The best Chinese smartphone "up to 10 thousand rubles" with AliExpress vs Xiaomi Redmi 5

Hello! Today I will talk about one cool inexpensive Chinese smartphone. But for starters - a couple of quotes from other reviews dedicated to him. So to speak, for the seed.

“First of all, I would like to mention the spectacular appearance of the smartphone, a cool screen and impressive autonomy. You can love him for that alone. And when the update arrives to Android 8.1, as promised by the manufacturer, then the price of this smartphone will not be " Lifehacker.ru

“It will be an excellent alternative to buying in the Russian retail smartphones in the price segment up to 10-12 thousand rubles. By sacrificing the service, the buyer does not like the best features and capabilities. The strengths include the amount of memory, speed, image quality, battery life, excellent display. ” Megaobzor.com



Let's guess: you probably thought that we are talking about the next budget model Xiaomi. No, well, how else? Everything is logical! The Chinese smartphone, but at the same time cheap, and also very successful - who is known for such devices? That's right, Xiaomi in this area seems to be number one ahead of the planet .

But no, I hasten to refute your guesswork.
It's not about any regular Redmi, but about the UmiDigi S2 Lite model. Which, I'm not afraid of such a formulation, is generally the best smartphone with AliExpress at the price of up to 10 thousand rubles . By the way, I was not the only one who noticed: for example, the author of the review on the website Megaobzor.com (see in the quotes above) called his own text: “UMIDIGI S2 Lite Review. The best smartphone is up to 10,000 rubles. ”

So it is: UmiDigi S2 Lite is really the best smartphone with Ali for that kind of money. Earlier, two or three years ago, this title could be given without looking to any relevant budget Xiaomi. But now everything looks different. And Xiaomi - forgive me for being direct - in the span. Actually, I will prove it below in the text, using facts and talking about UmiDigi S2 Lite. But for starters - a small educational program. I am sure that this educational program is necessary, because so far very few people know about UmiDigi in Russia. Xiaomi is on hearing, its activities and products have all been studied for a long time almost under a microscope. But UmiDigi is another matter: I guess that you could hear about it, but you hardly know all the details. Well, I tell.

UmiDigi - the company is relatively small, private, exists since 2012. Previously called UMi, then renamed UmiDigi. Why? I do not know, probably just for beauty. The same Xiaomi (which, by the way, regards as its main enemy teacher as a competitor) cannot be crushed by scale of production and can not be promoted. But already crushed, or at least caught up with something else. I will list the points.

• The quality of manufacturing UmiDigi smartphones last couple of years are excellent - I will not be afraid of this word. Here and engineering is quite a level, and the assembly does not succumb. This is because the company collects UmiDigi smartphones Foxconn - in general the most mega-giant in this area (the field of assembly of glands under a contract). There are iphone rivets ordered by Apple, etc. - I think you know. Well, as a result, UmiDigi is assembled no worse than Xiaomi smartphones. And maybe better. (Looking at his Xiaomi Mi A1 with sadness, where the front panel is inserted into the back is not very straightforward. It’s impossible to take a picture, it's just too small a “scene.” Instead, I’ll attach a screenshot of Mi A1's poll on w3bsit3-dns.com.ru - as you can see, with a marriage with this model, everything is fine.)



• The technology of UmiDigi and Xiaomi is also comparable. If you are not Samsung (which almost all of its technology has developed by itself) and not Apple (which intelligently squeezes technologies from Samsung), then you can use about the same as your Chinese business neighbors. The same chipsets. The same screens. Same cameras. The main thing is to competently combine all this and integrate with each other. Well, my personal practice shows that UmiDigi has a full order with it - the level is no worse than that of my Xiaomi. (I’ll draw your attention to not just a single device — I tested not only the UmiDigi S2 Lite, but also a number of other models. For example, the UmiDigi Z2, which is available for pre-order from June 11, and which will go on sale at the very end of this month, - proof is lower. And I also really, really liked this device.)



