Umidigi Crystal Review – a Xiaomi Mi MIX phone with Low-end Features

UMIDIGI Crystal is advertised to the manufacturer as one of the cheapest frameless device available on the market. The device cost $190.99 in regular sales, but at the time of writing the review is available at a discount of $172.73. Do cheap framers make any sense? How did the smartphone handle everyday work? Is it worth thinking about buying? I will try to answer all the questions in this review. Welcome!

IN THE BOX: UMIDIGI CRYSTAL

When testing phones from different manufacturers, I must admit that nowadays it has become a standard to attach a protective cover or glass or film to the screen. It is no different in this case. In the box, in addition to the phone itself, we can also find a silicone case, a film to protect the screen, a SIM ejector, an instruction manual, a cable and a charging brick. The device specification was placed on the side of the package.

A FEW DRY FACTS, OR THE UMIDIGI CRYSTAL SPECIFICATION

• An MT6750T 1.5-kHz processor with core on the core
• 4 GB RAM (there is also one with 2 GB RAM)
• 64 GB internal memory, which can be expanded using microSD cards (there is also one with 16 GB)
• 5.5 “IPS display and FullHD resolution (1920 x 1080)
• Dual rear camera 13 Mpix + 5 Mpix
• Front camera 5 Mpix
• 3000 mAh battery
• Android 7.0 Nougat
• USB type C, 3.5 mm jack headphone jack, dual SIM, no NFC

APPEARANCE AND BUILD QUALITY

UMIDIGI Crystal is called frameless before the manufacturer, but I must admit that it is very far away for a completely frameless device. Under the screen, you will find a large space in which the front camera and a rectangular notification led were placed. The side and top frames are also not the smallest ones. At the bottom edge, like most smartphones, there is a USB type C connector. UMIDIGI Crystal also has a traditional headphone connector at the top edge. The volume and Power buttons can be found on the left side of the device, and the SIM tray on the right.

The build quality of the smartphone does not knock down, but looking through the prism of the price is not the worst. The smartphone feels really nice when in the palm and the use of it is pleasant. The back is made of good quality material. What’s more, during the two-week tests, there were no scratches on the back of the device. On the minus, I have to include the rear camera, which protrudes beyond the body of the phone. Luckily, after putting on the protective cover that we find in the box, this problem disappears.

SCREEN

BATTERY

The smartphone has been equipped with a 3000 mAh battery. The battery capacity did not surprise me. When we do not play games and turn off the location and Bluetooth, UMIDIGI Crystal will work for less than a day. When I left the house around 7:00 AM with 100% battery, it was around 5.00-6.00 PM that I had to look for a power outlet or power bank. The time the screen was turned on, in this case, was about 4.5 hours. The situation looks completely different when we want to use the location. Then the battery level disappears in the eyes. It will drop to less than two hours and really just after leaving the house I have to charge the phone again. The charging process itself is also not the fastest. UMIDIGI Crystal needs as much as 3-3.5 hours to recharge from a few percent to full.

SEE ALSO: UMIDIGI Z1 Pro – The slimmest 4,000mAh smartphone with dual camera

THE CAMERA

UMIDIGI Crystal is not tragic in the matter of camera but has some disadvantages to mention. The first and the biggest disadvantage is the blur effect. This one does not really fulfill its task, and in fact, regardless of the distance from the subject or person being captured, it only blurs a certain fragment of the background. Thus, these photos do not look very good. Another downside is the lack of optical or even electronic image stabilization. Of course, this is a budget phone, but because of this lack, most of the photographs I shot with UMIDIGI Crystal was so vague that it was difficult to see some object well.

But we can improve the quality of photos thanks to manual settings. We can change the exposure and white balance, and even save images in RAW format. Unfortunately, ISO is permanently set in automatic mode. The photographs themselves reproduce the colors well, but they lack detail. And this for both the front and rear camera. To sum up – the quality of photos is the weakest side of UMIDIGI Crystal.

UMIDIGI CRYSTAL PERFORMANCE

Let’s start with dry numbers, or results in benchmark tests. These are often not the perfect criteria to measure the phone’s performances, but I know that many people are guided by this when choosing a new device, so it is worth mentioning. In AnTuTu V7.0.7, UMIDIGI Crystal achieved 52833 points, and in the GeekBench 4 598 points in the test of single core and 2305 points in the test of multi-cores. How do the numbers translate into the daily operation of the device?

The smartphone works really well. The application sometimes needs a longer time to load and in more demanding games you will often experience a sudden drop in frames. However, these situations are so rare that it is not annoying. The phone warms up gently during intensive use. 4 GB of RAM allows us to run many applications in the background that will not be automatically closed. UMIDIGI Crystal is not a device that will appeal to people who like to use more sensitive headphones. After connecting them, we hear noises that can be heard even while listening to music, regardless of the volume.

GPS needs a moment to connect to the satellites, but the connection itself is stable. The fingerprint reader is not one of the fastest. In addition, if a finger is slightly moist you will be forced to unlock the phone by another method. The quality of voice calls is at a high level. Both us and our interlocutors hear everything perfectly.

OPERATING SYSTEM

UMIDIGI Crystal hit the market with pure Android Nougat. This means that the manufacturer did not install any unnecessary applications, which most often can not be removed later without unlocking the phone.

Smartphone	UmiDigi Crystal Pro
Screen Size	5.5 Inch
Pixel Density	401
Screen Resolution	1920 x 1080
Screen To Body Ratio	79.16%
Screen technology	SHARP Panel, Corning Gorilla Glass 4, 2.5D curved glass
Thickness	8.1mm
Weight	180g
Material	Glass Sandwich Design
Colors Available	Black
Storage	64GB
Processor (CPU)	ARM Cortex A53 4x 1.5 GHz + 4x 1.0 GHz
Graphics (GPU)	ARM Mali T860 MP2
RAM	4GB
Android Version	7 Nougat
IP Rating (Water, dust)	NO
Micro-SD Card	YES
Notification LED	YES (bottom placement)
Finger Print Sensor	YES – Rear Facing
Infrared	NO
USB Type	Type-C
4G Bands	B20 (800MHz) / B3 (1800MHz) / B1 (2100MHz) / B7 (2600MHz)
3G Bands	B1 2100MHz / B8 900MHz
2G Bands	1800MHz / 1900MHz / 850MHz / 900MHz
SIM Support	Dual Nano SIM
WiFi	2.4GHz + 5GHz (a / b / g / n / ac)
GPS Tech	GPS, Glonass
Bluetooth Version	4.0
NFC	NO
Sensors	Ambient light, E-compass, Accelerometer, Proximity
OTG	YES
Battery Size	3000 mAh
Fast Charging	NO

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