Chinese brands usually tread the line between great value for money and just blatantly copying other companies, but the top manufacturers (Huawei, Xiaomi, ZTE, Lenovo, Meizu) typically infuse their own originality and have made an impact. However, copycats are still out there, so what is the UMi ROME, a copy of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5, or a bargain smartphone that merely pays homage to Samsung’s phablet?
We’ll let you decide that, but what is clear is that by aping Samsung’s recent flagship output UMi has been able to deliver a device that looks cool and is also made of metal. Oh yes, this handset is also coming at a cost of just $89.99, although it will never come to the United States.
As for specs, the ROME comes with a 5.5-inch 720p AMOLED screen, a 64-bit, octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor with ARM Mali T-720 GPU, and a healthy 3GB of RAM. UMi has also included 16GB of native storage (no confirmation of micro SD card support), a 13-megapixel Sony IMX164 sensor and a dual LED flash sitting on the back, and 2 megapixel front facing lens. With a 2500mAh battery we assume this will be a good performance in terms of battery life.
With Android 5.1 Lollipop running the show and some excellent specs, we expect this handset to be a good performer, especially with a solid chipset and generous amounts of RAM running with a 720p screen.
It is important to know that UMi has unveiled smartphones before and then simply never launched them, so if we never see the ROME out in the wild it would not be surprising. That said, the company says the device will be launching next month.
1949deal.com
