UMi Max Review

When we saw the UMi Max teaser for the first time, we thought that UMi will release a new smartphone with a large display as it looked too slim to house a very large battery. However, when the full specifications were revealed we had the impression that UMi Max is actually the UMi Super with less RAM and storage. So, we've decided to make a review of the Max in order to discover whether there are any actual differences from the Super model.

Specifications

UMi Max features a metal unibody made of CNC crafted, aerospace-grade aluminum alloy coupled with a 5.5-inch LTPS display by Sharp, which is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with a 2.5D curved top glass layer. The IPS display panel has a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and covers 95% of the NTSC color space. Under the hood ticks a MediaTek Helio P10 MT6755 chipset with a 2GHz octa-core CPU and a 700MHz dual-core Mali-T860 MP2. It is coupled with 3GB of single-channel, LPDDR3 RAM clocked at 933MHz and 16GB of eMMC 5.1 storage made by Samsung. The latter can be expanded with up to 128GB. The camera department includes a 13-megapixel primary shooter with a Panasonic SmartFSI MN34152 sensor and a dual-tone LED flash. The selfie snapper has a 5-megapixel, 1/5" GalaxyCore GC5005 sensor with a 1.12μm pixel size. The smartphone is equipped with a 3D fingerprint sensor. It is a 2nd generation one by Microarray. In order to provide a higher than average audio quality, UMi has provided installed on the device a dedicated sound card with an Awinic AW8738 chip for Hi-Fi sound. Power is supplied by a 4000 mAh battery, made by Sony. It arrives with a standard 5V/1A charger. UMi Max has a hybrid dual-SIM card tray, in which you can place either two micro-SIM cards, or one micro-SIM card and a microSD card for additional storage. On both SIM slots the device supports quad-band 2G GSM, quad-band 3G WCDMA, and quad-band 4G LTE Cat. 4 networks. There are plenty of wireless connectivity options on board as well, including dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, 802.11n @ 5GHz, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, Bluetooth 4.1. The USB Type-C port with OTG support is made by Foxconn. There's a 3.5 mm jack as well and the smartphone also supports GPS/A-GPS and Glonass. The device runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. For more details, check out the complete list of UMi Max specifications here.

What's in the box

UMi Max arrives in a rectangular, dark gray box. Its lid has a pattern that imitates a fingerprint pattern and in its center the UMi logo is printed as the source of all strange curves forming this fingerprint-like pattern. Actually, the UMi Touch, which we have reviewed a while ago, has arrived in exactly the same box and when you come to think of it, its design actually corresponds to that of the UMi Touch and not the Max. The lid covers a box that splits up to open. The smartphone is placed in the top level compartment of the box. In the area below, you'll find an envelope with a user manual and pin for the SIM tray, the battery charger and a USB to USB Type-C cable. It is not the most generous of sets, but this is how most of the smartphones arrive these days. The UMi Super and UMi Touch have arrived with the same limited accessories set.

