Mr Gadget
Price: $99.99
(as of Mar 18,2024 11:23:45 UTC – Details)
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Top reviews from the United States
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2023
Great Value for the Money Cell Phone
Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2023
I was in the market for a new budget phone to use as a back up to my daily driver, and just general use from time to time (I like to move between two or three phones during any given week). It often happens that my back up phone will eventually end up as the daily driver for my wife or one of my kids (my wife took my UMIDIGI Bison GT2 5G from me and used it until her recent upgrade. lol). Given this path of events, I’ve had the opportunity to use many phones including a few Umidigi ones, and I’ve really liked most of them in general, but I have a soft spot for Umidigi products as they tend to offer good value for money. At least that has been my experience. As such, the coupon that was available at my time of purchase was the clincher in my final decision to buy the Umidigi G3 Plus, well that and the lavender color. lol. I’m happy I did.
I’ve been using it for about a month now and while it isn’t as great as my Sony Xperia 1 IV (my daily driver most of the time), it also is about $1,300 dollars cheaper. Given the difference in price, you’d think I would just be running back to my Sony and leaving the G3 Plus in the drawer awaiting the call as a back up phone should catastrophe occur, but that wasn’t the case. The G3 Plus is very impressive for it’s price ($120 bucks, give or take), and I’ve not really had any issues doing everything I generally do, so it has taken it’s place in my phone rotation and I use it two or three days a week. If it was the only phone I could afford, I would be very happy to use it as a daily driver.
Pros are a solid build quality, competent performance in video playback, web browsing and gaming. Love the lavender color and the nice, heavy feel of the phone. It feels like it should cost much more than it does. The back is a faux leather like texture. Sure, it is plastic, but it doesn’t feel like it’s cheap. It feels very high quality. No issues with web browsing or watching youtube or streaming apps. I used Netflix, Prime and Crunchyroll without any issues. I do some gaming from time to time and was able to run all my usual games (Asphalt 9, Final Fantasy, etc) at a competent frame rate and graphical level. Had some issues with Retro Bowl Football but I also have some issues running that on my Motorola Razr 5G too so that may have more to do with the game than anything else. The G3 Plus comes with Android 13, and includes a clear phone case and a charging cable and charging brick in the box, unlike other companies like Apple and Samsung that over charge and under deliver. Following in that vein, the G3 Plus also has other features you don’t find much anymore, like a 3.5 mm headphone jack and expandable memory (up to 1TB). This makes up for the limited amount of onboard memory that it comes with (128 GB). The 6.5″ screen is competent, if not amazing. It is only 60 hz refresh rate, but again, this is a budget phone, so that’s not a negative by any means and the screen handles everything it needs to do just fine. The battery is large, 5150 mAH, so it goes a long time between charges, which is good since it doesn’t set any speed records while charging. When the battery lasts this long, charge speed being a little slow is kind of irrelevant though. I also like the pictures that are produced by the 16 megapixel main camera. They are not the best money can buy, but for the price this cell phone costs, they are impressive. There is also an 8 megapixel selfie camera that does a good job. It also has a side mounted fingerprint sensor like my Sony Xperia 1 IV. I love that implementation of the fingerprint sensor.
As for complaints, it is hard to have many given the price. I’d have preferred it have more the 4GB of memory, but I understand why this is the amount the G3 Plus has. Battery charge speed could be a little faster, especially given the huge size of the battery.
So after one month of substantial use, I’m really happy with the Umidigi G3 Plus. It’s way too early to comment on long term quality, but as of right now it really feels much more expense than it actually is. Great build quality, surprisingly good performance and increasing rare features like expandable memory and a headphone jack really make the G3 Plus a strong contender for bank for your buck king. This one will be in phone rotation for the foreseeable future and I feel confident it recommending it to anyone looking for a phone in this price range. It is definitely one of the best budget phones, if not the absolute best budget phone, that I’ve used recently. Highly recommended! Especially the lavender one.
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2023
I purchased 2 of these for my sons for Christmas at the end of June 2023 and purchased the 2 year extended warranty. In November I decided to open them up and get them all set up before wrapping them for Christmas and discovered they were both defective! After initial set up the screens just freeze and force you to factory reset. I contacted Amazon who said contact extended warranty who said contact manufacturers warranty who said contact Amazon! 2 hours later on phone with multiple Amazon customer service reps they finally agree to refund minus 50$ because they were bought in June and minus the 79$ it cost for the extended warranty!! It cost me $129 for their garbage and horrible customer service! Don’t buy electronics or trash extended warranty’s from Amazon, they will not honor the warranty or take care of their customers!!!
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2023
A few weeks back, I was looking for an inexpensive unlocked phone for travel. Pressed for time and options, I landed on the Umidigi G3 Plus. I’m very glad I did. At roughly $120, the G3 Plus is an excellent value for the money, and dare I say enough phone for most people.
Unboxing Impressions
The UMIDIGI G3 is made out of a hard plastic with a subtle leather pattern on the back. I found the included TPU case to be nice and grippy. Speaking of accessories, the G3 comes with a 5W charger and cable, a SIM removal tool, and a pre-installed screen protector. As everyone knows, Apple, Samsung, or Google don’t go in for creature comforts like these nowadays. The fact that UMIDIGI did at this price point is nothing short of amazing.
