Ulefone Power Armor 14 Pro rugged phone which generally retails for $230 is now available at a discounted price of $211.99 only on AliExpress.

Ulefone Power Armor 14 Pro is designed to withstand the harsh and extreme outdoors. And to that end, this 6.52” Smartphone comes with IP68/69K and MIL-STD – 810G military-grade certifications. This means the phone is dust, dirt, shock, and waterproof and can perform under extreme and harsh conditions. 

Ulefone Power Armor 14 Pro stands out from other rugged smartphones for its endurance and exceptional battery life. Similar to Power Armor 14, the Pro version also comes with a 10000mAh battery that can last for up to two days on moderate usage and supports 18W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. 

Ulefone Power Armor 14 Pro features a 6.52” IPS LCD display with 1700 x 720p resolution and a 20:9 aspect ratio. While the display comes with Corning Gorilla Glass protection, the phone is protected by a high-grade rigid plastic body encased in metal frames and rubber corners. Powered by MediaTek Helio G85 octa-core processor, it comes with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage space. 

You have a triple rear camera setup with a 20MP main camera, a 2MP macro sensor, and a depth sensor. For your selfies, you have a 16MP front camera. The phone also comes with a special AI photo shoot feature wherein it can automatically identify the subjects and adjust the camera specs to give you optimal results. Other interesting features include a  fingerprint sensor, programmable side key, and dual sim / MicroSD slot. 

You can now buy the Ulefone Power Armor 14 Pro for $211.99 only on AliExpress. Please note that the above price is region-specific and the final price may vary according to your shipping region, warehouse, and regional taxes.  

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The post Deal: Buy Ulefone Power Armor 14 Pro Rugged Phone for $211 (Discount) appeared first on Gizmochina.

Good rugged phones are usually expensive and they don’t have the best specifications out there. I just came across the Blackview BV7000 Pro, which is probably the best designed rugged smartphone I’ve ever tested. Learn more in our full review.

UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual stuff and some extras include the USB OTG cable, a pair of earphones and a screen protector.

DESIGN and DISPLAY

It is obvious that the BV7000 Pro is a rugged phone since it is thick and heavy but I have to say this is one of the best-designed rugged smartphones I’ve tested so far. It comes in different colors but I prefer the gold one.

The phone has the IP-68 rating meaning that it is water and dust resistant. Also, the rugged body assures that the phone will survive a few accidental drops.

Naturally, all the ports are covered with flaps to avoid any water damage. The flaps open and close easily.

We have a 5” 1080p display, which is sharp and vibrant and it is bright enough for outdoor use. Also, it is covered with the Gorilla Glass 3.

Just above the display, we have an 8MP shooter. It is great that we have the LED notification light and nicely backlit capacitive keys.

I really love that industrial look of the metal-made sides of the phone, where you can also find nice and tactile buttons. There is another programmable button. I have to say that this has become one of my favorite features of the phone as you can customize the button in a lot of different ways.

The backplate has a rubberized finish with some really nice-looking metal accents. When it comes to optics, we have a 13MP camera and a single LED flash.

Most of the rugged phones don’t have fingerprint scanners but the BV7000 Pro has this feature. The scanner is fast and accurate, and it unlocks the phone straight from the standby mode. The loudspeaker quality is above average I would say.

Blackview BV7000 Pro design gallery:

HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

When it comes to hardware, the Blackview BV7000 Pro is one of the most powerful budget rugged phones out there.

The phone ships with an octa-core MTK6750 chip (1.5GHz), 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. You should expect quite a few skipped frames if you want to play games like Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics. On the other hand, playing this game on medium graphics is much better and you may have some enjoyable gaming experience. Finally, the phone does not have overheating issues.

USER INTERFACE

The Blackview BV7000 Pro comes with the Android 6.0 out of the box with the proprietary skin on top of it.The skin removes the app tray and completely redesigns the icons whether you like it or not.