Design, build and controls

UMi Max has almost exactly the same design as the UMi Super. However, there are a number of slight differences, which will probably change the overall impression. For starters, UMi Max has a metal unibody with the typical for this type of design thick antenna bands, which are clearly visible on the top and bottom of the model's back. They are relatively thin and do not hinder the overall impression of a stylish design. FIY, UMi Super has a metal body, but the antenna caps are made of PPS material and the antennae are not visible, of course. The material used for both is one and the same - aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, which has undergone 100 processes of CNC cutting, PBT nano-molding, 360-degree polishing and 3D blasting and anodizing. The back has a very light curve and continues to form the body's frame, which has glossy front and back chamfered edges. The front ones seamlessly blend with the 2.5D curved top glass layer of the display. The latter has thick bezels though the metal frame is very thin. All the rest in terms of dimensions and controls is exactly the same as the UMi Super. However, we have noticed that the physical buttons - volume, power and smart one are quite wobbly and do not fit into their corresponding holes. It looks like they're smaller and sometimes operating with them can be tricky. The rest is solidly built. UMi Max has a width of 75 mm, which is a lower-than-average size for a smartphone with a 5.5-inch screen. The same applies to its height, which measures 150.8 mm, so in this regard it is a compact smartphone that is comfortable to hold and operate with one hand. In terms of weight and thickness, however, UMi Max is heavier and thicker than average when compared to all smartphones with a 5.5-inch display and a 4000 mAh battery. Its waistline measures 8.8 mm and its weight is 185 grams. The internals of the model are exactly the same as those of the UMi Super. The manufacturer has created a special compact circuit board and an indented inner back cover, in order to provide more space for the bulky battery. UMi Max is available in two colors: gold with a white front and silver with a black front. UMi Supper is available in those two and an additional one - black. We are reviewing a silver UMi Max. The layout of the controls is identical in the two models to the utmost extent. For example, on the left frame are placed the hybrid dual-SIM tray and the SmartKey. Both elements are not aligned and this deviation is one and the same in the Max and Super unites we have reviewed. You can adjust the behaviour of the SmartKey from Settings > Shortcut button settings. On the right frame are the volume and power buttons. The 3.5 mm jack is positioned on the top frame, while the bottom one has a centrally placed USB Type-C 2.0 port with two identical speaker grills on its sides. The left one is where the microphone is, while behind the second is placed a single speaker. On the front above the screen you'll see the light/proximity sensor, earpiece, and selfie camera (from left to right). Below the display you'll see the Harlequin LED Notification Light. This is a backlit circle that blinks slowly and notifies you about various events such as missed calls, messages, battery down and so on, by changing its color. You can manage its behaviour from the Settings > Harlequin LED Notification menu. When you start up the phone for the first time, you'll notice that it has an on-screen navigation bar switched on by default. From the Settings menu, you can switch it off and choose to use the capacitive navigation bar, in which the Harlequin LED Notification Light serves as a home button. The menu and back buttons are not indicated in any way, they are just touch-sensitive areas below the screen. You can also swap their "places". By default the right one serves as a back button and the left one is for the menu. On the back, vertically along the center of the body from top to bottom are placed the primary camera, dual-tone LED flash below it (cold above the warm light), and the fingerprint sensor. They are followed by the UMi logo and at the lower end are the model's name and production information. Slightly aside from the camera module, in the area of the upper antenna there's another microphone hole.

Display

UMi Max sports a 5.5-inch IPS display, made by Sharp. It uses the LTPS (Low Temperature PolySilicon) technology, which is largely preferred for displays with bigger sizes and higher resolutions, because it allows the electrons to move faster through the polysilicon substrate and the pixels to be placed closer to one another. The model's panel has a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and covers 95% of the NTSC color space. Its protection is ensured by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 with 2.5D curved edges. This type of curved top glass layer has almost become a standard among manufacturers as it provides a more enjoyable touch experience. UMi Max's display is no exception. With an untrained eye we could say that it has an excellent contrast and good color reproduction. You can tweak the display by using MiraVision's options that include adjusting the color temperature, saturation and dynamic contrast. You can also benefit from the Daydream function, which serves as a screensaver. Our display measurements reveal that the UMi Max has a brighter display than the UMi Super at all brightness levels, with the peak white luminance being 465.6 cd/sq.m. At the same time the black luminance of the Max are lower than those of the Super, which ultimately leads to a better static contrast ratio in favour for the Max. Indeed, if the Super had an average of 1700-1800:1 contrast ratio, our review unit of the Max has an average of 2200:1, which is quite impressive. It is significantly lower only at the brightness set at 0% - at that point it measures 1274:1. Just like the UMi Super, the UMi Max is said to cover 95% of the NTSC color gamut. However, if you take a look at the CIE diagram for both models, it is clearly visible that both displays are not high-gamut ones. On the contrary, their level is close to the sRGB one, but slightly deviates in all three main color domains. Both display panels have a classic striped pixel structure and provide very good viewing angles with equal amount of lost light when you look at them from aside. Finally, the average temperature of the white point has been measured around 8000K, in some occasions even below it (100% and 75% of brightness), which is quite normal for an IPS display of a mobile device.

Brightness	White luminance	Black luminance	Contrast	Color temperature
100 %	465.6 cd/m2	0.211 cd/m2	2207 : 1	7947 K
75 %	357.671 cd/m2	0.158 cd/m2	2264 : 1	7927 K
50 %	216.436 cd/m2	0.111 cd/m2	1950 : 1	8070 K
25 %	132.155 cd/m2	0.058 cd/m2	2279 : 1	8118 K
0 %	17.84 cd/m2	0.014 cd/m2	1274 : 1	8329 K

