The Unihertz Luna smartphone borrows many design elements from the Nothing Phone 1, and improves on it in some ways by including a more colorful and brighter LED light array on the back. The device is powered by a midrange MediaTek chipset, and has a large 6.81-inch IPS LCD display, a triple camera array, a programmable key, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

It’s a large device, by all means. While it won’t shatter any benchmark tests, it’s a decent device for general users, especially for those looking for something more unique, something that stands out among the myriad of square and rounded rectangle-shaped smartphones that can be found. That said, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, and we have plenty to discuss.

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The Unihertz Luna is a unique and stylish smartphone. The phone replaces the boring back panel with a bright and colorful LED design. The Luna has a large 6.81-inch LCD display, a night vision camera, and a large 5,000 mAh battery.

Key Features
  • Colorful LED lights on the back
  • Programmable key
  • Night vision camera
Specifications
  • SoC: MediaTek (MT6789) Helio G99
  • Display: 6.81-inch, IPS LCD, 2400 x 1080
  • RAM: 8GB
  • Storage: 256GB (UFS 2.2)
  • Battery: 5,000 mAh
  • Ports: USB-C
  • Operating System: Android 12
  • Front camera: Primary: 108MP, Night Vision: 20MP, Macro: 2MP
  • Rear camera: 32MP, f/2.0
  • Connectivity: LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC
  • Others: Fingerprint sensor, Programmable key, IR port, 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Dimensions: 168 × 76.8 × 10.4 mm
  • Colors: Black, White
  • Weight: 298g
  • Charge speed: 18W wired
  • IP Rating: None
Pros
  • It looks great
  • Large 6.81-inch display
  • Bright LED lights
Cons
  • It's thick and heavy at 289g
  • The camera is acceptable at best
  • The display is too dim
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Unihertz Luna: Price & Availability

The Unihertz Luna retails for $330 in the US. The device is also available in other regions, including the EU, Canada, Japan, as well as Asia, Oceania, and the UK. The device is available for the same price across all the regions, and we have seen the device available with a $300 ($30 discount) since its release.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Unihertz Luna is available in two colors, Black and White, in all of these regions.

What's in the box

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Roland Udvarlaki / Pocketnow

The Unihertz Luna comes in a stylish box, featuring the same symbols on the top that can be found on the back of the device. Inside the box, you’ll find your usual user manuals and warranty card, a SIM ejector pin, a tempered glass screen protector, a USB-a to USB-C cable, and an 18W power adapter. The phone itself also comes with a transparent silicone case.

When it comes to the contents inside the box, there’s really not much we can complain about, especially not at this price point. The Luna comes with all of the essential accessories, and we’re glad to see the additional case, screen protector, and power adaptor inside the box. Sadly, not many other manufacturers bundle these nowadays, and it’s refreshing to see when companies do.

Design

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Roland Udvarlaki / Pocketnow
  • It looks great
  • Large, bulky, and heavy
  • It’s not ergonomic and uncomfortable to hold for long periods

Unihertz is a company that makes rather unique and odd devices that stand out with their special features and looks, and the Luna falls right in line with their mission. The Luna is everything but generic in terms of looks, and it has much in common with the Nothing Phone (1).

Of course, there are substantial differences between the two devices, but the premise is similar. Shiny lights on the back, flat side edges, small curves, and a large display. The Luna also borrows many design elements from the iPhone 13. Just take a look at that camera setup.

Borrowing designs aren’t a bad idea, after all, there are only so many things you can do with a rectangle-shaped smartphone that hasn’t already been done by one company or another. When it comes to the Luna, it has a great build quality, but the phone is flawed by its massive size and heavy weight. The Unihertz Luna is 10.4mm thick, compared to 8.3mm on the Nothing phone, and it weighs a whopping 298g, 35g more than my foldable Galaxy Z Fold 4.

It’s large, bulky, and heavy. It’s not the most comfortable smartphone to hold, and as much as I tried to love it, I just couldn’t get over the large size and heavy weight while using it. It’s not an ergonomic smartphone and is uncomfortable to hold and use daily. Regarding ports, it has an IR sensor, NFC, a 3.5mm headphone jack, two customizable buttons on the left side, and a fingerprint reader embedded in the power button.

Specifications

The Unihertz Luna supports T-Mobile and Verizon networks (and MVNOs only). The device is powered by the MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, which should provide a midrange performance, similar to the Snapdragon 695 SoC. However, it lacks 5G connectivity. The 8GB of RAM is plenty to multitask and open a few apps in the background, and the 256GB of storage is welcome since there’s no microSD card slot to expand the storage.

