The phone can survive harsh weather conditions and is resistant to damage from water, dust, and accidental drops. And better yet, the specs are comparable to other non-rugged smartphones in the same price segment. Plus the icing on the cake, it’s priced super aggressively at just over $150 / £140.

Apart from the obvious rugged looks, there are plenty more bells and whistles to this unique device, which I’ll discuss in this full in-depth review of the UMIDIGI Bison Rugged Phone.

But for those of you who can’t seem to hold onto your horses, here’s a quick look at the pros and cons of the device:

Pros:

• IP68, IP69K Certified (Fully Waterproof)
• MIL-STD-810G rating (Drop-tastic)
• Two Customizable Buttons
• 5000mAh battery
• 18W Fast Charging
• Gorilla Glass + Gloves Mode
• Quad Camera Setup with a 48MP Sony Main Sensor
• Competitive Pricing

Display Quality

The massive body of the UMIDIGI Bison houses the 6.3” FHD+ IPS LCD display that has a screen resolution of 2340 x 1080. This gives us a PPI of 409, guaranteeing that you won’t be seeing any pixels.

Overall, it is a fantastic display for the price, both in terms of screen quality and size. Picking a display a bigger would make this phone unwieldy once you add on all the extra armour. And to protect the display from scratches or cracks, UMIDIGI chose a Corning Gorilla Glass covering, although there’s no mention of which generation.

Taking the Bison outside showed us that it’s not the brightest display we’ve tested here at Review Hub, but, it’s still usable outdoors just not in direct bright sunlight.

Not just that, but the edges of the phone boasts slightly elevated bumps which makes sure the screen doesn’t come in contact with the ground during a drop, thereby saving it from being shattered by the impact.

And with a military standard drop-rating of 1.5m, you can rest assured this is a display that isn’t going to break easily!

Screen Tech Specs

• 6.3” FHD+ display
• 2340 x 1080 screen resolution
• 409 PPI
• Corning Gorilla Glass protection
• 19.5:9 Aspect Ratio

Design & Build Quality

The UMIDIGI Bison isn’t meant to look sleek nor slim. It has a noticeable bulk at 12.8 mm thickness, which is standard for most rugged smartphones. But at only 250g, it’s fairly pocket friendly. The weight is evenly distributed and not centred around the top or bottom, which does make it easier to handle. By the time you add a 20g case to a non-rugged smartphone, you’re in similar weight territory.

The solid polycarbonate built of the device provides an ensuring grip, so you don’t need to worry about the Bison accidental slipping out of your hand. But on the off chance that you do, it is manufactured to withstand a 1.5m drop without bruising. So unless you played on your local basketball team growing up, the Bison will survive!

Not just that, but the UMIDIGI Bison can even survive at 1.5m underwater for up to 30 mins. It is also sealed to make it dust and dirt resistant. And that’s not all! The phone is tested to withstand 100 bars of water pressure, and exposure to a high temperature of 80°C, all while staying relatively unharmed.

Now that’s rugged!

Customizable Buttons

Since we are ditching the modern minimalistic design language, UMIDIGI takes an opportunistic decision in adding two extra customizable buttons – one on either side of the Bison. You can map any app or action to the buttons, which brings with it a lot of convenience opportunities.

By default, the button on the left is configured to receive incoming phone calls. Whereas, the button on the right can open the camera app and take pictures without needing you to interact with the screen. This can be extremely useful if you are interested in taking underwater pictures.

But, if you want to quickly access your favourite apps or phone features, you can program these in as well.

Quick Specs:

• 12.8mm thickness
• 250g weight
• IP68 and IP69K certified
• MIL-STD-810G rating
• Two independent customizable buttons
• Side-mounted fingerprint scanners

Camera Setup

The UMIDIGI Bison ships with a quad-camera shooter on the back. This includes the popular 48MP snapper from Sony that is often touted as one of the best smartphone cameras in the low-to-mid-tier market.

To complement the main camera, we have a 16MP wide-angle lens that covers a 120° field of view. Other than this, there is a 5MP macro camera for taking those close-up shots, and a 5MP depth sensor to capture more details on the main lens.

On the front, the UMIDIGI Bison sports a 24MP Sony selfie camera inside the teardrop notch. It is AI-powered and can take some awesome selfies with great edge detection to help you apply those stunning bokeh filters.

Video

As far as video capabilities are concerned, both the front and rear cameras can shoot videos at up to 1080p at 30fps. Sadly, you can’t get an option for 4k video recording, but at this price point, I’ll forgive the Bison.

However, I would have appreciated seeing an option that allows capturing videos at 60fps at a lower resolution, but sadly that too is not possible.

Now, with that being said, if you can live with a max camera resolution of 1080p and a max frame rate of 30fps, then there isn’t much to complain about. The autofocus in the Bison is pretty good. But, the sheer lack of any sort of image or video stabilization means the videos are going to be shaky if you don’t have steady hands.

Battery Life

The Umidigi Bison is powered by healthy 5000mAh battery that can easily give you a full-day of battery backup with moderate to heavy usage. Casual users can potentially stretch it to 1.5 days.

This is perfect when you are considering that the phone is targeted at travellers and adventurers who won’t get the chance to charge their phone twice or thrice a day. Also, when they do come around to charge the Bison, it charges back up in a jiffy, thanks to the 18W fast charger bundled inside the box.

With a weight of 250g though, it’s have been nice if UMIDIGI had squeezed in a little more juice and pushed the Bison to 6000mAh like many of its competitors.

Battery Specs:

• 5000mAh Battery
• 18W Fast Charging

Connectivity

The UMIDIGI Bison is a 4G VoLTE compatible smartphone that can take in two 4G enabled sims at the same time. However, because of the hybrid sim slot, you will need to choose whether you want to have two sims or a single sim paired with an external MicroSD card for expanding the onboard memory.

Besides network connectivity, the device supports dual-band WiFi operating in the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (for better indoor coverage). Whereas, to let you connect with your wireless accessories (like headphones), you only get access to Bluetooth 4.2, which is a bit outdated in my opinion.

In terms of ports, I am really glad that they have kept the 3.5mm headphone jack, which most modern smartphones are ditching. However, similar to modern smartphones, you do get the USB Type-C port.

As such, the UMIDIGI Bison barely leaves any room for complaint as far as port availability is concerned.

Finally coming to the sensors, it seems that UMIDIGI decided to cram in every possible sensor we have come to expect from a smartphone including a proximity sensor, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, which are a staple with most smartphones these days.