The F9 Ultra is a big phone. At 163.49 x 77.94 x 8.74mm and 235g, it’s heavier and thicker than the Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max, and narrower than both, so one-handed use is basically irrelevant for most people. That bulk matches the cost of the 8,050mAh battery and speaker hardware inside – but you’ll feel it in your pocket anyway.
The materials lag behind the more expensive flagships, at least on paper. You get aluminum side rails, a fiberglass back panel, and Corning Gorilla Glass 7i on the front, rather than the fancier glass you’ll find on phones that cost hundreds of dollars. In practice, however, it doesn’t feel cheap. The textured back resists stains well and the device feels sturdy rather than plastic.
It’s at the back where the design gets interesting… but also a little derivative. A large camera island spans the top of the phone, which has the practical benefit of reducing desktop wobble, but also gives the phone an undeniably iPhone-inspired look. It’s a nice phone, though, and I like the camera island on the back.
The phone comes in two colors – black and dark cherry – the latter being the colorway of my review unit. I really like the look of it. It’s sleek and stylish without being too bright, but to be clear, I love colorful technology.
On the right side of the camera island is the circular Bose subwoofer, surrounded by a white LED that flashes for calls and notifications and can vibrate with music and some games. It’s more of a distraction than a truly useful feature – although if you’re the kind of person who leaves their phone face down on a desk, it can be handy as a notification light, but I’ve never really found them that useful.
The phone is also reasonably durable. It has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, which means it should survive submersion in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. That said, you’ll still need to be careful – this note is there as a fallback, and you shouldn’t cause the phone to swim on purpose.
Beyond these design elements, the phone has a volume rocker and power button on the right edge with a USB-C port at the bottom. The left side of the frame is empty. There are no extra buttons like the iPhone’s Action button, which I’m quite happy to see, because they’re usually not very useful unless you can program them yourself.
