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Monsters from Asia: the fancy, 6.4 mm-thick UMi Zero and its Super AMOLED display

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By Chris P.

Updated: Oct 08, 2014, 4:37 AM

Android

Monsters from Asia: the fancy, 6.4 mm-thick UMi Zero and its Super AMOLED display

Ever churning out new devices onto the market, the smartphone scene in China has seen yet another intriguing device release: the Zero from a little-known (in the West) manufacturer called UMi.

Images courtesy of mobiltelefon.ru

To start off, the first thing you need to know about the Zero is that it's extremely thin at 0.25 in (6.4 mm). That's not all though, for despite sporting a 5-inch, 1080p Super AMOLED display (a rarity among OEMs other than Samsung), the body of the phones reportedly measures just 5.41 x 2.61 inches (137.4 x 66.3 mm). The device is also nestled within two sheets of Corning's Gorilla Glass 3 (front and back) and a metal frame, and we happen to dig the design UMi has gone for. In fact, you even get a very unique Z-shaped "case" included with the Zero's box, though that one will likely be a hit or miss with most.

As for the hardware snugged underneath the display, we're looking at a true octa-core MediaTek MT6592T chipset, complemented with 2GB of RAM. Unlike the standard MT6592 version of the silicon, the MT6592T signifies that it makes use of higher-clocked, 2GHz Cortex-A7 cores. Eight of them. The chip also makes use of a quad-core, 700MHz Mali 450 GPU, ensuring smooth (if not chart-topping) graphics performance. Moving on, we've got a 13-megapixel rear camera with super-wide f/1.8 lens (Sony IMX214) and a dual LED flash, along with an 8-megapixel front-facing camera (also a Sony sensor). The UMi Zero runs on Android 4.4 KitKat and is powered by a cell with a capacity of 2400 mAh and support for fast charging.

The supposed official price of the UMi Zero is $299.99 (for the 16GB model), but we've stumbled upon a number of re-sellers that offer the Zero for as low as $229. That said, some of these are still only accepting pre-orders, so there's no telling if the price won't change once the device is produced in sufficient quantities to satisfy whatever demand there will be for it. In any case, the UMi Zero certainly is one attractive device with no-compromise hardware specs.

UMi Zero

Images courtesy of mobiltelefon.ru, Efox

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Chris Panayotov is a former mobile tech reviewer of phones, tablets and wearables at PhoneArena. However, his contribution to PhoneArena content includes not just reviews, but all kinds of regular and experimental features, such as news stories, buying guides, and an exclusive column on the most notable phones out of Asia.