Ulefone Armor 11 review: Costly mistakes

• Ulefone Armor 11 5G (8GB / 256GB): $ 579 / £ 499 /

At $ 579, the Ulefone Armor 11 is on the high end when it comes to rugged Android devices. The device only comes in one option: 8 GB of RAM with 256 GB of storage, and there is no way to expand the storage via a microSD card. It also only comes in black.

The device I tested arrived with Android 10 with no option to update to Android 11, although Ulefone says it plans to upgrade later this year. The Armor 11 is currently shipping with a security patch dated December 5, 2020, which is a bit out of date at the time of writing (July 2021).

Operating system aside, the Armor 11 has a single uncovered USB-C port, a SIM card slot on the bottom of the device, and a single speaker on the back. Remember, this phone does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack. However, Ulefone includes a 3.5mm to USB-C dongle in the scope of delivery. Finally, the Armor 11 has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and a smart key on opposite sides.

In the box you get a USB-C charger, a plastic pry tool for the waterproof SIM card slot, a screen protector made of glass and two waterproof seals for the USB-C connector.

What is good?

The Ulefone Armor 11’s 2 GHz processor holds up surprisingly well against more expensive alternatives, and the Armor 11’s real-world performance was excellent. Moving around in and around the menus, various apps, and some light games were all very smooth. I’ve experienced a few stutters here and there, but that was mostly in the Stock Launcher; Switching to a third party provider solved this problem. I was particularly impressed with the gaming performance in heavier titles like PUBG Mobile and Genshin Impact. The Armor was able to hold its own in both games and offered an easily playable experience with minimal delay only with very high action and demanding scenes.

The battery performance is another strength of the Armor 11. In my tests, I averaged around eight to nine hours of screen runtime. The 5,200 mAh battery easily lasts for two full days. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the excellent standby time on this device. I don’t have an exact metric for this, but the phone lost about 1% every few hours in my tests. As a result, the phone would last through the night on only about 3% of the battery. Keep in mind that this great performance is mostly due to the lower resolution display which comes with its own set of problems. The Armor 11 comes with an 18W fast charger and I was able to boot the phone from 0% to 100% in 90 minutes. The Armor 11 also supports wireless charging with 10 W.

What’s not so good?

While I was impressed with the Armor 11’s performance and great battery life, there are quite a few issues with this rugged phone. The Armor 11 advertises a rugged design with a water and dust resistance rating of IP68 / IP69K (the latter one level above the more traditional IP68 rating and the highest that can be given to a device). It provides targeted protection against close pressure and high temperatures. Even so, despite this rating, I didn’t have much confidence in the durability of this phone. The body is made of plastic and rubber with aluminum ribs, but they are very light and almost plastic-like. Ulefone confirmed that the display does not contain gorilla glass but neglected to answer our questions about the manufacturer of the glass.

The ports on this phone feel open and not protected like other rugged devices like the Doogee S96 Pro. Don’t get me wrong, the phone looks rugged, but I’m not entirely sure that the device will withstand harsh environments over the long term. For example, I dropped the phone on the floor a couple of times and while everything seemed fine, the shock almost always resulted in the screen opening an app or menu. The phone has MIL-STD 810G certification, but even that didn’t give me confidence that the phone would withstand (and is a step below the latest MIL-STD 810H standard).

See also: The best waterproof phones you can buy

In addition, the “waterproof” SIM card slot can be pulled out a little too easily with your finger. With other rugged devices, it is almost impossible to open the SIM card slot without a plastic pry tool. Again, the USB-C port does not have a rubber cover on the device, which means that the water seal is in the actual port. Ulefone includes some waterproof seals in the box, but these are small and incredibly easy to lose. They also protrude from the port and are not seated flush. I’m afraid I can’t see actual consumers using these. In addition, the back is made of a seemingly thin plastic that seems to crack easily when dropped on a hard surface. Perhaps the only durable part of this phone is the rubber sides, which are thick and absorb a lot of shocks. The real takeaway here is that this phone looks sturdy but feels cheap and doesn’t inspire much confidence in terms of durability.

The display’s colors and contrast are reasonably accurate to my eye, but it does show some strange artifacts as you move around the operating system. This can be especially noticeable while gaming, but I found it distracting when switching between menus and scrolling through social media. It’s not terrible, but it does detract from the overall experience. Keep in mind that this isn’t the only 720p display we’ve seen in a rugged phone, but it should have a better screen for a phone this expensive.

Overall camera performance is on par with other rugged devices, but the camera tends to soften the edges of the image – and the included 20 MP night vision camera is downright disappointing. The Armor 11 supports night vision video recording, which is a nice touch, but both videos and photos were very smooth and washed out. In addition, the camera app does not allow you to focus the camera in these modes, so you will be stuck with a fixed length focus.

Ulefone Armor 11 camera examples

You can find high resolution versions of each image here.

Ulefone armor 11 specifications

The Ulefone Armor 11 seems to have a considerable amount of features for a rugged phone. It includes a large battery, an IP68 / IP69K rating, and a night vision camera, but those features don’t make up for the obvious shortcomings. If you’re looking for a rugged phone that is built to last with moderately decent features, then the Ulefone Armor 11 is not for you. While both battery and processor performance are excellent, the extremely cheap build quality and poor night vision camera make the phone hard to recommend. The $ 579 high price tag doesn’t help either, and you should look into alternatives like the Cat S62 Pro ($ 649) or the Doogee S96 Pro ($ 389). Both offer a better overall experience and cost less. Unfortunately, the Armor 11 is a huge failure for Ulefone.