Ulefone Armor 7 review

Android 9 Pie - pure but not vanilla

The Ulefone Armor 7 boots Android 9 Pie. The maker advertises it as a pure version of Android, but it's not really. And that's fine. It's still a clutter-free launcher and close to what you'd get with the vanilla Pie.

The software indeed looks a lot like vanilla Android. The home screen, lock screen, notification shade, and the recent apps menu are similar to those from the stock Android, excluding some of the icons.

Android OS on Ulefone Armor 7

Looking deeper into the Settings menu reveals the changes that Ulefone has made - there is AI app launch acceleration, various gestures, the custom key options, nav bar settings, among others.

Various settings

You can assign up to three different actions on the custom key - one upon the short press, another one - on long press, and the third option is when you double click it.

There is no app drawer available on the Armor 7, but if it's a must - there are plenty custom launchers.

The app package is pretty straight-forward. The default Android apps are pre-installed, so you have a gallery, a media player, and a file manager. There is also an FM radio app by Ulefone, a custom Notes app, and a Heart Rate app (though no Health app is pre-installed).

FM radio • Notes • Heart Rate

The OutDoor Toolbox is probably the most powerful app you will find on Armor 7. It offers Compass, Level tool, Flashlight, AR level for paintings, Height meter (seems like a gimmick), Magnifier, Alarm bell, Pressure info (uses the baroceptor), Sound meter (uses the microphone), Heart Rate (again), and Pedometer.

Outdoor toolbox

There are no ads across the UI whatsoever, so you can be sure you won't be bothered by unwanted spam here and there. And that pretty much covers the Ulefone Armor 7 starter package.

Performance and benchmarks

The Ulefone Armor 7 is powered by the MediaTek Helio P90 chip. The SoC was launched at the end of 2018 and is based on the 12nm manufacturing process from TSMC.

The P90 packs an octa-core CPU with two large Cortex-A75 cores ticking at 2.2GHz and six smaller, energy-efficient Corext-A55 cores working at 2.0GHz.

There is a (3-core) PowerVR GM 9446 GPU for taking care of graphically intensive tasks.

Finally, the Armor 7 packs 8GB of RAM.

The Helio P90 surely isn't the newest chip around, nor is the most powerful amid fellow midrange offers. There is Helio G90 or Snapdragon 730(G) to beat it. Still, let's see how fast is the P90.

The overall processor performance is in line with the competition. While most of the big cores are based on Cortex-A76, the A75 inside the Helio P90 still do a fabulous job.

GeekBench 4.4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A71
  7039
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  7008
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  6999
• Realme X2
  6926
• Ulefone Armor 7
  6913
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  6017
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  5620
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5401
• Honor 9X
  5345

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Realme X2
  1750
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  1733
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  1692
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  1622
• Ulefone Armor 7
  1476
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1294

The single-core performance is somewhat mediocre, but we didn't have high expectations either.

GeekBench 4.4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  2558
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  2536
• Realme X2
  2508
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  2472
• Ulefone Armor 7
  2018
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  1905
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  1668
• Honor 9X
  1559
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  1519

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  548
• Realme X2
  545
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  542
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  493
• Ulefone Armor 7
  380
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  347

The PowerVR GM 9446 GPU posted rather uninspiring scores on the graphic tests. It is a bit more powerful than the Exynos 9611 and Kirin 710 GPUs but shows the lackluster performance when compared to the Snapdragon 730, Helio G90, or even the Snapdragon 712.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A71
  27
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  27
• Realme X2
  24
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  24
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  24
• Ulefone Armor 7
  18
• Honor 9X
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  8.9

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A71
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  15
• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  14
• Realme X2
  13
• Ulefone Armor 7
  7.5
• Honor 9X
  6.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  5.9
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5.6

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  10
• Realme X2
  9.2
• Ulefone Armor 7
  5.9
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  5.6

Finally, when AnTuTu combines the good CPU and mediocre GPU scores, among other tests, it puts the Helio P90 just between the leading G90 and S730 chips and the aging Exynos 9611, Snapdragon 675 and Kirin 710.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  224759
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  218200
• Realme X2
  215578
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  192458
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  180057
• Ulefone Armor 7
  163017
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  141077
• Honor 9X
  140362
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  113051

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Redmi Note 8 Pro
  279355
• Xiaomi Redmi K30
  272229
• Samsung Galaxy A71
  263396
• Realme X2
  257443
• Ulefone Armor 7
  216770
• Honor 9X
  187528
• Samsung Galaxy A51
  175363
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 8T
  167395

The Ulefone Armor 7 offers more than enough punch to handle flawlessly everything you throw at it but games. Gaming is very much possible, too, but the GPU isn't best equipped to make for a smooth and hiccup-free experience. Still, the Armor 7 is no gaming phone, so we can live with that.