Battery life in smartphones has been one of the most ignored
aspects in recent years. Sure, there has been several
improvements in battery technology with faster charging,
wireless charging etc. but the battery life has taken a drastic
hit due to the phones becoming more power-hungry. With
more and more powerful processors and bigger screens,
phones require larger batteries to power them. Sure,
optimization will help but only to a certain extent and Ulefone
is a brand that seems to understand that. The Ulefone Power
as its name implies is a smartphone with a massive internal
battery. It packs a 6050 mAH battery into an affordable mid-
ranger handset. It even offers DualSIM 4G LTE as well as a
fingerprint sensor. Let’s dive into the review to see whether
the phone does manage to impress us with its battery life and
other features.
Design, Materials and Build Quality
The first thing that strikes you when you hold the Ulefone
Power in your hand is the weight of the smartphone. It is quite
heavy at 190 grams but that also gives it a premium feeling.
The reason for this weight is the huge 6050 mAH battery under
the hood. For the same reason, the thickness of the handset
too is a bit more than most smartphones at 9.5mm but we
have to give credit to Ulefone for still keeping it under 10mm.
The overall footprint is around the same size of the Galaxy
Note5 but slightly larger. That is because of the large bezels
and as a result, the smartphone is on the larger side for a 5.5-
inch smartphone. But it still is smaller than an iPhone 6
Plus/6s Plus in terms of footprint and that is a big thing for a
mid-ranger phablet.
The build quality is solid thanks to the use of metal and glass.
Our unit has a wooden back which feels good to hold but
does feel out-of-place. It doesn’t blend in well with the rest of
the phone compared to phones such as the OnePlus One or
OnePlus 2. It feels like an aftermarket mod rather than an
official variant. We would rather have the regular dark blue or
white variants.
The front is dominated by the 5.5″ display above which you
have the earpiece, front facing camera as well as proximity
and ambient light sensors. Below the display, you have 3
capacitive buttons which are backlit.
At the right side, you have the volume rocker button, power
key and the camera shutter button while the left side houses
the Hybrid SIM slot. The phone can take either 2 microSIMs or
a microSIM and a microSD card.
At the top, you have the 3.5mm audio jack and IR blaster. You
will find the microUSB port, primary microphone and antenna
cutouts at the bottom.
At the back, you have primary camera, dual-LED flash and the
fingerprint sensor. You also have the loudspeaker grill at the
bottom. The back panel is removable but the 6050 mAH
battery is sealed and is non-user replaceable.
Display
The 5.5″ 1080p display has 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 for protection.
The Gorilla Glass 3 does a good job at protecting the screen
from scratches and the 2.5D curved glass feels good to use.
The company includes a pre-fitted screen protector on the
smartphone out of the box which is a good touch but would’ve
preferred if they hadn’t pre-installed it. The display has black
borders on all four corners that gives you the illusion that it is
borderless however in reality, the bezels are quite big and you
come to know once you switch on the display.
The viewing angles are quite good and so are the colours. The
display is a bit reflective but the brightness is good enough to
compensate for it and as a result the sunlight legibility is quite
good too. The phone also supports adaptive brightness but
lacks options to adjust the colour tone or saturation. The
phone can be unlocked using the power button or also double
tap if you have the option enabled. The three capacitive keys
below the display have backlighting is very dim and unless
you’re in a dark environment, you don’t really see the
difference. There is a tiny notification LED next to the ambient
light and proximity sensors that can glow in red, blue or green
and the user can customize the colour settings as well.
Fingerprint Sensor
The fingerprint sensor is located at the back just below the
camera module. The placement of the sensor is ideal as it is
located at the position where your index fingers normally rest
when holding the phone. The fingerprint sensor doesn’t require
you to wake the phone up in order to unlock it and you can
wake the phone up and unlock it directly by just placing a
registered finger on the sensor. You can also press the power
button or double tap to wake and then authenticate your
fingerprint. Additionally, users have to enter a PIN which can
be used to unlock the phone if the fingerprint doesn’t get
detected normally. The fingerprint sensor is quite quick to
detect and is also quite accurate but isn’t the best in the
industry. Still, it is more than we could hope for at this price
point.
While the hardware part of the fingerprint sensor is nothing out
of the ordinary, the various software tweaks available are
certainly attention grabbing. The phone allows you to choose
the finger you want to register and then asks you to place your
finger on the pad then lift and repeat when it vibrates. Your
fingerprint can be used not just to unlock your phone but also
to launch applications and each finger can be assigned a
particular application. So, by just placing your finger on the
sensor, the phone will automatically unlock the phone and
open the application. You can even take it a step further and
use your fingerprint to take a photo after launching the camera
application.
Users can also specify which camera to be launched by
default. So for example, your left index finger could be used to
unlock the phone and launch the main camera while the right
index finger can be used to unlock the phone and launch the
front facing camera. You can even set your thumb to unlock
the phone and turn on the torch. The fingerprint sensor can be
used as a camera shutter button even if you don’t have an
auto launch option enabled. Any of the registered fingerprints
will trigger the autofocus and then take the picture
immediately after focusing.
Software and UI
The phone comes with Android 5.1 out of the box and has
January 2016 security patch version at the time of writing this
review. Ulefone say that the phone will get the update to
Android 6.0 Marshmallow but haven’t specified when exactly
the update will be coming. The entire UI is quite similar to a
stock Android experience but Ulefone has bundled several
features along with it. There is no app drawer and you will
have to install a 3rd party launcher if you want one. Several
gestures are supported including double tap to wake, slide up
to unlock, slide down to camera etc. There are even gestures
that can be customized to start apps that you desire.
