Chinese manufacturer UMi has teased information about an up and coming device, which appears to be an upgrade to the UMi Hammer. We don’t know very much about the new smartphone, called the Hammer S, other than what UMi have told us – or rather shown us, as the Hammer S will include the USB type-C port “like the coming new iPhone 6S,” according to UMi’s Facebook post on the subject. UMi’s intention is to combine the new USB interface standard with the existing Hammer tough exterior and the low price, which is set to see the Hammer S selling from just $139.99.
The original UMi Hammer has a reputation for being a toughened device with a few quirks and a number of great features. It’s powered by a MediaTek MTK6732 System-on-Chip, which is a 1.5 GHz, quad core, 64-bit application processor complete with ARM’s Mali-T760 GPU and backed up by 2 GB of RAM. There’s a 5.0-inch, 720p resolution display panel and 16 GB of internal storage, which is backed up by a MicroSD card slot. On the software front, the UMi comes with Android 4.4.4 Kit Kat as standard but also includes support for Rootjoy, which is a Windows application that makes it much easier to modify the ROM on your device. The UMi Hammer supports a number of different ROMs through this package including MIUI and Lollipop-based software. There’s a 3,200 mAh removable battery and two SIM slots. The Hammer offers dual SIM standby and 4G LTE connectivity plus the usual high speed WiFi and Bluetooth, although it does not support NFC out of the box and instead comes with MediaTek’s HotKnot data sharing technology. Finally, the UMi Hammer includes a 13MP rear camera with a dual LED flash.
It’s not yet clear what else UMi have upgraded apart from the USB connectivity on the Hammer S. If they follow the Apple model of upgrading a device, it will ship with a newer version of Android as standard (although with Rootjoy this does not matter so much), plus a newer, higher performance processor, but a very similar if not identical chassis. We may see UMi upgrade the 5.0-inch 720p display for a 1080p panel, which after the processor, appears to be the weakest item in the specification list. UMi announced that fans should join their UMIFans Facebook group in order to quality for the opening giveaway. This is a developing story and if we obtain any additional information, we will let you know.