Umidigi A5 Pro
Umidigi is launching a new smartphone for people with small budgets. The Umidigi A5 Pro low-end model is the successor to the A3 Pro and A4 Pro. According to the manufacturer for this model he has put together what does best so that users get the best user experience. On the camera's data sheet, we can see that it uses a new processor, runs on Android 9.0 and has three photo sensors. Given its price and technical data sheet, the A5 Pro competes directly with the Redmi 7A. Could he be up to the task? The answer in our complete test.
Positive Points
- Finishing
- FHD+ display
- Good performance
- Autonomy
- Good price/quality ratio
Negative points
- Camera improved
- USB microphone
Umidigi A5 Pro review
The Umidigi A5 Pro phone is delivered in a standard cardboard box. Once opened you get the smartphone, a protective cover, a 10W AC adapter and a USB microphone cable to charge the battery (no USB-C on this model). That's too bad, because it's really becoming the norm these days.
Design
There is no doubt that Umidigi was inspired by Huawei's smartphone designs when designing the A5 Pro. The back of the smartphone is made of plastic, reminiscent of the Huawei P20 Pro. It is in your interest to use the protective shell provided in the box, as the plastic is highly sensitive to traces and scratches. The other element that reminds us of the P20 Pro is the position of the three camera lenses. All three are placed in the upper left corner. The first two are placed in the same block, just below we have the third sensor and after the flash. The fingerprint sensor is centered in the middle. Umidigi has also printed its logo on the back surface (fortunately it is discreet). Colour level the A5 Pro is available in white, blue and black. We tested the white version (it is not the most attractive). In any case, you will not benefit from the colour of the back cover since it is absolutely necessary to protect it with the protective shell.
The rear and front parts are connected by an aluminium frame with a silver finish. The volume and unlock buttons are also made of metal. They are placed on the right side and on the left side you will find the drawer for inserting the SIM card. You open it with a metal needle. On the bottom edge are the multimedia speaker, the USB microphone port for charging the battery and a 3.5 mm jack port. We appreciate the headphone plug, but the Chinese manufacturer should have integrated a USB-C port instead. Okay, the Umidigi A5 Pro is a low-end model, but the micro USB port is really obsolete nowadays.
On the front we face a 6.3 inch screen with a notch in the shape of a water drop. This type of notch is discreet. Due to its size there is only room to integrate the front sensor. The listening loudspeaker is integrated just above. You have to look closely to notice the small opening slit. The manufacturer announces a screen/body ratio of 92.7%, but the chin is bulky on this model. This cannot really be considered a negative point given the selling price of the device. In terms of dimensions, the A5 Pro is 156 x 76 x 9 mm and weighs 206 grams on the scale. Its figures correspond to the current standard. Its design is clean and neat. There is nothing to criticize about the quality of its finishes. The set corresponds well to the selling price of the smartphone.
Screen
As we have mentioned above, the Umidigi A5 Pro's display is 6.3 inches with a drop-shaped notch. The notch only integrates the 16 megapixel front sensor. It does not interfere with the use of the smartphone. The screen has a Full HD resolution (2280 x 1080 pixels) and the resolution is 400 pixels per inch. This result is high enough to obtain a clear and sharp display. You can't tell the pixels apart even if you look at the screen more closely.
The manufacturer has integrated an IPS type slab. The contrasts are strong and the colours rich. The trend-like rendering has turned blue, but this is quite normal for a slab of this type. The viewing angles are stable and the maximum brightness is high enough to be able to read the displayed content, even in bright sunlight. The touch screen recognizes up to 10 points of contact. Each interaction is well taken into account. Users who interact quickly on the screen will be satisfied with its speed.
Performance and System
The Umidigi A5 Pro did not use the same processor as the Umidigi A3. The Chinese manufacturer has decided to improve the performance of its low-end model. The A5 Pro is equipped with the Mediatek Helio P23 processor. This chipset is engraved in 16 nm at TSMC and consists of eight Cprtex-A53 cores clocked up to 2.3 GHz. The processor comes with a Mali-G71 chip and 4 GB of RAM. The gain in performance and power is clearly visible compared to the previous model. During our test we noticed that applications open faster and the A5 Pro is able to perfectly manage multitasking. It does not lose speed once several applications are opened at the same time. His Antutu score is 81848 points.
The A5 Pro does as well as its direct competitors in terms of performance. Only the Redmi 7 does slightly better with its Snapdragon 632 (about 100,000 points on Antutu). The smartphone is able to perform all the tasks of everyday life and you can also play the latest 3D game. We were able to play the PUBG Mobile game during our test. Good on the other hand you will not be able to take advantage of the high parameters, the Mali-G71 MP2 chip has its limits. But the result is smooth enough to be able to enjoy the latest 3D games. The A5 Pro is not a power monster, but it perfectly fulfils its role in terms of performance. The daily use is pleasant and satisfying. You have 32 GB of internal memory to store your various data (the read speed is 190 MB/s and the write speed is 120 MB/s). If this storage capacity is not sufficient, you can extend it by inserting a micro SD card. The advantage over the Umidigi A5 Pro is that you can extend the memory without the need for the dual SIM function.
