Ulefone launched its latest rugged smartphone from the Armor X Series, and this series is undoubtedly one of the best low-cost rugged smartphones that offer us value for the price, now Ulefone Armor X9 and X9 Pro is the latest upgrade of this series is equipped with great specifications in terms of the MediaTek Helio A25 processor, 5.5-inch screen and Android 11, 13MP Dual Rear camera and has 5000mAh battery, And the difference between the two versions 4GB RAM and 64GB Storage For X9 Pro version and 3GB RAM and 32GB Storage for X9. Regardless Of it, How well does it perform and if it’s worth the price, all this and more in this review.
Ulefone Armor X9/X9 Pro Features
- Stock Android 11
- Mediatek Helio A25
- IMG PowerVR GE8320
- RAM: 3GB / 4GB LPDDR4X
- ROM: 32GB / 64GB
- 5.5-inch HD+ Display
- 13 Dual Rear Camera
- 5000mAh Battery
- Dual 4G Network
aliexpress.com
amazon.com
Design And Build Quality
The design in the Ulefone Armor X9 and X9 Pro is beautiful, elegant, it features an acceptable screen on the front of 5.5 inches and on the back, a high-quality synthetic rubber layer that gives it an appearance of solid and durable. with a length of 158mm and a width of 77.5mm with a solid metal frame and with rubber cushions to suck the impact and give a kind of thickness of 13.85mm a wonderful feeling when held in your hand, despite its weight of 235g it’s acceptable in a durable phone. If you ask me about the quality of the manufacturing, there is nothing to complain about it, it’s the closest thing to a premier because Ulefone is always working to provide high-quality products to users all over the world at an affordable price.
On The Front
In front of the device is a full screen measuring 5.5 inches with wide bezels on the sides, and at the bottom, there is a very wide chin, addition, that contains a 5MP camera in the middle of the top for taking selfies and video chats, which we will talk about a lot soon.
On The Back
The back, made of a high-quality synthetic rubber layer, which gives it an appearance of solid and durable. What will catch your attention is the dual cameras and dual flash in the upper middle. Also, there is the “Ulefone logo” and loudspeaker at the bottom. And what makes it more durable, in the corners, there are cushions for extra protection and comfort when holding the phone.
Ports And Buttons
As for the ports, the phone comes with a Micro-USB port from the bottom with a microphone, while the 3.5mm headphone jack is at the top. The buttons are, as usual, the power button, the volume down button, and the dual SIM and memory slot. It should be noted that there is a customizable shortcut button on the side.
Waterproof
The Ulefone Power X3 is covered by high-quality synthetic rubber and rated with IP68 and IP69K, which means it is dust-resistant, scratch-resistant, shock- and drop-resistant, and water-resistant up to 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. In addition, it also has MIL-STD-810G certification, a military standard certification that ensures the integrity of the device is maintained in almost any situation.
Ulefone Armor X9 – Display Quality
Even in 2021, if you’re talking about a Chinese budget smartphone, it will most likely be an LCD IPS screen, and that’s what the Ulefone Power X9 offer, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad because it’s 5.5 inches HD+ with a good resolution of 720 x 1440p gives you bright, sharp colors and wide viewing angles which are more than great for consuming visual content on YouTube or otherwise.
In short, with the Armor X9 I will not say that its the best screen, but in the budget category, you will get the best value for what you pay, a large and high-quality screen suitable for media consumption, whether you are watching the video, playing games or browsing the social media.
Ulefone Armor X9 – Cameras
The Ulefone Armor X9 in terms of camera specifications, there is nothing to worry about, but the last word remains in the actual performance.
Dual Rear Camera
On the back, you get a dual-camera setup that features a 13MP primary camera and in secondary, you have a 2MP Depth Sensor.
So far, the technical specifications are very modest, and there are phones that offer better than these cameras at the same price, so let’s move on to the realistic performance, in photography under good lighting, the cameras can take pictures not bad and capture details and with beautiful color saturation, so cameras very humble and don’t expect much from her, in the night photos, they lacked quality.
Front camera
In the forefront of selfies or video chats, you get a 5MP camera with several modes to choose from.
Video
You can shoot 1080p HD videos at 30 fps from both front and back cameras in well-lit environments with some poor stability.
Ulefone Armor X9 Performance
If we talk about performance, Ulefone Armor X9 offers good performance in most of its basic and entertainment uses such as browsing the web, watching videos on YouTube, using social media applications, even playing games, as everything worked efficiently and without facing any problems with stopping applications or high degrees.
Armor X9 CPU Performance
Well, It is time to expose Armor X9 to some tasks that need more effort and there is nothing better than playing games with high settings, the conditions here differ according to the application, game, or any type of business that needs large resources, and because the processor used here is MediaTek Helio A25 octa-core based on Cortex-A53 at 1.8GHz processor and 12nm architecture was good processors used in a low-cost smartphone.
GPU
The graphics processing used here is the PowerVR8320 not the best thing, but it is value for the price so that its performance was good in games, but it depends on the type of game and its requirements, and sometimes there is some kind of delay on the high games, although it did not constitute an obstacle, and this is in games such as CoD mobile and PUBG. However, all you have to do is play on the low settings, more than those settings, you can play games but not with the perfect experience.
Memory
Most of the applications run very quickly and thanks to the eMMC 32GB storage in Armor X9 and 64GB in Armor X9 Pro, it would be suitable for installing any application you need, with the ability to expand via a Micro SD card to 256GB.
