Ulefone apologies for camera specifications

Ulefone have publicly apologised to fans for advertising their Ulefone Be Pro with the wrong camera specifications.

Earlier this week we were alerted by owners and users of the Ulefone BePro that the camera specifications listed by Ulefone were not the same as those on the phone they are shipping. In Ulefone’s promotional material the camera is listed as a 13 mega-pixel Sony sensor, however it was later uncovered that the phone actually ships with an 8 mega-pixel sensor.

We reached out to Ulefone to ask what was really going on and received a letter of apology stating that the marketing team involved in creating the promotional material of the Ulefone Pro had listed te wrong specifications, and in fact the Be Pro is manufactured with an Omnivision 8 mega-pixel sensor instead.

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Ulefone have also posted the apology on their Facebook page here. The response from customers is a 50:50 split with some fans angry with the misinformation, while others are impressed with Ulefone’s honesty and remain happy with their phones.

Have you been affected by this? How do you feel about Ulefone and their apology? Do you have the a Be Pro and can you comment on the photo quality?

Next week I will be fully back to work and will be able to begin work on the Ulefone Be Pro review so stay tuned!

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author
Andi

Yeti hand
February 5, 2015
I have a reflex if I want to take photos! I don’t care about the cameras used in smartphone
Miko
February 5, 2015
marketing promotion with lies is not good for a company…
Not that i would buy this phone anyway, but serious up a bit since the whole world start looking to you (china) guys more than ever before.

Marco Lancaster
February 5, 2015
I can say, when you have experience with chinese phones, you always have to doubt of something, and the thing what i always doubt is the camera specifications, Interpolations not are something new, and even fake specifications, and on the low price, that’s a little clear. I guess Ulefone is wrong if highly advertised the Sony, but if won’t advertised and just said on a specification sheet “Sony camera” wrong is who not wonder if is real or not. By the way U be Pro still a solid device, and i must say is great see the company making a public letter and apologizing, how many other companies fake the specs and never say something about it, yes Elephone, that’s was for you.
- Simon
  February 6, 2015
  Do you think the Jiayu S3 battery is really 3000 mah (I know it says it on the battery) ?
  - Simon
    February 6, 2015
    To clarify the above is another potential example of things not being quite what they seem.
  - Marco Lancaster
    February 6, 2015
    I think is reall 3000mAh, Jiayu sold phones before with that capacity and no one has complained or doubt about this. I don’t think they will risk their butts selling wrong capacity when this a major factor what makes the Jiayu better than others. What I think is, bad optimization until now, we can see MTK6732 and MTK6752 draining a lot of power on standby, Jiayu should work on this. And also, on the forums and even on Andi review, he complained about low charging on Jiayu. If was a fake capacoty, of 2500~2800mAh a 1A charger will not take so many time to charge. The word optimization.
- Riccardo Benzoni
  February 6, 2015
  buying top brands (from China) and avoiding those wannabes is a good way to get rid of those doubts, tested myself and it works!
  - Simon
    February 6, 2015
    - Guest
      February 6, 2015
      - Simon
        February 6, 2015
        I am or was pretty determined to get the Jiayu S3 in March/April, someone told me that on official Jiayu forums there has been audio issues. I guess i’ll leave it to the last minute and choose between the two !
        It looks like I missed yet another one…
        
        Marco Lancaster
        February 6, 2015
        Jiayu is really going a good support om S3, they have posted a new update to fix sound problems and boost quality.
        Simon
        February 6, 2015
        I’m waiting until the end of March, i’m sure it will be my next phone.
    - Riccardo Benzoni
      February 6, 2015
      - Riccardo Benzoni
        February 6, 2015
        you are welcome, I also forgot Meizu, TCL and Lenovo (the mid and higher level phones, recently I’d avoid the economic models of Lenovo).
  - Marco Lancaster
    February 6, 2015
    Of course, theres a difference on the price, but you Don’t have complains about specs or quality.
- Jason Sturnwell
  February 6, 2015
  Yep, They’re just about the only Chinese smartphone company that has english in their instruction manual. I was very surprised about that when I started looking for the best budget Chinese smartphone to purchase.
  In the end I went with this phone because partially because of that reason. Also they have a pure stock version of android; none of the annoying reproductions that are going around. Plus they stand behind their products with their Android and other system updates. It shows Ulefone is serious about their products. Best place to buy is from gearbest.com and add the additional 8% off coupon.
  - Simon
    February 6, 2015
    - February 6, 2015
      I haven’t received it yet. But from reading all reviews it seems like they are a reliable company; like I said they stand behind their stuff. It was either this phone or the Elephone P3000S.
      - Simon
        February 6, 2015
        February 6, 2015
        I think it basically comes down to the Be Pro vs. the p3000s in this price range. Although I guess it depends what kind of hardeware you’re looking for… I personally haven’t much use for a camera on my phone so I chose this…