You can interact with the 3 buttons on the screen and we also take advantage of facial recognition. The facial recognition system works well, is fast and reliable (even under poor lighting conditions). However, it only works thanks to the front sensor. As a result, this technology is less reliable than the infrared system that analyzes your face more thoroughly. You can use the fingerprint sensor on the back if you want to be sure that access to the smartphone is perfectly secure. The fingerprint sensor is just as fast and reliable.
Our experience of use has been really satisfying with the Umidigi A5 Pro. We enjoy sufficient power for daily use and the Android system is clean and safe. There are no viruses or bloatware-type applications pre-installed. We take advantage of all the services of Google and the system did not bug during our test.
Photo
The A5 Pro is equipped with three sensors on the rear. It is rare to find such a configuration on smartphones sold in this price range (about 100 euros). In addition, the three sensors are very real! The main sensor is a 16 megapixel Sony IMX398, the second is a 5 megapixel sensor that is used for portraits and background blur. The last sensor is 8 megapixels and it's a wide angle. Adding a wide-angle (120°) sensor allows you to enjoy more elements when you take a picture. It is often used when we have photographed landscapes.
Unfortunately the quality of the photos is really disappointing. The Chinese manufacturer still has a long way to go before it can finally control the rendering of the photos. At times the pictures taken with the main sensor appear yellowed. It is as if a special effect had been applied that applies a filter to yellow the rendering of the photo. The effect is more or less present depending on the brightness. This defect is not the only problem. Even when you can take a picture without a yellowish rendering, you still get noisy pictures and focus problems. Photos taken with the wide-angle lens are not very detailed, but we benefit from a better result in terms of dynamic range and colours.
The portrait mode is also not famous. It can be used, but if you look at the pictures more closely you will see that part of your hair and ears are nibbled away by the blur. No need to take the smartphone out of your pocket if the brightness is low or when it is dark, the images appear noisy. This problem is present on most smartphones sold in this price range.
Photos taken with the 16 megapixel front sensor offer good colors, but the rendering lacks detail. Selfies taken with the Umidigi A5 Pro can still be posted on social networks. Favour bright places, otherwise noise will appear. Movies can be recorded in 30 frames per second with a resolution of 1080p. The quality of the videos is correct, but they are not stabilized. So you will have to invest in a gimbal (stabilizer) if you want to get videos without shaking.
The Chinese manufacturer Umidigi still needs to improve on the photo part. That was always his weakness on his smartphones. It is not the integration of the sensors that is a problem, but rather the software processing that is missing on each model.
Connectivity and Sound
The Umidigi A5 Pro is compatible with all French 4G frequencies. The smartphone has three slots. As a result, you can insert two nano SIMs and a micro SD card to expand the memory. The integration of an SD card will necessarily be necessary if you want to store a lot of data, because the A5 Pro has only 35 GB of ROM. There was no problem picking up the mobile network during our test. We were using the Orange network.
Supported frequencies:
- 2G: B2 (1900), B3 (1800), B5 (850), B8 (900)
- 3G: B1 (2100), B2 (1900), B4 (1700/2100 AWS A-F), B5 (850), B6 (800), B8 (900), B19 (800)
- 4G: B1 (2100), B2 (1900), B3 (1800), B4 (1700/2100 AWS 1), B5 (850), B7 (2600), B8 (900), B12 (700), B13 (700), B17 (700), B18 (800), B19 (800), B20 (800), B26 (850), B28 (700), B38 (TDD 2600), B40 (TDD 2300), B41 (TDD 2500), B66 (1700/2100)
The smartphone can be connected via Wifi (a/b/g/n) and is compatible with Bluetooth technology in version 4.2. It is equipped with an acceleration, brightness, proximity, electronic compass and gyroscope sensor.
Autonomy
The smartphone is equipped with a 4150 mAh battery. Our autonomy test with PCMark announces almost 10 hours. The Umidigi A5 Pro does as well as the Xiaomi Redmi 7. You can use the phone for two full days before you need to recharge the battery. One flat you recharge it via the micro USB port. It goes from 0% to 100% in 2.5 hours with the AC adapter supplied in the box.
Conclusion
The Umidigi A5 Pro is a low-end smartphone with satisfactory performance. Our experience of use has been pleasant and smooth on a daily basis. The A5 Pro also has a very good range. We just regret that the photo part is still not at the level of the competition.
Umidigi A5 Pro Smartphone