And for multitasking, browsing between applications was smooth because it’s equipped with an LPDDR4X 3GB RAM in Armor X9 and 4GB in Armor X9 Pro, which is more than enough for most of the tasks that you can do with a smartphone such as keeping many applications or large games running in the background. In Short, for multitasking, this smartphone will give you a positive experience.
Playing Content
To play the content on YouTube, was very smooth. You can play videos at a maximum of 720p at 60 FPS without any problems or lag, And this is the highest quality you can get.
Ulefone Armor X9 DMR Information
Next, let’s take a look at the DMR information and Widevine security. I can tell you I’m a little disappointed with this because it’s only Level 3, so you won’t be able to get HD on Netflix or other streaming services. and this level maybe not be found on all Chinese smartphones without exaggeration. However, you can still enjoy Netflix and all other streaming services in 480p resolution.
Software
The Ulefone Armor X9 smartphone works on Android 11 with UI that has better gesture navigation controls, dark theme, and contains most of the features that come with the system, the most important of which is the presence of all Google services, Making the smartphone experience smoother and more personalized.
As I always say, the raw Android system is best for cheap devices, with a simple and smooth launcher for better performance, especially since it does not contain pre-installed apps or games, I really hate this because of the large number of ads, Thanks here it is different. However, it has some toolkit apps but does not burden the device and is without pop-up ads.
Overall Performance
In sum, the performance on this phone is more than good as a rugged budget smartphone focused on daily use and playing games with medium settings and is equipped with a set of specifications and respectable features such as camera, durability, and design make it an interesting experience.
Connectivity
Ulefone Armor X9 is a dual-SIM smartphone equipped with a SIM slot that accommodates two 4G nano-sim cards that support all bandwidth offerings of 4G and 3G and so on, so its expected that you will get wide coverage and good signal quality for making phone calls and accessing the Internet easily, In addition to having a MicroSD card on the same socket.
To connect to WiFi networks, the Armor X9 supports dual bandwidths of 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and of course, there is Bluetooth 5.0. That’s not all, That’s not all, there are also some basic sensors for a smartphone, including a gyroscope, accelerometers, and even an electronic compass. Also, Armor X9 has NFC so you can make mobile payments ( Supports Google Pay ).
Ulefone Armor X9 Battery And Charging Time
Ulefone Armor X9 has a built-in 5000mAh non-removable Li-Po battery that allows 7-8 hours of continuous use for surfing the Internet, Google, YouTube, and following social media, of course, the time is less when playing games and with moderate use, it will stay with you for a whole day on one charge it mostly takes about 5 hours to fully charge 5000mAh using Micro-USB with no support for wireless charging, but its absence in this category is normal, and the charging time seems long, and there is fast charging supports 10W is not very fast but better than the basic 5W. However, I can say that the battery was in an acceptable range.
Conclusion
If you ask me if the Ulefone Armor X9 or X9 Pro smartphone is worth buying or you can recommend, my answer is I can’t unless you want a rugged phone at that price, As a normal phone, there are alternatives with better specifications and at a similar price, such as UMIDIGI Power 5, However, I think Armor X9 is good low-cast rugged phone smartphone in terms specifications of the screen, cameras, and even the battery is acceptable, and, of course, protection from water, dust, and shocks, all this does not mean that it is flawless because cannot watch Netflix in HD resolution, has old design, Screen size is small and more.
Ulefone Armor X9 And X9 Pro Price And Where To Buy
The Ulefone Armor X9 and X9 Pro Smartphones are currently available on the Amazon and Aliexpress Store for a very good price So, don’t miss out on this great deal. And to view its price or buy it, you can access the offer by clicking on the store icon.
Packaging Accessories
- Ulefone Armor X9 Smartphone
- AC Power Charger(100~240V/EU plug)
- Data Cable (100cm)
- Tempered Glass Protective Film(Gift)
- SIM Needle
- Warranty Card
- Multi-language User Manual
Ulefone Armor X9/X9 Pro Specifications
| Model | Ulefone Armor X9/X9 Pro Color: Black / Red / Green |
| Network | GSM: B2/3/5/8 WCDMA: B1/2/4/5/8 LTE-FDD: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/19/20/28A/28B |
| Hardware | OS: Android 11 CPU: MTK Helio A25 (MT6762V/WD) GPU: Arm Mali-A53 Octa-core up to 1.8GHz RAM 3GB + ROM 32GB for Armor X9 RAM 4GB + ROM 64GB for Armor X9 Pro Card Extend: Supports an external TF card up to 256GB |
| Display | Display Size: 5.5-inch Type: HD+ Screen Resolution: 720*1440 pixels |
| Rear Camera | Main Camera: 13MP Main Rear Camera + 2MP Depth Lens Video Recording Resolution: 1080P |
| Front Camera | Sub Camera: 5MP front camera |
| Language | Multi-Language |
| Battery & Charging | Battery: 5000mAh, Built-in Li-polymer battery Charge Interface: Micro-USB Type-C |
| Other Features | WIFI: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G Bluetooth: 5.0 Positioning: GPS+GLONASS+Beidou+Galileo Waterproof: IP68/IP69K Waterproof, MIL-STD-810G |
| Size & Weight | Product Size: 158*77.5*13.85mm Product Weight: 235g |
