I’ve had my current phone for just about two years now. It’s a phone from a Chinese manufacturer, Xiaomi. It’s a Redmi 4x model to be precise. Phone has been a good phone, no issues, but I do like to update my electronic toys. So I’ve been keeping my eye out online for what’s new and available from the same manufacturer. That’s when I came across a new Chinese manufacturer – Umidigi.
On the AliExpress site (which is where I ordered my Xiaomi phone from) they’ve had some decent spec’d phones for pretty good prices. Prices less than $200 CAD. One of them, the Umidigi Power, was a new model running Android 9, and had AC wifi and NFC (rare in budget phones). Handset was a little larger than I wanted (6.3 inches), but the price was good – $180 with free shipping. Normally, items from AliExpress take about 3-4 weeks to arrive (but usually without duty or shipping costs), and since we were going to be going on holidays in mid July, I was a little concerned it might arrive while we were out of town. So on a lark, I checked out Amazon, since I knew they had been selling Xiaomi phones lately. Sure enough, they had the Power, and it was the same price as AliExpress, and free shipping, AND, two day delivery! So, I picked one up.
Why am I posting this on my blog? Mainly so that I can document my experiences with this phone. A number of web sites complain about the quality of Chinese phones. I’ve had zero issues with my Xiaomi phone. Let’s see how this new Chinese brand holds up. I’ll post updates as time goes by to keep tabs on the new Umidigi Power experience.
Mostly for me, but maybe you are interested too.