Airyl
February 6, 2015
While I do think it’s an incredibly dumb and idiotic mistake, I commend them for giving us the truth instead of hiding behind lies. I’m honestly still interested in the phone, but I’ll wait for the review before I make any decisions.
- Steve B
  February 6, 2015
  Shame their truth is probably as dishonest as the original deception. Plus side, thanks to increased scrutiny, their next phone will probably be genuinely very good.
Roger
February 6, 2015
Nothing new from Ulefone. My V1277 (which I purchased directly from Ulefone’s factory, in order to get the model with a Sony sensor was supposed to have a Sony sensor, but a Russian forum suggested that is was a Sunny one,
- bbc
  February 6, 2015

Bruce S
February 6, 2015
Interesting; I see ELEPHONE are prostrating themselves over the same issue with their P3000. They advertised the P3000 with Sony sensors but claim “they have run out of Sony and have switched to Omnivision to meet demand.” Check out their excuse here: http://www.elephone.hk/readNews/2119.html
Lasse K
February 6, 2015
This is also the same deal with Ulefone Be One, I bought it just because of the IMX214, but as it turned out it was a OV8865 i sold it and lost arround 25 euros, but now I own a LG G2 instead.
- whatislebrondoing
  February 8, 2015
  Has the Be One also confirmed been confirmed with this camera fiasco having not a Sony IMX214 sensor as the box says?
  I only hear about Be Pro right now being the model that has no Sony sensor but Omnivision.
  Has the Be One been confirmed to have the same issue? What camera sensor is in the Be One? I havent heard too much about Be One, however, the Be One camera doesn’t match OnePlus One which has real Sony IMX214 sensor so I guess no surprise.
  Please advise thanks.

Damkey
February 6, 2015
Not really that surprising since theres more than one company selling the same manufactured phones. Elephone and Ulephone aren’t the only ones.
Elephones explanation doesn’t match Ulephones; http://www.elephone.hk/readNews/2119.html
- Steve B
  February 6, 2015
  - Damkey
    February 6, 2015

BW
February 6, 2015
their opportunity to be honest was when they launched the marketing material. And obviously everybody in the company knew it was a lie but kept their mouth shut. They only recanted when there was a backlash.
I own one and it does suck to be lied to. All of that said I still think it’s a great phone and I’m writing this post on it as well.
but I do think that even their apology letter was another lie, implying that one person was at fault. It’s pretty pathetic, their culture of lying to gain market share. how old are these people?
they just used another lie, blaming a single person, to back out of their big lie, and only after they got caught. I would have been a lot more impressed with a real confession and maybe a voucher. This is my second Ulefone and probably won’t be my last.
- Simon
  February 6, 2015
  - BW
    February 6, 2015
    yeah I don’t know if they are any more dishonest than the rest of the manufacturers there. And honestly the issue with the camera wouldn’t have stopped me at all from buying this phone.
    they better ship lollipop and deliver on that promise! I was impressed with my first Ulefone and it seemed like this Be Prp device was the first 6732 device that really had its act together and was actually shipping. pure Android as well.
    Plus really nice to have a 64 bit superfast phone and be able to casually tell your friends you paid 150 bucks for it. What!?!
    Especially running Lollipop later.
    It’s a screamer for the price of a throwaway phone.
    so I think I have some brand pride but feel jilted when I get lied to.
    - Simon
      February 6, 2015
      Thats cool. I’ll way up the options and decide between it and the Jiayu S3.
      Put it this way i’m sure Ulefone won’t be making the same mistake again.

Rene
February 6, 2015
These issues are one of the few issues where the customer can actually help the situation by NOT EVER PRE-ORDERING ANYTHING. Such practice encourages manufacturers to create unnecessary and ridiculous hype for products and claims about them that could be entirely untrue.
This applies to any market, another example of which is the video games industry where this practice is probably most evident (day one DLC, day one patches) but customers still seem to fall for their pre-order hype crap.
WAIT FOR PRODUCTS TO BE RELEASED AND THOROUGHLY REVIEWED BEFORE PURCHASING ANYTHING!
Sorry for the caps but this practice drives me crazy and we as customers actually do have the ability to change this by simply never pre-ordering.
- Riccardo Benzoni
  February 6, 2015
  true, but with chinese phone makers you can also fall in the same situation even when the device is released and review: sometimes they change something between one production batch and another, usually to bring the price down, and you could end with an “M” processor or a different display or different sensors or lower-quality batteries…
  - Anderson LAMBERT
    April 19, 2016
    Samsung already does, so why not a little makers ?
  - Anderson LAMBERT
    April 19, 2016
    And samsung never admits. People uncover it but officials don’t apologize