• If, in terms of quality and technology, Xiaomi and UmiDigi have everything, in principle, is comparable, then with characteristics it is much more interesting than UmiDigi. Personally, it is obvious to me that in Xiaomi, marketers did defeat engineers. Alas, ah, tears, sadness, sadness. But it is a fact. Otherwise, the same Redmi 5A would not be slightly redone Redmi 4A. But the model Xiaomi Redmi 5, which today has to contend with UmiDigi S2 Lite, would have a battery of at least 4000 mAh, one and a half times more RAM, a dual camera, a larger screen, and so on - but it has nothing of that. What for? “We’ll do it in Redmi 6 or 7, but for now it’s going to go well,” the cunning marketers of Xiaomi decided. “Let's make it cool to the maximum,” decided the harsh Chinese guys from UmiDigi. And they did.

• The fact that UmiDigi has every chance to kick ass to push Xiaomi into perspective in just a couple of years is obviously not only me. Thus, the China Online Trading Association (COTA) of China, which regularly monitors all segments of FMCG products in China, makes annual rankings of the best products in their categories. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, she recognized as the best smartphones in the Chinese online retail - in particular, on AliExpress - no, not Xiaomi, but the UmiDigi models! COTA is assessed according to the following parameters: 1) analysis of price-performance ratio, 2) analysis of several thousand customer reviews, and 3) analysis of the interest of China’s trading platforms to particular brands (higher interest of the trading platform, read, baryg = higher quality and interestingness of the product for consumers, since the huckster will not sell what is not bought). In 2015, UmiDigi Iron Pro became the best smartphone on AliExpress according to COTA, in 2016 - UmiDigi Max, in 2017 - UmiDigi S2 Pro. That is, the Chinese themselves recognize interesting and promising not Xiaomi, namely, UmiDigi. Here are the grandmother and St. George day! Who would have thought!

In general, I see the situation as follows. Xiaomi - smart phones are not bad. Moreover, to some extent even good. But to expect something incredibly steep from them, a breakthrough is no longer worth it (at least in the budget segment, I don’t swing at the absolute coolness and extreme degree of the beauty of the Xiaomi Mi 8 family). Do you want to just buy a neat, nice and inexpensive smartphone without any bright features and technological chips? Boldly forward for some Xiaomi Redmi 5! A typical mass market product with no obvious drawbacks, but without clear advantages. But if you want to squeeze the most out of your budget - this is to UmiDigi. Because today UmiDigi is really the best thing that can be taken on AliExpress for this or that amount. Get about the same quality as Xiaomi, the same level of technology, but more, much more features. Noticeably more small and large chips. And a pleasant aftertaste from the fact that they did not feed their greedy Chinese marketer with their labor penny, who forbade the engineers to put a really capacious battery into the Xiaomi smartphone.

Something I talked about. But, I think, after this long introduction, it will be easier for you to understand what is both UmiDigi in general and its specific product - UmiDigi S2 Lite - in particular.

Specifications

Let's take a look - what gives us UmiDigi S2 Lite for its 9,000 rubles. That’s what the device is asking for now on AliExpress. Exactly for the same money on the same site, you can buy Xiaomi Redmi 5.





As you can see, on a variety of parameters - the screen, RAM, cameras, battery, and so on - the UmiDigi smartphone beats Xiaomi. Yes, later with the update of MIUI in Xiaomi Redmi 5, an unlock on the face may appear, and in Redmi 5 there is an infrared port for controlling home appliances, but you can’t "increase" the rest of the functions programmatically. And it turns out that, if you look at the level of implementation of functions “on paper”, then UmiDigi S2 Lite is far ahead. As for practice, you will learn about it below - I will describe in detail the sensations from this apparatus. And at the same time I will compare it with Xiaomi Redmi 5.

Equipment

Package seems to be standard, but not quite. Because it includes a translucent silicone case. I know that this is a standard practice for many Chinese manufacturers. For example, Huawei Mate 10 Pro also comes with such a cover, like many other Huawei models. Yes, and Xiaomi Redmi 5, too. (But Xiaomi Mi A1 is not.) Another thing is that such accessories are not always of high quality. Owners of Redmi 5 and reviewers - for example, they say that the case doesn’t loosely enclose the case, and therefore there isn’t much point in it.

UmiDigi S2 Lite has no such problems. The cover sits very tight, does not fall off, does not let dust and grains out to the back panel. Decent thing, in short.



But Xiaomi really has problems. Silicone does not hold the smartphone very tightly, you can easily insert a finger into the gap between the case and the case (see photo below). Dust there, of course, will also penetrate, and with it, grains of sand. The UmiDigi S2 Lite case doesn’t allow itself such liberties - it sits very tightly.




