UMi Rome now up to $109.99, could ship next week


umi rome

UMi have now increased the UMi Rome to its full retail price of $109.99. On paper it still looks good but will you buy one?

The UMi Rome grabbed our attention when it was announced at $89.99. It was a shocking price for the spec, but your chance to buy it at that price has now passed as the offer is now over. To our knowledge the $89.99 price tag was never advertised as a ‘pre-sale’ or ‘intro’ price, so it came as quite a surprise to learn that the RRP has now crept up!

Still at the final price of $109.99 the spec still is impressive, well at least it is on paper and we wait to get our hands on the device to make a final judgement.

umi rome hands on photos

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The hardware features that originally grabbed out attention were the AMOLED display (a feature we still cannot believe is on a phone of this price), octacore chipset, 3GB RAM and an alloy chassis.

Other interesting bits and bobs also include dual band WIFI for use on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Not only does this improve speed, but also range too. And there is also a Sony IMX179 rear camera. UMi are advertising the camera as a 13 mega-pixel sensor, but in fact it is an 8 mega-pixel model that can take images at 13 mega-pixels. In the past the UMi Zero also shipped with this camera and was capable of some decent images.

So now the final price is $109.99, so will you buy one? Our sources in China say that UMi will begin shipping from next week (this is unconfirmed however) so everyone who did get the phone at that special intro price could get their ROME before Christmas.

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19 Comments

  1. December 8, 2015

    I’m waiting for the review before making up my mind to buy one

    • Yeti hand
      December 8, 2015

      I’m with you!!

    • MattD
      December 8, 2015

      20$ are well worth when they can prevent you from purchasing an expensive coaster! 😀

  2. jimberkas
    December 8, 2015

    still seems too good to be true. definitely waiting for reviews.
    so will umi rootjoy work on this phone to allow you to install whatever OS you prefer?

  3. Lasse K
    December 8, 2015

    Didn’t the UMI Zero have a imx214 with f1.8 lens? And not the imx179.

    • Steve B
      December 8, 2015

      Yep, Imx214, F1.8, 6P lens; Zero camera looked great from memory.

      Imx179 is pretty poor camera, especially when interpolated.

      • MattD
        December 8, 2015

        You forgot carl zeis optics, double colored led flash, ois, laser autofocus, pdaf, auxiliary double sensor, optical zoom 10x, and the fact that it’s really a canon with a 5 inch display…

        • Muhammad Yasir
          December 9, 2015

          lol … too far ?

        • Steve B
          December 9, 2015

          Not really sure what your point is?
          The Umi Zero produced pretty good pictures, 13MP that could be interpolated up to 20MP if desired. Unless you know otherwise I doubt that was an IMX179 8MP, therefore this article has just made a simple mistake.

          • MattD
            December 9, 2015

            Point is: specs declared weren’t true… I didn’t own an umi zero, so i can’t be sure, but relying on reviews the sensor was an imx135 with 2.2 or 2.0 aperture IMHO… In fact photos ware similar to thl 5000’s ones, which happened to use that sensor!
            It wasn’t bad, but surely wasn’t the same thing in vivo xshot “because umi said so”

            • Steve B
              December 11, 2015

              Kind of totally beside the point then; so basically it wasn’t an 8MP IMX179 which was our initial and sole point.

              IMX135/214 basically same sensor, quality OIS (and possibly a Largan lens) made difference with Xshot, same for early LG G models with IMX135, still superior to many new phones thanks to decent OIS/OIS+. I’ve just picked up a bargain LG Flex 2 and it’s amazing with IMX135.

            • MattD
              December 11, 2015

              What are you talking about? Where exactly i said it was an imx179?! Don’t be that guy… My sole point was that what they declared wasn’t real at all, and everybody can see that, don’t try and stick in my mouth words I’ve never said

            • Steve B
              December 11, 2015

              how about you learn to read, rather than go off on one. As MH said, too far.

    • MattD
      December 8, 2015

      Yeah, because it’s impossible for a chinese company to tell lies, isn’t it?!

  4. Nilzie
    December 9, 2015

    The camera will be garbage on this. Calling it now.

    • Muhammad Yasir
      December 9, 2015

      same …
      highly skeptical !

  5. Muhammad Yasir
    December 9, 2015

    this feels and looks VERY anti-climactic :/
    something’s fishy …

    Hold your horses , people … DO NOT ORDER THIS , just yet !

  6. Kurlander
    December 9, 2015

    nice photo 🙂

  7. ksafan0
    December 10, 2015

    Waiting for mine to arrive. You can’t get a phone with good build and specs for this amazing price. I hope there aren’t any letdowns indeed.