Back in the summer of 2015, we reviewed Umi Iron. It delivered in some aspects while it fell short in others. This time around we have the Umi Iron Pro, the upgraded model. Find out more if it is any good in our full review.

Thanks to Coolicool for sending Umi Iron Pro for a review.

Umi Iron Pro VIDEO REVIEW:

Umi Iron Pro Review: UNBOXING

The device comes in quite a typical box for UMI where all the contents are packed neatly. Inside of it you can find a USB type-C cable, power plug and some documentation.

Umi Iron Pro Review: SPECS

Umi Iron Pro Review: DESIGN

The design of the Umi Iron Pro is very similar to the one we’ve seen on the regular Umi Iron. The phone made of metal, it is well constructed and feels great in the hand.

The 5.5” display does not make this phone the most compact out there but it is not that huge either.

On the top we have 8MP shooter along with the front firing LED light and some other usual stuff.

On the bottom there is a very nice looking pulsing notification LED light, which can be highly customised and it has various colours. Also, there are on-screen navigation buttons.

The back is made of metal and it is identical to the Umi Iron except for the fingerprint scanner. The setup of it was a bit annoying and it took much more time in comparison to some other devices. The good point is that once the you register your fingerprint, the scanner works pretty well and you can also unlock your phone straight from the standby mode.

As far as optics, we are looking at 13MP camera with dual tone dual LED flash.

On the bottom there is a speaker grill.

The buttons are placed on the left side and I’m not a huge fan of it as I am used to pressing keys on the right side but this may be my personal preference. On the right side there is a dual nano SIM card slot and one slot also doubles as microSD storage expansion option.

On the top there is a headset jack and on the bottom you can find a USB Type-C port.

Overall, Umi Iron Pro is a well designed phone and it sports a great built quality. Also, it definitely looks premium considering the price of the device.

Umi Iron Pro Review: DISPLAY

As far as display, we are looking at 5.5” panel, which is quite bright, it has good colours and it is a great panel overall. However, the phone ships with some sort of anti-glare screen protector, which I definitely recommend removing as soon as you start using the phone as it distorts the view.

Umi Iron Pro Review: UI

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When it comes to the UI, Umi Iron Pro runs on Android 5.1 out of the box with a light Umi’s skin on top of it.

The day-to-day performance is nice and smooth even after installing lots of apps.

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The key features would be some customisation options of the LED light, which is really cool and I believe each manufacturer should include that.

Also, there are some gesture controls, which work pretty well but they are not the fastest I’ve seen.

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Besides the fingerprint security option, Umi offers iris scanner feature, if you really care about it. It may be cool to play with it for a few times but in general, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as it takes too much effort unlocking the phone and you simply look weird. Well, it’s just my opinion.

Umi Iron Pro Review: BENCHMARKS

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Umi Iron Pro Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

Umi Iron Pro sports an octa-core MTK6753 1.3GHz 64bit CPU, 3GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. 

This combo of hardware looks pretty good on paper but disappoints when it comes to graphically intensive games. 

Playing Asphalt 8 on the highest visual setting is literally impossible. Once you change the graphics level to medium, it is possible to play it but there are still quite a few skipped frames and stutter. 

Overall, this phone is definitely not for hardcore gamers. 

Umi Iron Pro Review: MULTIMEDIA

Consuming multimedia is a pretty good experience. As usual, there are no issues watching Full-HD content and while the loudspeaker is not the best I’ve heard, the sound that is coming out of it is pretty good.

As far as sound via earphones, it is pretty good too. However, the thing I hate most is the fact that you hear some kind of weird beep sound once hit volume up or down… and it happens randomly.

Umi Iron Pro Review: CAMERA

As far as camera, we have a pretty much stock looking Mediatek app. What’s funny is the fact that you can select the image size up to 20MP while the sensor itself is just 13MP.

As far as the image quality, daylight pictures turn out to be pretty good. There is a reasonable amount of details, colour reproduction is mostly natural and dynamic range is okay.

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However, as soon as the sensor does not get a lot of light, some more noise creeps in. Still, you may get some pretty good looking pictures. Also,  I was quite impressed by the quality of some macro shots.

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When it comes to the low-light images, the camera software tends to brighten up the scene, which is okay but it leads to a ridiculous amount of noise. Well, most of the images will be usable for social media but others may even look like painted.

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As far as selfie camera goes, you can only take a decent shot with plenty of lightning. Otherwise, you will get a blurry shot witch will also lack in details.

As far as video, the quality of footage is okay but it is not very  impressive. There is an average amount of details and the video looks quite shaky. See the video review for a video sample.

Umi Iron Pro Review: CONNECTIVITY

All the connectivity options work well. However, the in-call volume could be a tad louder.

Umi Iron Pro Review: BATTERY LIFE

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The battery capacity varies from 3100mAh to 3300mAh, which is quite interesting. The phone will get you through the day as I was able to achieve almost 4 hours of screen-on time while using the device mainly for basic tasks.

Umi Iron Pro Review: CONCLUSIONS

Umi Iron Pro is another attempt by the company to win the consumers’ hearts. Did they succeed?

To some extent yes. The phone has a great metal design, good build quality and it feels great in the hand.

Also, Umi Iron Pro sports a pretty good display, the UI performance is mostly fast and fluid, the fingerprint scanner works well.

While the camera is not bad but it is far from perfect and the quality of images will mostly depend on the lighting conditions.

Also, if you are a hardcore gamer, Umi Iron Pro is definitely not for you unless you are okay with a laggy 3D gaming experience.

All in all, Umi Iron Pro is a decent device for the price $180 but you may also want to check out what the competition has to offer in this price range.

The post Umi Iron Pro Review – A Worthy Successor? appeared first on Gizmochina.