For the order - a group photo, where both smartphones are in covers

All equipment is captured in the photo below. It also includes a short manual, an adapter with USB Type-C to 3.5 mm (by this time I will definitely come back below), a tool for removing card slots, a 2-A charging unit and a USB Type-C cable of bright red color .



I will stop on a cable. Red color is a smart decision. Most synchronization laces are either black or white (like in Xiaomi Redmi 5), and in a box it is sometimes very difficult to quickly find exactly what you need. The red cable immediately catches the eye - it does not have to look for a long time.

Design and construction

To begin with, I was somewhat upset when I first looked at my copy of UmiDigi S2 Lite. I just got a black version of the smartphone, and this model also exists in the red version. Here is this:



However, I know for sure that bright colors in Russia do not favor, and it is likely that the black version will be sold more vigorously. On the other hand, it’s great that UmiDigi offers not a standard (and already disgusting) set of gray, pink, black and golden variants, but something more original and fun. That is, if you want some classics and solidity, you take the black version. Do you want more fun, fresher and brighter - keep the red.



In terms of design and construction, UmiDigi S2 Lite was definitely a success - at least, personally, I am sure of it. Yes, of course, the Chinese UmiDigi experts who have not come up with anything new responsible for the exterior of this smartphone. The scheme is banal and time-tested: a huge screen for the whole "face" + back panel made of metal. However, if you take a closer look at the UmiDigi S2 Lite, take a closer look and compare it with the very same Xiaomi Redmi 5, which costs the same 9,000 rubles on AliExpress and that seem to be (like, like!) Exactly the same way, various interesting moments crawl out. In particular, like this: the antennas in UmiDigi S2 Lite are hidden behind thin plastic strips a la iPhone.

That is, in fact, UmiDigi S2 Lite ...



... and here is the iPhone:



Meanwhile, in the model Xiaomi instead made plastic inserts with a height of a centimeter. That is, the bottom and top of the plastic, but between them there is a metal socket. Moreover, the side faces of the Xiaomi Redmi 5 are also plastic! If the UmiDigi S2 Lite we see a metal "trough", in which the filling and the screen are inserted, then in the case of Xiaomi we see a completely different approach. The “trough” is plastic, and behind it is a metal patch. The solution is less pleasant, less elegant and generally gives cheapness. I will even say more - Xiaomi Redmi 5 is noticeably more slippery. Accidentally letting him go is much easier than UmiDigi S2 Lite.



Well, another moment pops up. The cameras of UmiDigi S2 Lite are recessed into the case, so scratching them is not realistic. Even if you try hard.



But the edging lens Xiaomi Redmi 5 per mm stands above the body. What does this lead to? The smartphone constantly clings to the pockets, and after a couple of months - with a waggy - the bezel is covered with dents.



Despite the presence of a battery with a capacity of 5,100 mAh, the UmiDigi S2 Lite turned out to be very thin - 8.8 mm.



For comparison, the Xiaomi Redmi 5 has a battery of 3,300 mAh and a thickness of 7.7 mm. The difference is vanishingly small.



From the pleasant moments in UmiDigi S2 Lite (and in Xiaomi Redmi 5, by the way, too) I will note the rounded corners of the screen. It smiles excellently and immediately causes negative memories of smartphones, where the angles are straight. For example, about my personal Huawei Mate 10 Pro for 50 thousand rubles.




On the left - UmiDigi S2 Lite with rounded corners, on the right - Huawei Mate 10 Pro with straight lines

In general, in terms of the case, the UmiDigi S2 Lite is just a reference budget smartphone priced at up to 10 thousand rubles. Without exaggeration. He is very well assembled (we say hello to Foxconn!), He looks cool, he feels in his hand like ... Well, it's hard to describe - how. In my personal use, there are two smartphones - Huawei Mate 10 Pro (about 50 thousand rubles) and Xiaomi Mi A1 (about 15 thousand rubles). It is difficult to compare with the first because it is glass. With the second is easier, since it is metallic. However, UmiDigi S2 Lite, by and large, is no less pleasant than each of these two devices. Although it is cheaper than the Huawei model in five and a half times, and Xiaomi - a little less than two times.


From left to right: Xiaomi Mi A1, UmiDigi S2 Lite, Huawei Mate 10 Pro

I say quite frankly: I did not expect to see such a body in a Chinese device with Aliexpress for up to 10 thousand rubles.

