UMi Iron Pro will receive MT6753 SOC, is that really ‘Pro’ enough?


umi iron pro

Mediatek created the octacore MT6753 chipset as a budget processor that is suitable for entry-level and mid-range phones (at the lower end of the scale), so should we really be seeing it in a ‘Pro’ phone?

This morning UMi released the above image of the UMi Iron Pro along with a few details of the current specifications. At the time of writing the full parameters are not currently known but we have a few to go on.

It appears that the UMi Iron Pro will look physically similar to the current Iron, but will get a single piece rear panel. The current Iron has a metal main body with plastic at the top and bottom, the Pro has a single piece. At this stage we don’t know what material it will be, but being a ‘Pro’ we hope for alloy at least.

Also on the rear we see the same camera and dual LED locations, but now there is the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner too. The UMi Iron Pro will also feature an eye scanner running of the front camera. A 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display is the same spec as the original, and we see the LED notification bar at the bottom of the phone has been retained.

The final details we know at this stage of development are a USB Type C 2.0, 3GB RAM and Mediatek MT6753 chipset.

Overall the specs are similar to the original UMi Iron, but that chipset choice seems odd and a little misleading. The octacore MT6753 is not a high-end processor, and has a low power GPU which isn’t suitable for hardcore gaming. It’s fine for standard phones but not something a ‘Pro’ level deviceumi iron pro, for that we would like to see a Helio X10 at the very least, a P10 or X20 would have suited too.

We suppose it all boils down to price, but we feel tat UMi Iron 2 might be a more suitable name, and the UMi Iron Pro should pack a little more punch. What are your thoughts?

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35 Comments

  1. Danny Wang
    October 16, 2015

    Looks like they didn’t really want to change the SoC from the UMI Iron. Guess it makes sense from a software perspective, less SoC, less things to port and update for. Also Andi, did you ever get that Biometric Eye stuff for the Umi IRON working?

  2. mf1gt3r
    October 16, 2015

    Pro wasn’t the right name for this. There isn’t anything special about this. Umi Iron 2 should be a better name. Meizu did similar with M2 note.

  3. Marius Cirsta
    October 16, 2015

    While MT6573 is not great, hell even MT6572 was better ( this is really odd btw ) it should be pretty lowe power and with a metal body and back it probably hardly heats up.

    It’s stil a decent SOC for a phone and for basic tasks you probably can’t tell the difference between it and a Helio X10. I’ve got a X10 in my Redmi Note 2 but I don’t really feel I need all that CPU power … it’s not bad to have but I could probably do with less.

    What I’m not sure is how will UMI deal with updates for this phone. Will it get Marshmallow ? My Xiaomi will.

    • Mr.Flying Zoom3rz
      October 16, 2015

      No one really needs “all that cpu power” in today’s phones imo. 😉 Not for Facebook, Clash of Clans or Angry Birds…

      • Marius Cirsta
        October 16, 2015

        Yes but for some people specs still sell. Also at certain point you’ll notice the difference like with a 1 GHz quad core or something like that.
        Sometimes all that’s needed is some peak performance for a CPU usage spike so if you have a SOC that can get 1-2 powerful cores up even for a brief period than that probable helps.

  4. Freeje
    October 16, 2015

    It will be a ‘Pro’blem.

  5. realjjj
    October 16, 2015

    Gizchina uses the term flagship for phones like this or even less so why get stuck on the term Pro here. The term is empty 90% of the time anyway no matter if it’s Umi, Meizu or Apple using it.

    • Semi
      October 16, 2015

      because they have a grudge with umi, maybe the don’t pay them enough or at all. So evident if you check their latest 2-3 posts were a umi device is involved.

    • October 16, 2015

      But a flagship in my mind is the brands top of the range phone. For example if Leagoo’s best phone is a MT6882 device then it is their flagship phone.

      This Iron Pro would better suit a Iron 2 name is all. Iron Pro could be kept for something more special.

      • Semi
        October 16, 2015

        like the fhd of doogee f3 pro, which kills performance and battery compared to non-pro. But it seems its special enough for you, since you didn’t point out there.

  6. Steve B
    October 16, 2015

    Pro’long

  7. Semi
    October 16, 2015

    here we go again. Strange you didn’t point out again the 5.1 update of emax. so subtle way of acting it’s disgusting.

    • October 16, 2015

      It’s not strange, we didn’t receive the PR.

      • Semi
        October 16, 2015

        so you argue on the term “pro” for this?

        • October 16, 2015

          ? Nothing wrong with the above phone, but not a Pro in my opinion. UMi Iron 2 seems better. Been checking Facebook and the Umi community and don’t see this Emax update.

          • Semi
            October 16, 2015

            search for elephone, doogee, bluboo updates since you rate them so highly, I bet you will find plenty for every device

            • October 16, 2015

              I don’t rate them any higher than UMi and never said I did. So the Emax 5.1 update came or didn’t?

            • Semi
              October 16, 2015

              cry, baby cry

            • October 16, 2015

              I see…..

            • Semi
              October 16, 2015

              we ALL see 😉

            • October 16, 2015

              so no link then?

            • October 16, 2015

              ok sorry, I thought you were saying ‘it was strange I didn’t post news about the update” as in the update had been released. Sorry my misunderstanding. The news here is, I think it should be Iron 2, end of story. Could be an awesome phone for all I know.

    • Chickens
      October 16, 2015

      http://www.umidigi.com/?page-UMIEMAX_Software.html

      This is UMi’s official site for eMax software, there is nothing about supporting Lollipop 5.0 upgrade (The VIP OS you can have from UMi). I dunno where you read about that Lollipop 5.1 thing.

    • Yeti hand
      October 16, 2015

      what update are you talking about???

  8. Hursty
    October 16, 2015

    I wouldn’t call this a pro or iron 2 I see this more as a umi iron plus !!!!

  9. Mario Pruteanu
    October 16, 2015

    Only reason I didn’t buy the iron was because there was no fingerprint scanner, but I have something new on my wishlist now =!!

  10. xteamchinax
    October 16, 2015

    Yes, umi iron 2 sounds more appropriate, but in reality it’s the same device with a touch id now (and wowowow one-piece back cover) QUESTION: Is it a one-step wake and unlock, or must we press the power button first? (Coolpad got this right.)

    Without P10 at very least or X10 then definitely NOT PRO. Period.

  11. greg
    October 16, 2015

    This is reaally weird , the Iron is already on the MT6753 , where´s the update ?

  12. Mr.Flying Zoom3rz
    October 16, 2015

    Simple answer: No. MT6752 is still a beast compared to MT6753.

  13. Dante
    October 16, 2015

    “Or at the very least a p10 or a x20” – X20 , X20 FOR HELLS SAKE YOU KNOW ITS A TYPO WHEN IM WRITING THIS IN CAPS

  14. Chickens
    October 16, 2015

    It would be funny if the ‘Pro’ version still has the problems of the original Iron.

  15. xteamchinax
    October 17, 2015

    OkOk, x20 would put this phone in a whole new price range, but I would spend more for an umi iron x20. What if that new single piece back cover was removable, exposing an upgraded removable battery and NFC? “Pro” enough then? (maybe not exactly pro status, but a decent upgrade for a $180 phone)

    • André C
      December 1, 2015

      NFC is a qualcom tech, so mtk phones are not likely to have it anytime

  16. vtdone
    November 4, 2015

    The original Umi Iron makes a loud click whenever sound is paused/restarted. Hopefully the Pro version fixes this in hardware.

  17. 2arabs android
    November 12, 2015

    Is good phone i see it in geekbuying.com in good price