Smart Phones by stefan @ 2014-09-11
UMI have prepared another affordable but large-diagonal smartphone with 1280x720 resolution; we could also mention the 1.3GHz MTK6582 quad-core SoC which is paired with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of ROM, support for microSDHC cards in order to expand storage space and also one 8MP Sony camera which is also found with the Nexus 5.
At first we would like to thank UMI for sending us a sample of their latest C1 [Quad Core Killer] Smartphone for testing and reviewing.
“Who Are We?
UMI is a smartphone company, in the past, now and future.
We can't exactly help you unwind, but we can make your tech gear that much easier to enjoy — and we do this with passion. Say goodbye to first world tech woes like oppressive low-powered batteries and limited ports. Say hello to an easier, smarter life.
We choose the best solution for a smart phone at affordable price so everyone is able to use our device.
At the same time, a smartphone figure and material are something we don't want to miss about.
Our goal is making sure every customer enjoys our devices and its high value for the money.
Which are our products?
Over the past two years, we have created a couple budget devices to meet the need of our customers, such as UMI X1 and X2 which are quite popular in Europe.
In 2014, we have continued to produce affordable smartphones so no less than four newer models are available.
UMI X3 and UMI Cross have already been known by many guys in and out of China. Currently, we are showing on the market UMI C1, which uses a 5.5'' HD display, along with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, with a smooth plastic back.
We prefer to call it a real "2014 QUAD CORE KILLER".
Late in 2014, another stunning device will be present on the market, which will have highlights like high-end look and performance components.
We thank your support and looking forward building a very solid community!”
13MP Camera – Perfect Solution with rich colors
Sony III IMX 179 Sensor – High Quality is ensured
LED & Soft Light – Good simulation of sunlight
5P Lens – Much faster than traditional 4P lens
F2.4 Large Aperture
Double-edged AR coating – Light transmittance increased to 98%
Special crafting method in order to aid cooling of the internal components
“Baby Skin” texture for the back polycarbonate material, in order to ensure a pleasant feel to the touch
Designed to last thanks to the large battery and power optimizations
Supports both GSM and WCDMA network
Product Specifications:
NOTICE: The latest updates show us that the smartphone offers HD OGS screen and not Corning Gorilla Glass III as the official specifications mention.
The UMI C1 smartphone is shipped inside a very compact cardboard enclosure, which is fully sealed with a transparent protective layer on the outside:
On the top box cover, we will be able to spot an UMI chromed logo:
If we look on the side, we will be able to see the two IMEIs along with the color and the serial number:
On the bottom we will be able to spot another sticker with an interesting statement: UMI tells us here that there should be another variant of the C1 with 2GB of RAM and 1.4GHz octa-core processor, but we have yet to see a model like this in circulation. The C1 we are reviewing is named “Quad Core Killer” and sports one MTK 6582 SoC at 1.3GHz, 16GB of ROM and 1GB of RAM:
After removing the top cover, we will be able to see the C1 sitting face-down, and wrapped inside a semi-transparent plastic bag:
The box is multi-layered so underside the smartphone we will be able to spot an additional cardboard cover which comes with drawn instructions:
On the bottom layer we have even more written instructions:
We will finally end up with two separate cardboard smaller boxes, one holding the charger and the other one containing the USB cable along with the rechargeable battery:
The charger resembles the ones found with iPhones:
This one is rated on the output as DC 5.0V, 1A:
Both charge/data cable and the battery are wrapped inside separate plastic bags:
With this phone we will get a non-tangle micro USB cable, which is high-quality and the contacts are gold-plated:
The battery size is quite large and on the front we will be able to spot again the UMI logo:
To prevent accidental discharges during transit, the battery contacts are covered with a special tape, which does not leave residues:
On the back side of its body, we will find more details about it like capacity, voltage or production date:
Since the UMI C1 shares the chassis with the model which has been launched earlier, the X III, we will end up with a 5.5’’ screen with curved corners, which makes the transition between regular-sized smartphones and tablets, so we can easily name this model as being a phablet; despite the fact that UMI marks in the specs details the C1 having Corning Gorilla Glass III, some sources say that this one has a HD OGS (One Glass Solution) instead:
On the top side we have the frontal camera, the proximity sensor, the speaker grill but also one discrete notification LED:
