If anyone had been looking at images of the Hong Kong trade fairs going on right now you might have seen images of a new UMi phone. We have been in touch and received the full specifications of this new device, the UMi EMax.
UMi have made a name for themselves, and quite a following, with the UMi Zero. The phone looked great, but wasn’t without its issues, some of which are being solved with updates and the UMi tool Rootjoy.
Yesterday I tested the strength of the UMi Hammer, a tough little phone with stylish looks, but that isn’t the only new device UMi have up their sleeves.
A 5.5-inch UMi phone has been shown on display in Hong Kong this week and after contracting UMi they have unveiled the specifications for the phone to us. It’s an odd move for a company to reveal the hardware of an unreleased phone, but UMi tell us they feel they have to stem the misinformation found on certain reseller stores trying to jump the gun with UMi E Max listings.
The E Max has been designed to offer battery life for at least 2 days of use. This is achieved with a large 3780 mAh battery shoe horned in to the 7.9mm thick body. A current generation Mediatek MT6752 processor provides 64bit, and LTE, and we hope this also means a Lollipop OS (but this information hasn’t been released).
Memory is 2GB RAM, 16GB internal, which we assume can be expanded with SD cards. A 3.2 mega-pixel front camera sounds like an honest number, but 5MP would have been better, while the rear camera is a 13 mega-pixel model.
Images of the Emax show a similar design to previous UMi flagship phones. A white rear panel with large speaker grill, with a rounded profile. The front of the phone has that 5.5-inch FHD panel and capacitive buttons.
A release date is scheduled for around June with pricing information and other details to come.
[ UMi ]
If it’s priced around the $169 – $189 mark, then it’s a pretty good deal, especially since similar devices all have 3000mAh batteries.
June sounds a little bit late to join the MT6752 bandwagon. Competitive price is a must have.
why late? right now most of big and mid names have still to release (or released in these very few days) a device with this SoC, only a handful of small and emerging brands have released their mt6752 (and very few are without issues). Some companies prefer to have lollipop released and include it out of the box (and at least minimum tested), those already which shipped with KK are now using users like beta testers with very early releases, I’d rather wait and have something more tested and optimized than throwing my bucks and making beta testing!
And yes, the price will be competitive for sure, just like the Hammer is in mt6732 range!
Don’t get me wrong, June is just a little more than a month away but people like me want feedback. To get feedback and reviews we need to wait till mid July and I don’t want to wait that long for my next device. Anyway I hope the eMAX will be as good as it sounds.
Sell me a great camera unit and i am sold..dont care if they are late..they still have chance to make it big…hopefully by June’15 availability.
Phones in this category usually doesn’t have great camera except for the Redmi range and a few others. Let’s hope Umi surprise us with something great.
It depends on the phone there are several sub $200 with very good cameras, including Sony IMX’s and Omnivision units. They won’t match the top dogs like Vivo Xshot or Xperia Z but they are good enough for most people.
The shelf life of a processor is usually about 1.5 years so June is actually the perfect time to be joining. By that time any bugs will be figured out with the 6752 and more importantly they will have Android 5.0 figured out. Without 5.0 64 bit is usleess.
The MT6752 wont be outdated anytime soon. I just think that devices that are longer in the market have the advantage. I personally prefer the Jiayu S3 or Meizu M1 Note. Those phones are out there for a while and got good feedback. Unfortunately it’s not likely that they get Android 5.0 before June.
Umi did a good progress in a last couple of months, they are definitely heading into the right direction.
Those devices have an advantage until new ones are released. The cell phone market is large and varied enough that there is always consumers looking for a new device. Once the Umi comes out any advantage phones like the Jiayu had is gone, unless the Umi isn’t a good phone. If the Umi is as good or better it will sell.