Hands on with the Ulefone Paris


ulefone paris review

What drops on my lap just as I am about to call it a day? That’s right none other than the latest Ulefone Paris! So before I leave here are some hands on photos and a few details of the budget smartphone.

Ulefone’s vision for the Ulefone Paris is it to be a balanced all-rounder. They say that they have the design, build, specifications, camera and performance all perfectly balanced to give the best user experience for the money.

It’s way to early to tell if Ulefone have managed what they claim, but I can tell you it is certainly a pretty phone.

Ulefone Paris Hands On

At 5-inch it s a small and compact device (in comparison to most phone these days that is) The small 1280 x 720 5-inch form factor is complimented with a thin, tapered alloy chassis and beautiful curved 2.5D glass panel. The 2.5D glass panel is the first design feature that jumps out at you and really lends an air of quality to the budget phone. It’s also a bonus that the panel is tough Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

ulefone paris review

The alloy chassis is similar to the design found on the Ulefone Be Touch, which in turn is similar to that on the Meizu MX4, only it is much thinner on the Ulefone Paris giving an overall thickness of 8mm. The full numbers are 144.5 x 71.7 x 8.0mm with a weight of 128g.

ulefone paris review

Getting at the removable Sony 2250mAh battery, dual SIM slots and micro SD card reader means pulling off the rear plastic panel. The panel also has a cut out for the rear Omnivision OV13580 13 mega-pixel camera with F1.8 aperture, and the single LED flash. Omnivision also supply the front OV5648 5 mega-pixel camera.

Hardware features on the Ulefone Paris are right on spec for budget phone. The processor is an octacore Mediatek MT6753 1.3Ghz SoC, with ARM Mali T720 GPU, 2GB RAM and 16GB memory (the SD slot takes 128GB cards). All that hardware runs Android 5.1 with Ulefone’s own U Launcher. Although its called the U Launcher it looks stock and the only differences from stock I can see so far are the addition of the off-screen gestures and a three finger screenshot gesture.

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Ulefone Paris Hands On – Gallery

Ulefone Paris Hands On – Specifications

Model: Ulefone Paris
Sim Card:
  • Dual sim dual standby, 2 x Micro SIM
Color:  Metal Gray / Silk White
Capacity RAM: 2GB LPDDR3 RAM 1866MHZ

ROM: 16GB EMMC (SD card Up to 128GB)

Multi-Languages Multiple Languages
Chipset 64Bit MTK MT6753 processor Octa core 1.3GHz CPU

ARM Mali T720 GPU

System Android 5.1 Lollipop
Screen Display Size:5.0 inch

Resolution: HD 720*1280

Type: On-cell IPS LTPS, full Lamination (2.5D Arc screen)

Material:Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3

Camera Rear Camera:  13MP Omnivision OV13850 F1.8 Aperture

Front Camera:  5.0MP (OmniVision OV5648)

Video:1080P,720P

Network and Wireless Connectivity 4G: FDD – LTE 800/1800/2100/2600(band1,band3,band7,band20)

3G: 900/2100 (band1,band8)

2G: 850/900/1800/1900 (band2,band3,band5,band8)

WIFI : WiFi802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi 2.4GHz

GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS

Hall Effect Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Touch Sensor, Digital Compass, OTG

Bluetooth: V4.0

Battery capacity and life Non-removable SONY 2250mAh lithium-ion Polymer Battery

Standby Time: About 268 Hours

Others: USB2.0,support OTG

3.5 mm headphone jack

Sensor Hall Effect Sensor, Gravity Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Touch Sensor, Digital Compass, OTG
 
Multi-media  Supported Video formats:

MP4,3GP,MOV,MKV,AVI,FLV,MPEG

Supported Audio formats: 

AAC,FLAC,APE,MKA,OGG,MIDI,M4A,AMR

Size Dimensions: 144.5 x 71.7 x 8.0mm

Net Weight:  128g(with battery)

Ulefone Paris Hands On

ulefone paris review

That’s all for this hands on. I’ll play around with the Ulefone Paris and right up a review soon. If you have any questions about this budget $129.99 smartphone let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them.