What is where?

I do not like “to describe the buttons” much, and still leave this section in the review, because a couple of years ago, small Chinese companies sometimes conducted very strange experiments with ergonomics. That buttons somehow completely goat-like will arrange, then something else will stick in the wrong place.

In UmiDigi S2 Lite, on the contrary, everything is done without obvious misses. For example, the power and volume buttons are located on the right, right under the thumb of the right hand. And they are very comfortable.



The back of the smartphone is matte and not at all slippery. One feels that it is metal, and that the smartphone is monolithic and reliable. The fingerprint scanner is located at the back, that is, right under the index finger. It works instantly, I did not find jambs in his work. In fairness - with Xiaomi Redmi 5 with a scanner, too, there are no problems. Yes, and it is located exactly there, on the back of the case.



Above the screen are light and proximity sensors, a speaker, a front-facing camera with a flash. Let me highlight the quality of the dynamics: again, a typical Chinese smartphone two years ago conveyed a very distinctive speech, not very pleasing to the quality. What a thing UmiDigi S2 Lite: the interlocutor you hear perfectly. In the case of Xiaomi Redmi 5 is also excellent audibility. So yes, the “second echelon Chinese” lost one of their main shortcomings.



The interlocutor, by the way, also hears you well: in UmiDigi S2 Lite there is a noise reduction system based on two microphones (see the screen below). One is located on the bottom of the case, the other - on the rear panel. The system works fine, the noise really cuts off. For example, I spoke quite well with my mother in windy weather. Half of the conversation was on UmiDigi S2 Lite, half on Xiaomi Redmi 5, where there are also a couple of microphones and noise reduction. I found no difference in the quality of voice transmission at all - and one device is good, and the second ... is also good.



And yes, another important point. In this budget smartphone - and UmiDigi S2 Lite is just that - suddenly set the RGB-indicator. That is, above the screen there is a diode capable of flashing red, blue or green depending on the event. This is very cool - usually in the devices of this level mono-colored diodes. For example, in the same Xiaomi Redmi 5, the indicator is able to burn only with white light, and no other.



On the left side of the UmiDigi S2 Lite there is a flap - under it are hidden slots for SIM-cards and memory cards. Nests, unfortunately, combined. Either two SIM cards can be inserted, or SIM + MicroSD. What can you say? This is a sad moment, but today it can be found in a huge number of smartphones. For some reason, the Chinese manufacturers have adopted this stupid configuration - and not only UmiDigi. If we compare this smartphone with Xiaomi Redmi 5, I’ll say that it also has combined slots.



Well, I will describe the lower bound of the UmiDigi S2 Lite case. There are USB Type-C port, speaker and microphone, which I mentioned above. The speaker is very loud - you will not miss the call, even when the smartphone is resting in your jacket pocket. It plays purely, which I, again, did not expect from a smartphone in this price category. In Xiaomi, the speaker is even louder, but the sound is not so pleasant and clear. In general, I would say this: in terms of sound - parity.



With the USB Type-C port (USB version - 2.0) everything is interesting. The thing is that in UmiDigi S2 Lite there is no 3.5-mm headphone jack. "Ears" is proposed to connect it to the Type-C, well, or to the adapter to the 3.5-mm, which comes in the kit. Is it minus? Perhaps, by the summer of 2018 already not a minus. The usual round connector for “ears” is missing in the top Huawei Mate 10 and P20 series, in Motorola Moto Z, in all fresh iPhones (starting with the “sevens”), in most top Xiaomi (starting with Mi 6), and in a number of HTC models. What, in fact, is UmiDigi worse and what did she do wrong against the general background? The main thing - the adapter in the kit is present. The same Apple, they say, will stop bundling the next iPhone with this accessory. And with the model HTC U 12+, he no longer goes.



In Xiaomi Redmi 5 we see two connectors: on the top - 3.5 mm for headphones, on the bottom - MicroUSB. On the one hand, it's good that the standard headphone port is still left. On the other hand, was it really so difficult to plug in a convenient and symmetrical Type-C? In UmiDigi, they did it and did not impoverish ...





Yes, a couple of words for the adherents of MicroUSB, who periodically appear in the comments, that the old connector is more familiar and more universal. Guys! USB Type-C Nokia N1 2014 . . USB Type-C , . 2018 MicroUSB – - . , UmiDigi . Xiaomi – , .

