Chinese manufacturers continue to surprise with a large number of phones that are getting cheaper every day. For example, Umi Rome, an excellent mid-range terminal, is sold at an affordable price of $ 90. If this surprises you, then you still do not know about the release of the new Umi Rome X model (the photo is given later in the article) - the "younger brother" of the first specified phone, its mini version.
A dream come true?
For Umi, the release of a phone with an eight-core processor, a metal case and three gigabytes of RAM for a price not exceeding $ 100 is not something special. And if these same excellent characteristics, though with less power, are offered at an incredible price of $ 60? A dream that can't be true? Umi has done the impossible and brought to light Rome X - the cheapest metal phone in the world, priced at $ 60, which intends to become the flagship of budget models. Unlike Rome, Rome X can indeed be bought at this price, so this is definitely not a marketing gimmick.
Design and Build
The history of the model is not new, since an identical chassis, only without the X prefix, has already been produced. The all-metal aluminum case with 2.5D edges on the sides looks great. It frames a 5.5-inch LTPS screen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with a density of 267 dpi. The case thickness is the same - 7.9 mm.
The design of Rome X is similar to something between the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and some new phones of the same manufacturer. At a distance, the smartphone looks like an expensive model. But this is only until it is in your hands.
The phone is available in gold and black. The metal frame is complemented by a glossy polycarbonate back panel. Upon closer examination, it becomes noticeable that the strips on the frame, designed to enhance the signal, do not allow the cover to fit snugly against the phone. This spoils what should have become an attractive premium design, although users are encouraged to remove the back panel and access the 2500 mAh removable battery and dual SIM and MicroSD slot.
Another thing that spoils the design of the phone, according to users, is a fancy, randomly placed microphone beneath the screen, located to the right of the return button to the home panel. It’s not even at the center, which harms the design, but more importantly, why on earth is it at all?
It is worth noting that the Home button is touch-sensitive and does not have a built-in fingerprint scanner. Today, even cheap Chinese phones are equipped with such a sensor, and it is usually located on the rear panel. The fact that the phone does not have one at all seems strange to many.
Metal case
Not so bad. The phone at first glance looks great - it is a rather large phablet with dimensions of 153.8 x 77 mm and weight of 177 g, with curved glass, rounded corners and beveled rear edges that allow you to control Umi with even one hand.
In Umi Rome X, the characteristic of thickness, which is 7.9 mm, is significant for the phablet and is a significant achievement for the phone for $ 60. The back of the camera sticks out a little, but at least it’s located on the top, in the middle, which reduces the likelihood of the smartphone getting uneven on a flat surface.
What is really rare in phones is the presence of a front flash in addition to a dual LED on the back. Taking a selfie, video chatting and just checking the appearance is more convenient when there is a backlight, although the fact that the front camera has only 2 megapixel resolution is depressing.
Another plus: the speaker holes are located at the bottom, and not on the rear panel. Umi also has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, FM radio works when the headset is connected to the phone.
Incomplete finish
In general, the brief characteristic of the Umi Rome X phone is as follows - it is still a very "raw" device. According to customer reviews, he clearly lacks polish and polish. In addition, the weight of the smartphone is too unevenly distributed, which is why it sometimes seems very heavy.
Fingerprints easily remain on the front and back panels. This is very annoying for some users. In addition, removing them from the surface of the body is a non-trivial task. Although the smartphone for $ 60 looks very good, unfortunately, according to customers, it doesn’t cost more.
The front of the phone looks like Chinese gadgets 2011-2012. The front flash is located at the speaker, and the front camera is above the screen. Under the display are three touch buttons: call the latest applications, go to the home panel and return, arranged in an enumerated order.
On the phone’s chin, on either side of the USB port, two sets of holes are drilled. But there is only one speaker.
In general, the smartphone gives the impression of a device made of inexpensive, but durable material, which, however, lacks, figuratively speaking, the finish. The weight of the phone is also not balanced both in size and in the distribution of its mass.
Umi Rome X: hardware review
As already mentioned, the phone has one speaker, although there are two sets of holes for it. However, the main thing is not quantity, but quality, but it leaves much to be desired. In Umi Rome X, the characteristic of an audio output with too many high frequencies in the complete absence of bass and low volume fully corresponds to the word “cheap”.
According to user reviews, they had difficulty understanding the other person during a telephone conversation, so the “victim” of terrible quality is not only the speaker at the bottom of the phone, but also the top speaker.
A common advantage of Chinese smartphones is value for money. Another plus is support for two SIM cards. The device provides for the simultaneous operation of two calling cards in standby mode, which makes it possible to use different tariffs for work and entertainment. It also supports TF memory card up to 64 GB.
Wi-Fi operates at 2.4 and 5 GHz, there is Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, but there is no NFC, OTG and infrared blaster.
