Ulefone Armor Pad 2 Review

OS, UI and software

Ulefone Armor Pad 2 runs on stock Android 13 and some UI elements reflect the fact that this is a big-screen tablet and a re-designed accordingly. The Lock Screen is quite minimalistic. A big Clock widget appears in the middle of the screen with a small Date one, and some icons in the status bar area. As usual, the default screen unlock is by a swipe and this can be changed from the Security settings. The Home screen has a Google search bar on top with Lens and Voice search embedded. A Dite and Time widget is placed in the upper half of the screen, followed b y a row of favorite apps. At the very bottom of the screen, you see the docked row of apps and the virtual navigation bar. If you choose onscreen gesture navigation, these virtual buttons simply disappear. Desktop shortcuts are supported and Google Discover is on by default. There's no option to switch it off. There's an app drawer listing all applications on one page in alphabetic order with an app search bar and a row of the most recently used applications on top. The Task Manager tiles the apps in two rows with the latest one occupying the entire two-row space. For each, you can access app info and split screen mode (if supported). At the bottom, there are two options - to take a screenshot or two enter split-screen mode. The Clear All button is accessed after you swipe to the very first apps in the list (the far left). The customization picked contains the standard widgets, wallpapers and theme customization options. The Home settings are also there but are limited to only two - notification dots and a toggle for adding app icons to the Home Screen. The Notifications shade and the Quick Settings toggles have a traditional design and layout with options to edit the list of toggles. The entire UI has a very subtle peachy beige tint for backgrounds, buttons, and brown for key accent elements. Ulefone Armor Pad 2 has all the applications you'd expect from a modern Android mobile device - Google Assistant, Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Children Space, Chrome, Clock, Contacts, Drive, Files, Find Device, FM Radio, Game Booster, Gmail, Google Discover, Maps, Meet, Messages, Phone, Photos, Play Books, Play Store, Safety, Sound Recorder, YouTube, YT Kids, and YT Music. There are also applications that reflect the model's rugged nature and specific features - the Tablet GUardian and OutDoor Toolbox. The Tablet Guardian includes tools such as Speed up (clearing cache and freeing RAM), App Lock, Notifications management, Power saving, and Phone traffic. The last three options are directly related to the corresponding sections in the Settings. You also have the option to optimize storage by cleaning images, videos, audio files, and apks. The Toolbox includes an altimeter, compass, gradienter, flashlight, leveler, magnifier, alarm bell, plumb bob, barometer, protractor, and a noise test. The Settings app is the one that demonstrates the tablet-centric UI in general. The list of menus with the search bar on top appears on the left side of the screen at all times. The submenus and options expand on the right side of the screen. This results in a more compact layout and provides quicker access to the various settings. "Network & WLAN" is the first menu and it manages your mobile and wireless networks with related options. "Connected devices" is the second menu including Bluetooth, NFC, Cast Display, Printing, Chromebook, Nearby Share, and Android Auto options. "Apps" is the third menu and lets you manage various aspects of the applications on your device. It is followed by the "Notifications" menu - one of the app aspects that offers a lot of customization options. "Battery" and "Storage" are the fifth and sixth menus. More on the battery one in the respective sections of this review. "Sound & vibration" comes next with the traditional volume level bars, DND mode, Live Caption settings, a choice of ringtones, vibration and haptics, notification sounds, and others. The "Display" menu is eighth and has already been described in the respective section of this review. "Wallpaper & style" is next with all the standard options for customization known from the customization picker. The tenth menu is called "Special function" and it includes a many for virtual RAM expansion, sensor calibration functions, a toggle for enabling Glove Mode touch, a toggle for making screenshots by swiping with three fingers on the screen, a toggle for waking the screen with a double tap on it, and an option to enable the Side Application Bar, which gives a quick access to useful apps. "Custom key" is the next menu and it allows you to manage the physical button in orange color placed on the right frame. You can assign a function or an app to a single click, a double click, or a long press on this button. "Accessibility" options are next followed by the "Security" ones. The latter includes the four security status features - Google Play Protect, Security Update, Find My Device, and Google Play System Update. The security settings list continues with the screen lock settings, face unlock options, and others. The "Privacy" menu comes next including the dashboard, permissions manager, camera and microphone access, lock screen notifications, autofill service, activity controls, Google location history, etc. It is followed by the "Location" menu with its privacy context. The "Safety & Emergency" follows with options to enter medical information, emergency contacts, emergency SOS, crisis alerts, earthquake alerts, wireless emergency alerts, and emergency location service. it is followed by the standard "Passwords & accounts," "Digital Wellbeing & Parental controls", "Google", and "DuraSpeed." "Smart Touch" is next and it enables a virtual floating dot that can serve as an alternative way of navigation and quick access to useful apps and features. The last but one is "System" with the usual update options, backup and reset, date and time, languages and input, multiple user settings, and gestures. The "Gesture" submenu is the one that allows you to choose and customize the system navigation - with a virtual navigation bar or on-screen gestures. Finally, there's the "About tablet" menu contains the usual data about the model name, main specifications, software versions, IMEI numbers, MAC address, etc.