Ulefone Note 16 Pro Review

Design, build and controls

Without a doubt, the most attractive feature of the Ulefone Note 16 Pro is its design. The thin and lightweight body has a flat profile. It combines a plastic rear shell with a frosted finish and a mirror-like glossy plastic frame with chamfered edges. The juxtaposition of these finishes does create a nice visual effect. The available colors include Meteorite Black, Serenity Blue, and Midnight Violet. We ordered for our test a Midnight Violet unit and in real-life the color is simply gorgeous. Indeed, it has that "midnight" effect to it, which makes it look more gray than purple at different angles especially when the lights are dimmed. As already mentioned, the Ulefone Note 16 Pro has a slim profile at 8.7 mm with the camera bump and weighs only 184 g. It is 165 mm high and 76.4 mm wide, which makes it relatively compact for a modern smartphone. For sure, it lies comfortably in the hand and is ok for one-hand operation. The software supports one-hand mode, if you find this type of working with the device comfortable. There's a transparent silicon protective case for the back which ensures basic protection from drops. There's a pre-applied screen protector. Finally, Ulefone says that the body is splash-proof but there's no official IP rating for that. The front of the device is occupied by the display with a V-shaped notch and on-screen gestures enabled by default. There's a customizable virtual navigation bar as an option. The receiver is tucked between the frame and the plastic casing of the display, while the light sensor is positioned to the right of the front camera. The rear shell is quite minimalistic. It houses a simple camera island with a rectangular shape and rounded corners. Within this module, the two cameras are vertically aligned to the left and the dual LED flash is to their right. The bottom of the rear shell has the Ulefone logo depicted and the CE mark. The top frame of the body is bare, while the bottom one houses most of the elements - a down-firing speaker, a USB Type-C port, a microphone, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The hybrid, dual Nano-SIM card tray is placed on the left frame, while on the right one, the power and volume buttons are positioned. The volume up/down button has a striped texture and the power button has a fingerprint sensor embedded into it.