Ulefone Power 2 test - smartphone with mega battery

First impression of the Ulefone Power 2

What's in the box

As an example, Ulefone includes a decent accessory package with the Power 2. In addition to the usual charging cable and power adapter, it also includes a stylish hard case with a leather look, a thick screen protector, a smartphone stand, a SIM needle and a user manual.

Design and workmanship

Many smartphone manufacturers are increasingly focusing on compact and light. Ulefone is taking exactly the opposite direction with the Power 2. With an impressive weight of 212g and a thickness of 99 mm, the smartphone is a stunner and fits in the hand accordingly. After all, the 6050 mAh battery has to be accommodated somehow.

The smartphone is available in black, silver and gold. Our test copy in black is on the one hand nice to look at, but the matt black case was covered with fingerprints after unpacking.

Due to the so-called unibody design, the back of the device cannot be removed, which means that you have no direct access to the battery. The SIM slot is located on the left side of the housing. This is a hybrid slot that allows either dual SIM use (2x Nano SIM), or alternatively with a SIM card (Nano SIM) and an SD memory card (Micro SD) to expand the internal Memory can be populated. The smartphone has a total of three control buttons. In addition to the power button, there is also a volume rocker and a physical home button. The home button also contains the fingerprint sensor. The smartphone dispenses with capacitive control buttons. A headphone connection is available, as well as a notification LED on the front. The device has a micro-USB socket for charging the battery or for data transfer. A more up-to-date USB Type-C socket would have been desirable.

 Unfortunately, the Ulefone Power 2 is not made flawlessly. There is a small paint flaw on the back of our matte black test copy. In addition, the transition between the metal back and the plastic housing ends is sharp-edged. The home button can also only be pressed in one direction. This rocker-like keystroke feels very unusual. There are no unsightly gaps.

Display

The display has a diagonal of 5.5 inches and has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 from Corning. The representation is not objectionable. Content is displayed razor-sharp and the color rendering looks natural. Ulefone does not use "MiraVision" to correct the display.

The display of the Ulefone Power 2 is also convincing in terms of viewing angle stability. Regardless of the angle from which you look at the display, fonts remain legible and the color authenticity is also retained. The maximum display brightness is average. A maximum of 5 simultaneous inputs are recognized in multi-touch.

Performance

The system-on-chip of the Ulefone Power 2 is a MediaTek MT6750T CPU, which has a total of 8 processor cores, 4 of which clock with up to 1.5 GHz and 4 with up to 1.0 GHz. The GPU is a Mali-T860 MP2. The memory equipment is impressive. In addition to a 4GB DDR3 memory, the smartphone has a 64GB internal memory.

In everyday life, the performance of the Power 2 convinces. Multitasking with multiple apps is no problem. Only with compute-intensive application, the performance drops slightly. Apps start and load the processor accordingly quickly. Current mobile games are also running on the device. In too demanding games, however, it can occasionally lead to image collapses.

user interface

Android 2 is already running on the Ulefone Power 7. Unfortunately, the manufacturer decided to deviate from stock Android and use a heavily modified ROM. Although no bloat-ware is pre-installed, the special theme clouded our experience with the user interface in the test.

The octagonal and especially dark app icons don't look particularly inviting. The same continues within the settings, where each sub-category is provided with an icon. Ulefone has not built in a way to change the theme. If you want to change the design, you can't avoid an additional launcher from the PlayStore. The additional functions of the user interface are impressive. In addition to numerous unlocking gestures and shortcuts, there is also a smart operation by swiping movements.

Camera

The main camera of the Power 2 has a native resolution of 13 megapixels. Images are shot with a maximum of 16 interpolated megapixels. Videos are recorded in a maximum of 1080p. The front camera has a native resolution of 8 megapixels. Image recordings can be shot with interpolated 13 megapixels. The front camera records videos in a maximum of 480p.

main camera

Ulefone uses an unspecified image sensor. In good lighting conditions, acceptable picture recordings are possible. However, the poorly coordinated automatic mode is to be criticized, as a result of which the pictures taken are partially overexposed. The main camera can still cope well with poor lighting conditions. The image noise is kept within limits. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to take shake-free pictures. The camera becomes sluggish in poor lighting conditions and the shutter release time also increases significantly. In good lighting conditions, on the other hand, the Power 2 impresses with its short shutter release time and fast autofocus.

The pre-installed camera app does not offer many effect modes or gimmicks. Only an HDR mode, a panorama mode and a beauty mode can be selected as additional recording modes. The setting options are also rather spartan.

The Ulefone Power 2 can hardly collect any points when recording videos. At first there is no possibility to select the resolution recognizable according to pixel. Ulefone only has four quality options at hand, ranging from low to medium and high to fine. There is a different video resolution behind each of these options. For example, if you select the highest recording quality “Fine”, videos are recorded in 1080p. Unfortunately, clear image breakdowns are noticeable on 1080p and most of the recorded videos are unusable. Incidentally, all videos are saved in the ancient “3GP” file format. The "electronic image stabilization (EIS)" that Ulefone has integrated does not make the cabbage fat either.

Front camera

The front camera takes detailed pictures, which are, however, traversed by a clearly perceptible red tinge. You should not rely on acceptable selfies! The video function, however, is sufficient for video telephony completely.

connectivity

Telephony

The smartphone supports all of the most popular mobile radio standards in this country, from 2G to 3G to 4G. The LTE bands 3, 7 and 20 used in Germany are available. Telephony and mobile surfing work flawlessly with the Ulefone Power 2. The reception quality and transmission quality were consistently good in the test.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

The smartphone also does well in WLAN. In addition to 2.4G WiFi, 5G WiFi is also supported. The stable signal range and the data throughput rate are good average. The same applies to the connection via Bluetooth. Here, the Ulefone smartphone is very easy to receive. The hands-free system connected in the test was quickly found, paired and data was transferred without loss.

GPS and sensors

The GPS fix was found within a few seconds. When navigating in the countryside and in the city, the signal was kept constant and the position was accurately determined. An e-compass is also installed, which means that the device can also be used as a pedestrian navigation system.

In terms of sensors, the smartphone is equipped with a brightness sensor, a proximity sensor, an acceleration sensor, a gyroscope and the aforementioned e-compass.

Fingerprint scanner

The fingerprint scanner is integrated into the home button on the front. A maximum of 5 profiles can be created. In addition to secure unlocking, so-called shortcuts can also be placed on the fingerprint sensor. This allows you to start different apps by touching the scanner, you can accept calls or open the app overview. Unlocking with the fingerprint scanner worked well so far. The recognition rate is convincing, the unlocking time is average.

Speakers and headphones

The sound quality of the speaker could not convince. Although no unpleasant scratching is noticeable at maximum volume, the music played over the loudspeaker sounds like from a tin can instead. The sound quality via the 3.5 mm headphone connection is more convincing. Music is played cleanly and without disturbing background noise.

Battery

The highlight of the Ulefone Power 2 is the 6050 mAh battery. Once fully charged, the battery will last for several days without any problems. With little use and occasional WhatsApp and surfing, the battery even lasted a full 5 days. The smartphone is well optimized in standby. The battery consumption is low. In the PCMark Battery Benchmark, the battery lasted a full 11 hours and 38 minutes. Only the workflow from 100% to 20% remaining capacity was measured. With the quick charge function Pump Express 2.0, the battery of the Power 2 is fully charged after just 2 hours. If you are in a hurry and only connect the smartphone to the power supply for 45 minutes, the battery is already charged by 50%.