Joe
February 6, 2015
I have an Ulephone and sincerelly, I would like a refund ! They should be ashamed of themselfs for fooling the customer !
- Anderson LAMBERT
  April 19, 2016
  But there are not alone to do so … Samsung often makes promotion of Sony components for camera and some buyers get it, others don’t. They lie also like ulefone. And a Samsung doesn’t cost $200… By the way they also lie about the processor. Sometimes some samsung customers get a chip and others an other one while there is only ONE official ! Shame on samsung too !!!!

Riccardo Benzoni
February 6, 2015
they could have interpolated their camera to 12 with a software update and most of users wouldn’t have noticed, at least they admitted their error, let know the users about it (knowing they were going to lost a lot of credibility and users) and want to improve, many others wouldn’t even cared about this.
I’m not praising the company and its idiotic move, but at least they had some balls to tall the truth.

Owsley_66
February 6, 2015
I bought the phone because it gets 3g in the U.S. and because you can’t get a decent unlocked phone here for under $300. I paid, with shipping, $158 dollars for the phone. Originally this was intended for my wife, but that’s changed so I’m using the phone.
I’m disappointed about the camera, especially the video aspect, which seems jerky, but I’m not surprised. I’ve watched enough reviews on Youtube to know that specs on Chinese phones are often incorrect. Maybe there’s a better phone out there with a 5.5 inch screen for the same price. Maybe not. I won’t spend $200 + dollars on any Chinese phone right now because none that I know of will get 4g in the U.S. The Asus Zenfone 2 is coming out sometime in March and will run about $200 and it will get 4g in the U.S. so if I really thought I needed to switch phones I’d go with the Zenfone. But I like the Be Pro so I’m not likely to be upgrading next month.
The issue with the camera is not a deal breaker for me. There is the possibility that Ulefone can optimize what they’ve got with a firmware or software update. Maybe they’ll work on that now that they’ve admitted this fail.
Buyer beware!

julian
February 6, 2015
Excuses cannot “excuse” the fact that i ordered a product based on clear specs. I preordered and they did not sayd anything about the ” mistake”. Should i return the order? The customers i think that should receive more than just excuses.why should i buy again from this company? How can i recommend it to my friends? Btw: i bought it because i read very good reviews.
Ps: hope that elephone p6000 also bought based on reviews from here and gizmochina have indeed the specs advertised

Haz1881
February 6, 2015
I got mine delivered 2 nights ago. First impressions were very positive and the phone feels solid. The camera isnt the best but its not a dealbreaker for me as i wont use it much. the headphone and microUSB sockets are an entirely different matter. The headphone socket is loose in the sense my headphone jacks wont slot in fully and keep bouncing back out. The microUSB is also very loose and the power lead slips out with the slightest of touches. Having a phone which i cant listen to music to on and a phone which doesnt charge properly isn’t the best of experiences with my first chinese smartphone.
- John
  February 26, 2015
  I’m having the same problem with my headphone jack. The plug just won’t stay in… with MOST of my headphones. Others have plugs that seem to fit better.
bbc
February 6, 2015
if it is true they should offer a refund…it is one of important specs which affect buying decision

Bartman
February 6, 2015
It is a shame, that Ulefone did advertise the phone with the 13 MP camera and now all we get is a sorry and 8 MP. The phone is okay but we paid premium for a 13 MP camera. Therefore, Ulefone should be a bit more generous and send each and every buyer of this camera a free of charge flip case or an extra battery.
There are people that do not care about the camera, but I do and I ordered this phone also because it should have had the 13 MP Sony camera and not because it looks nice.
- Steve B
  February 6, 2015
  And not just any 13mp Sony, they were very specific about it being the IMX214, so even greater benefit premium lost.
Ricardo
February 7, 2015
They lied, that’s true, but if I’m not wrong the Redmi 2 has an 8MP OmniVision too and nobody is complaining; however, yes, I know here we are talking about dishonest marketing methods.

sjambok
February 8, 2015
If it is only a 8MP then why do some reviews actually show the camera providing a 13 MP option? Makes no sense?
sjambok
February 8, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxAPEHDsm8g shows an actual 13MP camera on teh Antutu results – this was an executive engineering decision to change the camera, and the explanation is a lie and fraudulent.
julian
February 9, 2015
Got mine today. Yes it is a problem with the camera. I have paid for Sony. The same problem I have with omnivision on my other phone. I shouldn’t buy this phone. Shame on ulefone!

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