The UMI Plus E, Nokia 6 and Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) are android devices that offer some of the best specs and features for a mid-range smartphone. Among these three, which offers the better deal?
The Price
The UMI Plus E is said to cost around $240 to $270, depending on where you buy it. The Nokia 6 costs $246. And lastly, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) will cost around $480. For this round, the UMI Plus E and Nokia 6 both offer cheaper prices.
The Design
The UMI Plus E features an aluminum alloy frame. It has a body dimension of 75 x 155 x 8.8 mm and weighs 185 grams.
The Nokia 6 comes in a unibody metal design. Its body dimensions are 75.8 x 154 x 8.4 mm and weighs 169 grams.
Lastly, the Samsung Galaxy A7 offers a combination of glass and metal design. The body dimensions of this device are 77.6 x 156.8 x 7.9 mm, while there is no detail about how much it weighs yet.
Normally, I prefer a smartphone with a body weight of around 160 grams. However, given that the Samsung Galaxy A7 features a glass and metal design and it does really look good, I will give this round to it.
The Display
The UMI Plus E features a 5.5-inch IPS display with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The Nokia 6 features a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with also a screen resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. Lastly, the Samsung Galaxy A7 features 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with 1920 x 1080 pixels. For this round, I always find AMOLED displays better, so I will it to the Galaxy A7.
The Platform
The UMI Plus E runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and is packed with a MediaTek Helio P20 processor. The Nokia 6's OS is Android 7.0 Nougat and is equipped with a Snapdragon 430 chipset. The Samsung Galaxy A7 runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and carries an Exynos 7880 Octa-core processor.
For this round, I will give it to the Nokia 6 and Galaxy A7. For the Nokia 6, it is due to its Nougat feature while for the Galaxy A7 is due to its Exynos 7880. Yeah, the Helio P20 is powerful, but when it comes to chipsets, I personally trust Qualcomm, Exynos and Apple's Fusion chip only for a smartphone.
The Internal Memory
The UMI Plus E features 64 GB internal memory with 4 GB of RAM and has an expandable memory option of up to 256 GB. The Nokia 6 features 64 GB with 6 GB of RAM and also has an expandable memory option of up to 256 GB. Lastly, the Samsung Galaxy A7 features 32 GB with 3 GB of RAM, which also has an expandable memory option of up to 256 GB.
As for the winner of this round, I personally would prefer a smartphone with 4 to 6 GB of RAM. So base on the numbers alone, the Nokia 6 will be the best choice.
The Camera
The UMI Plus E features a 13 MP rear camera and 5 MP front camera. The Nokia 6 comes with a 16 MP rear camera and an 8 MP front-facing camera. And as for the Galaxy A7, it has 16 MP camera both at the front and back.
Personally, I think that the sweet spot for a smartphone's camera is 12 to 13 MP. Though in reality having a higher MP size will definitely give you high-quality photos, the thing with smartphones is that it doesn't have enough space to house all of those MPs.
You can see that most smartphones that have high camera MPs shoot amazing pictures in both sunny and under artificial lights conditions, but in low light they tend to struggle. This is why I will give this round to the UMI Plus E.
The Verdict
At the end of the day, all these smartphones offer the best there is in the midrange segment. Given that the UMI Plus E won in most of these areas, there are still other factors such as availability, after-sales service and carrier dependency that need to be considered. Basically, if the features and specifications mentioned above, tick those on your lists, then you can never go wrong with whichever among these smartphones you might decide to go for.