OS, UI and software

UMi Max runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box. It is very clean and almost a stock variant and is coupled with UMi's options for servicing the specific device features. The lock screen includes that standard voice/music search and camera shortcut. By default it needs a swipe to unlock, and the notifications and quick settings appear on it, unless you choose them not to show from the Settings menu. On the home screen there are two rows of apps by default. The first one includes the Camera, Play Store, Music, and Settings. The second one lists the Dialer, Contacts, App Tray icon, Messenger and default Browser. At the upper end of the display is docked the "Ok Google" voice search app with Now on Tap. Below it there's a clock widget, which can be removed. The second desktop has an extended Music app only, which can be removed as well. Up to now everything is identical to UMi Super. The way the navigation bar reacts, however is different. Tapping the menu button of UMi Max brings up the widgets menu, which can also be accessed by long pressing on an empty space on the home screen. Tapping the menu button of UMi Super opens the task manager. In order to access it on the Max you have to touch and hold the home button. The rest is standard for an Android M device. The notifications are brought up by a single swipe down from the top of the display and a second swipe down opens the quick settings. The latter contains one additional toggle compared to those of the UMi Super. It is called Physical Button and switches between the capacitive and on-screen navigation bar. The rest is the same: shortcuts to the brightness level, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DND and Airplane mode, Auto-rotate, Flashlight, Location, Cast (screen), Audio profiles, Battery saver, Data connections. Touching and holding the settings icon in the quick settings activates the System UI Tuner. The Widgets and Wallpapers menu allows you to add widgets and change the wallpapers of the device. The Volume options include three rows, which are collapsed by default - media, system, and alarm clock. The Power off/Reboot screen is traditional as well offering to shut down the device, reboot it, to switch to airplane mode, simply make a screenshot or switch between three sound profiles - silent, vibrate only, sound. The Settings menu of UMi Max is pretty standard and looks almost like the one of the UMi Super, the only difference being the Smart Assistant, which in the case of Max is enriched with options, but more on this later. The Settings start with the Wireless & networks group of options, which includes Turbo Download, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot and advanced wireless connectivity settings to name a few. The second group of options is called Device and lets you adjust the Display, Sound, Apps, Storage, Harlequin Notification light, Battery, and Memory. As usual, the Display section contains the MiraVision function, which lets you change the color mode and enhance the dynamic contrast and color effect. You also get the Daydream function, which is switched on by default. From here you can also turn on the Wireless Display (Cast) function of the device as well as calibrate the proximity and G-sensor - just like in the UMi Super. The Sound & notification menu includes the four standard sound profiles, which you can change, the sound notifications and DND mode management, and the traditional BES sound enhancement effects. The Apps and Storage menus have nothing interesting about them, so we arrive at the Harlequin Notification Light one. Its the same as the UMi Super one offering to be switched on/off while charging and/or the battery is low. You can also change the color for missed notifications, incoming calls and standby display. A difference between the Max and Super is that the Harlequin LED Notification in the Super glows with a nice rainbowy color when the display is on standby. Then comes the Battery menu, which will be discussed in detail in the Battery section of this review. Memory is the last one and offers nothing new. The third large group of settings is called Personal. It contains the Location services, Security options, Accounts management, Language & input, Google account management, Backup & reset. From this list of settings the Security one is most interesting, because besides all else it allows you to set up and manage your fingerprint ID(s). Once you set up one, you can activate the SmartLock, just like in the UMi Super. SmartLock is a function, which allows your device to stay unlocked near trusted places, devices, voices, faces or your body. Another noteworthy feature of the Personal section is the Google account management, which in UMi Max is much richer in options compared to the same section in UMi Super. And now we arrive at the Smart Assistant section. It manages the SmartKey behaviour by allowing you to set up a shortcut to a selected app. By default, it opens the camera app. In Umi Max this section has been enriched compared to the same in UMi Super. For starters, the manufacturer has taken out the Button type from the Accessibility menu and placed it under Smart Assistant. The on-screen Navigation Bar options are also removed from Accessibility, compared to the UMi Super. Furthermore, the company has added an extensive Battery saving mode (to be described in detail in the Battery section of this review) and a Background task clear function, which lets you choose which apps should be protected from background cleaning. Finally, System is the last group of settings and is one and the same in the two models. It includes all the standard options for Date & time, Scheduled power on & off, Accessibility, Printing, and About Phone. As mentioned earlier, the Accessibility menu has retained its original Marshmallow look after UMi has removed the Buttons type and Navigation bar options from it. The System UI Tuner provides options for displaying the battery percentage inside the battery icon, add toggles to the quick settings, and choose which apps should appear as icons in the status bar. During our period of testing there have no been system updates. Just like in the UMi Super, the Max arrives with a standard set of default and pre-installed apps including Browser, Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Downloads, File Manager, Flashlight, FM Radio, Gallery, Gmail, Ok Google, Maps, Messenger, Music, Phone, Play Store, Search (among installed apps), Settings, Sound recorder, and Voice search. The only difference with the Super is that UMi Max lacks a special Video player app. The icons of the apps are typically Marshmallow ones, however, the apps are not listed on one screen, which can be scrolled, but on successive screens. They are ordered alphabetically and are accessed via the App Tray icon from the home screen.

