you $30. I have ordered products from Antelife in the past and never had a problem with them, other have so it is really hit or miss. Out of the dozens of products I have ordered from China I never once paid import tax in the US and only once had to pay it here in Thailand so I never bother with the insurance. But it all depends on your country/city/mood of the customs officials.
really? they will refund my countries import tax? I better do it so because I never get away with it with DHL on my last three phones, DHL report every package to Irish Customs and once it was opened and valued, other times they just guess and value it aroud 100euro and i pay 21% so 21 euro to DHL or else they drive off with my package and i have to pay the customs tax for collection.
Its seems in Ireland since 2 years ago DHL have strict orders by customs to open and value products and collect the tax for the country! i guess DHL get a commission% from it because they are fuckers for it even when I have “gift” (with my chinese friends name on order) or cpu part value $15 on it. they see ShenzhenChina on packages and know its a electronic device worth $$tax
Here in Sweden DHL does earn money on the “service fee” they charge when valuing a package. It’s 10-12 Euro, so not extreme when you order one expensive item. Ordering a lot of items and the costs multiply. Add in the fact that it creates a huge incentive for them top do this and you see why i very rarely use DHL any more.
I had some issues with DHL, especially when I am in Thailand so I attempt to avoid them at all costs if I can.
DHL will charge you; Custom brokerage, insurance, warehousing, bank fees, bank interest, custom fees, direct delivery fees, warehousing,
custom tax, CO2 offset, earthquake insurance, etc.
there are sites with free shipping,choose them
In Greece handling fees are 36 euros!!!1 regardless of the sum u pay,plus 23% tax,screw DHL!!
Coolicool has it for $225.
I bought mine from efox shop at €170 using a €25 euro off voucher which I bought in Oct for a €. So with shipping its costing me €152, so in £ costing me £125! Not sure I’ll keep it but intrigued to see how it fairs against a 2014 dual sim moto g.
From reviews it seems that Chinese manufacturers/mediatek still can’t get really good GPS! Non working air gestures and stock un customised ROM mentioned in Gizchina review are non issues for me.
The only question – where to find this phone in stock? Every seller offers pre-sale…
stock will be sent out 25th. thats Umis official release date, so however quick the shops get the product from Umi and dispatch it, no1 will have the phone before December.
At 200USD there should have been 4G FDD LTE on board- Big mistake!
Most $200 unsubsidized phones don’t offer LTE. The place this phone will sell the most (Asian markets) LTE isn’t that big, if it is available it is unreliable and expensive.
As some guys in xda told if you flash UMIZERO.V3.01 update firmware the aperture of camera turns to f/1.8
and the screen to 4k 5.5″ 🙂
sure its the same lens used in Oneplusone camera and some oppo models and alot of other high end phones, they list it useing aperture 2.0. can software change this to make it focus better? im unsure how it works, i thought the lens aperture was set in build of lens not changable by software?
It all depends on how the camera was made. Most phones today use a fixed aperture because it is much cheaper to produce. But there are variable aperture cameras in which the software can manage what the aperture is. Someone is going to have to take one apart to see what the camera really is made of.
Like balcobomber25 said the most phones have fixed aperture, but I’ve seen in some reviews that the photo’s exif shows variable aperture in chinese smart phones.
Considering we’re in a time of camera revolution in smarts I wouldn’t miss that change of a possible unfixed aperture, actually that’s better for the camera performance.
I have a Nokia 701 and in it’s back just above the camera lens says F 2.8/4.3!!!
What site? Please thanks
http://www.antelife.com has it for $199 with shipping (3-7 days) it comes out to around $225.
http://www.coolicool.com has it for $225 with shipping included (10-30 days) or $12 for expedited shipping (3-7 days).
Thanks will look into this
The only question – where to find this phone in stock? Every seller offers pre-sale…
stock will be sent out 25th. thats Umis official release date, so however quick the shops get the product from Umi and dispatch it, no1 will have the phone before December.
What site? Please thanks
http://www.antelife.com has it for $199 with shipping (3-7 days) it comes out to around $225.
http://www.coolicool.com has it for $225 with shipping included (10-30 days) or $12 for expedited shipping (3-7 days).
Thanks will look into this
Bull crap.
Umi must up their game ir they want to stay relevant.
Details matter, so they should polish this phone and stick a MT6595 processor for a 249$ Turbo version.
The design being good doesn’t stand up particularly.