Unihertz Luna

The Unihertz Luna is a unique and stylish smartphone. The phone replaces the boring back panel with a bright and colorful LED design. The Luna has a large 6.81-inch LCD display, a night vision camera, and a large 5,000 mAh battery.

SoC
MediaTek (MT6789) Helio G99
Display
6.81-inch, IPS LCD, 2400 x 1080
RAM
8GB
Storage
256GB (UFS 2.2)
Battery
5,000 mAh
Ports
USB-C
Operating System
Android 12
Front camera
Primary: 108MP, Night Vision: 20MP, Macro: 2MP
Connectivity
LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC
Others
Fingerprint sensor, Programmable key, IR port, 3.5mm headphone jack
Dimensions
168 × 76.8 × 10.4 mm
Colors
Black, White
Weight
298g
IP Rating
None

Display

LI-Unihertz-Luna-ph13
Roland Udvarlaki / Pocketnow
  • 6.81-inch IPS LCD display with 60Hz
  • Often too dim to see clearly while outside

The Unihertz Luna sports a standard 6.81-inch IPS LCD display. It’s a 60Hz panel, so it won’t feel as smooth as some other 90Hz devices in this price range. It’s not a major issue, and the phone will provide decent performance, but it would’ve been great to see at least 90Hz on this device.

The viewing angles are not spectacular, but color accuracy is decent. The large screen will be enjoyable for watching movies and videos, but it’s not bright. I often struggled to see the contents on the screen, even when I was inside, between the four walls and lights over my head. This was even worse when I went outside and tried using the device in direct sunlight.

It’s fair to say, the display is usable and works well inside, but it’s not exactly great when used outdoors. Content will often be hard to see, and even on 100% brightness, it will be challenging to read messages, browse the web, or do anything. I wish Unihertz used a brighter panel, as this makes it a real challenge for anyone looking for a sturdy work-phone that could be used inside or outside.

Cameras

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Roland Udvarlaki / Pocketnow

The Unihertz Luna has three cameras, a 108MP primary, a 20MP night vision, and a 2MP macro shooter. The primary camera takes okay photos in broad daylight, and while it often has enough detail, the images are often oversharpened and have too much contrast. The colors are also a mixed bag and are either oversaturated or too washed out most of the time.

The low-light performance could be better, and the phone can struggle to focus. Sometimes the lights are too blown out, and the images contain a lot of noise. Night mode helps a little bit, but it’s not the best camera setup for capturing images in low light and at night. Additionally, I want to add that you can’t use the LED light strip on the back as a flash, which is a missed opportunity.

The Night vision camera generally takes clear photos in pitch-black conditions, and it’s actually quite impressive. It’s a great party trick, and it does actually let you see in complete darkness, but I’m still struggling to figure out where this might come in handy. Do you really need this on a $300 smartphone? It’s great that we have it, but I would’ve been happier with the more useful ultrawide sensor.

The selfies are almost always blown out in direct sunlight and in bright conditions, and the colors are washed out. The sharpness also takes a hit, although the main subject usually comes out clean with plenty of detail.

Overall, the Unihertz Luna isn’t a camera smartphone. While it can capture decent images, you’ll almost always want to open an image editor and tweak the highlights, contrast, and the colors to make the images seem more realistic, as the captured photos will lack most of those key features.

Camera Samples

Software

  • It comes with Android 12
  • No bloatware
  • Great customization features for LED lights and side buttons

The Unihertz Luna was unveiled with Android 12, and while I’d love to say that I have confidence in Unihertz updating this phone to Android 13 in the future, Android 14 is right around the corner. So far, I haven’t seen any signs of the company willing to update this phone, and I have doubts about whether it’ll receive any OS updates in the near future.

When it comes to the software experience, I’ve had a pleasant time with the Unihertz Luna. The phone has all of the Android 12 features that we all know and love, and I took advantage of the built-in dark mode and split screen features whenever I could. It’s a pretty barebones OS, and Unihertz didn’t include much bloatware, which is always great to see. The phone ran smoothly most of the time, and I only ever experienced slowdowns and the sluggish behavior when I put it under a heavy load, when I played more demanding games, or had too many applications open.

Generally speaking, the Unihertz Luna will do a great job, and I especially like that the company allowed users to customize the left-side buttons. Inside settings, users can change the short tap, double tap, and long press features for each of the two buttons, enabling the possibility to do actions, open apps, and even turn on the flashlight.

