Ulefone Armor 7 sticks to the tried-and-tested, classic 4+4 robust smartphone template. Four long sides, four rubber corners for extra protection.
Not much evolution from a design perspective. The most noticeable change takes place at the back, where there’s a very smooth plastic plate instead of the usual rubber sleeve.
A forward-facing camera sits in the middle of the upper rim in a water droplet arrangement. There are no permanent capacitive buttons that can divide opinions and no status lights (except for the battery status). The back contains a loudspeaker grille, three camera sensors, and five LED flashlights plus a heart rate sensor; the cameras are extended, which means they absorb most of the shock when this phone hits the ground.
Note the notch on the underside of the unit, which is used to attach the bundled lanyard. Not sure why and how this is a useful addition, as it makes the device a few millimeters thicker. With 166 x 81 x 13.55mm for a weight of 290g, it is large without feeling it. On the left and right side are a SIM drawer, an adjustable SOS button, a fingerprint reader, the on/off button, and two others for volume control.
On the top and bottom side, there is a Type-C connector (beware of dust and lint getting stuck there because it is not covered) and a proximity sensor. Ulefone states that the phone is IP68/IP69K compliant and is MIL-STD-810G certified under laboratory tests. The phone, as the company claims, has used a bi-injection process with a waterproof adhesive to hold together the assembly of metal, plastic, and composite materials.
Ulefone Armor 7: Hardware
Ulefone Armor 7 is one of a few robust smartphones on the market that uses a Mediatek P90 chipset. This Helio variant was unveiled for 2020 and had six slower cores and two faster cores, coupled to a PowerVR GM 9446 GPU. The chipset offers Cat-13 150 Mbps upload speed and Cat-12 600 Mbps download speed, Dual 4G SIM with Dual VoLTE standby mode along with Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac wireless connectivity, and an NPU. Ulefone has added 8GB DDR RAM with 128GB internal storage. A micro-SD card slot is available. However, you will have to sacrifice a SIM card to use it.
Coming to the camera setup, the Ulefone Armor 7 uses three Samsung rear cameras; a 48-megapixel, a 16-megapixel night shot and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with a 10X zoom; it can also shoot 4K videos.
The box contains four leaflets, tempered glass to protect the display on the Armor 7, a Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack, a 15W (5V3A) power adapter, a Type-C to Type-A adapter, a Type-C to MicroUSB adapter and a Type-A to Type-C cable along with a short strap.
The phone is backed by a 5,500mAh battery, NFC capabilities, and a 6.3-inch Full-HD+ display complete the specification sheet. The battery can be charged wirelessly with an optional 10W charger, and the phone supports all three major satellite positioning systems.
Performance
The display was already covered with a screen protector when we took it out of the box, and we were surprised at how easy it was to scratch; you can remove it, of course, but I decided to keep it in place, mainly because it was oleophobic. There’s a Children Space mode that allows the user to refine access and usage time. It is, in a nutshell, a highly restricted virtual PC. The heart rate monitor and the outdoor toolbox are the two other apps worth mentioning.
The latter includes a pedometer and a pressure sensor. Since this is a Mediatek smartphone, you also get DuraSpeed – which reduces resources for apps that run in the background – and Smartlock that keeps your device unlocked when it’s safe with you by recognizing physical signals.
PROS
NFC
Wireless charging
Great price
Superb configuration for the price
Dual LTE/4G SIM standby
Good performance
CONS
Camera sensor positioning
Verdict
Ulefone Armor 7 is a solid robust smartphone with a very competitive price tag. It would be hard to find a cheaper device with 8GB RAM, with the added advantage of being waterproof and shockproof.
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