Ulefone Vienna will be the companies first Audio Centric phone

Previously known as the Alpha, the Ulefone Vienna promises to be an audio centric HIFI smarpthone.

Smartphone makers are looking at different aspects of their phones to set themselves apart from the rest of the crowd. Last year Chinese brands focussed on battery size, this year we might see a rise in audio devices.

Audio centric smartphones are nothing new. Vivo has long been known to make some of the best sounding phones on the market, but even back in the early days brands like Neo dabbled in audio phones.

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Audio seems to be making a comeback in the smaller phone makers as Ulefone has announced that it’s upcoming Vienna phone will feature independent audio processors. Ulefone have confirmed that the phone will feature NXP smart audio PA, DAC and amp all independent from the Mediatek SoC driving the phone.

The news release also confirms the phone will use a 1920 x 1080 display, and shows a partial image of the phone with a hardware feature button (perhaps used for launching apps or as a camera shutter).

What do you think of the idea of more audio centric devices hitting the market?

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

Abbie
Abbie is a self confessed Chinese phone addict! After cutting her teeth on the Meizu M9 she hasn't been able to keep away from Chinese phones keeping her ear to the ground especially for the latest Shanzhai and clone news!

Muhammad Yasir
March 7, 2016
hey … Ulefone.
how about you calm down first and focus on making the FUTURE a REALLY badass phone first ?
crush the bugs out … optimize camera and look for other issues first !
when ur done with above THEN go for Vienna and seize the moment !
- mikey
  March 7, 2016
  - Muhammad Yasir
    March 7, 2016
  - Young
    March 8, 2016
    Then they will go out of business soon enough. People no longer take Elephone serious. Soon they(Elephone) will start auctioning their phones below 100 USD including over hyped vowney.
  - Tarantino
    March 8, 2016
    I saw Ulefone going the exactly in the contrary direction from Elephone. From late last year they have done less stupid marketing but focus on product. User comments from Russian and Spanish users are incredibly good.
- Guns 'n' Vegetables
  March 8, 2016
  Vienna (Alpha)’s news has been around since half a year ago, while when Future will come is still unknow. So i guess they have enough time to enhance both phones. I’m a user of Ulefone Paris, i’m very happy.
  - Muhammad Yasir
    March 8, 2016
Assefa Hanson
March 7, 2016
my boys at ulefone yooow wad upp!!!, fun fact about ulefone, did you know that ulefone had one of their phones labelled as a badass by muhammad yasir dated 7/3/2016??
it has also been rumored hat some suggestions on optimization and bug fixes was made, this connot be confirmed to this day

