This $500 Android cellphone can final you a full week, and its design is simply as loopy

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Oukitel WP33 Professional is accessible now for $499.
• With one of many longest battery life I’ve ever skilled, an honest digicam, and a case that screams sturdy, you would be hard-pressed to discover a cellphone that may take a beating with out paying considerably extra.
• The efficiency is not close to flagship high quality, however that is usually the case with telephones on this worth tier.

There is a sure kind of cellphone in the marketplace that appears at present traits and scoffs. These telephones are large, ugly, and do not thoughts displaying they’re constructed like tanks. With these telephones you realize precisely what you are getting…a tool that may be dropped, dipped, and used, used, used.

Additionally: This laptop computer is so rugged the producer allowed me to drop it from waist top

The most recent from Oukitel is such a tool. While you pull it out of the field, the very first thing that strikes you is the load. It is heavy. Very heavy. I weighed it on my spouse’s kitchen scale (which I do know is correct) and it got here in at 1.53 kilos. 

Kilos!

The place does all that weight come from?

ZDNET Recommends

Oukitel WP33 Professional

This cellphone can take a beating and nonetheless proceed taking calls, snapping images, and lasting longer on a single cost than a lot of the competitors.

Initially, the WP33 Professional is shrouded in a case which means enterprise. This is not a flowery, off-the-shelf case geared towards defending the gadget from falling out of your pocket onto the carpet. This case is able to preserve the gadget protected when it tumbles from the roof of your automotive (or perhaps out of a airplane…I do not know). However with military-grade safety and a built-in hand strap and D-ring, for those who do drop it, likelihood is fairly good it should snicker at you because it bounces off the pavement.

Additionally: I problem you to discover a extra rugged Android pill than this

On prime of that, this factor can work all the way down to -49 levels F and as much as 167 levels F. It will not survive Mars but it surely actually will not have any issues as you climb Everest or laze round on the seaside.

The specs

At this level, you are in all probability curious in regards to the WP33 Professional specs. Nicely, right here they’re.

• Battery – 22000mAh that may last as long as 3 months on standby, 80 hours of music, 30 hours of video, 120 hours of calling, and 20 hours of gaming. The cellphone additionally contains 18W quick reverse cost, so you need to use it to cost your different telephones. You’ll be able to even cost an iPhone 15 as much as 9 occasions with a single, full cost on the WP33 Professional.
• CPU – 5G MediaTek Dimensity 6100+ with 8 cores, 2.2GHz, and a Mali-G57 GPU.
• 12GB bodily RAM that may be elevated (utilizing digital RAM) to 24GB.
• Cameras – Primary Digicam – 64 MP Sony IMX 686; Evening Imaginative and prescient Digicam – 20 MP; Macro Digicam 2MP; Entrance Digicam – 32 MP.
• Show – 6.6″ FHD+  IPS with a screen-to-body ratio of 85% at 1080X2408 decision, 450 nits, and 400 PPI protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5.
• Biometrics – fingerprint scanner and face unlock.
• Twin SIM help.
• Price – $499.

My expertise

Did I point out this factor is heavy? Clip it to your belt and it would very nicely drag your pants down. Anybody liable to dropping their telephones or dunking them in water might relaxation assured this child can take absolutely anything they dish out. It is powerful…like Ram powerful, nation powerful, ironworker powerful, ballerina powerful. This cellphone has pores and skin as thick as an artist’s who’s suffered a long time of rejection.

Additionally: Lastly, a rugged Android cellphone that does not feel and appear like a brick

Past the WP33 Professional’s means to take a beating, the very first thing I seen was (after connecting it to my Google account and ending the setup) the efficiency was a bit lagging. Consider, nevertheless, I am evaluating it to a Pixel 8 Professional, which enjoys one of the best efficiency of any cellphone I’ve ever used. So…take that with a grain of salt. As nicely, the interface is not inventory Android. As an example, there is no such thing as a Notification Shade or App Drawer. I wasn’t even capable of finding out the place notifications have been displayed. And the dearth of an App Drawer jogs my memory of one of many many the explanation why I do not like iOS. I favor an empty residence display with a single row of folders with which to entry often used apps.

Why this determination was made is past me. 

So far as cameras are involved, I used to be impressed, particularly with the macro mode. No, it is not practically the Pixel 8 Professional however few cameras in the marketplace can match the standard present in Google’s flagship.

So far as apps are involved, they work and work as anticipated. There are a number of questionable additions, akin to QR Code scanner, Torch, Pedometer, Youngster Mode, ToolBag, SIM Toolkit, and FMRadio. Of these instruments, I examined the FM Radio app, solely to seek out you needed to plug in a pair of wired earphones to make it work. Sadly, after plugging in a pair of wired earphones (utilizing a 3.5mm to USB Kind-C adapter), I found the Radio refused to acknowledge the headphones. 

Additionally: The perfect rugged telephones: Skilled examined

Talking of sound…the WP33 Professional has a reasonably large speaker constructed into the bottom. It may possibly refill a room with sound however do not anticipate a lot from the standard. In comparison with the Pixel 8 Professional, it might probably pump out significantly extra quantity however the sound is tinny. For those who’re far faraway from being an audiophile, you should not have any issues with what this gadget can produce…in any other case, be ready to attach your favourite earbuds.

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

For those who want a cellphone that may stand as much as severe abuse, provides a reasonably respectable digicam, helps twin SIMs, and you do not care about efficiency or a inventory Android expertise, this cost-effective brute could be the cellphone for you.