[General Topics] clewis.it:
Hello. I'm planning to use this thread to document modifications and development for the Ulefone Armor 26 Ultra. This is Ulefone's first "Flagship" phone. This is also my first time owning a new flagship phone, so someone else will have to tell us how it stacks up against a similar Samsung or Google offering.

The Good

The specs on the phone are really good.

Dimensity 8020 chipset

Android 13

4 rear cameras (200MP main, Night Vision, Telephoto, Ultra Wide)

5G technology

IR Blaster

Really loud speaker

Doesn't need wired headphones for FM Radio (Finally!)

Walkie Talkie version is true Dual Band VHF/UHF. 1W low power, 4W+ high power (my power meter shows 6W at high power on both bands. Very impressive.)

It's cheap (around $400 USD)

It's fast

No tools necessary to change SIM card/micro SD card.

SIM tray can hold 2 SIM cards and the micro-SD card all at the same time.

Supported by MtkClient

You can still use the USB port while the Walkie Talkie feature is active.

Walkie Talkie audio doesn't interrupt other audio streams (you can decide if this is good or bad based on your own requirements)

Walkie talkie starts transmitting after holding the PTT button for about a quarter of a second. Just enough to register as a long-press of the PTT button. This is the first phone I have seen do this out of the box. Good job Ulefone!

The Bad

Probably won't get upgraded to newer Android versions.

Has some odd apps included that can't be disabled.

Battery life isn't as good as expected for a phone advertised as 15,600mAh.

Walkie Talkie:

Odd design choice of shipping separate VHF and UHF antennas instead of providing a single dual band antenna. Be careful, if you transmit with the wrong antenna connected, you risk burning out the walkie talkie module.

While receiving a signal, the channel selectors don't work. You can go to the channel list and activate another channel, but the arrow buttons on the main screen do not work.

For DMR, there is a place to enter contact names and group names, but there is no selection list on the channel edit screen.

For DMR, the main screen does not show the contact information for the signal being received. It's 2024 and all DMR radios can do this, why not Ulefone?

Some words are still misspelled (Aanlog, Digtal). No biggie, but irritating that they didn't fix this after I notified them of the same misspellings on the Armor 20WT.

While VHF and UHF are both supported, there is no support for cross-band communication (transmit on VHF and receive on UHF). This would have been useful for amateur radio operators that work satellites.

The Ugly

Ulefone used to be really good about posting their firmware files. Unfortunately, it seems like Google has closed down all their Drive accounts, so firmware files are no longer available for download. This makes rooting more difficult (but not impossible).

While the phone is advertised as having a 15,600mAh battery, it is misleading. The phone has a 7,800mAh battery, but it runs at 7.4V. Technically this would give you the same Watt/Hours as a 15,600mAh battery running at the normal 3.7V that most phones have, but it doesn't seem to translate to longer battery life.

To Do List

Bootloader Unlock and Root instructions

GSI installation instructions

Custom Recovery

Modified Walkie Talkie app (or custom app)

Let's see where this takes us.