On the lower end of the screen we have the capacitive buttons, which light up only when accessed (we will see this later):
What we really like about this model is the quality of the materials for the case; the screen is surrounded by a solid machined aluminum frame, on which the back cover gets fixed. On the right side of the terminal we have the volume rocker:
On the left side we’ve got the Power/Sleep button:
On the bottom we have one Mic hole:
UMI has placed the USB connector on top, along with the 3.5mm stereo jack:
If we flip the smartphone on the other side, we will be able to look at the buttons and interfaces even closer:
The case does come with a small indentation, which allows easier removal of the plastic back cover:
Near the bottom microphone port we also have the grill for the speaker port:
The back cover holds another UMI logo and has a smooth finish, very pleasant to the touch:
A special texture can be also spotted here:
The camera lens is accompanied by a LED flash, which is pretty bright:
With a bit of applied force, we were able to remove the plastic back cover; make sure to disassemble this one step-by step in order to avoid any damages:
On the top side we have the “brains” of the C1, so it holds the entire motherboard with its modules and also the SD card and SIM card slots:
On the right we have the GPS module, carefully covered by a black plastic cover:
Next we will be able to spot SIM1 (mini-SIM) and SIM2 (micro-SIM) slots:
Nearby we have the microSDHC card slot:
The GPS module has in its vicinity the three golden battery contacts:
On the bottom left area we have the speaker port:
A closer look on the side reveals the aluminum frame we have mentioned about earlier:
The rechargeable battery can be attached in a matter of seconds:
On the sides, we will be also able to see how the volume rocker and Power/Sleep contacts look like (the buttons are placed on the cover itself):
The manufacturer has equipped the C1 with a customized UNI launcher, which has quite large icons and some widgets are preloaded on the screen:
On the last two desktop views we have one widget for the gallery and one for music:
We will then take a short peak through the preinstalled applications; first we could remind the Music app, which allows playback of many audio content types:
Then we have the Camera option, which allows working with HDR, flash, camera switch, but we can also switch between the modes from the top side; some more options are available when touching the little gear button:
The UMI C1 features a Sony IMX 179 8MP sensor for the back camera, but we also have the option to choose 13MP from the menu via interpolation:
Next we have the stock Gallery application:
The Settings menu is present in all Android releases and from here we can customize the smartphone on our liking:
SIM Management allows working with the dual-SIM functionality and we can also specify Roaming options:
The WiFi menu will detect the currently available networks and let us connect if we provide the correct credentials; our sample was not able to detect our 5GHz A/N wireless though, something that the iOCEAN X7S/X8 could do without a hitch:
The Bluetooth menu will detect the currently available devices:
In order to configure advanced options, we have to navigate to the Wireless & Networks menu:
We can also create a portable hotspot when needed in order to allow other wireless devices to connect to our smartphone for Internet access:
A Data Usage menu is also available:
The Audio-related options will be found in a separate menu where we can configure the predefined profiles and also enable, if needed, the audio enhancer filter for the earphones:
From the Display menu we can adjust the wallpaper, enable Lock Screen Notifications, adjust Brightness and so on:
From the Storage section we can choose which the default write disk would be and can also see the data distribution on the partition; we have seen that UMI has chosen to go with a single partition, not two as we have seen usually, which contains all available storage space; this is both a good thing and possibly a bad thing: a good thing because we won’t need to worry about the first partition anymore which usually has only 1GB and gets filled quickly and possibly a bad thing because some of the games we have tried show a blank screen after they have been launched, which we have found as unusual:
The Battery menu shows the battery “eaters” and here we can also choose to get the percentage shown:
The Apps section shows details regarding the downloaded and currently running applications (think it also as a task manager):
The Location function can be customized per each application which requires it:
Inside the Security menu we can see the usual options:
Language & Input menu allows working with the spell checker, but also choose the default keyboard for the system; some other speech-related/mouse/trackpad options can be also found here:
If something goes wrong, we can always reset the phone to the factory defaults from the next menu:
The Date & Time can be adjusted from the respective menu, but usually these are picked up automatically:
Schedule Power On/Off is an option which appears in all MTK ROMs:
The Accessibility menu makes available some additional services:
The Printing services are next:
The last options from the Settings app shows more details regarding the software release and identification numbers, cellular signal strength and so on; at the date of the review, the latest C1 software was V2.06:
The Developer options can be also enabled via the well-known shortcut:
Next we could remind Sound Recorder and the FM Radio application:
The regular File Manager allows us to navigate through the NAND contents:
A separate application is available for video files:
Next we have the Clock application from where we can also set alarms:
Calculator application is pretty self-explanatory:
Same goes for Calendar:
For email we have both Gmail and Email applications, and for navigating through online videos we have the stock YouTube application pre-installed:
During the initialization period after we have entered up our credentials, Google Play Services will also need in some situations to be updated manually so do not be worried if Google-related applications will throw out an error at the first stage:
Through the Google pre-installed applications we could also remind of Google Drive, Hangouts, Google Photos or Maps:
The ToDo app along with the application which allows editing small clips is also present in all MTK ROMs we have seen so far:
The UMI C1 is equipped with a MTK MT6582 SoC clocked at 1.3GHz and sports four A7 cores, while the GPU renderer is a Mali-400 MP. The SoC is accompanied by a total of 1GB of RAM, which should be enough when working with applications which are less memory intensive:
The System CPU-Z tab will show us additional details like software version, Kernel, screen resolution, available RAM and storage:
Next we have the Battery section which shows us the temperature and current voltage:
From the Sensors tab, only the Accelerometer registers data; we could confirm this also by the application Sensor Kinetics, which shows no info regarding the Gyro, Magnetometer or Gravity sensor:
To test out the performances of the X8 smartphone, we have installed some freeware benchmark apps from the Google Play Store in the internal memory (did not transfer them to a 3rd party microSDHC card, in order not to influence the test results). Afterwards, the applications were ran one-by-one, and we recorded the final scores; the obtained results were also compared with the previously tested systems, in order to spot the performance differences.
The 5.5 inch, 1280x720 resolution screen is of good quality and preserves the colors when viewed from an angle, without color distortions.
The camera quality of the C1 is surprisingly good, considering that it features the Sony IMX 179 sensor which can also be found with the Nexus 5. We have included an assortment of regular and HDR photos; the HDR photos seem a bit over-processed so it is better to stick with the regulars.
Of course, you can always check out the full-sized versions at this link.
After the launch of the latest X III flagship, UMI has designed a new mainstream model, which preserves the high quality design, while minimizing the internal specifications. We are now dealing with a quad-core MTK6582 at 1.3GHz SoC which is paired with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of ROM and all is displayed on a HD 1280x720 5-point capacitive touch screen.
After our little research, we have found some differences between the stated specs and what is actually included with the product and this is mostly related to the top glass and the sensors. This is usually a solution for bringing the product price to a very low level and if we do not track a lot with the device, we should not have any problems regarding the missing sensors.
Thanks to the high-capacity battery, we can enjoy longer screen times, but this also always depends on the applications which we are using; for performing a small benchmark we have used the latest Antutu Battery Tester, which performs different usage patterns until the battery needs recharging and concludes with a final score.
The 8MP (13MP) back camera is surprisingly good for this model and seems to include the same sensor as the one shipped with the Nexus 5. If you haven’t already, we recommend checking out some of the samples which are included on the previous page.
Gaming-wise, many games will work pretty well, but as we have also experienced with the UMI X1S (iconBIT Mercury XL), the graphical-intensive games will display some stutter, mainly because of the lower Mali 400 MP performance.
Now, it is time for the most important thing, the price; we have found the device online for as low as 99 Euros so we think that this product is a really good deal for people that are starting to experience Android for the first time and enjoy a large screen for easy reading.
We would like to thank again to UMI for making this review possible!