This affordable and durable smartphone has superpowers – but it’s no tank!

ZDNET Key Points

• Ulefone Armor 25T Pro is Available on Amazon for $420.
• Packed with features that engineers and outdoor enthusiasts will love, but without the bulk of a typical rugged smartphone.
• Battery life is not great and RAM can be overloaded when handling heavy workloads.

While I can’t see myself replacing iPhone is my daily driver — I’m so immersed in the Apple ecosystem, there’s no hope for anything else! — that doesn’t mean I don’t have a secondary Android phone. And my favorite Android smartphones are the ones that are meant for engineers. You know, the ones with built-in thermal cameras and night vision.

Also: Insert relevant links

I recently got my hands on the Ulefone Armor 25T Pro, a 5G smartphone running Android 14, and it is truly a great and versatile phone with many features that iPhone users can only dream of!

See on Amazon

Ulefone Armor 25T Pro Specifications

• MediaTek Dimensity 6300 6 nanometer octa-core processor (2×2.4 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6×2.0 GHz Cortex-A55) and Arm Mali-G57 MC2 GPU
• Android OS 14
• 6.78-inch display, 1080 x 2460 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, ~396 pixels per inch density, with Corning Gorilla Victus glass
• 12GB Memory (6GB RAM + 6GB Virtual RAM)
• 256GB internal memory (expandable up to 2TB with microSD/TF card)
• 50 megapixel wide-angle rear camera, f/1.65 aperture and 1/1.31 inch super large sensor with 1.2um pixel size
• 64 megapixel f/1.8 night vision camera with dual infrared LEDs
• 32 megapixel f/2.5 aperture selfie camera
• ThermoVue thermal imaging sensor, high resolution up to 160 x 120, refresh rate up to 25Hz, measuring range up to 1000m, range from -20C to 550℃
• 6,500 mAh battery (478 hours standby time, 48 hours call time, 16 hours video playback)
• 33W fast charging
• Reverse wireless charging
• Integrated infrared and NFC
• Fingerprint reader
• Meets IP68/IP69K, MIL-STD-810H standards for water and dust resistance
• 177.4 x 81.4 x 12.5mm
• 326 grams
• A list of carrier support can be found on Ulefone website

The Armor 25T Pro comes in two parts; first, let’s look at the smartphone aspect.

Looking at the specs sheet of the processor, display, battery and camera, this is a feature phone and you can feel that some compromises have been made. For example, while the processor, GPU and RAM are enough to keep the phone running smoothly most of the time, there are rare occasions when things start to feel a little slow. I suspect this is mainly due to the 6GB RAM configuration and the 6GB virtual RAM sometimes not being enough.

Face to face with female Blackview BL9000 ProThe Blackview always wins with a faster processor and extra RAM. But that phone costs hundreds of dollars more.

However, the performance of the Armor 25T Pro is mostly adequate.

Same goes for the cameras. They have a lot of megapixels and decent image quality, but not as good as the iPhone Pro Max or Galaxy Ultra.

But again, that’s more than enough for most people.

Does this phone need a 50-megapixel main camera and a 32-megapixel selfie camera? Probably not, but megapixels sell, and as sensors get cheaper, megapixels will only keep going up.

To create a phone that doesn’t feel like a brick in your pocket, Ulefone had to decide what’s important. At 6,500mAh, this battery is on the small side when it comes to rugged phones, but again, it’s good enough.

Also: I’m adding this iPhone thermal camera accessory to my toolkit (especially at this price)

But let’s be honest: No one buys the Armor 25T Pro for the display, processor, or battery life. People buy it for the thermal camera and night vision mode.

This brings us to the second part of this phone — superpowers!

The ThermoVue thermal camera is great, has a very fast refresh rate and high accuracy.

Thermal cameras have a wide range of uses, from finding out where a pet mouse is hiding in the bedroom to identifying a faulty component on a circuit board. Yes, they really are versatile.

I’ve said it before: A thermal camera is an essential tool for diagnosis and repair, on par with a screwdriver, multimeter, or soldering iron.

I used to think night vision was just a gimmick, but when you’re crawling around in a dark attic looking for an electronic component, night vision becomes incredibly useful.

And using IR night vision is much better for the eyes than having a flashlight on all over the place.

Yes, this tool also has a place in an engineer’s toolbox.

ZDNET Buying Advice

Ulefone is one of my favorite Android smartphone manufacturers, consistently creating groundbreaking products with its rugged phones and always striving to make devices that perfectly fit the lives of engineers and outdoor enthusiasts.

The Ulefone Armor 25T Pro is no exception, taking mainstream smartphone components and adding useful features like thermal cameras and night vision modes. These aren’t features for everyone, but if you need them and know how to use them properly, they can be incredibly useful.

And this is one of the few armored smartphones that doesn’t feel like a tank in your pocket.