Fair Review Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro 4.7" Inch Rugged Smartphone

Since so-called triple A cellphones companies like apple, samsung and xiaomi, don’t give a sh#t about any innovation,
and make huge shovel shaped smartphones i was forced to explore the models of not so well-known companies, like Ulefone.

Luckily i was able to find out [really interesting device] it is on a smaller side
[very rare thing these days] and has larger battery and more over it is ruggerized.
Since i’m on the way to lose interest to a photography, because of microstock industry decline,
i don’t care about camera quality anymore.
That is why i have decided to upgrade to something more convenient and practical.

Main features and benefits. Most of them are not applicable to rugged phones.
But this device is an exception for many cases. Here is detailed breakdown of it’s hardware benefits and quirks.

As you may already know, i love small devices.
Small 4.7" screen was one of the reasons because i’ve decide to review this phone.

• the most rugged standards in industry IP68/IP69K/MIL-STD-810H
• really large battery for such a small device 6200 mAh
• very decent camera for a rugged phone 50 MP, sensor 1/1.31", 1.2µm paired with night vision and dual LED flash
• powerful flashlight and camp light for night outdoor adventures
• presence of microSDXC card slot
• presence of 3.5mm audio jack
• one of the fastest CPUs [for a rugged phone]
• no overheating when playing very high blue ray bitrate footage for hours
• decent 4.7 inch screen with not crazy resolution helps to save battery [even a bit better than Sony XZ1 Compact]

• not bloated ROM with clean Android experience
• ability to disable [freeze] most of unneeded services and applications
• almost no forced kill of user applications [like Xiaomi/Samsung do]
• very small amount of trackers and loggers
• very clean and easy to comprehend settings menu system

Let’s compare device to [Sonim XP8] phone, a bit outdated, but more expensive thing
from a higher tier manufacturer. Sonim runs under Android 8.1.

Not comparing raw CPU power since it is obvious that Ulefone will be surely faster due to
a much newer CPU even despite the fact that it has lower-tier chipset.
To understand better how Ulefone performs versus modern hi-end devices here are some numbers.
Xiaomi 15 Ultra: 1000, Ulefone Mini 20 Pro: 323 / [Final benchmark 2]
Device is fast enough to handle daily needs like modern browsing, video playback,
although i did n’t test any games, since i’m not into them.

Startup time: Sonim 34 seconds, Ulefone 24 seconds.
Blueray playback: Sonim 7 hours [4900mAh], Ulefone 12.8 hours [6200mAh].
Full brightness, no sound, subtitles, latest VLC player.
Benchmark was stopped when the battery charge dropped below 5% value, to safe-guard the accumulator.
Flash light brightness: Ulefone wins hands down.
Screen quality: solid win of Sonim, display is a bit brighter and has more vibrant colors,
although i should note that Ulefone exactly matches Sony XZ1 Compact display.
Build quality: Sonim barely wins, may because of a tiny better build quality and presence of hardware buttons.

Although it’s not a cameraphone by any means, Mini 20 Pro still provides capable imagery,
especially if we taking into account that it is rugged phone without any intention to do nice photos.
Here is a list of 100% image crops from various devices.

Now about downsides or what could be better.

• screen is a bit dim and delivers washed out muted colors if we compare it to modern AMOLED devices
• not so good location of the speaker and yes it is mono
• do not understand the desire of manufacturer to ship it with the latest Android 16,
  something like Android 14 would be more appropriate, such switch will also saved some battery power and performace

I really like how not a major players companies implement unique models and returning to us taken away features like
external storage, small screens, audio jack and other goodness.
I’m looking forward Ulefone to the release of next model with less flaws and more improvements,
because surely there is a headroom for plenty of good things here.

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