, UmiDigi S2 Lite . , 6-, . UmiDigi , . , , – .

Screen

Display UmiDigi S2 Lite makes a serious impression. The main thing - do not read the characteristics before you look at it. The fact is that the resolution of this 6-inch IPS-matrix of 18: 9 format is 1440 x 720 pixels (HD +). Which is probably not the ultimate dream. I would like to 2160 x 1080 (Full HD +). But, fortunately, I did not read the characteristics of the screen, and I used UmiDigi S2 Lite for a couple of days, being sure that it was 2160 x 1080 here. This is all because the screen is very bright, juicy, with wide viewing angles. And not at all grainy.



The manufacturer of the screen is the Japanese Sharp, which, in fact, can be seen. The displays of this company in most cases are very high quality.

At Xiaomi, the screen is worse and thinner, or something, and the point is not only in the diagonal (5.7 inches, 1440 x 720). The colors are less juicy, less saturated, less "tasty." The maximum brightness is also lower by 20 percent (by eye). In general, if the UmiDigi S2 Lite screen is simply gorgeous, which you would not expect to see in a Chinese smartphone at the price of up to 10 thousand, then Xiaomi Redmi is just a typical display for smart phones of this kind. Not bad, not at all, but not tearing patterns.


Left - Xiaomi, right - UmiDigi


Top - Xiaomi, bottom - UmiDigi

All sorts of graphs with RGB triangles and other measuring dregs, already forgive, in this review I will not give. In my opinion, the smartphone screen is not a professional computer monitor on which the designer, for example, creates packaging for products or selects a tint of paint for the car. Screens of smartphones should be evaluated on the principle of "like - do not like." So I definitely liked the display of UmiDigi S2 Lite. Chic screen! But the screen of Redmi 5 left me indifferent.



Well, one more thing. The UmiDigi S2 Lite screen showed itself very well in the sun - almost all the pictures in this review were made in sunny summer weather, when the screens of most smartphones go blind even in the shade. But UmiDigi S2 Lite - not blind. And in the shadows, and under the rays. In this regard, the screen is slightly better than the Redmi 5.

In UmiDigi S2 Lite there is a so-called. night mode. This is when the colors on the display go into a warm range, which should relax your eyesight. There is nothing special in this mode - it is present in dozens of devices, including Xiaomi Redmi 5. However, there are those where it was not implemented. Therefore, I consider it necessary to mention it.



The display of UmiDigi S2 Lite is covered with Gorilla Glass 4 glass with an oleophobic coating - and now this is a very important point. The American Corning glasses are used by far not all companies from China - most often they put in their smartphones something nameless and far less pleasant for a finger. For example, in the same Xiaomi Redmi 5 something is applied just the level of "Chinese nouneym."

Multitouch in UmiDigi S2 Lite, by the way, five-point. This is sufficient for any tasks, including games. In Xiaomi, everything is much steeper: as many as ten points! Well done in Xiaomi! Overtook UmiDigi in one of the most important areas. Well, if without irony, then I can hardly imagine why a ten-point multitouch is needed in practice.



Summing up the UmiDigi S2 Lite screen, I can say the following: to meet SUCH in a smartphone for 9,000 rubles is a great success. There is a serious diagonal here (6 inches versus 5.7 for Xiaomi Redmi 5), and the low resolution is not felt at all), and the coating is thoroughbred - Gorilla Glass 4. In general, everything is super!

Cameras

I'll start with the front. It is in UmiDigi S2 Lite 5 megapixel with flash. The flash is good, you can make sane-quality shots, for example, in nightclubs, where everything is difficult with light. The quality of the photo is average - a miracle did not happen here (and I personally did not expect it, yet this device is less than 9,000). If desired, you can use the so-called improvers. This is when wrinkles and other artifacts are removed from the face. In my opinion, these same improvers make the face only worse. And this concerns not only UmiDigi S2 Lite, but in general all smartphones with this option.

The first is the usual self-propelled gun, the second is the “improved”:



Comparison of "shootouts" with Xiaomi. The first is UmiDigi, the second is Redmi 5. In my opinion, it’s about the same.



From a pleasant and really impressive, I would like to mention the Face ID feature that is very correctly working in UmiDigi S2 Lite, that is, unlocking in the face. You press the smartphone's power key - and that’s it, you are immediately thrown onto the desktop. The display is unlocked in physiognomy in a fraction of a second in 8 cases out of 10. Yes, in total darkness this focus cannot be rotated, but it works normally in indoor lighting and in the twilight.

