I’ve been reviewing a lot of Umidigi smartphones of late. For the most part, the devices I covered were mid-rangers with bare minimum specifications at impressively affordable price points.
The Umidigi S5 Pro is different. It’s Umidigi’s most premium android offering and expectedly, it costs a sizable 134,000 Naira.
It’s loaded on the spec front and very eye-catching on the looks department. It still can’t compete with the crème de la crème of the smartphone market, however, but all things considered, it’s a faux premium smartphone that’s very appealing.
If you’re caught on the fence as to whether it’s a perfect match for your needs, this review should help sort things out.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Design and build quality
The design and build quality of the Umidigi S5 Pro is all shades of premium and sophisticated. It’s a glass sandwich build with a metal chassis. You’ll find that it mirrors the finish on phones like the Galaxy S9.
The back
The glass back is curved at the edges to create a flowing feel that integrates seamlessly to the metal frame.
On the top right corner, the glass back of the Umidigi S5 Pro is interrupted by an innocuous camera bump. It sits nicely on the back and doesn’t protrude that much, adding more finesse to the overall design of the phone.
The front
On the front, Umidigi has broken from its usual practice of including a teardrop notch. Instead, the Umidigi S5 Pro comes with a fancy looking pop-up camera that slides into the phone when not in use. Unlike phones like the Galaxy S9 and its curved almost bezel-less screen, the Umidigi S5 Pro has very noticeable bezels that taper into a chin down below.
Sides and button order
There’s the usual complement of buttons on the phone. You get a power button, and a volume rocker all mounted to the right. At the bottom, you’ll find a USB C port and a speaker grille. Note that the Umidigi S5 Pro, unlike more premium Android phones ships with a mono loudspeaker system.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Colour Options
You can get the Umidigi S5 Pro in two colour variations; Cosmic Black and Ocean Blue. I’m usually a fan of all things black, but the Blue Umidigi S5 Pro seems to connect better with the premium and sleek design language of this phone.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Performance and spec-sheet
Umidigi intended the S5 Pro to come out as a worthy challenger when it comes to performance, so it’s no surprise that it has stacked the phone full with top tier hardware.
Processor and RAM
As standard the S5 Pro ships with a MediaTek Helio G90T processor. It’s an octa-core setup that registers a max clock speed of 2.05Ghz. This processor connects to 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM to deliver what’s best described as a fluid and effortless smartphone using experience.
Much like many premium smartphones out there, The Umidigi S5 Pro should run everything from PUBG to Fortnite at full HD setting without stuttering. You might notice some lag when you crank the resolution or fps a little higher, but remember that the S5 Pro is almost a quarter of the price of the average Premium Android smartphone.
Storage
Continuing with the theme of value for money the Umidigi S5 Pro also comes with 256 GB of UFS 2.1 storage as standard. For comparison, the Tecno Camon 15 Premier at the same price range ships with 126GB of storage. Even with premium smartphones like the Galaxy Note 10, 256 GB of storage is an extra option that’s worth north of 30,000 Naira.
Storage on the Umidigi S5 Pro can be expanded via a Micro-SD slot that supports up to 256 GB of additional storage.
Umidigi S5 Pro – AnTuTu Benchmark
On the AnTuTu Benchmark, the Umidigi S5 Pro edges ahead of names like the Oppo Reno 3 Pro, the Asus Rog and the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 with a score of 302188.
All this is to say that performance is not an issue you should worry about with the Umidigi S5 Pro.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Camera
The Umidigi S5 Pro comes with the same quad-camera setup you’d find on its sister phone, the Umidigi Bison.It’s a 48MP primary lens, a 16MP wide-angle lens, a 5MP depth sensor and another 5MP macro lens camera and all in all its takes pretty decent shots.
The primary 48MP camera has a wide F/1.79 aperture that lets in enough light to deliver crisp and detailed pictures. There’s no mention of image stabilization technology, however, and that might result in blurry images in many scenarios.