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49 Comments

  1. Muhammad Yasir
    October 2, 2015

    lets hope this is ulefone’s big break !

    • King
      October 3, 2015

      Unless you buy it, it won’t be big… even if they sell millions of these. 😉

      • Muhammad Yasir
        October 3, 2015

        awww !

    • Tajwar
      October 3, 2015

      And they could use a contribution from u : )

  2. MaxPower
    October 2, 2015

    I’m in love with the look of this phone, and it seems well built too.

    Ulefone became what was Jiayu few years ago.
    A company that makes good looking solid phones and price them well.

    I hope they will show us soon that they can make high end phones as well.

    (BTW…Hey Jiayu,it has been a year since your last phone!! are you guys still in business?)

    • balcobomber25
      October 2, 2015

      You and me both I think it looks excellent and for a budget phone the specs are excellent. I thought it was a typo when I saw 1.8 aperture camera, thats better than most flagships.

      • MaxPower
        October 2, 2015

        don’t forget gorilla glass:
        very unusual for this category.

        • david
          October 4, 2015

          Mr Max power
          xiaomi redmi note 2 or ulefone paris??
          which is better choise ???

          • MaxPower
            October 4, 2015

            two great phones, i would recommend both to anyone.
            they are in my opinion the best value phones of 2015.

            despite the same price range they are two different phones so one might work better for me while the other might work better for someone else.

            main difference: size.
            5″ vs 5.5″
            that’s should be enough to decide which one is better for you.

            if you haven’t made your mind yet then i would say go for the Ulefone if you are not a power user and you want a compact well-built phone with a good camera.

            Go with the Redmi Note 2 if you like big phones, with better performance and i would add a better software experience.

      • MattD
        October 3, 2015

        Yeah, aperture looks great, but let’s see how it performs… And if it is actually real: back then umi zero was announced with a 1.8 too, but we all know it was fake… Although i don’t think Ulephone is going to lie about specs anytime soon, after they admitted the truth about the camera of their other device (the be pro, i think?) having 8mpx interpoleted OV camera, not a 13mpx sony one… So, let’s wait and see!

        • balcobomber25
          October 3, 2015

          If they are really using that OV sensor and if they optimize it for their phone it should be very good.

      • Steve B
        October 3, 2015

        Cubot X9 claimed rear (and even front) f/1.8 aperture, didn’t help for them, but that was probably interpolated IMX 179, this hopefully true 13mp OV unit should be better starting point.

        • balcobomber25
          October 3, 2015

          With Cubot it was probably mostly software related, I have used a few Cubots and everyone had a terrible camera despite having good hardware inside.

          • Steve B
            October 3, 2015

            I see they’ve started using Dongwoon Anatech modules in recent releases. Interesting move.

    • MattD
      October 3, 2015

      Yeah, it looks stunning, just like it was the be touch (according to my taste, of course :D)
      It has nice features, but let’s see how it performs… Like: camera is promising, battery isn’t, but it could turns out to have bad camera sw on one hand, and to have good battery life on the other thanks to soc and screen combo… So I’m curious to see real life performance, although i’m wondering if the sw will be the final one by the time Andi’s review will come out

      • MaxPower
        October 3, 2015

        on paper it looks terrific (for the price range), and I’m confident it won’t be terrible in real life.
        i have a good opinion about ulefone.

  3. newphenix
    October 2, 2015

    MT6753 supports single channel 800MHZ RAM, Why use 1866MHZ (933MHZ double channel)

  4. ST Ammo
    October 2, 2015

    Hi, Andi
    Can you comment it’s camera? I’ve asked Ulefone about it, they said that last week they were doing some camera updates and will post night photo samples, but I think all are selabrating national day 🙂

    Please say your comments about:
    – night photo quality (exposure, noise, colors)
    – sound cancellation in videos (is sound clear if there is VERY noisy environment)
    – video quality at night (light, details quality, focus on object, is there any lag)

    Thank you

    • Martin Lekx
      October 3, 2015

      yes, please test the camera well. Also, how fast does it take multiple pictures after each other?
      Thanks!

