This year has probably been the best year in UMi’s short history; in 2016 they dedicated their hearts developing towards global markets and created products that made users satisfied all over the world.
Starting with the UMi Touch, their first user-defined smartphone, which was built with the help and suggestions of their loyal customers. After that they followed up with the UMi Super, Max, Plus and Plus E, which represents their top-end product this year.
This model is the UMi Z, which will be UMi’s latest high-end smartphone of 2016 and will surely come with some impressive specifications.
With this in mind, let’s see how they decided what hardware to use on the UMi Z
Processor
The UMi Z will come with the top-of-the-line MediaTek processor, i.e. the Helio X27 clocked at 2.6Ghz. Which as we have talked on this site before, is momentarily only available to LeEco for the Chinese market and UMi for the global market. This partnership exists because of the successful deal they previously had on the Helio P20 running n the UMi Plus E.
The Helio X27 is not just very powerful but also uses the Tri-Cluster CPU architecture which allows the CPU to activate the most powerful cores only when necessary, while using the more energy-saving ones for simpler tasks.
Battery
UMi decided to go with a 3780mAh high quality battery made by Sony. Which could leave some people asking: why not 4000mAh? UMi’s answer is simple:
Design
As mentioned earlier, the smaller battery allowed them to make a lighter device and reduce its dimensions. But that’s not all, according to UMi:
This is also the first time of a full metal body on an UMi smartphone, which will sure give the device a more premium feel in hands and make it more solid. They redefined it with 3D nano cutting technology to follow the natural curve of the hand.
Cameras
For it to be a real flagship you can’t skimp on the selfie camera, that is why UMi went with a 13.0MP camera with a Samsung S5K3L8 sensor both on the front and on the back of the phone. According to UMi, with this high quality sensor you’ll be able to take great selfies with the help of soft light.
The rear camera also has PDAF laser autofocus and image stabilization, focusing will be fast with the latest MediaTek ISP technology. The 4 LED dual tone flash should allow to get natural colors in different light conditions.
Audio
The UMi Z includes the premium NXP® TFA9890 speaker driver IC, which enables a 9.5V boost voltage from an integrated DC/DC converter. Increasing the voltage headroom in the audio driver IC prevents amplifier clipping and keeps sound quality high at maximum volume.
Display
The UMi Z sports a LTPS IGZO FHD 441 PPI 5.5-inch display manufactured by SHARP, with a high color-saturation 95% NTSC gamut unit with 17% better overall color saturation for a richer viewing experience.
The display is protected by Dragontrail glass, an innovative glass that best suits new generation mobile devices since it has qualities that are superior to common glass and plastic in all areas of strength, scratch resistance, and texture.
Software
UMi says they already have the possibility of releasing the phone with Android 7 Nougat out of the box, but they think this newer version is still not as stable and mature as Android 6, so they prefer to release the phone with the most stable version (Marshmallow) and update it to Nougat in upcoming months.
That was the story of the UMi Z, showing us which hardware and software they picked and why. The presale of the smartphone will begin on December 26th with a listing price of $279.99.
You can already subscribe to the launch event where you can possibly win a price if you buy an UMi Z. You can find the activity at this link.
They were never really up there in the Chinese manufacturers, but lost their way further when they released Super, Max, and Plus all with the same SoC.
And P10 is not that great a chipset to have multiple variants of, rookie move!