Selfie camera
The selfie camera on the Umidigi S5 Pro is a 16MP shooter with an aperture size of F/2.0. Again, it’s not the best out there, but if all you need from it are clear portrait shots with decent bokeh, then you won’t be disappointed.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Video quality
The Umidigi S5 Pro’s 48MP primary lens is capable of shooting 4K video at 30 fps but there’s no support for slow-motion videos and higher fps settings.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Display quality
On the display front, however, there are some worries. Umidigi has decided to fit the S5 Pro with a Full HD Plus screen with an actual resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and a pixel density of 403 PPI. It’s pretty much the same resolution spec you’d find on the lesser-priced Umidigi Bison and Umidigi A7 Pro. Quite frankly for a phone that’s supposed to be the headliner, it could have been better.
Display panel
But that’s not to totally undercut the display. It still is by all performance metrics an excellent display. Most smartphones in this range ship with similar specifications and better yet, unlike those smartphones and its former two sister phones, the screen on the Umidigi S5 Pro is an AMOLED panel.
AMOLED displays are generally better than their IPS counterparts. You get better colour depth, improved contrast, deeper blacks, more vibrant colours and of course better energy savings.
Refresh rate
There’s no official word on the screen refresh rate of the Umidigi S5 Pro, although from first impressions it seems to be in the 60Hz range. If it were better, I’m sure Umidigi would have made a better PR storm out of it.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Battery quality and performance
With a 4680mAh battery pack powering the Umidigi S5 Pro you can expect up about 5-8 hours of on-screen time and about a day of phone usage without recharging. That’s pretty much on par with what you get from similar offerings from other smartphone manufacturers, and there’s no real complaint here.
Charger and charging port
In fact, the Umidigi S5 Pro manages to stand out from the competition because it has a USB C charging port and comes with an 18W fast charger right out of the box. On average, this should juice up the phone to 100% in under 2 hours.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Extra features
We’ve already talked about the inclusion of a USB C charging port and the pop-up selfie camera on the Umidigi S5 Pro. Additionally, Umidigi has decided to go the way of an in-screen fingerprint reader for biometric verification and security.
The in-screen fingerprint reader on the Umidigi S5 Pro is an optical fingerprint sensor. While there’s a bit of delay between registering the fingerprint and the phone unlocking, it is still fast enough.
Note that the Umidigi S5 Pro doesn’t come with any face recognition or unlocking technology.
Umidigi S5 Pro – Pricing and availability
If you want the Umidigi S5 Pro, you must be prepared to shell out a handsome 134,000 Naira. Luckily, unlike the Umidigi Bison, this phone is available for direct purchase on Jumia and Konga, as well as in physical stores nationwide.
What’s not to like about the Umidigi S5 Pro
With the Umidigi S5 Pro, Umidigi is attempting to enter into the Premium smartphone arena. While it does hit the home run on the specs department, there’s still a myriad of premium smartphone features it lacks.
For starters, there’s no wireless charging, no 3.5mm headphone jack, waterproofing (or any IP rating for that matter), stereo speaker system, or face recognition function. All that’s however forgivable, the Umidigi retails for just 134,000 Naira anyway, but what you can’t really forget is the full HD screen Umidigi has decided to go with.
Don’t get me wrong, full HD is good enough, but considering the fact that this is supposed to be the crème de la creme of all Umidigi smartphones and the fact that the lesser-priced Umidigi A7 Pro comes with the same screen resolution, it probably would have been better if the display specs were upped a bit. It certainly would have made a stronger statement.
Should you buy the Umidigi S5 Pro?
It’s hard to come across another better-specced mid-ranger than the Umidigi S5 Pro in the current market. It’s better than most of the mid-range options from premium smartphone manufacturers (I’m looking at you, Samsung). In the same vein, it outclasses most of its contemporaries from other budget smartphone makers.
The only real drawback with this phone, when you consider the price, is that if it develops a fault, you might have issues sourcing for replacement parts. There’s no Umidigi care centre in Nigeria that I know of, but this is something that can be avoided if you take very good care of your phone. The phone is built well, and manufacturer defects are unheard so far. And as an added boost to guarantee protection, Umidigi has included a clear TPU case in the box.
If you are a careful person, in need of a performance-oriented and very capable phone, there are very few options that beat the Umidigi S5 Pro. This phone, by every measure, provides ultimate value for money spent.
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