UMIDIGI F2 Unlocked Mobile Phone Dual 4G VoLTE Smart Phone 48MP AI Four Mobile Rear Camera 6.53" Full-Screen Display 6GB+128GB Android 10 Smartphone [Black]

Umi, who? Was my first reaction to, when I was looking at a replacement phone. I was however aware that several years ago few people in the West had heard of Xiaomi or Oppo phones, and that there are a lot of Chinese manufacturers producing some realy top quality stuff bubbling under the surface.If you are willing to go for a brand that your friends won't have heard of, and you probably haven't until today, you will get unbelievable value for money. In the case of the Umdigi F2 you also will find surprisingly few sacrifices. For example, the better known Oppo Realme 3pro , which costs around the same, dispenses with NFC and uses micro-USB, not so this phone.So, for a pretty low price you get:1 - A nice clear 6.5 inch screen. I understand it's not the absolute top spec, but you are unlikely to notice, I didn't when watching YouTube and Netflix. Rather than a notch, it has a hole punch camera on the front, which I personally prefer2 - NFC, so if you want to use Google Pay you can. Very few phones at this price point have this3 - The phone looks good and the black case that comes with the box is actually usable, unlike the clear condom like shells you normally get supplied as standard4 - A four camera set up at the back, including a 48mp camera. There's no dedicated night camera setting (though Umidigi claims it detects night shot automatically), and so you won't get as good a camera as on (say) the Pixel 4, but again for the price it takes pretty good shots so long as the lighting is good5 - Android 10, something many phones don't yet have6 - Face unlock and a fingerprint scanner7 - A massive 5150mAH battery, that will easily last you a day and a halfNow onto the downsides, there are very few. About that fingerprint scanner, it's on the side of the phone and it shares the power button. I'm not a fan of that set up, but in the greater scheme of things, it's no big deal. Also the processor is a Mediatek Helio P70, not Snapdragon, but if like me you mainly use it for social media, news, emails, web browsing and Netflix it will do just fine.I've read some reviews saying the phone is a bit on the heavy side, but I haven't found that to be the case, and I guess that's a by product of the big battery.Overall, I can't recommend this phone highly enough. No of course it's not a 'flagship killer' but it's easily as good, if not better, as mid range phones selling for twice the price.

Aesthetically, however as stated above the mic only works intermittently and cannot be used reliably in calls. The workaround for me is to use earphones - slightly ridiculous!Side fingerprint sensor is very reliable and does not use a flash light in order to read your finger, I use my phone at night so do not need to be blinded by a front facing light.The charger failed after 6 months - luckily I had a space,had to send it back.It is quite a time-consuming phone as you are never quite sure what will go wrong next!

It's a cheap phone with a lot of features that would cost a lot more on branded devices. So as long as you are happy to accept the limitations of future support it's a good daily driver that should last until the UK has some working 5G networks.For my needs, it manages to -- Provide all the space I need for music as my phone operates as a music player to about 2000 tracks.- Large screen (I've thick finger).- Have Android 10 support, which is good for future app updates.- Correctly work across 2 sims (EE and Vodaphone).- Pass whatever checks that First Direct has before their card is accepted by Google play.- The complicated array of cameras manage to take OK photos, but I was not expecting too much.As with all phones from China, it is a gamble as the availability of future firmware updates is unknown and most likely limited to just a few months and hardware support for issues will be just about none existent. So are you happy to take the risk? if not a branded phone at a much higher price will make more sense.

To give context, I purchased this phone around the end of May 2020.The good:For using apps, it's been great and quick.Very good specs for the price.A very good camera for the price range (although the auto processing on photos sometimes looks overdone).The bad:There is a well known bug concerning the microphone which unfortunately, I was unaware of when I purchased this phone.My encounter with this fault was highly stressful. To my horror, I discovered the fault in the moment I needed to call an ambulance. The operator was unable to hear me and I was unable to use this phone as a phone. Fortunately, somebody else had a phone and were able to call.It must be considered then that, if anybody were to be alone with this phone in an emergency they could encounter this fault as well. As emergency services calls are the difference between life and death for many, with quick and clear communication needed, the inability to communicate is highly problematic and potentially fatal.Whilst the problem has been resolved, the only way to fix this issue was to factory reset my phone - this is time consuming and, to my knowledge there is no guarantee that this is a permanent fix.Also, the Bluetooth connectivity has a fault - occasionally, it will connect to headphones or Bluetooth speaker but continue to play out through the phone speaker, which means that you need to disconnect and reconnect the device - whilst less serious than the microphone fault, it is annoying.I would not recommend this phone because of my experience with the microphone fault and will be looking for a more reliable model - as this fault, as I learned, could be a potentially fatal flaw.

I never use the finger print. The screenshot photos are as clear as noon day. I never try the camera. The battery very stable. It works like 10000mAh battery. Downloadings are fast. When connected to computer, my memory card was never detected. Call recording app do not work on the phone. The phone is excellent with 2 sims standby and with a dedicated card slot. With the phone's split screen, hymn book and Bible can be opened at the same time. The phone is excellent for zoom video meetings. The Umidigi F2 deserves my 5 star.