Ulefone Armor Mini 5 review
My Ulefone Armor Mini 5 has arrived. I am sharing my experiences in case it helps others.
First of all, the original name of this phone is the Uniwa a2803. Uniwa is a contract manufacturer that sells this phone to anyone at a wholesale price of $38.
However, while the original phone comes with 3/32 GB [RAM/storage], Ulefone ordered their own version with a pathetically low 1/8 GB.
I don't understand the reasoning behind this; it makes the phone $5 cheaper at most, but it ended up being significantly worse. As a bonus, its camera is a bad joke and it comes with Bluetooth 2.1, even though the nine-year-old bottom-tier chipset could support Bluetooth 4.2 as well.
Its display? I never thought I would ever write this sentence, but the screen of a Nokia 230 dumbphone looks beautiful next to the Ulefone's, even though that one is also beneath criticism. (Despite them supposedly having the same resolution.) The text is pixelated, and everything looks ugly on it. On many websites you can't close the popup windows (f.i. ulefone.com) because of the resolution, so you can't visit those sites.
The screen brightness can "naturally" only be adjusted manually, but fortunately, this is easily done from the pull-down menu. The screen isn't very bright, but you can still just about see it in direct sunlight.
It doesn't have the Play Store, but you can install anything from an APK file. (I downloaded the APKPure app on it.) Also it supports only 4G. (Dual SIM plus Micro SD card, no e-sim.)
However, there is no point in putting an SD card in it; it will exclusively install everything to the internal memory, which is only 8 GB, and 61% of that is already taken up right out of the box by the stripped-down Android 11. I couldn't find any way to force it to use the SD card.
I don't know why it has a physical keyboard; it is only willing to type letters using the on-screen keyboard, while the physical keyboard types only numbers 99% of the time. They could have easily left it out; it just takes up space unnecessarily.
I was able to log into my account in the Chrome browser, so I can access my shopping list (keep.google.com), my calendar (calendar.google.com), and so on. But, for example, I can only open Family Link (familylink.google.com) if I restart the phone beforehand, because it says it has run out of memory and therefore cannot display the information. Seriously, Ulefone, 1 GB of RAM in 2026, just to save 5 dollars?
Naturally, everything is slow; you have to tap the close button at least five or six times before anything happens.
What's good: it feels sturdy, even though the whole thing is made of cheap plastic.
It seems to connect to the car's hands-free system without any issues. (A hurdle the Nokia can't even manage with Bluetooth 5.0.)
It has Wi-Fi and a hotspot feature, too.
The battery is only 2.500 mAh, but it seems enough, as you won't use this phone a lot.
Who is this good for?
Someone who wants to overcome their smartphone addiction but still needs a hotspot. You definitely won't be scrolling on this all day.
I think it's expensive for what it is, especially since downgrading it to 1/8 GB from the original 3/32 GB has pushed the device into the almost unusable category. I could live with this 1/8 GB, but the screen is so ugly as well, that altogether is too much for me.
Its size: it's not much smaller than a Samsung S23. Its weight is also barely less than that.
If anyone wants it, there is one for sale in Hungary. :)