Frameless smartphones are more and more popular, leaving little chance for a bright future of ordinary smartphones. Of course, we are talking about conditionally frameless devices, since it is almost impossible to completely abandon the black (white) parts on the front panel.
Today, frameless smartphones can be divided into two camps: Galaxy S8 and its analogues or Xiaomi Mi Mix and its clones. For example, after the release of Xiaomi Mi Mix, some brands from China were so enthusiastic about the new device that they immediately made their phones without frames. These are Doogee Mix, Bluboo S1 and Elephone S8.
Just a few days ago, another pair of similar smartphones joins the army – Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro. Umidigi did not think much of the design and just copied it from Xiaomi Mi Mix. As a result, we received two copies of Xiaomi Mi Mix with different specifications.
We have to disappoint you, but Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro are representatives of a budget class, so you should not dream about any Snapdragons chipsets. We can say that Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro are perfect for those who wants Xiaomi Mi Mix, but haven’t enough money. The main advantages of Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro are cheap price.
Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro Specifications
As already noted, both smartphones are equipped with budget hardware, although Crystal Pro version can please with good processor Mediatek MT6750 and an impressive amount of RAM and internal memory – 4 GB and 64 GB, respectively. And if Xiaomi Mi Mix is difficult to call a gaming smartphone due to the lack of a top frame, then it’s even more difficult to play Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro because of weak processors that will not allow you to enjoy a heavy games. The complete specifications list of new smartphones is given below.
| Umidigi Crystal | Umidigi Crystal Pro |
| Colors: white, black;
Case: all-metal, glass and plastic separators; Display: 5.5 inches, LCD IPS-matrix, resolution 1080×1920, 401 ppi, glass 2.5D; Processor: quad-core Mediatek MT6737T, core Cortex-A53 with a frequency up to 1.5 GHz, 64-bit; Graphics Accelerator: ARM Mali-T720 MP2 750 MHz; RAM: 2 GB LPDDR3, single-channel with a frequency of 733 MHz; Storage: 16 GB with support for cards up to 64 GB; Main camera: 13 MP, aperture f / 2.2; Front camera: 5 MP; Number of SIM cards: two; Fingerprint reader: yes; Battery: not available; OS: Android 7.0 Nougat; Antutu: 30000 scores; Price: about 150$. |
Colors: white, black;
Case: all-metal, glass and plastic separators; Display: 5.5 inches, Super AMOLED-matrix, resolution 1080×1920, 401 ppi, glass 2.5D; Processor: eight-core Mediatek MT6750, the Cortex-A53 cores are divided into two clusters with frequencies up to 1.5 GHz and up to 1.0 GHz, 64-bit; Graphics Accelerator: ARM Mali-T860 MP2 750 MHz; RAM: 4 GB LPDDR3, single-channel with a frequency of 733 MHz; Storage: 64 GB with support for cards up to 128 GB; The main camera: double with a resolution of 13 MP (color + monochrome), aperture f / 2.2; Front camera: 5 MP; Number of SIM cards: two; Fingerprint reader: yes; Battery: not available; OS: Android 7.0 Nougat; Antutu: 40000 scores; Price: about 200$. |
If you compare Umidigi Crystal and its Pro-version, it becomes clear that it is more profitable to buy the latter. There is no a big difference between devices in price – only $50, while the user gets much more memory and a significantly more powerful processor. Also Umidigi Crystal Pro has an additional sensor camera, so the phone’s owners will be able to shoot good portraits with the effect of bokeh.
Frameless Design
We would like to talk about how Umidigi solved the problem with frameless design, since it is a serious problem for smartphones with missing upper frame. So, Xiaomi Mi Mix does not have spoken speaker, instead uses a piezo speaker built into the smartphone screen. If you remember smartphone Sharp Aquos Crystal, then the device uses bone conduction technology, thanks to which the sound is transmitted over the bone directly to the middle ear.
And what about Umidigi Crystal? The engineers of the company mounted a usual membrane speaker for talking to the upper edge of Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro. It is very cheap and angry decision. We hope that in practice there will be no problems with the conversation on smartphones.
Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro comparison with Doogee Mix
Compare Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro with the same Xiaomi Mi Mix does not make sense, because they have only similar design of the front panel, and everything else is very different. That’s why we decided to briefly compare Umidigi Crystal and Crystal Pro with inexpensive Doogee Mix. The smartphones use similar specifications, and design is almost the same. We compare only Umidigi Crystal Pro model, since it offers the most approximate hardware for Doogee Mix.
Doogee Mix works on good and relatively high-performance processor Mediatek Helio X25, which also supports faster RAM memory LPDDR4X, operating in two-channel mode. Also, the smartphone is available in model with 6 GB of RAM, which is undoubtedly a big plus. While it is unknown which glass will be used in Umidigi Crystal Pro, the smartphone Doogee Mix uses super modern tempered glass Gorilla Glass 5th generation.
By the way, about the body, Umidigi Crystal Pro is still a metal device, but Doogee Mix repeats Xiaomi Mi Mix, having a sandwich of tempered glass and metal as a binder frame. You should decide for yourself, which is more practical, but about 90% of people use protective cases and protective glasses/films, so it doesn’t make big sense. On the other hand, the metal is still more reliable, since the glass in Doogee Mix will crack at any convenient opportunity when falling on a hard surface
So what to choose? If we consider only two smartphones, then Doogee Mix is more balanced in price/quality. But you still need to decide – do you really want frameless smartphone?
Umidigi Crystal Pro release date, price, buy
Umidigi Crystal will be available in early June at a price of $150. As for the smartphone Umidigi Crystal Pro, it should be expected a little later, by the end of June, with price tag about $200. If you really want to buy frameless smartphone, we advise you to wait for video reviews of new products from real users, and then make a final decision – buy or not.
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