Regarding the lights on the back, Unihertz provided options to turn on the LED strip for notifications, turn on visualization playback, and an ambient light feature that can sync to the lights to the content shown on screen – this can provide a more immersive experience when gaming or watching movies as the colors will change based on the primary color of what’s displayed on the screen.

Users can also choose from seven of the built-in patterns or create their own. These are mostly just different visual effects and colors, but it’s good to see that Unihertz lets users set their own colors using the sliders.

Overall, the software experience is decent for the most part, but I wish Unihertz provided more up-to-date software for a device that was just unveiled. I hope the company can maintain and update its device in the future, although, as it stands, that remains a mystery.

Battery Life

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Roland Udvarlaki / Pocketnow

The battery of the Unihertz Luna is surprisingly good. The Luna has a large 5,000 mAh battery, and it can generally last for about a day, or two days when I conserve the battery. It can be charged provided 18W power adapter. The lights on the back consume quite a bit of power, so it’s best recommended that you turn them off when you do not want to show them off to your friends, but that’ll largely depend on the brightness you set it at. The LEDs are extremely bright, even on the lowest settings; therefore you might not save a lot of battery after all.

The phone lasted a comfortable day on a single charge during my use. I normally browsed the web, used a few social media apps, and played a few less graphics-intensive games such as Brawl Stars. The phone lasted me all day, but I did notice the phone would often drain 10-15% battery overnight for seemingly no reason. The idle battery drain is a concern, but Unihertz did say my device was a pre-production unit. Therefore it could be an isolated issue.

Unihertz Luna: Should I buy it?

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Roland Udvarlaki / Pocketnow

Buy it if…

  • You want a phone that stands out with bright and colorful LED lights on the back
  • You’re not a power user and want something unconventional

Don’t buy it if…

  • You you can’t handle large and hefty phones
  • You don’t want to show off the LED lights on the back
  • You want to take photos

The Unihertz Luna isn’t a bad phone, but it’s hard to recommend. The phone can do some light gaming, and it generally performs well for everyday tasks, such as multitasking, browsing through social media, and messaging friends and family. However, aside from the bright LED lights, it has nothing that’d make it stand out among the crowd. It’s a tough sell, especially as there are plenty of other great smartphones that nail the smartphone experience really well.

pbi-unihertz-luna
Unihertz Luna
6 / 10
$300 $330 Save $30

The Unihertz Luna is a unique and stylish smartphone. The phone replaces the boring back panel with a bright and colorful LED design. The Luna has a large 6.81-inch LCD display, a night vision camera, and a large 5,000 mAh battery.

The first device that comes to mind is the Galaxy A23 or Galaxy A24. It has competitive hardware, a slim form factor, and Samsung is known to offer better software support for its devices. The device sports One UI 5 based on Android 13, with plenty of built-in features.

The other great option for a similar price tag would be the Google Pixel 6a, which is cheaper than ever, thanks to the recently released Google Pixel 7a. The Pixel 6a has one of the best camera setups, a flagship chipset, and plenty of memory. It’s an excellent midranger, and while it lacks a few key features, it’s still one of the best phones you can buy today for about $300.

PBI Pixel 6a white
Google Pixel 6a
Best smartphone for about $300
$299 $449 Save $150

If you don't care about high refresh rate, wireless charging, a glass back, and a few other tidbits, this should be your phone. It's a Pixel that features the same chipset as the last year's Pixel 6 series but less expensive. Check out all the deals on the device using the links given below.

If you’re willing to spend more, the Nothing Phone 1 and the Samsung Galaxy A54 are equally great devices. The Galaxy A54 is powered by the Exynos 1380 chip and it has up to 8GB of RAM, and a triple camera setup consisting of a 50MP primary, 12MP ultrawide, and a less useful 5MP macro. It’s not a perfect device, but it takes better photos, has faster charging, weighs less, and is far more portable. While the Galaxy A54 might cost $150 more than the Unihertz Luna, Samsung, and other retailers and carriers often have discounts, making the phone an appealing alternative for only slightly more.

  • Product Image of Nothing Phone 1 in Black
    Nothing Phone 1

    Nothing Phone 1 comes with a 6.55-inch 120Hz OLED display with slim bezels, a custom Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ processor, 900 LEDs on the back, dual 50MP shooters, wireless charging, and more.

  • PBI Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
    Samsung Galaxy A54 5G

    The new Samsung Galaxy A54 5G comes with a two-day battery life, an excellent triple camera setup, and support for 25W fast charging, It has a compact design and a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display and a microSD expansion slot to store your apps and photos.