Smartphones don't last forever, but while most of us hope to make it to the end of our two-year contracts others struggle to get through a couple of months.
Phones are increasingly sold with some level of waterproofing protection, and the best phones will be fitted with tough Gorilla Glass screen protection. Add a decent phone case and most of us will muddle along.
But for extreme sports enthusiasts, manual labourers and the downright clumsy this is just not enough. For these people there are ruggedised smartphones, tough phones that are waterproof, dustproof, drop-proof and shockproof.
Buying a tough phone no longer means you have to skimp on sought after features, and some of the best examples have all the bells and whistles such as fast processors, decent cameras and wireless charging.
Read on below our list of the best rugged phones for more buying advice on what to look for.
1. CAT S62 Pro
- £599
This is CAT's top-end rugged phone - but you might not know it to look at it. This looks like any other current smartphone - okay, so it's a bit heavier and chunkier, but CAT has worked wonders with its design.
Meeting MIL-STD-810H, IP68, and one of only two phones (both from CAT) to meet IP69 standards, the S62 Pro is well suited to handling extreme situations. There's Gorilla Glass 6 to protect the 5.7in Full-HD display, and an aluminium casing with non-slip TPU rubber on the rear - even with wet hands or gloves the phone is easy to handle. The rounded edges are also aluminium, fixed into place with three screws on each side.
It's dropped the laser distance measurement and air quality monitoring of the CAT S61, but still features a thermal-imaging camera, which is better integrated to the design. The cameras still protrude from the rear somewhat, however, and the battery capacity has dropped from 4500mAh to 4000mAh.
Powering the show is a 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 octa-core chip, along with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, expandable via microSD card.
We were slightly disappointed with the performance when compared to the competition. We'd also like to see support for wireless charging built-in, but look beyond this and the S62 Pro is a fine example of a rugged phone.
2. Doogee S88 Pro
- £259.99
The Doogee S88 Pro will not suit you unless you’re looking for a very specific type of phone – something that’s resistant to the elements and designed to be used outdoors in extreme conditions. If that describes you, you’ll no doubt be impressed with what the S88 Pro has to offer. It combines solid performance with some useful software tweaks and one of the best batteries we’ve ever seen in a phone.
The big downside is the cameras, which fall short of the competition at this price point, while at 372g it is noticeably heavy. However, you get extras in return: NFC, reverse wireless charging and IP68 water and dust resistance are extremely impressive for a sub-£250 phone.
As such, I’d say the Doogee S88 Pro offers good value for money, so long as you spend more time outside than in an office.
Read our full Doogee S88 Pro review
3. AGM X3
- TBC
People hate being put in boxes. Just because you need a durable phone does not mean you don't also want flagship performance and an attractive design. AGM understands this, and as such its X3 is a powerful and good-looking rugged phone.
There's a Snapdragon 845 processor inside, so there is no sacrificing speed for strength. It also has decent audio, with waterproof JBL-tuned dual stereo speakers that pump out audio up to 98dB, a decent 5.99in screen (albeit with some chunky bezels) and a good-quality dual-lens Sony camera.
Chunkier than most flagships, but skinnier than most tough phones, it's incredible that the X3 weighs only 200g, and is just 10.5mm thick. It's quite usable in one hand, especially with the inclusion of dedicated buttons for calling up the Google Assistant and launching the camera.
Protecting it from damage is Gorilla Glass 5, a tough metal frame that is protected at the corners with subtle rubber bumpers, and compliance with MIL-STD-810G and IP68.
We are pleased to find the ports themselves are waterproof, meaning no fiddly rubber flaps, but there is a rubber port cover in the box that the company recommends you use anyway to avoid USB port oxidising and short-circuiting when charging caused by water left in the port.
The battery is not as high in capacity as those seen in some of the tough phones, but at 4,100mAh it's pretty generous. It charges fast with support for Quick Charge 3.0, enabling you to get from 0- to 100% in 130 minutes. The AGM X3 also supports wireless charging.
4. Doogee S58 Pro
- From $229.99
At well under £200, the Doogee S58 Pro is one of the most affordable rugged smartphones you can buy. It retains the military grade protection and imposing design of more expensive Doogee phones, making it well suited to hiking, building sites or extreme environments.
Compromises are inevitable at this price point, and the S58 Pro makes big sacrifices in camera quality. The main front and rear lenses are average at best, with the macro and depth sensors barely usable at times.
Most people won't be buying this phone for its cameras, but it remains to be seen whether compromising on photographic capabilities in order to get extra resistance to the elements is worth the trade-off.
One area which can't be disputed is battery life, with the S58 Pro comfortably lasting multiple days on a single charge. There's also IP68 water and dust resistance, an impressively bright screen and some useful software tweaks.
It's far from the most well rounded rugged phone on the market, but if you're willing to sacrifice in other areas it could be a great budget alternative.
Read our full Doogee S58 Pro review
What to look for in a rugged phone
If you are in the market for a rugged phone then you may be unsure of what to look for. The most obvious thing to start with is waterproofing (though if it's purely a waterproof phone you're after rather than a rugged device you should look to our round-up of these devices).
All the phones we've compared here are rated IP68, which means they can survive up to 1m of water for 30 minutes - potentially deeper and longer, but that is not guaranteed so do so at your own risk.
IP stands for 'Ingress Protection' and is used to define the sealing effectiveness of electrical enclosures against intrusion from foreign bodies and moisture.
The first number refers to how the device sealed against solid particles like dust; the highest you can get is '6' meaning total protection.
The second digit is for water protection and the best you'll see on most is '8', going by the original IEC standard 60529 (6K and 9K are not part of this).
A waterproof phone will either use a rubber flap to protect its ports, which otherwise allow water access to its internals, or it will waterproof the port itself. The latter is much more preferable, preventing any nasty accidents and proving much less fiddly when you want to charge the phone.
Next up is the design of the phone itself. You'll likely find a raised edge on the top surface of the phone to protect it when dropped face down, but sharp stones and pointy corners can still cause harm. So you'll want something tough to protect the screen glass - ideally Gorilla Glass 5 or 6 but, depending on your budget, you might find Gorilla Glass 3 instead.
Keep in mind that the bezels on a rugged phone are going to be larger than on a standard phone, because most damage occurs at the edges. Larger bezels mean you'll still be able to use the display even with a crack at the edge.
The phone itself is also going to be larger and heavier than most phones, with a more capacious battery inside that won't leave you high and dry in an emergency, and a tough, rubberised outer shell to protect it from drops and shock. On the upside you won't need to add a case.
Look around the sides of the phone: the best rugged phones come with dedicated SOS and PTT buttons, allowing you to quickly get help in an emergency or chat to your team mates while you're on an expedition.
0 comments:
Post a Comment