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I switched to a 4.7-inch Android phone for a week, and it felt like a blast from the past
The Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro is a refreshing throwback to small-screen, candy bar phones - and a reminder of why they're no longer popular.
Tech
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Tech
Smartphones
I switched to a 4.7-inch Android phone for a week, and it felt like a blast from the past
The Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro is a refreshing throwback to small-screen, candy bar phones - and a reminder of why they're no longer popular.
[adrian-kingsley-hughes]
Written by
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor
Senior Contributing Editor
Feb. 28, 2026 at 3:10 a.m. PT
ZDNET's key takeaways
- The Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro is available now for $350.
- This candy bar-sized smartphone is a blast from the past with a large battery and very good durability.
- Its small display takes some getting used to.
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Over the past decade or so, smartphone makers -- I'm looking at you, Apple -- have conditioned us to think that a smartphone needs to be a big slab of glass. "If the screen isn't at least six inches in size, it's not a real smartphone!" While activities such as web browsing, content consumption, and gaming certainly benefit from a larger screen, not everyone needs a tablet-sized phone.
Sometimes smaller is better.
Also: 10 tiny gadgets I carry with me everywhere - and you might want to, too
The Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro goes back to the days of the small screens and candy bar-shaped handsets that slip easily into a pocket. And I have to say that there's something to be said for having a smaller phone. Especially because small doesn't mean fragile, as this phone goes to show.
[Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro tech specs]
[#### ZDNET RECOMMENDS
Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro
A palm-sized 5G smartphone that's built to survive. ](https://cc.zdnet.com/v1/otc/00hQi47eqnEWQ6T9d4QLBUc?merchant=05kie42h3YvHwjr4G1w80Qq&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FUlefone-Armor-Mini-20T-Pro%2Fdp%2FB0DJ76JKLJ&app_deeplink=1)
details
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The Armor Mini 20 Pro is 5.26 inches in length and 2.49 inches wide, which makes it seem tiny next to the iPhone. That is, until you pick it up and realize it's 0.98 inches thick and 10.6 ounces (over half a pound) in weight. It's a hefty lump for sure, but it has to be when you see what's inside.
It features a 4.7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels, a 373 pixel-per-inch density and a 90Hz refresh rate, which makes it very easy on the eyes and comfortable to use, despite being very much on the petite side.
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Inside is a Mediatek Dimensity 6300 chipset featuring an octa-core 2.4 GHz processor and Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. Supporting this is 8GB of physical RAM (preconfigured to add another 8GB of virtual RAM) and 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage. If you need more storage, the TF-card slot will accept microSD cards up to 2TB.
[This might be small, but its chunky!]
This might be small, but its chunky!
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET *
The unit was shipped with Android 14, but Ulefone pushed an Android 15 update to it, which made it feel smoother and faster. This was a nice touch.
Powering everything is a 6,200 mAh battery, which is a substantial cell for such a compact handset, and this supports 33W wired charging and has support for 15W wireless charging. It can also act as a 5W power bank thanks to the reverse charging feature. The phone can browse the web of play movies for 22 hours on a single charge, and has a massive 14 day standby.
[The 50-megapixel main camera is surprisingly good, and perfect for social media snaps, photos for reports, and scanning documents.]
The 50-megapixel main camera is surprisingly good, and perfect for social media snaps, photos for reports, and scanning documents.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET *
[...]