Hardware Features
Let’s be honest – the UMIDIGI G3 is a substantial phone. The screen is a massive 6.52’’ IPS HD+ affair. It caps out at 720 x 1600 pixels with an immersive 20:9 aspect ratio. It isn’t the brightest, but I found it to be visible enough in direct sunlight with good viewing angles. Up top is the endangered 3.5mm jack, which plays nicely with low impedance IEM’s. There is a single down firing speaker on the base of the phone, next to a USB-C port with USB 2.0 speeds that provides 10W charging. On the right are the traditional volume buttons and a power button which doubles as a fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader, I’m happy to say, is splendidly fast and accurate. Seriously. It’s my favorite part of the phone.
Daily Use
In day to day use, this phone shines. Many of the services we take for granted in the US, from Google’s suite of apps to T-Mobile’s VoLTE protocol work perfectly. In my testing, Netflix, Prime, and Criterion all played in full HD and looked good doing it. The phone is free of bloatware, and applications can be easily changed to suit your fancy. I found that the G3’s Unisoc T606 breezed through emails, web searches, and a quick game of Minecraft. While there are certainly faster chips out there, the T606 struck me as surprisingly capable. The only thing this phone doesn’t have is NFC or wireless charging, though I confess that I haven’t missed it very much at all.
Cameras
The cameras are about what you’d expect for a phone of this caliber. The main camera system consists of a 16 megapixel camera which is reinforced by a 2 megapixel camera for depth detection. The portrait mode works well enough, even with curly hair, though it can be a bit aggressive. The camera app also features a fairly comprehensive Pro mode, which gives you access to a host of manual settings. On the face of the G3, you’ll find a single droplet style camera which easily bests the upper-tier laptop camera of my M2 MacBook Pro. If the camera is important to you, the UMIDIGI G3 Max might be your best bet at just $10 more.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
It must be said – the UMIDIGI G3 Plus seriously impressed me. If you need an inexpensive phone for whatever reason, this is a great choice. Here are a couple of quick thoughts that I couldn’t jam elsewhere in the review:
– The G3 has the ability to use 4GB of the ROM as swap for the memory. I didn’t really notice a difference in performance, but it’s nice to have it as an option.
– WiFi, cellular, and Bluetooth (tested with my Qudelix 5k) worked well.
– Umidigi seems to have built their own updater which lives in the About Phone section in the Android settings.
– I scratched the screen protector fairly quickly, so be careful with keys in your pocket.
TL,DR
Pros:
Unbelievable price to performance ratio
Stock Android 13 with no bloatware
Good enough camera
Fast fingerprint reader
Cons:
No NFC or wireless charging
The G3 Max offers a better screen and camera for just $10 more
Top reviews from other countries
Thoughts on initial use of device – great phone for the price
Reviewed in Canada on July 13, 2023
Thoughts on initial use of device – great phone for the price
Reviewed in Canada on July 13, 2023
I would say this is a 4.5 star phone. I also note that I have not spent weeks with it yet, these are initial impressions.
Overall this is a solid phone and performs very well for the price point. This is not top of the line ~$1000+ flagship phone, but performs well and lives up to its specifications. Importantly, the Android on it seems to be vanilla, there does not seem to be any extra bloat software from the manufacturer as sometimes happens with Android phones in this category (I have had a few different brands of Android phone and some were much much worse in this respect).
I ordered this phone on Amazon Prime day so it had a good sale price. These are thoughts after first opening it up and testing it out a bit.
The phone comes with a screen protector pre-installed, which is great. It also includes a clear plastic protective case, also very much appreciated. My main phone is an LG G8X ThinQ, so my main comparison point is against this phone.
The phone is about the same size and feel as my LG smartphone. The construction feels solid. Both my main phone and this one are a bit on the heavier side, but you get that with most of the phones with a 6.5″ screen I expect. This G3 is 192g in spec and that feels about right.
The startup happens smooth and quick. Initial setup took place fairly quickly and seemed intuitive. The phone comes pre-installed with the April 2023 version of Android 13, and quickly asked to download a more current update (all standard experience so far on that front). It will pull your apps and data from your google account when you do the initial setup. My other phone is Android 12 so I am not sure if some of the differences are just because of Android versions. It seems to have vanilla Android, so no bloatware that I could see.
The fingerprint scanner works well. It lets me in on the first try easily.
I use Public Mobile in Alberta, Canada, and it handles my SIM card fine. There is space for 1 SIM and one SD card, or two SIM cards. Test calls in sending and receiving worked well. I have not tested 2 sim cards yet, but the instructions cover this so I expect it to work fine (you can choose one, or have a dual receiving mode where calls to both sims will work but you need to change the setting to make an outgoing call)
I have not yet really tested the battery life out. It came charged at 98%, quickly charged to 100% and is still at 100% after playing around with it for a while. It is rated to have a 5150 mAh battery and I expect that will be quite functional for most people. The compromise on this is that the phone is a bit heavier because it has this large battery in it.
The settings and main operation all seem normal.
The front and rear cameras both are very nice. Pictures are high quality and the camera has several features (I imagine all Android phones have this now).
There are some features I haven’t really tested much yet but overall this is a solid phone for the price and I am very happy with it.
Nothing special
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2024
Para chavales muy limitado
Reviewed in Spain on September 10, 2023
わりきって使いましょう。
Reviewed in Japan on February 23, 2024
Nul!!
Reviewed in France on October 13, 2023
Nul!!
Reviewed in France on October 13, 2023
Reçu hier !!! Très très déçu ne surtout pas acheter !
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