There are some customization options like the ability to change transition effects. Also, there are quite a few motion and gesture controls. As always, I use just a couple of them and they work pretty well. Most importantly, I didn’t have any issues with the phone’s daily performance even after installing quite a few apps and I would say that this Blackview phone is a pretty fast performer.

BENCHMARKS

IMAGE QUALITY

When it comes to the image quality, the Blackview phone can take some decent daylight images but you should not expect any spectacular results. The level of detail could be higher, the dynamic range is usually off and the colour reproduction is not always accurate.

The camera does not really impress in low-light as there is quite a bit of noise and there is a visible red tint in some of the shots.

The selfie camera is not the best but the pictures will do the trick for social media.

When it comes to the 1080p video, it is kind of mediocre as the footage could look sharper. Also, there is no continuous auto-focus on board.

CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues with this device and even the GPS lock speeds and accuracy were okay.

BATTERY LIFE

In order to keep the phone relatively slim, Blackview implemented a 3500mAh battery. Still, it performs pretty well as I could constantly get over 6 hours of screen-on time.

CONCLUSIONS

The Blackview BV7000 Pro is a really solid budget IP68-certified and rugged smartphone. Even though there are quite a few budget options out there, this phone is the best-designed, in my opinion.

Also, it has great specs and decent performance but as usual to all budget phones, it has a few shortcomings you have to consider before buying it.

The post Blackview BV7000 Pro Review – The Best-looking Budget Rugged IP68 Smartphone Yet appeared first on Gizmochina.

Nomu is a Chinese smartphone maker that mainly produces rugged phones. The S20 model has a sleek design and decent specs and it costs about $150. My name is Linus, stay tuned for the full review.

Thanks to Chinavasion for sending Nomu S20 for a review.

Nomu S20 Review: VIDEO REVIEW

Nomu S20 Review: UNBOXING

The phone ships with all the usual items. No extras included.

Nomu S20 Review: DESIGN and DISPLAY

The Nomu S20 has the IP-68 rating and it is water, dust, shock and temperature-resistant. Naturally, all the ports are covered with flaps to avoid any water damage.

What I love about the S20 is that it is kind of sleek and slim for a rugged phone. Also, the metal sides add a little bit of a premium look and feel. However, the rubber back tends to attract dust quite easily.

The 5” display has only a 720p resolution but it is covered with the Gorilla Glass 3. It could definitely look sharper and the colors look a bit oversaturated but it’s a decent panel for a budget phone.

Just above the display, we have a 5MP shooter. There is no LED notification light and we have the customizable on-screen navigation keys.

When it comes to camera, we have a 13MP shooter and a single LED flash.

The loudspeaker has a great sound output but it has just a mediocre sound quality.

Overall, the phone is solid, the buttons are nice and tactile but my complaint is that it is quite hard to open up the SIM card flap.

Nomu S20 Review: HARDWARE and PERFORMANCE

When it comes to hardware, the Nomu S20 ships with a quad-core MTK6737T chip (1.5GHz), 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. These are pretty good specs for the price considering this is a rugged phone after all.

Surprisingly, the gaming performance is pretty good. It is possible to play Asphalt 8 on the highest graphics with just some skipped frames but no serious stutter. If you switch the graphics to medium, you will have a great gaming experience.

The device gets quite warm on the upper portion of the phone but it doesn’t impair the performance.

Nomu S20 Review: BENCHMARKS

Nomu S20 Review: USER INTERFACE

Nomu S20 ships with a pretty much stock-looking Android 6.0 user interface but there are some added features. For example, you can choose from a variety of gesture and motion controls that work pretty well.

Most importantly, I didn’t have any issues with the phone’s daily performance even after installing quite a few apps and I would say that the Nomu S20 is a pretty fast performer.

Nomu S20 Review: IMAGE QUALITY

IT IS HIGHLY-RECOMMENDED TO DOWNLOAD FULL RESOLUTION CAMERA SAMPLES TO SEE THE ACTUAL IMAGE QUALITY. THE PICTURES UPLOADED ON THE WEBSITE ARE 50% SMALLER IN RESOLUTION.