quodvadis
March 7, 2016
How about actually making a progressive phone instead? There’s still no successor to phones from 2013-2014 (which had things like dual sim, scratch proof glass, and dedicated micro sd slot all at once), why not make those but with better hardwares and not crap cpu like mt6753?
There’s still no successor to Jiayu G4S that I bought in 2014, the phone itself was just a simple cpu upgrade of an even older phone. Dropped it dozens of time in the span of two years and the phone doesn’t even have any kink even now, until a well positioned drop last month killed the camera’s autofocus.
So I bought Redmi Note 2 as a backup last week and the thing just sucks. Software aside, the phone got a bent side after I just dropped it once accidentally. ONCE, during the first few days of ownership holy f. It’s large but a bit too thin which is a recipe for disaster for ergonomic holding (yes too thin CAN be annoying). The camera isn’t actually better than G4S.
I just want a good specced and well-supported 4.7-5″ phone that doesn’t break your bank since a single drop may very will be its last so why spend so much money for one? And also spec that are actually iterative, not trade-off.
- Windows 10
  March 8, 2016
  Because if the price of a phone breaks some point, people will not buy it from a small brand. And that’s why Jiayu has disappeared since Mid 2015. Hardware include not only Chipset and RAM, but also camera, display, and audio system. Android phones has long been giving bad sound because the lack of independent audio processor and specially-designed circuit. Vivo has made a great progress in this aspect but vivo price are too high. I personally happy to hear that mobile HiFi will come from some small company because that means we can enjoy high quality music at a reasonable price.
  - quodvadis
    March 8, 2016
    Because if the price of a phone breaks some point
    lol what, what does this even mean, it’s your whole point and it’s gibberish.
    Buy a dac and a decent headphone if you want good quality music from your phone, otherwise embedded dac is more than enough with the puny speakers in the phone. Most people who care with audio quality will not listen to their phone’s speaker anyway, besides the desperate ones.
    - Windows 10
      March 8, 2016
      “Buy a DAC and a decent headphone”. you said it just as if it is very easy. I’m an audiophile who has done what you said. And i can tell you that you may spend thousands of dollars without getting the sound you like, because a good DAC & amplifier does not necessarily fit a good headphone. You must try different combinations and finally choose the one your ears are OK with and that will take longer time than you imagine. And during that, every audio brand will try to convince you their stuff is the best. The whole process is just like a nightmare. On the other hand, if you ever used Vivo Xplay 3S or X5 Max, you’ll truly feel its improvement in audio effect over all other phones. You’re right phone speaker is definitely not HiFi, but you can buy a good in-ear headphone which, drived by audio-enhanced mobile phone, will greatly improve your audio experience. And do you know why the use of conventional audio devices has declined to a niche hobby? Because they are not portable and not convenient to control. Mobile phones have become the most popular music player nowadays. What’s the crime to improve its Audio effect?
      - quodvadis
        March 9, 2016
        There’s no crime, but serving a small niche is only going to kill small companies like Umi. Like I said earlier, I don’t mind iterative/progressive tech improvement (that includes better audio), not trade-off, which this seems to be.
        Windows 10
        March 9, 2016
        hifi phones are not to serve the small niche. It has all the other functions of a mobile phone, just with better audio. If the price are not high, why don’t people have a try?
        quodvadis
        March 9, 2016
        Lol it is. There’s a reason why the most successful don’t actually promote the functionality, and at most have it become another checklist for their marketing material.
    - Windows 10
      March 8, 2016
      You may mention the portable DAC like Mojo Chord, but it is also stupid to take it out.
      - quodvadis
        March 9, 2016
        Preemptive strike now? Your first point, the nightmare is already annulled with that one product.
        Yes I have one, and I’ll never trade one for my two phones. I’ll only ever use my phone to listen to music if I’m really really pressed on it, which doesn’t happen often if at all.
        Sorry, I don’t care what other think of me. If they’re small minded enough to judge someone from such things, they’re not worthy enough for me to mind.

Guest
March 7, 2016
hey … Ulefone.
how about you calm down first and focus on making the FUTURE a REALLY badass phone first ?
crush the bugs out … optimize camera and look for other issues first !
when ur done with above THEN go for Vienna and seize the moment !
- mikey
  March 7, 2016
  I hope they don’t get the sickness of elephone!
- Guest
  March 7, 2016
  exactly !
- Young
  March 8, 2016
  Then they will go out of business soon enough. People no longer take Elephone serious. Soon they(Elephone) will start auctioning their phones below 100 USD including over hyped vowney.
- Guns 'n' Vegetables
  March 8, 2016
  Vienna (Alpha)’s news has been around since half a year ago, while when Future will come is still unknow. So i guess they have enough time to enhance both phones. I’m a user of Ulefone Paris, i’m very happy.
- Tarantino
  March 8, 2016
  I saw Ulefone going the exactly in the contrary direction from Elephone. From late last year they have done less stupid marketing but focus on product. User comments from Russian and Spanish users are incredibly good.
- Guest
  March 8, 2016
- Aaron
  March 7, 2016
  I think it is possible, handset prices HIFI function are high, VIVO reference to China’s mobile phone prices, basically in the $ 300-400, in order to balance cost, ulefone may use MT6735 chip, then the price control in less than $ 200 dollars. Ulefone vienna hope to have a good screen and camera, after all, many people still prefer the excellent audio and video features.
  - kik
    March 8, 2016
- Lennald
  May 6, 2016
  Yes, I also can prove that it is the MTK6753 SoC. But it runs Android 5.1 OS not Android Marshmallow, and it needs $169.99, a little bit expensive. It is said that the Oukitel k6000 pro only needs $143.99 now at gearbest, maybe we can consider this one.

Assefa Hanson
March 7, 2016
my boys at ulefone yooow wad upp!!!, fun fact about ulefone, did you know that ulefone had one of their phones labelled as a badass by muhammad yasir dated 7/3/2016??
it has also been rumored hat some suggestions on optimization and bug fixes was made, this connot be confirmed to this day

