Xiaomi’s Mi Mix might not have been the perfect smartphone, but its near bezel-less screen that took up almost all of the front of the device gave us a small and satisfying glimpse into the future of what is possible with smartphone design. Fellow Chinese manufacturer Ulefone hopes to make that same impression with the F1, which was announced just as Mobile World Congress began getting off the ground.
At first blush, the F1 looks strikingly similar to the Mi Mix in that the top and side bezels have been reduced to almost nothing. Because of this, the front camera needed to be moved to the bottom bezel, so pictures taken with the F1 might look up your nose a bit more than you would like.
That does not mean the fingerprint sensor was shifted to the back, though, as is the case with the Mi Mix. Instead, you will find the F1’s fingerprint sensor below the display, and as an added bonus, it doubles as the phone’s home button. Furthermore, whereas the Mi Mix exorcises the earpiece, it appears as if the F1 retains it. Finally, Ulefone confirmed that the F1 sports a dual-camera setup, but did not say what resolutions the cameras shoot at. By comparison, the Mi Mix only features one main camera.
Under the hood, MediaTek’s 2.5GHz octa-core Helio P25 and 6GB RAM run the show, while the sizable 128GB of native storage should be more than sufficient for most folks’ needs.
Unfortunately, Ulefone did not yet divulge other details, such as the screen size and resolution, battery, and connectivity options, among other details. The company also did not reveal how much the F1 will cost or when exactly it will be available, though the phone will launch sometime during the second half of 2017.