When it comes to the image quality, the Nomu S20 can take some okay-looking images in daylight. I took most of the pictures on a cloudy day and there could be more detail in most of the shots. Also, some of the pictures look under-exposed.

The camera does not really impress in low-light as there is quite a lot of noise and grain in the pictures.

As for selfie camera, the images will do the trick for social media but they could look sharper.

When it comes to the 1080p video, it is kind of mediocre as the footage could look sharper.

Nomu S20 Review: CONNECTIVITY

I didn’t have any connectivity issues with this device and even the GPS lock speeds and accuracy were okay.

Nomu S20 Review: BATTERY LIFE

The 3000mAh battery performs quite well on the daily basis. I could easily get a full day of moderate usage out of this phone, which is a pretty good result.

However, it takes about 3 hours to fully charge the phone, which may be annoying.

Nomu S20 Review: CONCLUSIONS

The Nomu S20 is a good rugged phone for the price, yet it is not perfect.

Since it is rugged, you can be rest assured that it will work even under the harshest conditions. Also, I love that it is compact due to 5” display, the phone is well-built and it sits nicely in the hand.

In addition, the user interface is smooth and fluid on the daily basis and even the gaming performance is pretty good.

However, it is not that easy to open the SIM card tray, the camera could better and we lack some pretty standard features like a notification LED light.

At the end of the day, I can still say that the Nomu S20 is a pretty good phone since it was mainly designed for outdoor use under harsh conditions. Also, it definitely has more than pros than cons and therefore, the price of about $150 can be justified.

The post Nomu S20 Review – A Good Budget IP-68 Rugged Smartphone appeared first on Gizmochina.

There are plenty of phones out there and most of them have so many smart features that some of you may not even need. I just came across a $20 feature phone and I decided to give it a try. Did I like it? Learn more in the full VKWORLD Stone V3S review.

VIDEO REVIEW

UNBOXING

The phone ships with a charger, some paperwork and some extra SIM card adapters.

DESIGN and FEATURES

For $20, you get a little phone that has the IP65 rating, meaning that the phone can survive some beating. Also, it is dust and dirt resistant and the device is splash-proof.

The Vkworld V3S is a well-built phone. I love the metal used on the sides of the device, which gives a little bit of premium look and feel.

The display is definitely not the sharpest out there but it is enough for such a cheap feature phone. However, the viewing angles are bad and it is quite reflective during the cloudy day.

The nicely backlit physical keys are tactile and they are nice to the touch.

One of the key selling points of the device is a dual-LED flashlight. However, I didn’t find it brighter than your everyday smartphone.

The loudspeaker is really good as it is louder than on most of the smartphones and the sound is quite clear.

USER INTERFACE and TEST NOTES

When it comes to the user interface, you should not expect to have lots of smart features but the phone gets the basics right. We have some essential everyday apps, music player, FM radio, calendar,  a few pre-installed games and so on.

Speaking of the basics, the call quality and signal reception are great.

Since you are going to use this phone mainly for the calls and other basic stuff, the battery will last you for days.

I could not kill this phone in 1 week using two SIM cards at the same time. Even if you don’t use the phone very often, the advertised 25 day standby time is a great feature to have.

CONCLUSIONS

So, there you have it, the $20 Vkworld V3S. It’s definitely not the phone for everyone since it was designed mainly for those who need just a simple phone that is well-built and it can survive a few drops and has just the basic features.

So far the phone has worked fine for me and I believe it’s worth the $20 price tag but I’m switching back to my smartphone as I can’t live without all the smart features it has.

What about you? Do you think you would need such a phone or would you rather add $30 more and buy a cheap smartphone? Let me know in the comment section down below.

The post VKWORLD Stone V3S Review: A $20 Rugged Phone! appeared first on Gizmochina.