There is an option called “Smart somatosensory” which
basically is a motion based method of navigating UI and
between apps. You can use your hands in front of the display
and the phone will track the movement using the front camera
and perform corresponding actions. You can use it in the
gallery, camera app, launcher as well as music player and even
to unlock the phone. However, in our experience, this was
more or a hit or miss kind of situation. The phone didn’t
always recognize our hand movements and when it did, it
mostly did so only in one direction. You can also enable
automatic calling when you are viewing a message or a
contact. The phone also supports scheduled power on and
power off.
Calls and Messaging
The call quality is pretty good on the Ulefone Power. The
earpiece is loud and clear and your audio also gets relayed
well to the party at the other end. The speaker is decently loud
but there is distortion at higher volumes. The dial-pad is large
and easy to use thanks to the 5.5″ screen and there are
shortcuts to quickly choose which sim you want to use to
make the call as well.
The default keyboard on the device is Google Keyboard and
we are fine with that. The layout is easy to use and makes use
of the large screen estate. The only downside is the lack of
built-in emojis but if you want, you can use a 3rd party
keyboard from the Play Store anytime.
Storage, Connectivity and Performance
The smartphone comes with 16GB of internal storage out of
which around 11.67GB of free space is available to the user
out of the box. The memory can further be expanded using
microSD cards up to 128GB in capacity. Once inserted, you
can set the microSD as the default write disk if you want and
also move compatible apps to the SD card. Additionally, the
phone also supports USB OTG so you can connect your HDD
or USB drive when needed.
The phone supports 4G LTE however can only be on 4G on
one sim at a time while the other switches to 2G. FDD-LTE
Band 3 is supported; however, the official listing doesn’t
specify support for TDD-LTE Band 40. The phone takes 2
microSIMs or a microSIM and a microSD card slot. While a
dedicated memory card slot would’ve been ideal, having an
option to choose between a SIM or microSD itself is a good
thing to have.
The device supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. It
is powered by an octa-core Mediatek MT6753 64-bit processor
with Mali T720 GPU and 3GB of RAM. The performance is
quite smooth without any lag or stutters. While it isn’t
something we recommend for intensive gaming, it can still
playback HD movies and the occasional game or two without
breaking a sweat. The good thing to note is that the
smartphone does well to keep heat under control always.
Music Player and Audio Quality
The music player on the Power is quite basic but good enough
for most regular users. It gives you different ways to sort your
music. The now playing screen offers the default track controls
as well as a built-in equalizer. The now playing screen also
shows you the album art of the song being played. The
equalizer has several presents that you can choose from or
else, you can make your own custom EQ. There is also a
sound enhancement tool within the main settings to tweak the
audio output a little bit further.
There is a built-in FM radio app that requires a pair of
headphones or earphones to operate. Once, you have it
connected, you can listen to the radio using the connected
earpiece or the built-in speakers. Users can seek or scan and
add their favourite channels to their list. It also supports
recording.
The audio quality through earphones or headphones is decent
but nothing great. The main issue is that it lacks “Power”.
There isn’t enough juice in the phone to get the bass notes
right and the songs mostly lack depth. The volume too is a bit
on the lower end but it is fine unless you are going to a really
noisy environment. The speaker too suffers from pretty much
the same issues. It isn’t too loud and when you put it to the
maximum, the quality reduces due to crackling.
Camera
The Ulefone Power has a 13 Megapixel primary camera with
Sony IMX214 sensor, f1.8 aperture and dual LED flash. The
image quality is pretty good with good details and colours.
The low light performance too is pretty decent thanks to the
f/1.8 aperture. Noise does exist but it isn’t too bad. The Dual
LED flash is powerful but not ideal especially if you want to
capture people as the skin tone doesn’t show very naturally.
Dynamic range is on the lower side but luckily the HDR mode
fixes that to an extent.
The front facing camera is quite good in terms of details
however the field of view is quite narrow and as a result, it
becomes difficult to take photos with many people in the
frame. For singles or even couple selfies intended for social
media purposes, this should be sufficient. The phone can
record videos at a maximum resolution of 1080 but the quality
is quite poor due to high-compression and the files are saved
in the ancient .3gp format as well. We hope they make some
changes to improve the video quality in a future firmware
update.
Battery Life
Having a large battery capacity doesn’t mean that a phone
would have great battery life. A lot depends on the processor,
the screen size and resolution as well as optimisation. Luckily,
in the case of the Ulefone, everything falls into place.
Conclusion
The Ulefone Power is quite a unique phone in several ways. It
offers a really great battery life, very different fingerprint
scanning experience, a good display and 4G LTE capabilities.
It has its drawbacks mainly in terms of speaker output and
bulkiness but the latter is something that is expected with
most phones having this kind of battery capacity. If you want a
well performing phones with a lot of features, fingerprint
scanner and a great battery life, then this is something that
will really be worth the asking price of US$ 209.99 (Around Rs.
14,300). The only issue here is the availability. Ulefone hasn’t
yet officially launched in India but judging by the recent surge
of Chinese brands in India, we are guessing that they too
would enter very soon.
Pros
Solid Build Quality
Fast Fingerprint Sensor
Hybrid SIM Slot with 4G LTE Capability
Stellar Battery Life
Good Display
Cons
Poor Audio Quality
Narrow FoV (Field of View) on Front Camera
Bad Video Quality
