UMi Z: UMi’s big checkpoint on the journey

The UMi Z is going to be a crucial device for the Chinese smartphone maker. They’ve attempted to create a balanced device with powerful hardware and materials that make the phone feel premium. Now, they expect users to appreciate their effort and possibly try their new phone.

2016 has been a quite important year for UMi; they have grown a lot and reached lots of customers with the plethora of phones they released. So much so that (apparently) MediaTek themselves proposed UMi an exclusivity deal on the use of the Helio P20 before and Helio X27 now for their UMi Z.

Here’s a video that shows their journey, both for the past and the future.

Today UMi wants us to leave the performance aside and focus on the design and craftmanship of the latest UMi smartphone.

Remarkable Self-Breaking

UMi promised to bring aesthetics, quality, and usability to a whole new level. The UMi Z’s metal unibody is carved from a single slab of premium aluminum, resulting in an ultra-thin design that is solidly built.  

The company spent months upgrading and perfecting both techniques and hardware to create an unique full metal body design (a premiere for UMi), and some incredibly thin Nano 3D cutting lines on the sides which is visually comfortable. The ergonomic design of the curves also makes it very comfortable in hand. For colors, UMi chose Gray and Gold to highlight the metallic texture.

Meticulous Craftsmanship

UMi chose a premium full-CNC processing to create a solid body within an 8.2mm thickness. They also adopted a unique reinforced design to increase the plate thickness to over 0.5 mm. Advanced nano injection molding technology is introduced to largely improve the frame strength and quality while keeping the final weight down to 175g, a great result considering the materials and the big battery.

The entire body – including places you may not notice such as the loudspeaker, microphone and SD card slot – have been polished and chamfered to deliver a shining and smooth touch. Maximum care is even on the most unnoticed parts of the device. Also, the internal space has been carefully optimized to allow a better thermal management of the CPU.

A fundamental challenge of full metal bodies is the quality of antenna signal, often an issue for many producers. Thanks to the big improvements in antenna technologies, the company found an efficient and elegant solution to solve it. They chose the PBT injection molding material, adding two very thin stripes on the full metal body with advanced electrochemical processing technology, this creates deep 3D nano structures on the magnalium surface, tightening the cohesion between the metal and injection molding parts.

Price and Availability

UMi Z pre-sale will start on 26th December, listing price is 279.99$, you can visit UMi’s website and participate to the “Subscribe Surprise” event, where UMi is offering 1000 special prizes on the 26th to those who subscribe the event.

For more info about the UMi Z, visit its overview page.