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its EU warehouse with free shipping at £113.59, or you can
take a gamble and buy the Rome from the Chinese
warehouse for £85.19. Beware that you may have to pay
import duty when shipping the UMI Rome from China,
however - read up on our advice on buying grey market
tech.
UMI phones are also now available in the UK via Amazon.
They usually cost a little more from Amazon , but at the
time of writing the Rome was on offer at £109.95 with free
UK delivery. See all budget phone reviews.
Out of the box we had an interesting first impression of the
UMI Rome. It was absolutely freezing cold - ice-cold to the
touch. We actually felt a bit sorry for the postie, because it
must have been nearing arctic conditions outside for the
pretty well-wrapped Rome to cause our fingers go numb.
The reason for it feeling so cold is the metal frame, which is
something that even now we can't say is a given for most
budget- or even mid-range smartphones. This is one
advantage of buying a Chinese phone - you get to ditch the
plasticky builds we see in most cheap UK phones for
something a lot tougher that at least looks premium. Also
see: Best phones 2016.
As we'll discover later in this review, the UMI Rome is very
much a mid-range phone sold at a budget price. As such
there are both highs and lows, the most obvious of which
are found in its design.
Our review sample came in a shiny Champagne Gold, but