Ulefone Future Review and Opinion
If you’ve been hunting for a cellular bargain, you’ve probably come across these Chinese phones. Many people are sceptical of them. The price seems almost too good to be true, and china is known for producing a lot of questionable products. Believe it or not, there are actually many high-quality phones being sold from china. These prices seem ridiculously cheap to us, but American phones are highly overpriced. Companies like apple and Samsung spend a huge amount of money marketing their devices. Due to these massive expenses, the phones need to be sold for top dollar in order to make a profit. Additionally, very few people actually pay full price for the phones as they get them on contract. Because of this, the large companies can charge whatever they want for the devices.
While Ulefone is a relatively unknown company in the United States, they are very well known in China. Although the Ulefone Future retails for only $250, it’s a premium product. The build quality and components rival that of even the best smartphones on the market.
Ulefone Future Display
The display is by far the most striking feature of the Ulefone Future. It has a 5.5” 1080p display, putting it firmly in the phablet category. The screen is only a fraction of an inch smaller than Samsung’s Note, but the colors are marvellously vibrant. If you’re a fan of curved displays, this is one of the only Chinese phones available with such a feature. The only disadvantage is that it is only 1080p, however, the pixels are so small it’s impossible to tell. The viewing angles of the Ulefone Future are excellent, and the screen is protected with the latest Gorilla Glass 3.
Design
Ulefone definitely took a page out of Apple’s book when designing the Future. It’s made from a gold tinted aluminum-titanium alloy, with mild white plastic accents. The material feels very well made. I like that they used a “matte” material as the device does not collect fingerprints as easily.
Because the beautiful display takes up almost the entire front face of the phone, the fingerprint scanner is placed on the side in between the volume buttons. In spite of the small size, the sensor unlocks your phone in a tenth of a second. Although it took me a few moments to get used to, I do like the placement. They put it where your thumb rests naturally, so unlocking your Ulefone Future is no more difficult than adjusting the volume.
Performance
Although it’s not the best on the market, it does have some very powerful hardware. The 8 core Helio P10 processor was more than adequate for every demanding app I could throw at it. The Ulefone Future has 32gb of internal storage and a whopping 4gb of ram. You will really notice the extra ram if you like to keep a lot of apps open. With my old phone, I regularly had to open the menu to close all of my running apps whenever the phone got laggy. With the Ulefone Future, it never lags. I still try to close apps when I remember, but failing to do so will not impact the performance of the Ulefone Future.
The dual sim feature is not really useful outside of Asia, as most of our carriers offer coast to coast service. Fortunately, the second sim slot can also be used for an SD card up to 128gb.
Communications
The battery life in this phone is not bad, but due to the large screen, it’s not the longest lasting phone on the market. I charge the phone every night, and if I am using it heavily I’m often down to 20 or 30% by the time I eat get home from work. Fortunately, the phone has the brand new USB type C. Not only can you put the plug in either way, (finally!) but the phone charges to full in under 2 hours.
As for reception, I found the Ulefone Future worked quite well. I get a strong signal in all the same places my old Samsung did, and the data speed seems to be fast. With these foreign phones, you must be careful. They are not compatible with every carrier. You need to double check what frequencies your carrier uses and make sure that the phone uses the same frequencies.
Overall, I think the Ulefone Future is one of the best mid-range phones on the market. Although it isn’t the fastest phone available, it is so affordable that by the time it becomes slow in 2 years you will be able to purchase another one. Sure, a top of the line phone might last you 3, but these devices cost three to four times the price of the Ulefone Future. Before you sign on to another 2-year contract, you owe it to yourself to check out this model. Check it out here