Pricing finally got to respectable levels.
A first step in the right direction.
If they used the MT6595 there is now way it would be even close to $249, probably closer to $399 like every other phone that uses that chip.
You know that a MT6595 chipset is around the 50-75$ USD price range depending the model???
If you pay 150$ more is because there’s still little competition…aka clones.
Is it worth to buy that phone? Just asking cos I can read here bad comments about it.
So necesitas GPS no es buena compra.
Y la batería no durará mucho con ese procesador…
Bull crap.
Umi must up their game ir they want to stay relevant.
Details matter, so they should polish this phone and stick a MT6595 processor for a 249$ Turbo version.
The design being good doesn’t stand up particularly.
Pricing finally got to respectable levels.
A first step in the right direction.
If they used the MT6595 there is now way it would be even close to $249, probably closer to $399 like every other phone that uses that chip.
You know that a MT6595 chipset is around the 50-75$ USD price range depending the model???
If you pay 150$ more is because there’s still little competition…aka clones.
Is it worth to buy that phone? Just asking cos I can read here bad comments about it.
So necesitas GPS no es buena compra.
Y la batería no durará mucho con ese procesador…
lol. At least now this is more in line with other MTK6592 phone with similar specs.
Indeed, now we have many announcements with the new line of SoCs like the MX4, Zopo ZP999, Lenovo Vibe X2…even a new phone with old processor should have a modest price.
lol. At least now this is more in line with other MTK6592 phone with similar specs.
Indeed, now we have many announcements with the new line of SoCs like the MX4, Zopo ZP999, Lenovo Vibe X2…even a new phone with old processor should have a modest price.
A newly suggested retail price of $200 is much more in line with the specs of this phone. Let’s face it, selling a 5.0″ phone with a somewhat chunky body, modest system specs and no 4G/LTE support @ $300 doesn’t really make it a price breaker, when you see what the competition has to offer.
This phone reminds me a lot of the Gionee S5.5 in terms of specs and looks. Gionee sells the s5.5 for $299 so the pricing really was spot on. Xioami sells the Mi4 without LTE for almost $400. LTE is more hype than anything else, especially in Asia where this phone will sell the most. For the average user 3.5g speeds are more than fast enough to do what they need to on a daily basis. In some cities the 3.5g speeds are either the same or very close to the LTE speeds. It all depends on where you live.
A newly suggested retail price of $200 is much more in line with the specs of this phone. Let’s face it, selling a 5.0″ phone with a somewhat chunky body, modest system specs and no 4G/LTE support @ $300 doesn’t really make it a price breaker, when you see what the competition has to offer.
This phone reminds me a lot of the Gionee S5.5 in terms of specs and looks. Gionee sells the s5.5 for $299 so the pricing really was spot on. Xioami sells the Mi4 without LTE for almost $400. LTE is more hype than anything else, especially in Asia where this phone will sell the most. For the average user 3.5g speeds are more than fast enough to do what they need to on a daily basis. In some cities the 3.5g speeds are either the same or very close to the LTE speeds. It all depends on where you live.
I found this phone to be very similar to Doogee Turbo2 D900. Do they share some hardware or architectural design?
I found this phone to be very similar to Doogee Turbo2 D900. Do they share some hardware or architectural design?
@Andi when is the Mi 3 review contest result coming? Almost 9 weeks have passed!
anyone got any winning email from combuy.com to purchase Umi Zero for 150 USD, the guy who sent the email named Eason, can you tell if it is real or fake winning email? I have participated in the contest but still doubt, they didn’t provide any link to purchase, but asked for paypal id to send the purchase link…
so you send them your PayPal ID?
yeah i have sent them and in return they send me the link to purchase on my paypal, but don’t know if they are real, consulted Umi with the mail comebuy had sent me, and Umi said it is real.
@Andi when is the Mi 3 review contest result coming? Almost 9 weeks have passed!
anyone got any winning email from combuy.com to purchase Umi Zero for 150 USD, the guy who sent the email named Eason, can you tell if it is real or fake winning email? I have participated in the contest but still doubt, they didn’t provide any link to purchase, but asked for paypal id to send the purchase link…
so you send them your PayPal ID?
yeah i have sent them and in return they send me the link to purchase on my paypal, but don’t know if they are real, consulted Umi with the mail comebuy had sent me, and Umi said it is real.
when it come in india?
and what is price in india?
when it come in india?
and what is price in india?