UleFone Note 16 Pro
UleFone is a Chinese brand known for their rugged phones, but they do in fact produce regular smartphones as well. Now I’m holding the latest addition to their Note series, the UleFone Note 16 Pro, which is aimed at beginners for a very affordable price. By far it looks pretty good. But that’s not all of it, so Let’s check out what we can get for $150 in 2023.
Unboxing
The UleFone Note 16 Pro comes in a very simple package, on the top we see some basic information about the phone: it has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of ROM, coming with Android 13 pre-installed, which is really surprising to me considering that this is a super budget model and they don’t usually run on the latest version of Android.
Apart from the phone, we got some paper, a protective case, a USB-A to USB-C cable and a charger inside the package.
It seems that this budget phone didn’t save money on accessories. All we got here are almost the same as most pricy phones.
Design
The color variant we got is called Midnight Violet, the phone has an iPhone-style look, which is not hard to understand. As one of the best-selling smartphones, the iPhone design is known and acceptable to wide consumers, many brands borrowed elements from the best phone series to make sure their products are more accessible to more people.
For brands like UleFone offering cheap phones for wider groups, I can well understand that they have followed the giant’s footsteps due to limited margins and reflected in price concessions.But if we were talking about other big brands, it would be a different matter.
Like other budget models, the phone’s frame and back cover are made of plastic, which feels smooth and light when you hold it in your hand. The back cover with a matt finish helps get rid of fingerprints in daily use.
Screen & Dispaly
The front of the Note 16 Pro is covered with a 6.52-inch LCD screen with a teardrop notch. It has an HD+ resolution but the LCD panel doesn’t have sub-pixel rendering resulting in a compromised resolution.
So the screen looks very close to an FHD OLED screen of the same size. It looks sharp in detail and the colors and brightness are also impressively good as a budget model.
Connectivity
On the right side of the phone, we can see the volume buttons and the power button with a fingerprint reader. When you finish entering your fingerprint you can unlock the phone quickly.
The SIM slot is on the other side, in fact, it is a triple option slot, you can install two SIM cards on it or replace one of them with a micro SD card to expand your storage. This is one of the most necessary and useful designs on a smartphone, but we hardly ever see it on flagship phones.
At the bottom of the phone, we also get a 3.5mm headphone jack, which makes the phone almost perfect in terms of connectivity and expandability.
Camera
The UleFone Note 16 Pro has dual cameras on the back. The wide-angle camera has a 50MP ISOCELL JN1 sensor. It has a large f/1.8 aperture, which is more than enough for daily recording.
Here are some samples for your reference. As a budget phone, actually, it’s done pretty well.
The phone also supports 1080p video recording. So if you’d like to share your life or do live streaming at minimal cost, this is a spec that is clear enough without requiring too much storage.
Spec & OS
UleFone Note 16 Pro is powered by UniSoC T606 chipset, which is an octa-core platform, but the maximum CPU clocking is only 1.6G Hz, so it can only handle daily use and play some light games.
The Note 16 Pro ships with Android 13 and the latest security patches from Google, which means it will be compatible with the latest daily apps for a long time to come.
This is also our top priority when recommending a budget phone: whether it comes with the latest software pre-installed.
Other than the basic Google App, there are no non-essential apps pre-installed on this phone, which is also a plus to me. As many brands choose to work with developers to pre-install apps on some of their entry products for promotional fees.
The UleFone Note 16 Pro has a 4400mAh battery. Because of the very low power consumption of the SoC, this phone can still last a very long time, and considering that you probably won’t be playing heavy games on such a cheap phone, this battery is still good for a full day of use.
Verdict
Well, this is the UleFone Note 16 Pro, a budget phone with very good expandability. I think the brand has done a very balanced design at a very affordable price. The product is expected to be an ideal choice for those looking for a reliable and affordable smartphone.
On the other hand, if you want to buy a backup phone or are looking for a 4G mobile router, I think the budget 4G phone with storage expansion might also be a better choice. If you’re interested in the budget Ulefone Note 16 Pro, you can learn more here.
