I came across the Umi London, which is a $69 phone, it has decent specs and it sports a very good build quality. In fact, it may be the most premium-looking super cheap Android smartphone we have tested so far. Learn more in our full review.
Thanks to Chinavasion for sending Umi London Umi Smartphone
Umi London Review: VIDEO REVIEW
Umi London Review: UNBOXING
The device ships with all the usual stuff you would expect to come with any smartphone.
Umi London Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY
The very first thing you are going to notice is that the device has a fantastic build quality for the phone this cheap.
It uses a solid metal frame, tactile metal buttons and rounded edges that definitely help with the grip.
The phone has a 5” 720p display, which may not sport the highest resolution but it is sharp enough for the daily use.
The capacitive buttons are not backlit but we have a notification LED light that most of the cheap phones lack.
One annoying thing is that the backplate is very hard to remove and I suggest using a credit card to do that. Under the hood, you can find 2 SIM card slots, microSD card slot and a removable 2050mAh battery.
The loudspeaker quality is just average as on most of the cheap phones.
Umi London Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE
The Umi London sports a quad-core MTK6580 chip, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage.
These are definitely not the flagship-grade specs but the phone is doing an okay job handling some 3D games like Asphalt 8 on the medium graphics. Well, there are quite a few skipped frames and a bit of stutter but you can still enjoy playing the game.
Umi London Review: BENCHMARKS
Umi London Review: UI
The phone ships with the stock-looking Android 6.0, which has a few added features like a bunch of different gesture and motion controls. Most of them are gimmicky to me but the ones I usually use work fine.
Sometimes it may take a bit longer to load an app or switch between different apps but in general, the user interface performance is pretty good for a $69 phone. However, you may have a little bit of random stutter if you install a lot of apps, so keep that in mind.
Umi London Review: IMAGE QUALITY
As you may have guessed, the image quality is quite terrible. Well, you may get some usable shots for social media needs but nothing more. Same can be said about the 2MP front facing shooter.
Umi London Review: CONNECTIVITY
I didn’t have any connectivity issues with this phone except for the fact the GPS lock speeds could be faster.
Umi London Review: BATTERY LIFE
The 2050mAh battery does not sound impressive on paper and the performance of it is not so great.
The phone may get you through the day only if you are a light user. I could get just over 3 hours of screen-on time.
Umi London Review: CONCLUSIONS
Umi London is yet another cheap phone from China but it has a very good build quality and it actually looks quite premium for just $69.
The phone also rocks a pretty good display and Android 6.0 with some extra features out of the box.
However, you have to know that you may have a little bit of stutter if you install a lot of apps on the phone. Also, both cameras are quite terrible, and the battery life is just average.
All in all, Umi London is a premium-looking cheap Android phone that has quite a lot to offer but it has a few shortcomings that justify a low price of the device.
