Atom - Small & Rugged 4G Smartphone

I've owned this phone for a few years now and have had very few issues with it. I dropped it for the first time while sweeping my kitchen today and the speakers immediately stopped working. Any claims about this device being rugged are sadly false. I loved this phone and I'm genuinely bummed and disappointed to see this.

i got my atom last september 2023, as a secondary phone for my iphone 13 mini. i had my eyes on the jelly star, but decided to go for the rugged Atom, as i know i would not have access to spare parts or repair it if something broke ( in my country), i found someone selling it online, and they got it while abroad.bought it right away, and i loved it from the very beginning, kept going between both phones for different environments and circumstances. but weeks ago, i started to transfer my whats app to this phone, and ditch my iphone in the drawer for a while because i wanted a social media detox ( the atom has all the social media apps but it's not as easy browsing them as on normal phones which is just what i needed) . and i could't be happier now!
pros:
-good battery. i charge it when it's 40% once a day, because it's better for the battery on the long run.
-camera: i LOVE the simple camera specially that i only use (OpenCamera) app. i fiddled around with the settings and knew how best to use them. and i'm really in love with the artistic simple output. sometimes what you need is the bare minimum to let your creativity flow. because i was sooo sick of the overly processed images of all the new phones. plus i already have a mirrorless camera. unlike most reviews i'm happy with it.
-bluetooth is great. sometimes it cuts a bit but only with my bluetooth earphones, and can't maintain a connection with my garmin watch. but with jbl speakers and car it's perfect.
-swype typing on this thing is a breeeze. normal typing is not great.
-loudspeakers are loudd. music is okay if instrumental and acoustic, but something like rock or many equipments create distortion.
-my first android phone (iphone user since 2014) and i'm not really bothered from the bloatware as it is minimal. and the tool box apps that came from unihertz are greatt.
-maintains calls very well even in bad network areas. ( my iphone dropped calls in the same place, that the atom maintained it perfectly! and several times with both so no coincidence here)
-that LED that blinks if i have messages or calls is super useful. as i don't have to open the phone every now and then to see if i got msgs or missed calls. VERY useful and awesome.
-the fact that the phone does not wake up when the screen is touched. (love it)
-fingerprint sensor works great with me, along with facial recognition.
-phone is snappy and fast, rarely rarely have hickups. ( i don't play games or watch stuff on it).
-headphone jack ( use it alot to reduce bluetooth usage, so the battery stays longer)
-final and favorite feature: The Radiooo. i just love the presence of an FM radio on my phone like in old days.

cons:
-google maps (specially car directions) is very hard to see as the UI was created for bigger screens. i have to use the audio to know where to go.
-sometimes the gps signal is not correct, or struggles to update. i think i have to recallibrate the phone sometimes.
-android auto is not pre-installed. i have to download it from google play and it's not available in my country. i managed to find an APK but a couple of months later it was outdated and did not want to start the app at all :(
-speaker in calls ( on the lowest setting) is still a bit loud to me.
-video in camera needed stabilization.
-lowest brightness is still too bright for me in nighttime.
-adaptive brightness does not work perfectly most of the times.
-i don't use dual sim so i wished the other empty tray area could've been used for an SD card expansion.

finally, UNIHERTZ, please, a special request. make a new version of this phone. updated hardware and software. while keeping the exact same dimensions. and i'll be the first to buy it! because really the Atom has everything i need in a phone, and the most important one of them is it's size, and durability, and hopefully the next one will be with a user replaceable battery.

Highly recommend the Atom for people who want a phone that (phones) , keeps them connected, and has all the main utility apps we can't stop using in our life now ( uber, maps, music streaming, NFC, and all that)

The Unihertz Atom is a pocket marvel, as it manages to have the function of a capable smartphone in a tiny form factor. You get a great, pocketable device that has good performance. 4gb of ram and a helio p23 processor make this device very snappy. Because the screen is so small (about 2.4") it doesn't need a lot of processing power to render the pixels on screen.

Everything works as it should, the phone is running android oreo, so is fairly up to date. It has 64gb storage (no micro SD card support sadly, but the 64gb is nice in this price range). The phone is running virtually stock android, with a few additional apps added by Unihertz, which are ideal for outdoor working or activities (It is a rugged phone after all).

The phone has a 2000mah battery. This battery while not amazing, should get you through a day and possibly two or more days if you are a frugal user. The most I managed was 4 days, but that requires you to switch off a lot of background apps and put the phone in battery saver mode and airplane mode overnight. Over two days with moderate to heavy usage I was able to get about 6 hours screen on time. The battery was down to about 8% at that point. The problem is the phone loses a fair bit of charge in standby. You can mitigate this by turning WiFi and/or mobile data off when you're not using it and turning on the battery saver. Overall I think the battery life is decent especially considering the battery capacity. It also charges quite quickly. At just over an hour for me from 15%-100% using the supplied charger. (I didn't get a three pin adapter with the phone, but bought a 3 pin travel adapter that works fine.)

The camera is probably the phone's weakest point, although I use it all the time. You can get quite decent pictures from the camera in good light. It's also quite fast at taking the picture. HDR mode really helps with landscape shots, making the colours pop. Or you can use your favourite image editing app to adjust the colours later. I use Snapseed for this. The camera sometimes has a focusing issue where the picture or video looks blurry. When this happens it best to re-adjust the angle until the image in the camera viewer looks clearer. Low light images are not great so avoid taking pictures in these conditions if you can. You also need to try and keep your hands steady as it will blur the picture otherwise.

Video can also can good as long as the lighting is sufficient and you check for any blurry focusing issues. The biggest problem with capturing video is the lack of image stabilization, so you will need steady hands to avoid a jerky video. If the video isn't too shaky, you can improve it by using the stabilise feature in the Google Photos app.

Despite the camera's faults, because of the phone's small size, it is convenient to take out of your pocket and take a quick photo or video at a moment's notice. I don't think the camera is terrible, because you can get some really nice pictures. It's just getting used to the quirks. (See some of my pictures attached)

The rear mounted speaker on this phone is actually quite loud. I was surprised how loud it goes! It can sound a bit tinny at high volumes, but you should have no problem hearing it in noisy environments. The phone also has a headphone jack which is very useful if you only have wired headphones or require an aux connection to a speaker or car sound system.

Phone calls sounded clear enough to me and WiFi is generally reliable. The phone is 4g capable and works well for me using an ee SIM. I did notice the phone heats up quite a bit when using mobile data for a while, so you might want to be careful leaving mobile data enabled for long periods.

Gaming is certainly possible on this phone, but the tiny screen makes it very hard to play games effectively. I stick to the ones requiring few onscreen controls. Crashy Cats is one I play a lot and while it is a bit harder to see what's going on, you do get used to it.

The keyboard is also tiny, so expect to make a few typos when using it. You do get used to it with time, or you can use swipe gesture keyboard controls or even voice controls using the Google assistant. It might also help you to put the phone in landscape mode while typing, as the keys will be spaced wider apart.

Fingerprint and face unlock are the two main security methods. I have set up both. The fingerprint scanner is great when it works, but often doesn't, I think because it just too small for your finger. I use my thumbs to unlock and the successe rate is about 6/10. Face unlock is quite reliable, but the default use requires you to first press the power button and then look at the screen to unlock. You can't unlock the phone when the display is off using this method, whereas you can with the fingerprint sensor.

I like the fact that the phone has notification LEDs. You can change these in the settings and have a red, blue or green light for different notifications. I found that reall...

super quality

I used the atom for 2+ years, loved it, even went back to using it a couple of times. 5 stars