UlefoneArmor 25T Pro 5G Rugged Phone, Thermal Imaging 64MP+50MP Camera, 12GB+256GB MTK Dimensity 6300, 6500mAh(33W), 30W Wireless Charging, 6.78" FHD+ 120Hz Corning Gorilla Screen, Android 14

I've had this phone for 2 1/2 weeks and I love it! Any phone has itsups and downs, and this one is no exception.For me, the pros of this phone outweigh the cons, but you should makeup your own mind. Hopefully my notes below will be helpful to you.PROS- A 9.5 on the Richter scale of awesomeness. You know why you areinterested in this phone. It delivers on its promise. The end- Rugged and IP68. Takes good pictures under water- Heavy and tough- Can be used for self-defense in a pinch- The FLIR camera is amazing for the price- The endoscope works well. It doesn't have the best image quality, butit addresses the common "find and retreive the doohickey that fell behindthe thang" problem- The bluetooth range is good- The battery life is amazing- No 5G marketroid vaporware garbage chewing up your battery for brokenpromises that cost you extra $$$CONS- Security- You are not prompted for PIN at boot, the phone boots straight to theregular lock screen. To me, this suggests that it's not encrypted theway other phones are, or possibly not encrypted at all. There's adingus buried in settings that *says* the phone is encrypted, but...- When the last digit of your PIN is entered, the phone unlocks withouthaving to press the ENTER key! If you know a couple of digits, you canfigure the rest out by brute force. Only pressing ENTER counts as awrong guess -- and you don't need to press ENTER at all for a correctPIN.- The last security update for the Armor 9 was 2020-May-5. My old Samsungis still getting updates.- Battery- Every few days, something goes bonkers (even if you close all apps) andstarts using tons of juice. You can tell this is happening because thephone actually gets warm. Rebooting it solves the problem. I'm guessinga security + bug-fix update would fix this. The phone boots quickly,at least.- Volume- The peak loudness is great, but minimum loudness for all sounds is farfrom silent. For example, turning the speakerphone all the way down isstill really loud. The same goes for the ringer -- really loud even atminimum volume. I guess I'm old-fashioned: when I crank a slider allthe down, I expect this to be the same as "off".- Bluetooth- I have paired the phone with 2 Toyotas. Music works and I can makeand answer calls, but phone audio doesn't work. These are not oldvehicles and bluetooth worked well with my old Motorola and Samsungphones.NOTES ON BUNDLED APPS- It has an oddball version of Android 10. I didn't care for the bundledlauncher, in particular. I installed Nova Launcher to better suit my taste.- The camera app lacks some features but supports 64MP. I installedOpenCamera for the extra features but it only supports 16MP. So I keptthem both.- I don't use the fingerprint reader or facial recognition unlock methods

This phone has a great feature set, and is pretty darn slim relative to other rugged phones.I had an issue where mine, when put on a wireless charger (including Ulefone's 50W wireless charger), would show as charging, but would actually lose charge percentage as it sat there "charging". Ulefone Customer Service was great (Daniel is a rockstar!) - they have worked with me for the last week to try and get things working or to at least figure out what was going on. Ultimately it ended up that I would need to get a replacement through Amazon.This troubleshooting period gave me time to think on what I liked and did not like about this phone (outside of the wireless charging issue). It felt great in the hand - it was slim compared to my 18 Ultra, and fit much better in a pocket. Android 14 is nice. The night cam and the thermal cam are really cool, and the thermal cam came in handy for a project or two around the apartment as well as the motorcycle.That cam island on the back of the phone, though, is huge. And unfortunately, it is all glass. I usually have to replace a phone due to one of three reasons: The USB port dies, I break the screen, or I crack a camera lens. I'm probably being paranoid, but I can see myself dropping this phone, or hitting something while it's in my pocket, and cracking that huge piece of glass that covers the camera island, which could possibly affect any of the lenses covered by that glass.I could use a case (I did get two), but that takes away from the slim-ness that drew me to this phone. I could use a case, but I think one of the reasons for getting a "rugged" or "tough" phone is to not need a case. The camera island on this phone makes me feel like it really needs to be in a case.So instead of getting a replacement, I returned the phone. My (recently new) 18 Ultra is still awesome (though not without its own small issues). I will definitely consider Ulefone devices moving forward, if for no other reason than how awesome it was dealing with their Customer Service.I highly recommend this phone in place of any of the current big-name flagships that are out at the moment. But with the wireless charging not working out of the box (on mine), and feeling like the camera island / lenses were easily susceptible to damage, this particular phone is just not for me.

Hardware is unstable. Side multi-function button had to be disabled, the defined feature (camera or flashlight, for example) would come on while sitting on the table, untouched. Speaker volume is poor; I can't hear incoming calls or wake-up alarms.I will replace this phone.