I really don’t have a proper introduction for this video. So, let’s just get into it. This is the UleFone RugKing 4 Pro that was released about 2 months ago. This phone is… well, it’s not your typical smartphone. By just looking at the design of this phone, you already know that this is a tank phone made for ruggedness.
But this phone is not just made to be tough to withstand drops and the elements. It even has a superbly massive 10,200mAh battery and also has a lot of special features too.
Design
Just look at the phone. There is so much padding around the entire phone and it is made out of multiple different materials. The outermost shell is made out of a rubbery material that absorbs shock if it’s dropped, and there’s another inner shell made out of a hard material. In this case, it’s mostly orange color and this camo design.
By the way, this phone is available in all-black color as well. We just so happen it have it in the orange color.
This phone is so protected that the screen has a raised lip around the perimeter so that the screen will not get scratched even if we drag it on the table.
Even the camera bump has a raised lip as well! It’s just very well-protected all throughout.
Screen
But let’s go back to talk about the screen. This screen… looks like it’s straight up from 2018, as those were the years when we had waterdrop notch designs on phones. The bezels are not the thinnest, especially the top and the bottom, but that’s okay.
This UleFone RugKing 4 Pro is using a 6.56-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 1612×720 pixels in resolution, and also goes up to 120Hz refresh rate. The screen quality is actually quite okay.
The maximum brightness that we can get from this screen is around 677 nits, and the color gamut coverage is pretty decent as well. I mean, 90% of sRGB at a ΔE number of around 0.55 average is actually very decent.
I have to highlight 1 big thing. This screen has a pretty bad pixel response time. Even at 120Hz refresh rate, it will have some pretty bad smearing when I’m scrolling through any apps or menus, even the settings menu.
Performance
And that leads us to the performance. The UleFone RugKing 4 Pro comes with the Unisoc T7250 chipset. It’s an interesting choice for sure, but also understandable given the price point of this device and what it is aimed to do.
I mean, this phone is not meant to be a top performer in any sort of way, but it still provide a pretty good experience using the commonly-used apps. I mean, even if we’re working in a construction site or whatever, we can still play some simple games on this phone rather smoothly. PUBG for example, runs quite good here. Even COD Mobile runs fine. Yeah, those two games are not really that demanding and they run at 720p resolution by default anyway. We’ll talk more about this in another video.
Battery life
Another main highlight of this phone is that 10,200mAh battery. I’m not sure what’s the watthour value, but if we assume it’s at 3.8V, then it’s going to be around 38Wh. That’s a huge battery capacity and that means it can last for at least two days with a single charge, right?
Well, not exactly. You see, that Unisoc T7250 isn’t exactly the most power-efficient chipset and in our standardized battery life test, it can only last around 28 hours and 24 minutes. I definitely expected more since modern chipsets with 30% less battery capacity than this phone can last for around the same time too. It just goes to show that the chipset efficiency plays a big role in terms of the total amount of usage time with a single battery charge.
Charging speed
The charging speed is going to be annoying to some people. You see, even when this Ulefone RugKing 4 Pro comes with such a humongous battery capacity, it only comes with an 18W charger in the box. Now, I personally don’t mind since I charge my devices overnight anyway, so I don’t really mind that the phone takes around 150 minutes to charge from 15% to completion. The temperature looks scary, but that’s okay since it’s still below 60°C. And this phone is practically covered in insulation by the way, that’s why the temperature is high.
Since this phone is meant to be water-resistant, the USB-C port is protected by a rubber flap too. Not just any typical rubber flap, mind you – it’s an EXTRA THICC one. So thicc to the point that it’s kinda not that easy to remove. And Ulefone knows that, which is why there are two pogo pins beside the USB-C port.
Those pins are for this accessory. Yes, a charging dock. It reminds me of the days of cordless phones at home back in the days – I know my age is showing – and it works the same way too. Just plug in the dock to the charger, and then we can just plop the phone on the dock and it’ll start charging.
This way of charging will take an even longer time, more than 5 hours to complete the charging. That’s because this dock only outputs a total of 10W at most. I mean, it makes sense since we’ll be just docking the phone and letting it charge overnight anyway. We can even daisy chain it since there is an output port as well, but that means it’ll take forever to charge the device.
And lastly, if we use our own USB-PD PPS charger, it’s practically the same as the stock charger, so nothing out of the ordinary there. 18W is literally the maximum wattage it can take.
Software
The software is where things get interesting. I just want to get it out of the way first – this phone is using Android 15 out of the box and it’s pretty much stock Android. We have a fingerprint scanner embedded on the power button at the right side, but the button is very mushy and literally has no tactility. Most of the time, I don’t even realize that I have pressed on it.
The left side has a textured button that also does not have any tactility, but defaults to an app called Zello. Yeah, it’s a walkie-talkie app. If you use that, then great. If not, we can remap this to do something else or even open an app.
The list of “easy shuttle” actions are actually embedded into the system itself and it can perform more than just turning on the flashlight on and off, for example. Pressing it once can toggle the brightness, and double-pressing can change the mode too. Other “easy shuttle” actions have similar multi-layered actions too.
There is another list of special features that I personally think is useful for certain people like this one, where you can answer calls with the fingerprint scanner instead of touching the screen. Freaking useful for those who is unable to swipe to answer the call when I’m hammering something, for example.
Other than that, the software here is pretty basic. It works, has some special features, and that’s about it. No bloatware, by the way.
Camera
Now, the cameras. I mean, it’s nothing special. We have one camera here and it can take some pictures that look like this. I mean, it works – and that’s about it.
To have a look at all the pictures taken with the Ulefone RugKing 4 Pro, watch the video at the top of this review.
Extra features
And this Ulefone RugKing 4 Pro also supports two SIM cards and a microSD card slot too. All of them are hidden inside this flap, and we have to pull out this metal tab to access them.
Also, it does have NFC as well. We can install Google Wallet and make payments that way. I mean, it makes sense. We don’t have to touch any cash to make payments.
Of course, this phone is MIL-STD-810H certified, and also rated for IP68 and IP69K. It also features an underwater camera mode, allowing us to take pictures with the buttons only.
Should you buy the Ulefone RugKing 4 Pro?
So, who should buy the Ulefone RugKing 4 Pro? Why does this phone exist? Well, the first thing that comes into my mind are construction workers. Seriously, it’s perfect for that use case. First, the left side button can work as a walkie-talkie, so you can beep your mates to come help you out, and also able to answer calls with just one hand and don’t have to touch the screen at all. Also, dropping this phone is not really an issue since the entire phone is made like a tank anyway.
This phone is actually very affordable. Officially, this phone is priced at $210 USD only and the charging dock bundle is at $260 USD.
Honestly, this phone is definitely not for everyone, but it is really great for those who need a phone that can survive drops, water, and whatnot.
I gotta say, reviewing this device opened my eyes to a brand new category of rugged phones. And I mean literally rugged phones, not those pretentious ones.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
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