Networks, calls and connectivity

As long as it concerns the specifications, UMi Max and UMi Super has exactly the same connectivity options. Both devices are equipped with a hybrid, dual-SIM card tray, which can house either two micro-SIM cards, or a micro-SIM card and a microSD one. The two models support quad-band 2G GSM (850, 90, 1800, 1900 MHz), quad-band 3G W-CDMA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz), and quad-band 4G LTE Cat. 4 (800, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHz) networks. However, the MTK Engineering test showed that both units we have tested support twice as more LTE bands - FDD-LTE (800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2600 MHz) and TD-LTE (2300, 2500, 2600 MHz). Our review unit of UMi Max demonstrated excellent reception and call quality. The two models also have a plethora of wireless connectivity options, including dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, 802.11n 5GHz, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, and Bluetooth 4.1. The both also support Cast screen via Miracast and Turbo download for faster downloading of files larger than 20MB. This is achieved by combining the "efforts" of Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks. Both, UMi Max and UMi Super support GPS/A-GPS and Glonass. However, a review unit of the Super managed to detect only GPS satellites and none from the Glonass system. At the same time of UMi Max review unit managed to detect satellites from both systems and with an excellent accuracy of up to 3 meters. Finally, the two models are equipped with a USB Type-C 2.0 port by Foxconn with OTG support. The latter has been tested and works properly.

Performance

Just like the UMi Super, UMi Max is based on a MediaTek Helio P10 MT6755 chipset and is our sixth smartphone with this system-on-chip. The 64-bit SoC consists of four 2GHz Cortex-A53 CPU cores and four 1GHz Cortex-A53 cores coupled with a 700MHz dual-core Mali-T860 MP2 GPU. The idea behind this architecture is to combine higher performance and higher power efficiency. With an AnTuTu score of 47921 points, UMi Max is almost on par with the Elephone P9000(47695) and the UMi Super(47647). This group of three smartphones yields to the results of Ulefone Future(50939) and Gionee S8(50616), which score higher than 50000 points in AnTuTu. The last in line is Meizu m3 Note with a result of 43323 points. The picture is almost the same with all other performance benchmark results. If there's a conclusion to be drawn UMi Max and UMi Super do not differ a lot in terms of performance and differences are only marginal, despite the fact that the UMi MAX has less RAM - 3GB of single-channel, LPDDR3 RAM clocked at 933MHz. It also has less storage - 16GB of eMMC 5.1 storage made by Samsung, which is expandable with up to 128GB, while the UMi Super has 4GB of the same type of RAM and 32GB Of storage, expandable with up to 256GB. Generous RAM usually does make a difference, but in this case there's no difference between the two devices that you can sense, while working with them. Regarding the internal memory, the Androbench results of both devices are very close and fairly fast. Both smartphone have one and the same set of sensors, which includes a light, proximity, orientation, linear acceleration, rotation vector and g- sensor along with an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. Both also have a fingerprint sensor, however, there is one difference. UMi Max has a 2nd generation 3D fingerprint sensor by Microarray, while UMi Super has a 4th generation 3D sensor by the same manufacturer. In both cases, it is placed on the back, provides 360-degree recognition, and supports up to 5 fingerprint IDs. Setting up a fingerprint ID is easy and once you set up one, you also get access to the SmartLock function. Unlocking is fast.

Cameras

The camera app of UMi Max is the same as the one of UMi Super and is a standard one. It includes the additional mode called picture-in-picture - a small photo from the front-facing camera appears on the photo taken with the primary camera. Some might find it fun to use and you can see how it looks like on the second screenshot. You can change the ISO, exposure, photo and video resolution, white balance. The front camera has a beautifying function, too.

Primary camera

The camera setup of UMi Max is exactly the same as the one of UMi Super. The front facing shooter packs a 13-megapixel Panasonic SmartFSI MN34152 sensor, which is also used in the primary camera of Ulefone Vienna. We have already shared before, that a distinctive feature of the SmartFSI sensors is their structure. Each color component of the pixel is surrounded by a light wall, which coupled with a light tube lessen color crosstalk and light loss. The sensor is coupled with a dual-tone LED flash, with the warm light positioned below the cold one. The output images are with a resolution of 4224 x 3168 pixels and the camera can make videos with a top resolution of 1080p @ 30fps. We don't have information about the lens, so we cannot draw any conclusions, but you can check out the sample photos below and compare them with those from UMi Super.

