Ulefone Future: Side bezels? What is that?

Ulefone is not a very well known brand, but the company has put out some good-looking and well-priced smartphones in the last few months. Unlike most Chinese brands who go solo in distributing phones, Ulefone has decided to tie up with various 3rd party retailers and is promoting international sales of its devices. This means customers around the globe will have little or no issues buying from a trusted vendor. The manufacturer has lately announced its newest smartphone, the Ulefone Future, which strikes a good balance between price and performance.

Design

The first thing you’ll notice about this phone is, err.. there are no side bezels, enhancing the “infinity pool” effect of the 5.5-inch 1,920 x 1,080 resolution display with curved edges. Thanks to the bezel-less design, the device manages to hit a 75% screen-to-body ratio, giving it a rather compact footprint — 5.96 x 2.89 x 0.34 in (151.5 x 73.5 x 8.6mm). The body is fully metal, except for the plastic strips at the back. The hardware buttons are all placed on the right, including the volume rocker, a power button, and an autonomous fingerprint scanner, which is located slightly below the power button. While the biometric sensor and power key weren’t combined, users will still be able to wake the phone up just by placing their finger on the fingerprint scanner.

Hardware + Software + Camera

The Ulefone Future holds a 2 GHz, octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 SoC with an ARM Mali-T860 GPU, a massive 4 GB of RAM, 32 GB of expandable internal storage, a USB Type-C port, and a 3,000 mAh battery, which can be charged from 0% to 100% in just 1 hour via the stock wall-plug charger.

The device runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and the manufacturer promises that it offers pure, vanilla experience with no extra re-skinning, so a snappy performance is expected.

The primary camera has an F2.0 aperture lens and is equipped with a 16 MP Samsung-made S5K3P3 sensor. The sensor features 1.0 μm pixels, which makes the sensor more compact, making it easier to fit in thinner camera modules. It also features Samsung’s ISOCELL technology, which places physical barriers between individual pixels to eradicate colour crosstalk. This camera also has phase detection autofocus and a dual-tone LED flash. On the front, there is a 5 MP secondary camera.

Coming to cellular connectivity, the Ulefone Future can work on  GSM 850, 900, 1800 (band 5, band 8, band 3), WCDMA 900, 2100 (band 8, band 1), FDD-LTE 800, 1800, 2100, 2600 (band 20, band 3, band 1, band 7), and TDD-LTE 2300 (band 40). It is recommended to check with your carrier for compatibility if you plan on buying this handset.

Price and availability

The Ulefone Future is now available for pre-purchase for $239.99 at Gearbest with free shipping for a batch of 30,000 units, each bundled with a set of accessories, such as a TPU cover, screen protector, a fast-charge wallplug, and a Type-C to micro USB converter. The presales will end on June 15 and the phones will be shipped out after that. Whenever buying such an exotic handset, it’s also a good idea to see if it supports the bands of your carrier.

Hurry and get yourself one now as from the 25th of May, the Future will retail for its full price of $269.99.

Get it on Gearbest in the following colours: Gray | Golden