Review: Unihertz Tick Tock S

Review unit provided by Unihertz

Unihertz is a company that sells niche phones that have 3-inch displays, rugged design, batteries that last for days and even phones with a clock on the back.

The Unihertz TickTock S is a rugged phone with a 1.3-inch LCD clock on the back. I'm not sure how useful the phone on the back is but this design certainly stand out among other phones. Official retail price is USD 319. This phone was launched in February 2023 with a pre-order price of USD $269.

Bottom line
This phone actually looks good, and it looks like a case has been built into the phone as part of the rugged design. It runs on stock Android 12 with no bloatware, and overall performance is smooth, even for graphics intensive gaming. Battery life is around 18 hours with non-gaming usage. Main downside is the speaker is located on the back and the audio quality is so-so.

Specifications

• Dimensions: 168.5 × 82.5 × 14.3 mm
• Weight: 294g (With Battery)
• CPU: Dimensity 700 Octa-Core (Up to 2.2GHz)
• OS: Android 12
• Memory: 8GB + 256GB UFS 2.2
• Battery: 5200 mAh
• SIM Card Type: Dual Nano SIM Card
• Micro SD: No
• Cover Glass: Panda MN228 Glass
• Display Size: Main Screen: 6.53 inch / Sub Screen: 1.3 inch
• Resolution: Main Screen: 1080 × 2340 pixels, Sub Screen: 360 × 360 pixels
• Rear Camera: 64MP AF + 2MP Macro Lens
• Front Camera: 32MP FF
• Band: 2G GSM (Band 2/3/5/8), 3G WCDMA (Band 1/2/4/5/6/8/19), 3G CDMA2000 (Band BC0/BC1), 4G FDD-LTE (Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28A/28B/66), 4G TDD-LTE (Band 34/38/39/40/41), 5G NR (Band N1/2/3/5/7/8/12/20/25/28/38/40/41/66/77/78)
• Wi-Fi: WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz/5GHz, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.3
• NFC: Yes
• GPS: GPS + GLONASS + BeiDou + Galileo
• Sensors: Fingerprint (Combined with Power button), G-Sensor, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient Light Sensor, Compass, Baroceptor
• Fingerprint: Yes
• Facial Recognition: Yes
• Infrared Port: Yes
• USB: USB Type C
• USB OTG: Yes
• Programmable Key: Yes
• Loudspeaker: Yes
• 3.5mm Headphone Jack: No
• Wireless Charging: No
• FM Radio: Yes
• Splash, Water & Dust Resistant: IP68 Water / Dust Resistant
• Shock Resistant: Yes

You can find the full list of specifications here.

Things included

Things included:

• Phone
• Charger
• SIM ejection tool
• Manual
• USB-C to USB-A cable

Design

Design of this phone looks good. The phone is big and weighs 289g, and it's comfortable to hold.

The display is a 6.5-inch 60Hz LCD is bright with vibrant colours and good viewing angles. A glossy screen protector has already been applied.

The resolution is sharp and pixelation is not noticeable.

The back looks like a case has been built into the phone. The texture is rubberised and there's the vertical metal strip and a 1.3-inch LCD clock. The phone supports NFC.

The speaker is back facing and located near the bottom left. And since the speaker is back facing, the audio sounds muffled or hollow when phone is placed with the back down. The audio quality is good to begin with so the back-facing speaker design makes the audio experience worse. The speaker is usable but it would be so much better to have the speaker in front. The phone is big, I don't think people will mind the extra millimetre for a speaker in front.

The clock face is between a 64MP camera with autofocus but no OIS, and 2MP macro cameras with no autofocus.

Overall photo quality is alright but is affected very much by lighting conditions. Colours look more vibrant with good light.

Once light is low, shutter speed is slower and is not easy to capture moving subjects with sharpness.

There is a 2MP telephoto lens without autofocus so you have to check the sharpness carefully on the screen. Colours don't look as vibrant as the actual subject (coloured pencils).

I've been using the phone for more than two weeks now and I don't really use the clock face. The clock face does look pretty cool when you place the phone with main display facing down. And there's a dedicated (red) button to turn on the clock face to check the time.

There are 19 clock faces available.

The back display clock is, in my opinion, a design element to make this phone look more interesting but doesn't actually offer much utility because you can already check the time with the main display.

The circular 1.3 LCD display is a touchscreen and you can use that to switch between the clock, camera, compass and music player.

The SIM tray can hold two nano SIMs, but does not hold microSD card.

The red buttons are shortcuts for the flash light, clock face and screenshot.

Buttons on the right are for power and volume controls.

The USB-C charging port is covered to prevent dust and water from getting in. Charging the phone isn't as convenient since you have to remove the cover first. It's a small issue since the battery life is long, 18+ hours screen on time, so it just needs charging once every three days.

There's an IR blaster at the top.

Note that the four corners are raised slightly to allow you to place the phone face down without the glass display touching the table.

Performance

The phone runs on stock Android 12 with no bloatware installed. There's 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. My review unit actually came with 128GB storage.

Overall performance is smooth and lag-free even with graphics intensive gaming. I played Genshin Impact at Medium graphics settings (1 of 5 settings) and game play was smooth, and visuals look great of course.

Conclusion

The Unihertz TickTock S is a good looking and capable rugged phone. I like that the case is built in. Battery life is fantastic with 18+ hours screen on time. Overall performance is smooth and satisfactory.

Main downside is the audio quality from the back facing speakers. I wish there was another camera, either wide or telephoto, but it's not a big issue not to have those. And the utility of the clock face is unknown to me so that's probably a design element to make this phone look different.

The price of USD 319 is competitive with other brands. If you can get it at the USD 269 pre-order price, that's an even better deal.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Interesting design with a back display clock
+ Rugged build quality
+ Reasonable weight 289g for a rugged phone
+ Vibrant, bright and sharp display
+ Extra shortcut buttons for flash, clock and screenshot
+ Smooth overall performance
+ Decent gaming performance
+ Stock Android OS with no bloatware
+ 18 hour battery life
+ Screen protector already applied
- No microSD card slot but comes with 256GB storage
- Back facing speaker has so-so quality
- Usefulness of the back display clock is unknown
- A telephoto camera instead of a macro lens would be more useful
- Photo quality is limited very much by lighting conditions

Availability

This phone is available from the Unihertz online store, and may be available from Shopee SG and Lazada SG.