Rugged minis aren’t like your regular smartphone minis. For one, they’re not truly mini. This is the Ulefone Armor Mini 20T Pro and it’s just 133.5mm tall and 63.3mm wide, but at 24.9mm thick it’s nearly three times thicker than your typical smartphone these days.
But if you’re reading this, chances are you’re not interested in regular phones. And the Ulefone Armor Mini 20T Pro has a niche all to its own.
It has a niche all to its own. It’s a fully rugged phone – drop-tested on concrete from up to 2 meters, IP68 and IP69K certified, and compliant with the MIL-STD-810H rating, and can work at -20° C. But it’s also much smaller than its rugged peers with a 4.7-inch 720p display covered by Gorilla Glass Victus. Yet, it still has the huge battery we’ve come to expect from rugged phones – 6,200mAh. And yes, it has a thermal camera too.
What’s more – it has a few LEDs on the back, but we’ll get to those right after we do an unboxing.
Ulefone ships the Armor Mini 20T Pro with a 33W USB-C charger, a USB-C cable, a lanyard, and a tempered glass protector (there’s a plastic one already applied on the phone). There isn’t a case in the box, but you really don’t need one. There’s an optional case clip that lets you wear the Armor Mini 20T Pro as a body camera.
The FLIR thermal camera has the highest resolution for the technology at 160×120, a wider 57° horizontal field of view, and a measurable range of -10° to 450°C.
Of course there’s a Flir camera on board!
The camera on the back has a 50MP 1/1.31″ imager with an f/2.0 aperture. There’s a dual LED flash underneath for your regular flash needs but also an impressive LED polygon surrounding the camera island that’s much more potent.
It has a few power modes with the full-on being super bright. It could be indispensable in the dark.
And it doesn’t stop there. There are two extra diodes sandwiched between the polygonal LED – a blue and red one that can act as a warning light, blink like a police car, or run constantly.
The Armor Mini 20T Pro is the most fun phone in the dark!
All of the lights
Specs-wise, this $450/€420 phone is alright. It runs Android 14 and the 6nm MediaTek Dimensity 600 with 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. It also packs an extra key, which you can customize to your liking.