In Xiaomi, nothing like this. This is how the “Security” section in Redmi 5 looks like. To anyone who finds in the screenshot below the item responsible for unlocking in the face, I’ll put a bottle of Zhiguli beer.



The interface for configuring Face ID in UmiDigi S2 Lite looks like this:



As for the main camera, or rather the main cameras, the situation with them is approximately the same. There are two modules in UmiDigi S2 Lite, 16 and 5 megapixels. It is known that the 16-megapixel module is released by the American company OmniVision, this is the OV16880. Aperture - f / 2.0. Focusing is very fast and accurate. The second module is used to blur the background in the pictures. However, I have reason to believe that if it is used, it is more like an auxiliary solution. Basically, the blur is implemented at the program level and works so-so - a clear sharp circle is formed around one or another object, but everything else, so to speak, is “blurred”. So what is really cool? Full bokeh mode did not work. But in general, photographs UmiDigi S2 Lite very worthy.




Here is the same bokeh mode (or rather, pseudo-bokeh; the first is the usual photo, the second - with blur):





But the night pictures. At night, UmiDigi S2 Lite folds, and that's a fact. However, it is exactly the same with any device costing up to 10 thousand rubles, including Xiaomi Redmi 5, where 13 megapixels with an aperture of f / 2.2 (versus f / 2.0 for UmiDigi S2 Lite; let me remind you that the smaller the number, the better the photos with bad lighting).





Next - several photos from UmiDigi S2 Lite (16 + 5 megapixels, f / 2.0) and Xiaomi Redmi 5 (13 megapixels, f / 2.2) in the same conditions.


The results of the photographic comparison are as follows: the cameras are about the same level, but UmiDigi S2 Lite does not try to make the picture so lighter so aggressively, and therefore does not lose small details and does not overestimate the pictures. I pay special attention to the photo of a bee on a flower - the UmiDigi S2 Lite has a much more juicy, appetizing frame.

Video UmiDigi S2 Lite records in the resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The quality is sane, but without revolutions and reasons for a joyous squeal. An example of a video with UmiDigi S2 Lite - by reference . With Xiaomi I will not bring - this device has exactly the same level of video recording. Read - medium.

Well, about the shooting interface in UmiDigi S2 Lite a few words. It is as simple as possible, but quite convenient. You can master it without any problems. All key modes are at hand - do not get lost.

Hardware platform and communication

Small Chinese manufacturers are very fond of MediaTek chipsets, and they can be understood. Just these Qualcomm chipsets are very affordable. The main thing is for one or another manufacturer to take the MediaTek platform and not use it in its original (read - buggy) form, but correctly finished it.

We must pay tribute to UmiDigi - the company took MediaTek MT6750T and yet this chipset dopilila. What is the basis of this statement? First, the smartphone is not heated by the word "absolutely". Yes, if it is two hours to play Asphalt 8, then UmiDigi S2 Lite, of course, will get warmer. But - not hot. Secondly, the 5100 mAh battery gives quite serious battery life, that is, the energy does not flow in an unknown direction, as in some other MediaTek smartphones from other Chinese manufacturers. And thirdly, I have never detected any problems with navigation in UmiDigi S2 Lite (this is a known scourge of smartphones on MediaTek chipsets).

Here, in fact, a couple of screenshots from the application of the GPS / GLONASS tester. The number of satellites indicated on the screenshot, which is quite sufficient for navigation, was found in about a minute. Xiaomi for the same time, found twice as many satellites - 13 (still, Qualcomm cannot be crossed in terms of navigation, this is a fact), but showed about the same accuracy - 8 meters. In fact, there is no difference for the user.





Here are all the data about the hardware UmiDigi S2 Lite in the screenshots of CPU-Z.





I note that CPU-Z does not see the difference between the MT6750T and the weaker MT6750. UmiDigi S2 Lite uses exactly the more powerful version - MT6750T. Here, eight Cortex-A53 cores (four are accelerated to 1 GHz, another four - to 1.5 GHz) and the Mali T860MP2 graphics (to 650 MHz). The MT6750 is the same, only the graphics accelerator is “choked” - the maximum frequency is 520 MHz.

