Umi eMax mini Review: VIDEO

Umi eMax mini Review: SPECS

Display	5″ 1080P (FULL-HD)
Processor	Snapdragon 615, octa-core, 64-bit, 1.5GHz
RAM	2GB
Camera	8MP Front/13MP Back
Connectivity	Bluetooth, 3G, 4G, GPS, WIFI, GSM,EDGE, GPRS, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, dual-SIM, FDD-LTE B1/B3/B7
Battery	3.050 mAh (non-removable)
Dimensions	139.6 x 69.6 x 8.9mm / 130g
OS	Android 5.0.2
Storage	16GB (expandable via microSD card slot up to 64GB)

Umi eMax mini Review: UNBOXING

UMI eMax mini comes in a typical for UMI box and the contents include a OnePlus style USB cable, power plug and instruction manuals.

Umi eMax mini Review: DESIGN

When it comes to the design of the phone, Umi eMax mini is a very compact phone due to it’s 5” display. Also, the phone is very lightweight and it sports all plastic build.

On the front we have an 8MP camera, a sensor light, earpiece and notification LED.

On the bottom we can find three capacitive keys and back and multitasking buttons have a nice backlight.

The backplate is made of textured plastic, it feels nice to the touch and helps with the grip.

As far as optics, we have a 13MP snapper with a single LED flash.

On the right we have a volume rocker and a power key.

On the top there is a headset jack and on the bottom we have a mic, USB port and the speaker grill.

The backplate is removable, where you can find an embedded generous 3050mAh battery, 2 SIM card slots and the microSD card slot.

Overall, the phone looks and feels very well made and high quality despite using mainly plastic in its build. I have to say I kind of like it.

Umi eMax mini Review: DISPLAY

The 5” display on the Umi eMax mini is of a 1080p variety and it is sharp, bright and a great panel to look at overall. The only shortcoming would be that it doesn’t have the best sunlight visibility but it’s still visible outdoors.

Umi eMax mini Review: UI

The phone runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is not the newest version but I don’t think it’s a big issue. The UI is clean and you are getting a pretty much stock Android experience except for the fact that Umi redesigned some icons.

I am actually happy that Umi didn’t add any of those useless gesture controls and left only one we mostly use – double tap to wake. It is mostly working great but it happened a few times that it worked only from the second time.

As far as the overall smoothness of the UI, I can say mostly positive things. Everything’s running nice and fast even with quite a few apps running in the background.

Umi eMax mini Review: BENCHMARKS

Umi eMax mini Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Umi eMax mini comes with a pretty decent hardware package. It includes an octa-core Snapdragon 615 chip with the clock speeds of 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage.

The 3D games performance is actually great. The graphics look good and there were just a few minor skipped frames but there is nothing worth complaining about.

Most importantly, there are no overheating issues when gaming.

Umi eMax mini Review: MULTIMEDIA

When it comes to the multimedia consumption, the HD content looks great on a nice and sharp display and even the loudspeaker is loud and pretty good too despite lacking just a little bit of depth.

The sound via earphones is decent too.

Umi eMax mini Review: CAMERA

Umi eMax mini comes with a nicely designed camera app with some shootings modes and settings to play with. They even included a manual mode, which is a nice addition for a budget phone.

Both focus time and the shutter speed have improved siginificantly over the previous Umi phones I’ve tested.

Umi eMax mini Review: IMAGE QUALITY

When it comes to the actual quality of the images, I would say that it is one of the best Umi phones yet.

With plenty of light, the images tend to look great with a good amount of details and colour reproduction is mostly good. However, the dynamic range is not always correct.

In the lower lit situations, you may see the softer focus, less details and more noise.

The night shots are okay for a budget phone but we have quite a lot of grain in the images. However, I’ve seen some worse performers in this price range.

A selfie camera is pretty good too and it also has a fast shutter speed.

Umi eMax mini Review: VIDEO QUALITY

As far as video, the phone can capture some decent looking footage. Well, it is not the sharpest out there but definitely more than usable. See video review for a sample.

Umi eMax mini Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options are actually working great and I had no issues with GPS, Bluetooth, wifi or call quality.

Umi eMax mini Review: BATTERY LIFE

When it comes to the battery life, Umi eMax mini is a good performer too. I could get up to 5 hours of screen-on time with both light and heavy use, and both with the auto and max brightness.

Umi eMax mini Review: CONCLUSIONS

So there you have, the Umi eMax mini. I have to say that this is a pretty good phone overall and I was happy to use it during my testing period.

For less than $150 you are getting a simple but neat design and great build quality, a sharp and bright 5” display, almost stock looking UI, good gaming performance, decent camera and a good battery life.

One minor complaint would be that double tap to wake feature works only from the second time when you pick up the phone from the standby mode.

 

Other than that, I have to say that Umi really stepped up their game with this model and the eMax mini is a really good offering in this price range. I will leave a product link in the description below the video if you want to check it out.