quodvadis
March 7, 2016
How about actually making a progressive phone instead? There’s still no successor to phones from 2013-2014 (which had things like dual sim, scratch proof glass, and dedicated micro sd slot all at once), why not make those but with better hardwares and not crap cpu like mt6753?
There’s still no successor to Jiayu G4S that I bought in 2014, the phone itself was just a simple cpu upgrade of an even older phone. Dropped it dozens of time in the span of two years and the phone doesn’t even have any kink even now, until a well positioned drop last month killed the camera’s autofocus.
So I bought Redmi Note 2 as a backup last week and the thing just sucks. Software aside, the phone got a bent side after I just dropped it once accidentally. ONCE, during the first few days of ownership holy f. It’s large but a bit too thin which is a recipe for disaster for ergonomic holding (yes too thin CAN be annoying). The camera isn’t actually better than G4S.
I just want a good specced and well-supported 4.7-5″ phone that doesn’t break your bank since a single drop may very will be its last so why spend so much money for one? And also spec that are actually iterative, not trade-off.
- Windows 10
  March 8, 2016
  Because if the price of a phone breaks some point, people will not buy it from a small brand. And that’s why Jiayu has disappeared since Mid 2015. Hardware include not only Chipset and RAM, but also camera, display, and audio system. Android phones has long been giving bad sound because the lack of independent audio processor and specially-designed circuit. Vivo has made a great progress in this aspect but vivo price are too high. I personally happy to hear that mobile HiFi will come from some small company because that means we can enjoy high quality music at a reasonable price.
- quodvadis
  March 8, 2016
  “Because if the price of a phone breaks some point”lol what, what does this even mean, it’s your whole point and it’s gibberish.
  Buy a dac and a decent headphone if you want good quality music from your phone, otherwise embedded dac is more than enough with the puny speakers in the phone. Most people who care with audio quality will not listen to their phone’s speaker anyway, besides the desperate ones.
- Windows 10
  March 9, 2016
  “Buy a DAC and a decent headphone”. you said it just as if it is very easy. I’m an audiophile who has done what you said. And i can tell you that you may spend thousands of dollars without getting the sound you like, because a good DAC & amplifier does not necessarily fit a good headphone. You must try different combinations and finally choose the one your ears are OK with and that will take longer time than you imagine. And during that, every audio brand will try to convince you their stuff is the best. The whole process is just like a nightmare. On the other hand, if you ever used Vivo Xplay 3S or X5 Max, you’ll truly feel its improvement in audio effect over all other phones. You’re right phone speaker is definitely not HiFi, but you can buy a good in-ear headphone which, drived by audio-enhanced mobile phone, will greatly improve your audio experience. And do you know why the use of conventional audio devices has declined to a niche hobby? Because they are not portable and not convenient to control. Mobile phones have become the most popular music player nowadays. What’s the crime to improve its Audio effect?
- Windows 10
  March 9, 2016
  You may mention the portable DAC like Mojo Chord, but it is also not convenient to take it out and will may people look stupid.
- quodvadis
  March 9, 2016
  There’s no crime, but serving a small niche is only going to kill small companies like Umi. Like I said earlier, I don’t mind iterative/progressive tech improvement (that includes better audio), not trade-off, which this seems to be.
- quodvadis
  March 9, 2016
  Preemptive strike now? Your first point, the nightmare is already annulled with that one product.
  Yes I have one, and I’ll never trade one for my two phones. I’ll only ever use my phone to listen to music if I’m really really pressed on it, which doesn’t happen often if at all.
  Sorry, I don’t care what other think of me. If they’re small minded enough to judge someone from such things, they’re not worthy enough for me to mind.
- Windows 10
  March 9, 2016
  hifi phones are not to serve the small niche. It has all the other functions of a mobile phone, just with better audio. If the price are not high, why don’t people have a try?
- quodvadis
  March 9, 2016
  Lol it is. There’s a reason why the most successful don’t actually promote the functionality, and at most have it become another checklist for their marketing material.

Guest
March 7, 2016
- Guest
  March 8, 2016
- Previous news says it will be MTK6753, not 35.
- Lennald
  May 6, 2016
  Yes, I also can prove that it is the MTK6753 SoC. But it runs Android 5.1 OS not Android Marshmallow, and it needs $169.99, a little bit expensive. It is said that the Oukitel k6000 pro only needs $143.99 now at gearbest, maybe we can consider this one.
Fabio
March 8, 2016
Wow, HiFi, thats’ a grreat idea. Music has not been that impressive since i began to use MP3 player (that’s about 12 years ago), and with mobile phones, it was even worth. Vivo is great but too expensive. Looking forward to Ulefone Vienna.

Fabio
March 8, 2016
Wow, HiFi, thats’ a grreat idea. Music has not been that impressive since i began to use MP3 player (that’s about 12 years ago), and with mobile phones, it was even worth. Vivo is great but too expensive. Looking forward to Ulefone Vienna.
bizjonny
March 9, 2016

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