Ulefone Armor 2 Review

Battery

The Battery settings of Ulefone Armor 2 let you choose from two battery modes - Sports and the default Normal mode. The default Standby intelligent power saving feature is switched on. There are a Battery saver and Battery optimization for applications. You can toggle on and off to show the battery percentage in the status bar. The Schedule power on & off feature is listed under the System group of settings. In this same group, when you activate the System UI Tuner, you can switch on the Power notification controls, which include five levels of importance of app notifications. The Armor 2 is powered by a 4700 mAh battery. It supports MediaTek Pump Express Plus 2.0 and arrives with a 9V/2A fast charger and according to the specifications should provide up to 20 hours of talk time and up to 640 hours of standby time. All battery tests below are developed by us and performed with the screen of the device being calibrated to 200 cd/m². Battery saving features are disabled. The battery of our review unit needs 3 hours and 2 minutes to charge in full from 0% to 100%. The process maintains relatively the same rate of charging until the battery reaches 70% of its capacity 1 hour and 45 minutes later. It slows down, even more, when the capacity reaches 80% and further more after 90%. An interesting detail is that during the last 3-4 minutes the process significantly speeds up. The battery temperature starts from 23°C and when the battery has almost reached 50% of its capacity, the temperature reaches its peak of 35°C. This level is maintained until the capacity reaches 85% after which the temperature gradually drops down to 29°C at the end. Our intensive browsing test unveils the battery of the Ulefone Armor 2 depletes in full after 9 hours and 45 minutes. The process has three stages. The first finishes when the capacity drops to 60% 4 hours after the test has started and discharging slows down. After 20% it slows a bit and after 10% - a bit more. The battery temperature starts from 29°C and in 50 minutes, it reaches 38°C. It maintains this level for the next 3 hours and then rises again to 41-42°C, which is maintained until the end. The video test for battery life uses a 1080p video at 30 fps with a ~20Mbps rate is used. The 4700 mAh battery of our review unit needs 12 hours and 15 minutes to discharge from 100% to 0%. The process is almost linear but the graph clearly shows that it slows a bit when the capacity reaches 20% and again after 10%. The battery temperature starts from 32°C and in 50 minutes rises to 38-39°C. This level is maintained until the end. For the 3D Graphics/Gaming test, the Epic Citadel's tech demo in its Guided Tour mode is used. The battery depletes 6 hours and 21 minutes following a steady discharging speed, which slows down only a bit after the capacity reaches 20% and again - after 10%. At the same time, the battery temperature soars from 29°C at the start till 49°C at the end. 40°C is reached after the first 20 minutes of discharging and the 47-49°C level is reached 2 hours after the beginning. This fluctuation is preserved until the end of the process.

Final thoughts

If we have to sum up our impressions, here they are: the display could be brighter and with better contrast; the cameras are waterproof but Ulefone needs to work on the image quality; performance and battery life are reasonable; the device is almost on par with other rugged smartphones in its class. Ulefone Armor 2 has an appealing design and sturdy build employing high-quality materials that allow it to withstand a number of environmental challenges. You can bring this phone with you to the sea and underwater, to the mountain or to a heavy construction site - it will serve you well as a reliable companion for communication, entertainment and environmental assessment. It can also be a serious help in times of emergencies. If you're in the hunt for a ruggedized smartphone with a reasonable price, you should definitely consider the Ulefone Armor 2.