Ulefone Armor 3 Review

Overview

It looks like Ulefone is pretty serious in further developing and expanding its Armor series of rugged smartphones. It was only yesterday that they announced the world's first 5G rugged smartphone - the Armor 6, which will enter the 5G testing stage in Q2 of 2019. At present, the latest model from the series that's available on the market is the Ulefone Armor 3 and its Armor 3T modification which arrives with a walkie-talkie antenna included in the package. The Armor 3 offers a tough body capable of withstanding various types of harsh conditions. It packs a huge 10300 mAh battery, a power-efficient chipset that offers reliable performance, a big display and a good rear camera, . It also supports a plethora of mobile network bands, which makes it perfect for usage in most places in the world. What follows is our in-depth review of Ulefone Armor 3.

Specifications

Ulefone Armor 3 is built around a 5.7-inch IPS display with an FHD+ resolution (1080 x 2160 pixels) and a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for protection. The handset combines aluminium alloy, stable TPU and polycarbonate to offer a smartphone that's water and dust resistant with IP68 and IP69K ratings as well as with the military-grade MIL-STD-810G certificate for resistance to drops, shock, pressure, humidity, acidic atmosphere, temperature extremes, etc. The device packs a 10300 mAh battery paired with a 9V/2A fast charger. Hardware-wise, the model is based on a MediaTek Helio P23 system-on-chip in its top MT6763T variant - with an octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU (four 2.3GHz and four 1.65GHz cores) and a 770MHz dual-core Mali-G71 MP2 GPU. The chipset is paired with 4GB of LPDDR4X dual-channel RAM clocked at 1600MHz and 64GB of storage that can be expanded with up to 256GB. The camera department includes an 8MP OmniVision OV8856 selfie shooter, interpolated to 13 megapixels and combined with an f/2.4 lens. It also supports face unlock. On the back, there is a single camera with a 21MP Sony IMX230 sensor and a 5-element lens and f/1.8 aperture. It is aided by PDAF and a dual LED flash. The handset is equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, LED notification light, dual front-facing speakers, TFA9890AUK audio chipset, etc. The model supports 2G GSM (2/3/5/8), 2.5G CDMA (BC0/BC1), 3G WCDMA (1/2/4/5/8), 3G TD-SCDMA (34/39), 4G TDD-LTE (38/39/40/41) and 4G FDD-LTE (1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28A/28B) network bands with LTE speeds being Cat. 7 ones. Dual 4G LTE and VoLTE are supported on both cards simultaneously. The wireless connectivity options of the Ulefone Armor 3 include Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Display. The smartphone also supports NFC, works with GPS and GLONASS, and is equipped with a USB Type-C 2.0 port with OTG and no 3.5 mm jack. The model runs on Android 8.1 Oreo.

Complete Ulefone Armor 3 specifications.

What's in the box

Ulefone Armor 3 is placed inside a signature Armor series box. The lid depicts the silhouette of a hill and people trekking up the hill and the background is yellow. The model's name is imprinted as well and the brand name appears in the top left corner of the lid. There's the usual data about the basic specifications and certifications on the back of the box. The package is quite generous, so here are the full contents:

• 5V/2A~7V/2A~9V/2A~12V/1.5A charger (EU plug)
• USB Type-C data cable
• OTG cable
• Micro-USB to Type-C adapter
• Headphone adapter
• Screwdriver
• Phone holder for a bike
• Wrist strap
• Screen protector
• SIM-tray pin
• User manual in several languages
• Warranty card