Before you read this article, I must say that I love this phone. This uleFone Armor 17 Pro, although it looks ordinary, it is actually very interesting. If I had to choose one of the best rugged phones in 2022, Armor 17 Pro would be one of the candidates.
Unboxing
The reason I like this phone so much is that as soon as I opened the box, I could feel the thoughtfulness of uleFone. First of all, the charging cable, manual, and Tempered Glass Screen Protector that comes with most rugged phone are all there. What’s also included is a lanyard and SIM pick to help you open the SIM card slot. This SIM pick is better than a pry bar, because once the pry bar is broken, you can’t use it, but this SIM pick allows you to break it at least twice.
This charger is also very awesome, we’ll leave it to the charging part to talk more about it. There is also a special accessory that only Armor 17 Pro has, a Wallet, with MagSafe!
MagSafe Wallets
Yes, Armor 17 Pro not only supports wireless charging, but also supports magnetic wireless charging. Meaning it can be used like an iPhone with a magnetic wallet, and it’s free. In fact, it’s more than a wallet, it’s also a phone stand. Unfold it like this and it keeps the phone up.
Definitely a very handy tool for those of you who love to watch Tiktok. If you are interested in MagSafe accessory for iPhone, you can also buy some and install it on Armor 17 Pro. Don’t worry, it definitely fits, because I put the Armor 17 Pro’s wallet on iPhone and it works too. But this free accessory seems to be available only to the first 500 orders, so hurry up and order it if you like it.
Design
The Armor 17 Pro’s design looks rather normal, but that doesn’t mean it’s ugly. The back is very simple, with a matte carbon fiber textured back panel plus a centered lens module. There’s no flashy design, so at least you won’t get bored with it after a long time. And it feels great to the touch, very silky smooth. The SIM card slot supports two SIM cards and one TF card. The power button and fingerprint button are all in one, and there is also an NFC and headphone jack. Even though the speakers are dual stereo speakers, the Armor 17 Pro is one of the most fully featured rugged phones I’ve ever seen.
Although the 17 Pro is a rugged phone, it is only 12.5mm thick and the weight is less than 300g, which is a relatively thin and light rugged phone. It not only supports the basic IP68 and IP69K certifications, but it also has no dust plugs for its ports. This shows that uleFone is very confident with the dustproof capability. If there is dirt on the port, wash and dry it and you can continue to use it.
Camera
The Armor 17 Pro’s camera module is made up of three cameras, the main camera is the 108MP HM2 and the other two are the 8MP Ultra-wide camera and a Night vision camera. the HM2 is a very good sensor and will give you a very nice photo most of the time. The most surprising thing is that it has autofocus face detection. Even today many phones do not have this feature.
The 8MP Ultra-wide camera doesn’t perform as well as the main camera, but considering that some rugged phones don’t even have an Ultra-wide camera, it’s good that the 17 Pro has this one.
Display
The Armor 17 Pro’s screen is a 120Hz FHD+ LCD screen with Corning Gorilla 5th gen protective glass. 120Hz screens are rare in rugged phones. And with a 240Hz touch sampling rate, it’s already much better than most rugged phones. If you want it to be smooth and power efficient, you can also choose 90Hz.
Performance
The processor it uses is Helio G99, although a little better than many other rugged phones in the G80 series, but you probably know it based on the Benchmark score, still an entry chip. PUBG mobile? No problem. Genshin Impact? Maybe run in the lowest graphics. I recommend that you only use it to watch videos or websites browsing, with the high refresh rate of the screen, the experience of daily use will be a big step up from other rugged phones.
Charging
The Armor 17 Pro supports 66w of wired charging and 15w of wireless charging, and the wired charging power is the fastest of any rugged phone we’ve tested. 38% in 10 minutes and 90% in 30 minutes.
This free charger is really great, not only is it a Type C port, and it supports all the charging protocols, meaning that almost all devices can be charged quickly with it. Normally such a charger would cost you extra money to buy, uleFone gave it to us for free which I really didn’t expect.
So, can you understand why I love it now? It looks like an ordinary rugged phone, and there is no fancy design. However, it has MagSafe, it has a magnetic wallet, it has 66w charging speed, it has a 120Hz screen, these are its unique pros.
Especially MagSafe, I never thought there would be this kind of feature on the rugged phone, which normal Android phones don’t have. It refreshes my perception of rugged phone again.
