Ulefone Note 18 Ultra Review

Rear cameras, photo and video samples

The Ulefone Note 18 Ultra has two rear cameras. The main one packs a 50MP Samsung S5KGN1 sensor with a 1/1.31-inch optical format and a 1.2 μm pixel size. The sensor uses four-in-one pixel binning and by default, the camera outputs 12MP photos. There's a dedicated 50MP shooting mode as well. The sensor is paired with a 6-element lens with an f/1.95 aperture and an 85° FoV. It can record 4K videos at 20 fps and FHD videos at 30 fps. Two other smartphones by Ulefone sport the same sensor for their main cameras - the Ulefone Armor 25T Pro 5G and the Ulefone Armor 23 Ultra. The second rear camera is a 50MP ultra-wide unit using an SK Hynix Hi-5022Q sensor with a 1/2.8-inch optical format and a 0.64 μm pixel size. The sensor is paired with an f/2.2 lens with a 117.3° field of view. Other smartphones that use the same sensor for their ultra-wide cameras are the Ulefone Armor 26 Ultra, Unihertz Tank 3 Pro, and the Unihertz Tank 3.

Selfie camera, photo samples

The front-facing camera of the Ulefone Note 18 Ultra is equipped with a 32MP Samsung S5KGD1 sensor with a 1/2.8" optical format and a 0.8 μm pixel size. It is paired with a 5-element lens with an f/2.45 aperture and an 80.4° FoV. The camera can record FHD videos at 30 fps, and supports face unlock. Other smartphones that use the same sensor for their front cameras include the Unihertz Jelly Max, Ulefone Armor 25T Pro, Unihertz 8849 Tank 2 Pro, Unihertz 8849 Tank Mini 1, Oukitel RT7 Titan 5G, 8849 Tank 2 by Unihertz, Unihertz Luna, Unihertz 8849 Tank, Ulefone Power Armor 18T, Cubot X50, and the Xiaomi Mi A3.

Camera app

The Camera app has a design and layout that has been reviewed by us many times. The standard big shutter button is placed at the bottom with the camera switch and Google Lens icon to its right, and the shortcut to the list of photos and videos to its left. The reel with shooting modes is placed above those. When you tap on the settings, an overlay appears with additional options that expand below it allowing for immediate view and setup when needed. "Picture" is the default shooting mode and has options for AI scene recognition, HDR, flash, and settings. The "Video" shooting mode has the same layout as the Picture mode but without AI and with the video-specific settings. The "Wide Angle" mode switches to the wide-angle camera which also supports HDR and LED flash and can also record videos. "Night" uses the main camera but should be employed when you're with a tripod because of the longer exposure. "Beauty" mode uses the main camera and works with the LED flash. It allows you to adjust the degree of background blur and enable some beautifying features such as face buffing, whitening, slimming, etc. "50MP" is the setting that you should choose, in case you want to snap photos in the original sensor resolution. "More" is a tab that leads to more shooting modes. These include the "Pro" for adjusting the white balance, ISO, exposure, focus metering, and shutter speed, the "Portrait" mode for background blur adjustment, and other options such as Gif, Mono, Panorama, Slow Motion, Bokeh, and a QR-code scanner. The interface for the front camera is identical and when you choose a mode that's not supported by the selfie snapper, the device simply switches to the corresponding rear camera. The camera settings are also the same as the ones for the rear cameras. Photo editing is done via the default Photos app, which has Google Lens integrated. From here, you can enhance, warm, or cool an image, adjust its brightness, contrast, white point, highlights, and other properties, crop, add filter, text, or markup.