Ulefone Armor 30 Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

Ulefone Armor 30 - sacrificing performance

Usually Pro versions of smartphones appear on the market after the success of the "ordinary" variation of the gadget, but sometimes there are also opposite situations. Here the developer needs to approach the issue of simplifying the new device as carefully as possible, which must retain all the strengths of its predecessor, and at the same time become cheaper. The Chinese company Ulefone almost managed to painlessly transfer the successful gadget to a different price category, but still, compromises are sometimes noticeable.

The appearance of the new product has changed slightly. Thus, the additional display has disappeared, but a camping LED flashlight has appeared. A beautiful cutout for a huge speaker that pleases with rich sound, a stylish block of photo modules, a stylized carbon texture of the back panel and a side fingerprint scanner increase the attractiveness of the exterior. It is a pity that the huge frames of the IPS panel are in place, and the ergonomics are still terrible due to the excessive dimensions of the monoblock. But IP68 water protection and a capacious 12800mAh battery require sacrifices. But you will only have to remember about sockets once every 4-5 days. There is also a fast 66W wired charging. The 6.95-inch IPS screen received a resolution of 2460x1080 pixels, which provides good image clarity for the technology chosen by the manufacturer. But the peak brightness barely crossed the threshold of 600 nits, so direct sunlight seriously affects the visibility of the content. Among the advantages, we highlight the 120-Hz refresh rate of the image, natural color rendition.

Technical specifications are now represented by the MediaTek Helio G99 processor, 12 GB of RAM and the Mali G57 MC2 video core. Support for 5G networks is lost, and the result in the AnTuTu synthetic test dropped to 380-390 thousand points. If this fact did not have such a critical effect on the performance of the Android 15 interface, then the gaming capabilities are no longer impressive. Resource-intensive Genshin Impact or Fortnite are playable at low graphics settings. 512 GB of permanent memory is allocated, but it can be expanded with MicroSD cards (a separate slot).

The photo capabilities have not undergone any changes. The high-quality main sensor Omnivision OV50H even without optical stabilization produces stunning daytime photos and good-detailed evening shots, the wide-angle 50 MP lens also does not fall flat on its face against the backdrop of opponents' decisions. And the 64-megapixel night vision sensor will not be useful to everyone, I would like to see a telephoto lens instead. NFC contactless payments, a gyroscope and a fairly affordable price tag once again emphasize the relevance of an imperfect, but interesting and competitive device.