Secondary camera

The front-facing camera of UMi Max is equipped with a 5-megapixel GalaxyCore GC5005 sensor with a size of 1/5" and a 1.12μm pixel. The output resolution of the images is 2560 x 1920 pixels.

Audio

UMi Max has the same audio setup in terms of hardware as the UMi Super. The latter has already shown very good results, which are very close to those of Ulefone Vienna, which has been marketed as an audio-centric smartphone. We don't know whether it comes as a surprise or not, but the UMi Max shows even better results than the Super. The differences are marginal, but they usually are in such tests. More importantly, they lead to changes in the assessment of several parameters. For example, the total harmonic distortion (THD) in UMi Max is excellent, while the one of Super is very good. The THD + Noise in UMi Max is good, while the one of Super is only average. Finally, the IMD + Noise of the Max is also excellent, while of the Super is very good. In the rest of the parameters the two smartphones are almost on par. The audio setup of the two models includes an independent Hi-Fi system with a dedicated sound card, including an Awinic AW8738 chip. There is one speaker placed behind the right speaker grille at the bottom frame of the device. Our audio test has been performed by using the RightMark Audio Analyzer software and the TASCAM US-2x2 audio interface. The music app is standard and includes the typical settings, including equalizer options with preset audio profiles.

Test	Value	RMAA rating
Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB	+0.00, -0.13	Excellent
Noise level, dB (A)	-93.2	Very Good
Dynamic range, dB (A)	93.2	Very Good
THD, %	0.0018	Excellent
THD + Noise, dB (A)	-85.8	Good
IMD + Noise, %	0.0067	Excellent
Stereo crosstalk, dB	-80.2	Very good
IMD at 10 kHz, %	0.013	Very good
General performance		Very good

Battery

UMi Max has an extensive battery management software and functions, which are somehow scattered around the Settings menu, but we will try to sum them up here. From the Battery section of the menu you can access the monitor, which also lets you choose whether the battery capacity should be displayed as a percentage or icon and whether you'd like to switch on/off the Standby intelligent power saving mode. There's a separate Battery Saver function, which is set to start, when the battery reaches 15% of its capacity. From the Smart Assistant menu you get access to the advanced software options the manufacturer has provided for smart battery management. For starters, it includes several pre-set battery profiles, which you can switch on manually, or set them to start/end automatically at events pre-defined by you. The modes are Intelligent, Marath, Sleep, and My Mode. Marath changes entirely the UI and allows you to use the phone only for basic functions such as phone calls and messaging. The Sleep mode disables even calls and allows only alarms. The My Mode is a custom one, which is set automatically based on your daily use of the device. For each of these modes, you can change some of the parameters and adapt it to your needs. UMi Max has the same battery as the UMi Super - a 4000 mAh, Li-Ion-Pol, non-removable one by Sony. The manufacturer has used the same internals trapezoidal design of the device in order to fit the large battery in a slimmer body. Unlike, the Super, which has a fast charger, the UMi Max arrives with a standard 5V/1A charger. During our test period the device needed almost 4 complete hours to charge its battery from 0% to 100% (3 hours and 57 minutes). The first 3% needed 33 minutes. To reach 35% it needed 1 hour and 2 minutes. Another hour and 25 minutes took for the battery to reach 75%. The final 25% to 100% took 57 minutes. For comparison, with the fast charger, UMi Super needed 1 hour and 28 minutes in total to charge its battery in full. However, UMi Max shows a far better result in the PCMark Work battery life test - 8 hours and 32 minutes, compared to 6 hours and 45 minutes by UMi Super. The test has been performed with the brightness level calibrated at 200 cd/sq.m. as recommended by Futuremark.

Final thoughts

UMi Super has definitely been a nice surprise, especially after reviewing the UMi Touch priorhand. If it has to be compared to the UMi Max, it would be very difficult. In terms of build and specs the Super has a slight advantage with better build, newer fingeprrint sensor generation, more RAM and storage. In terms of design and performance the devices are almost on par. As long as it concerns the display and battery UMi Max has shown to have a brighter display and longer battery life, though it battery charges significantly slower. It also has an advantage in terms of pricing as it is currently priced at around $160. The UMi Super can be obtained for around $180-220 at present.