Review on UMIDIGI A9 Cell Phone by Ricardo Anderson

This is a very attractive phone with some nice extras not usually found on budget devices. As usual with Umidigi phones, you get a screen protector and a transparent case in the box. Also in the box is a charger and cable. This means that you don't "need" to make any additional purchases in order to start making calls safely from day one. I ordered a green phone but the phone looks more blue than green. If you really want a definitely green phone you might be better off looking elsewhere, but I found the shade of blue (with hints of green) very pleasing. The back of the phone is textured, giving you a good grip even without a case or case. Commendably, this phone runs Android 11, the latest version. There is also 3 GB of RAM, which should be the minimum these days, and 64 GB of hard disk space (about 50 GB is available to the end user after deducting the operating system). There are few preinstalled apps, but they include a thermometer app that works with a temperature reader on the back of the device. It seemed pretty accurate to me when I compared it to a special non-contact thermometer. There's a fingerprint scanner on the back and the ability to use Face Unlock, which is a pretty rare feature for an entry-level phone. On the right side of the phone are the power and volume buttons. The power button protrudes too far and is too sensitive for my taste. The phone turned off several times in my jeans pocket because the power button was pressed while moving. Quite often while using the phone I accidentally hit the power button and put the phone to sleep. On the left is a "Smart Key" button that can be configured to open up to three programs of your choice (single click, double click, long press). There are slots for 2 SIM cards and micro SD. card so you don't have to sacrifice dual SIM capability for extra storage. I had no problems formatting/reading/writing to the 32GB micro SD card I installed. The only real disappointment for me was that the MediaTek G25 processor is pretty slow inside. This processor is octa-core (aren't they all octa-core?), but none of the cores are based on the performance A70 series. This causes delays when multitasking. Even the "budget” Snapdragon 460 octa-core processor has four powerful A73 cores. However, the combination of processor and large battery ensures a long battery life, with 20% and more remaining after a full day of heavy use. One thing to mention is that this phone has been identified as not compatible with the Cricket service. This worked fine with my Freedompop account (which uses AT&T towers).