What does the MT6750T give in practice, being supplemented by 4 GB of RAM? Yes, it gives itself quite decent performance, I tell you. This is confirmed by the screenshots below ...



... and my personal experience playing WoT Blitz, for example. With these graphics settings ...



... the smartphone gave out about 55 frames per second.



In general, about UmiDigi S2 Lite hardware: in my opinion, it gives excellent results for a model worth up to 10 thousand rubles! And yes, I won’t miss the opportunity to compare the UmiDigi S2 Lite with the Xiaomi Redmi 5 again. The latter has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 that is comparable in performance, but the Xiaomi RAM will be smaller - 3 GB vs. 4 GB for UmiDigi S2 Lite. But the “extra” gigabyte is definitely useful!

Xiaomi's AnTuTu points (see screenshots below) are used by 10 thousand more, but in practice “Tanchiki” demonstrate almost the same number of frames per second - about 57-58. Here you have the "best" results in performance tests! In practice, the difference is vanishingly small. Consider it not at all.





Built-in memory in UmiDigi S2 Lite 32 GB. Plus, you can insert a microSD up to 256 GB. (We see exactly the same thing in Xiaomi.) I don’t have such a card on the farm, but I recognized the 64 GB flash drive without a problem.



In general, UmiDigi S2 Lite can be described as a fast and pleasant device. There was no thought in both the games and the Android environment.

Well, a few words about communication. Dual-Wi-Fi (802.11n) - this is what distinguishes UmiDigi S2 Lite from Xiaomi Redmi 5 and the masses of other smartphones priced at up to 10 thousand rubles. Nice little thing. Or not even a trifle, if you live in a residential area where the 2.4 GHz band is littered.

With LTE, there are no problems with both UmiDigi S2 Lite and Xiaomi Redmi 5, since all bends that are relevant for our latitudes are supported - 1, 3, 7, 20.

But there is no NFC. And, therefore, Google Pay is not available to owners of the UmiDigi S2 Lite smartphone. Definitely a drawback, I will not argue. But I cannot fail to point out the fact that smartphones from China generally rarely support NFC. Take Meizu, that Xiaomi (in Redmi 5, such a chip, of course, is also absent), that here is UmiDigi, that the devices are still a dozen brands. The thing is that in China NFC is not common, there are their payment systems with local color - based on QR codes. Yes, sooner or later it will come to Chinese developers that NFC needs to be embedded. But so far, alas, has not reached.

Autonomous work

One of the most important subsections, since UmiDigi S2 Lite is equipped with a battery of 5,100 mAh. This is really a lot - at Xiaomi Redmi 5 at 3,300 mAh, for other smartphones with a price of around 9,000 - even less. Some of the first owners of UmiDigi S2 Lite complained that, say, the battery does not meet expectations, and the smartphone works without recharging just a couple of days. I have a suspicion that these people or a) shared their measurements a couple of days after the very first purchase (which is fundamentally wrong, since Android eats energy much more actively than usual for the first few days, synchronizing data and executing, we will put it this way, our primary internal setting ) or b) used UmiDigi S2 Lite with one of the first firmware versions. Subsequently, in new firmware, power consumption was noticeably screwed up, so today there is no doubt that UmiDigi S2 Lite has a good battery.



What did I get as a result of my own measurements?



UmiDigi S2 Lite has excellent performance - as you can see, analogs with batteries in the region of 3,000 mAh (in particular, Xiaomi Redmi 5) live in these modes by a third or even half less. So the UmiDigi S2 Lite battery of 5,100 mAh is not a fiction like many Chinese smartphones with “Ali”, but a real fat plus. Especially considering the fact that the developers did NOT make the smartphone thick and uncomfortable. It is, as it happens: a big battery = a “fat” device. Small battery = smart phone elegant. And UmiDigi S2 Lite manages to be very elegant, and at the same time very serious in terms of autonomy.

Software

You should start with the fact that the manufacturer promises to release for UmiDigi S2 Lite firmware from Android 8.1 Oreo. When this happens - I do not presume to predict, but they write about it directly on the official website:



Anyway, while UmiDigi S2 Lite comes with Android 7.0 Nougat. UmiDigi itself claims that the operating system is actually stock, that is, without unnecessary "inclusions" from the manufacturer. In practice, these "blotches" are, but they do not cause rejection or any inconvenience.

