Over the weekend, a couple of shipments from DHL meant that I spent way lesser time playing cricket and table tennis than I should’ve. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but the UMi Z and another phone (keep an eye out!) did keep the geek in me busy for quite a while.
The UMi Z is touted as one of the first Helio X27 phones in the market. UMi are also having a bit of a crucial time, with a rebranding underway (and possibly change in OEM, according to what I’m hearing). The UMi Z will be the last phone to feature the ‘UMi’ branding.
Anyway, coming to the device itself, it’s quite a nice phone to see, hold, and to use (so far). I’ll be honest with you — the rather superlative unboxing experience does add a bit of a bias to this. The last time an unboxing felt so nice was when I received the OPPO Find 5.
UMi ship the UMi Z in an all-metal svelte box, that will make it hard to throw away. Besides the phone, UMi also included 3 x phone covers and a tempered glass protector in our test set. None of this stuff I ever use; but I’m truly tempted to use one phone case in particular — the ‘Z’ case. Keen readers will remember UMi made a similar case for the UMi Zero sometime back.
The entirety of the contents came in an ‘air cushion’. Inside were 5 boxes — one each for the three cases, tempered glass protector, and the phone.
Opening up the retail box, you’re greeted by the UMi Z sitting pretty, with a tab on one end (removed before I took the picture) to take the phone out.
Gizchina News of the week
Besides the phone, there’s some (high-quality, I must say) accessories you need to get up and running with the UMi Z — a wall charger, USB cable, SIM tray ejection pin and some literature no one’s ever cared about.
Moving on to the cases — I’m not sure if they’re part of the standard package — we have a flip case (with a magnet on it, so its ‘smart’), a standard silicon case to protect the phone during bumps, etc., and my favourite of the three — the Z case.
The flip case.
…and the soft-touch (and bendy) silicon case.
The swagger-enriched Z case.
The phone itself looks a lot like an OPPO. Like one of those selfie expert phones that’s been selling like crazy in India. That said, it also surprisingly feels as well made as an OPPO.
To be very honest, I would rather have the grey version if I had the choice. However, I must admit that the golden version is pretty eye candy too, definitely more so in real life than in pictures.
I haven’t used the phone very long, but from what I can tell right now is that:
- it has a great build quality
- it looks great
- it has a touchscreen that’s not great
- it has a fingerprint sensor that’s not great
You shall be learning more in the review, and me, during the time I use this phone as my daily driver in the coming days. Meanwhile, you can have a look at the phone at the following shops:
Also let me know if it’ll be okay to use the ‘Z’ case without looking like a bit of a jerk.
To be added to the list a not so great camera. Umis greatest Achilles heels (2 actually) camera and screen.
Three in fact, the last one is battery.
Battery quality? Or battery life? If its battery life their recent phones are delivering based on reviews ive seen for the plus onwards
Hardly tested the camera enough, but it’s one of the better cameras on UMi phones IMO (so far).
“one of the better cameras on umi phones” is not saying much, almost every other camera sucks bad ?
I saw one review where the fingerprint is actually rather fast but the slowdown is actually the waking up of the device. Try and unlock the device with the screen display turned on, It should be fast but when you do it with the screen turned off, vise versa. Umi should tune their software better.
It’s been rather inaccurate for me so far, sadly.
This phone looked promising, but it’s a UMi, what I was thinking… =P
To be added to the list a not so great camera. Umis greatest Achilles heels (2 actually) camera and screen.
Three in fact, the last one is battery.
Hardly tested the camera enough, but it’s one of the better cameras on UMi phones IMO (so far).
“one of the better cameras on umi phones” is not saying much, almost every other camera sucks bad 😁
Battery quality? Or battery life? If its battery life their recent phones are delivering based on reviews ive seen for the plus onwards
Battery quality? Or battery life? If its battery life their recent phones are delivering based on reviews ive seen for the plus onwards
I saw one review where the fingerprint is actually rather fast but the slowdown is actually the waking up of the device. Try and unlock the device with the screen display turned on, It should be fast but when you do it with the screen turned off, vise versa. Umi should tune their software better.
It’s been rather inaccurate for me so far, sadly.
This phone looked promising, but it’s a UMi, what I was thinking… =P
I really want the “Z” case so bad. Is it in the box, or you order separately with the phone?
I really want the “Z” case so bad. Is it in the box, or you order separately with the phone?