  5. jimberkas
    October 2, 2015

    sounds promising. wish it had a bit bigger battery though.

    • balcobomber25
      October 2, 2015

      With a 720p and 6753 it will get very good battery life.

  6. Hieu Nguyen
    October 3, 2015

    Purchased a white one for mother in law and hoping it ships out soon. UleFone seems to be having stock shortage issues and additional delays being caused by Chinese national holidays.

  7. fido futte
    October 3, 2015

    To expensive – you can now get an 5,5″FHD/MT6752/3Gb/16Gb/16Mp/fingerprint scanner phone at same price !

    • VMortens
      October 3, 2015

      It’s not just the content that’s important!
      The market lacks good 5 inchers now. In my opinion it’s the right shot by Ulefone here. Band 20 supported – great. They don’t say a word bout NFC and IRDA and these would be nice to have too. Battery should be 2500mAh if they aim for a hit.
      Pricing is right, but surely they could add bit more features in this range.

      • fido futte
        October 3, 2015

        Also Paris have problems with colors on display, which is yellow tinted , and camera picture colors does not look right – maybe it will be fix on next firmware version

        • Jan
          October 3, 2015

          How do you know?

    • Andrew P
      October 3, 2015

      Specifications are no more the most important thing.

      Optimisation is what going to make companies fall or rise in the next years.

    • RoS
      October 3, 2015

      Show me phone with that spec for 130$

  8. fido futte
    October 3, 2015

    Andi what about Doogee F3 which has the same spec as Paris ?

  9. Michal Špaček
    October 3, 2015

    in stock in your shop?reallly? pls quick review mostly front and rear camera thx thx very much….

    • Jan
      October 3, 2015

      Banggood.com also has it in stock. They shipped mine three days ago.

      • Mario Pruteanu
        October 3, 2015

        How long does the shipping from I banggood take? Please help as I ordered too and don’t know when my Jiayu s3 will get here.

        • Jan
          October 3, 2015

          It depends on the shipping method you choose. If Priority Direct Mail is available for your country, it usually takes only 10 days to arrive.

          • Mario Pruteanu
            October 3, 2015

            Thanks for the quick reply, but what about registered airmail, its like 41cents and I’m in Ireland

            • Jan
              October 3, 2015

              I can only tell you that registered airmail takes about 3-4 weeks to Germany. I think to Ireland it should be the same.

            • Mario Pruteanu
              October 3, 2015

              Thanks jan

  10. Robbie
    October 3, 2015

    OV13850 is the same camera chip as it was used at Jiayu G4-S,T,C..wasn´t so bad,but it had an aperture f2.2..so dunno if the article is correct

    • MattD
      October 3, 2015

      Aperture isn’t standard, so same sensors could have different aperture depending on companys’ choices!

  11. Henry
    October 3, 2015

    Anyone able to check with this phone supports bluetooth low energy?

    • Tajwar
      October 3, 2015

      Yes it has Bluetooth 4.0 which is good

  12. crappkid
    October 5, 2015

    Why would you choose this over Meizu M2 Note which costs the same?

    • tingeling21
      October 5, 2015

      Meizu M2 Note no B20 (800MHz) LTE
      Meizu M2 Note no stock Android, but Flyme OS
      Meizu M2 Note 5.5 inch vs Ulefone Paris 5 inch
      Meizu M2 Camera F/2.0 vs Ulefone Paris F/1.8

      • mikey
        October 6, 2015

        double price.

  13. Steven
    October 7, 2015

    Hi Andi, have you got any more impressions on the phone or how long a review will take? There are little to no reviews on it online. Thanks

    • mikey
      October 7, 2015

      couldn’t wait…. just ordered.
      black was in stock but i wait for white till end of week.
      is for my wife
      normal was my p6000 for my wife and i would buy a high spec phone….was waiting for bluboo xtouch but lot of rumors but no real phone

      • Steven
        October 7, 2015

        I’m hoping it will come soon. Either from Andi or from the reviewer in the youtube video below. I had expected some people to start receiving theirs by now and reviewing

  14. atsi
    October 11, 2015

    Waiting for camera review