What do I understand by such additions? For example, there is a bunch of settings for virtual buttons.



There is some pribluda for managing applications in the background for the sake of cleaning memory and optimizing energy consumption (I recommend not to use this thing; as practice shows, this can lead to problems with notifications, but the benefits of such “crutches” are not obvious):



There is a music player. That is, not the standard Google Play Music application is used, but some kind of its own. The player as a player, nothing unusual.



The sound quality — and I tested it with the supplied headphones from Huawei Mate 10 Pro — is typical of budget devices. You can listen to music, and 90% of users will be satisfied with the quality. If you are a musician, an ardent music lover or an audiophile altogether - hardly. There is not a lot of bass, the middle is overwhelmed, and so on. Xiaomi Redmi 5 doesn’t stand out in this parameter against the background of the UmiDigi S2 Lite. The sound is slightly different. No better, no worse, just a smartphone sounds different. The middle is better, the bottoms are thinner, but on the whole the impression is similar - obviously not an audiophile product.



Even in UmiDigi S2 Lite there is quite a decent voice recorder.



Well, and so on. In general, yes, what we see in UmiDigi S2 Lite is pretty close to clean, uncluttered, stock or whatever they call it Android. For those who do not remember what he looks like, I’ll bring a pack of screenshots. And yes, I’ll note: the main menu of the UmiDigi S2 Lite is a colored background, and not just a boring white panel with icons, like in many devices with a clean “robot”.





Xiaomi Redmi 5 works on Android 7.1 Nougat with MIUI shell. I’ll say straight out: I don’t really like this Chinese hand-made article; I’m much closer to pure Android. But - this is a subjective matter, and therefore Xiaomi will not blame. I can only say that the upgrade to Android 8.1 Oreo, like UmiDigi, will also receive the Redmi 5 model.

Support and warranty

Before writing this review, I thoroughly studied the reviews on UmiDigi smartphones purchased on AliExpress, as well as the reviews of the models of this manufacturer, written by journalists. However, observers and other gadget makers, as well as information on the official website of UmiDigi, I do not really trust. I really wanted to understand how these smartphones actually have a situation with build quality and in general with quality. And from this point of view, of course, I was most interested in the opinions of those who have already bought UmiDigi devices.

Shattering a lot of information - in particular, the comments of dozens of real users of smartphones of this brand at w3bsit3-dns.com and other sites - I can safely draw the following conclusions:

• UmiDigi directly changes defective smartphones to new ones within a year after purchase - this is a reality, this is a fact that is confirmed by users. But it changes without problems only if they are bought in the official UmiDigi store on AliExpress. If the device is purchased in the left store, that is, from dealers, in the event of a warranty case, the user will have to communicate with these same dealers, but not with the manufacturer, such is the policy of AliExpress. What you are communicating is not clear. Maybe you are lucky, and your problem will be solved quickly, and maybe not. If the device is purchased in the official UmiDigi store, then 100% will solve the problem. Usually, the solution to the problem with the hardware of the smartphone UmiDigi is the replacement of the device with a new one. But, once again, this is possible, if only a smartphone is purchased from the "official". Here is the link. I consider it necessary to give it, because when you buy a smartphone in the official UmiDigi store, you will actually receive a working warranty for a year. This is better than no guarantee, as when buying on “Ali” from outbid.
• There are no large-scale serious problems with hardware in UmiDigi smartphones - in any case, on w3bsit3-dns.com they usually complain about problems of the “plug hanging” or “volume button rattling” level. In the overwhelming majority of cases (90% percent), problems concern software jambs. Often a person takes a smartphone of this brand immediately after the release, with the first firmware, and then runs to complain about the bugs on the forum w3bsit3-dns.com . Of course, he has every right to do this, but in general the approach is somewhat strange. The bugs are in the first firmware of almost all smartphones, including even the top devices Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Sony and so on through the list. For example, I will never forget the seemingly flagship smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4, which, up to the third firmware, has taken a photo application. So that…

The general conclusion that I made for myself is that with the quality of UmiDigi everything is normal and even good. And in which case the real working warranty for one year is valid for the buyers.

Well, here, perhaps, still add a little official information of the brand. According to UmiDigi’s own claims, her marriage rate is about 2%. While other Chinese manufacturers, it is rarely below 7-10%. , , . UmiDigi Foxconn – , «» Apple, iPhone.

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Total

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