The package includes a USB cable and charger.
Screen
For a $ 60 phone (Umi Rome X), the display is impressive. If you evaluate it on a scale from natural to saturated colors, then it gravitates to the latter. The colors are expressive, as, however, with all LTPS displays.
MediaTek’s applied MiraVision technology is very helpful for Umi Rome X Black. Thanks to it, the image characteristics are significantly improved, you can reduce the saturation, contrast and other parameters, if natural colors are more to your taste.
Since this is an LTPS display, viewing angles are a bit limited. But many users are quite happy with them, not claiming more.
The screen is made using low-temperature ion exchange technology, which increases the impact resistance of the glass surface. The hydrophobic nanocoating is followed by a blue filter, tempered glass, protective glass and electrostatic absorbing coating. The high durability of the screen surface protects it from scratches and cracking even in extreme conditions. The surface allows you to install additional protective coating.
In Umi Rome X, the touchscreen seems to have a low resolution, but this should be expected from a cheap smartphone, at least at the time of this writing.
Duration of work
In Umi Rome X, the characteristic of the battery with the claimed capacity of 2500 mAh allows you to place it somewhere between low and medium levels. There is no support for 4G LTE, which saves the phone a little, but differences in the service life of the device when working in 2G and 3G modes are difficult to distinguish.
If you do not connect your smartphone to Wi-Fi, then it can work from 8 to 10 hours on a single battery charge. With Wi-Fi, all that a smartphone is capable of is an hour of work, two by force. SOT time is about 3–3.5 hours. But if there is a need for long-term operation of the device, you can enable energy-saving mode. There is no support for fast or wireless charging.
Software
Most phones of the manufacturer support the Rootjoy application, which allows you to connect to a PC and quickly save the contents of the memory or reinstall the operating system. This model does not differ in similar software, although the presence of the preinstalled SuperSU program indicates that the user has been given all access rights.
Out of the box, the phone does not have a large number of applications, although having full access to Google Play makes it possible to independently install everything you need. Users like the scrollable home screen and application bar. The customizable Smart Wake gesture function works exactly, but makes it possible in Umi Rome X firmware with Android Lollipop OS (5.1).
Performance
According to user reviews, the characteristics of the Umi Rome X phone and its MediaTek MT6580 chip, which includes 4 Cortex A53 cores, as well as the Mali-400 video accelerator in terms of performance (compared to the hardware of modern smartphones) are a few steps back. Although the device is very budget, for the money given for it, you could create something better. For example, the MT6582 chip is really inexpensive and has good performance.
The microprocessor is supported by 1 GB of RAM. Compared with the older model, the built-in memory has also been reduced to 8 GB, but it can be increased using a TF card.
Tests
The main functionality that you should expect from any smartphone is browsing the web, instant messaging and mail, having a camera and, of course, the ability to make phone calls. Unfortunately, in none of these categories does the device behave quite well.
Online surfing is becoming an integral part of our lives, and caching web pages in browsers no longer helps. And Rome X is struggling with a couple of open tabs in Chrome. The Geekbench 3 test gives 359 points for one core and 1171 points in multiprocessor mode. AnTuTu 6.0.1 showed a result of 23,964.
Umi Rome X smartphone : camera features
Both cameras of the model came from her "big brother". The rear has an interpolated resolution of 13 megapixels, which in reality is 8 megapixels. Sensor - Sony IMX179 with dual flash, six-lens, blue glass filter and f2.0 aperture. The front dual-megapixel camera features its own flash. This should be ideal for taking a selfie or video chat in low light conditions, but, unfortunately, the front sensor has a very low resolution, and the flash does not make much difference.
The rear eight-megapixel camera uses software to increase its resolution to 13 megapixels. Dual LED flash works better than the front. There are all the usual modes and options, including real-time filters.
Users are not very enthusiastic about the capabilities of the Umi Rome X Gold camera. Its characteristics are sufficient when there is no camera at hand, but in places the image is very soft, and a lot of details are missing. In addition, it is very slow: saving a picture takes a lot of time. Again, this could be expected from a phone for $ 60.
In general, in addition to the slow camera speed, which can be attributed to the microprocessor, Rome X allows you to take photos if their quality is not taken too strictly ...
Conclusion
Umi does pretty risky, releasing phones one by one. Although the company also had successful models that made a lot of noise, such as the Touch, this is not the first attempt to gain a niche in the price range below $ 100. And with Rome X Umi another failure occurred, but in the very near future, if not this company, then some other Chinese manufacturer will conquer this segment of the market.
Owners are advised to buy a Umi Rome X 5.5 '' phone, the characteristics of which are too low for a modern means of communication, only in the case of an extremely limited budget. There are many 100-dollar phones that perform their duties much better.