Power Armor X11 Pro Rugged Smartphone, 8GB 64GB, 8150mAh Battery, Android 12 Mobile Phones, 4G Dual SIM, 16MP AI Camera, 5.45 inch Tough Screen, Waterproof Outdoor Phone Unlocked, UK Version

Firstly I will point out I did more than unpack the Ulephone Power Armour X11 admire it and fantasise about how I might use it. This review is at the end of a couple of weeks intensive testing. The phone has a very specific audience, it is squarely aimed at the outdoors community who work in harsh environments and require long battery life, or the adventurer who spends time out in the outdoors. The battery life is exceptional, the best I got was six days without a recharge with daily use: calls, whatsapp and GPS. This is undoubtedly a large phone, that said, it fits well in the hand or the pocket, it’s ruggedised without being oversized. The design makes it easy to operate with gloves or slippery hands, the extra programmable button, in my case mapped to a mapping app is really good and a great time saver. There is no fingerprint unlock which isn’t a bad thing for the target user who is likely to be wearing gloves or have hands that are dirty from working, the facial recognition is very good and rarely failed me even with hat or safety helmet on, on the rare occasions that it did I simply used the pattern to log in, imho this is often quicker to use pattern login than repeatedly pressing a grubby finger on the screen trying to unsuccessfully unlock the device. Wireless charging isn’t included, but as this phone is designed to be out in the field that isn’t a loss to me and kept the weight and bulk down. The Satellite positioning uses GPS, Glonass, Galileo & BeiDou, is ultra quick to acquire solid lock and is accurate, for activities like location finding, Geocaching and other mapping and for me scored a solid 100%. The operating system is the current Android 12 and has none of the big manufacturers bloatware, all my apps chrome, Whatsapp, Banking, Dropbox etc worked just as quickly as a Samsung s21 5g, there is dual sim and has a slot for a micro SD card which is useful for storing onsite pictures from the more than capable 16 megapixel camera, the screen is bright and clear even under direct sunlight. In short for the outdoors I love this phone. TLDR; if you want a phone to pose down the pub with, look elsewhere, if if you want an proper tough outdoors phone this is the one.

I bought this as a cheaper, more rugged second phone to use primarily with the OS Maps app when hiking as I've found that using my main phone (Samsung Note 10) for this causes the battery to drain in about 3 hours, espcially when taking photos too, which is no good when on an all-day hike. As such, I won't be using a SIM with it but I did try it and it took a couple of gos to be recognised, for some reason, but then worked ok. It takes quite a long time to boot up but that's not a big issue. The phone itself is very chunky and heavy in a reassuring sort of way - it's basically a power-pack with a phone attached. It's not super quick, the screen isn't perfect and the camera is not good at all but that doesn't concern me too much for my purposes although the battery symbol in the notifications area is incredibly hard to read. The phone came with a screen protector and also a tempered glass screen protector packaged separately. It's not clear to me whether this is the same or better than the one pre-fitted so I've haven't used it yet. The Amazon page showed that it came with a free belt-loop connector but it turns out that if you didn't use the promotion code (what promotion code?) you have to ask them for it directly and supply them with your name, address, email, etc. to get it and I'm not doing that. It did come with a lanyard, however. I gave it a test run the other day and it worked brilliantly as a GPS device with no SIM and found that at the end of the day, it was still at 92% battery so I'm pretty chuffed about that. The facial recognition unlock is a bit hit and miss which is an annoyance when you are continually taking it out to check your route. I might have to bypass security when I'm using it. It might be expensive just to use for GPS but I bought a Garmin GPS a couple of years ago for half the price and it turned out to be next to useless - you couldn't downloaded routes OTA, it was hard to use and the screen was tiny and difficult to navigate. This is obviously miles better as it's a standard Android 12 phone and I was able to download map data in the field via my other phone using wifi tethering so I didn't even need to swap the SIM to do that. In conclusion, for what I want it for it's great. I would think twice if you want to use the camera a lot and I would certainly not want to use it as my only phone as it's a bit sluggish.

Outstanding product with all great features comes normally in very expensive phones. However the more expensive phone you go for , the more fragile it's screen is and thus further expensive repairs. This phone is best suitable for outdoor usage like running, kayaking, paddleboarding, skating or even for anyone who have tenancy to break screens often. Phone is sleek bit heavier than Samsung and other expensive phones but it is due to the very sturdy armour which is the main reason for a solid state phone, body and screen without sacrificing voice quality. Photos quality is also perfect for day to day usage.

The battery life and performance aren't what is advertised. Very slow performance and battery only lasts less then two days.

I purchased this phone for work purposes as I needed a rugged smart phone as work is constantly outdoor in all types of weather conditions. The phone itself looks great and little heavier then my s22 but as for performance on the app I use for work, it's not great as it's slow and the camera just doesn't pick up QR codes or barcodes even though the phone is NFC enabled. The battery is not what it states especially for what I need it for as my work app runs constantly with the camera and location services etc as I needed the phone to last at least 8 hours but it didn't last for 4 hours and took forever to charge. The phone doesn't have fast charge which is a let down so I had to have it on constant charge via a power bank. My personal s22 lasts a lot longer and speed and performance were 10x better then this. The plus points I like was the super helpful customer service and the sturdiness of the phone as I have dropped it a couple of times and still looks the part.