Tough times call for tough people who, in turn, call for tough phones to tackle said tough times.
You may not like this savage status quo – but those are the utterly inflexible, unyielding, unmalleable rules ruthlessly dictated by the direction of daily life.
Only the equally toughest of smartphones will be up to the task of helping you not only survive, but potentially even thrive. I’m talking about smartphones that are almost impervious to water, dirt and dusk. Smartphones that can tackle extremes of temperature from way below 0°C to way over the temperature at which blood boils in the very veins. Smartphones that can take a tumble from up to 1.8m down onto the unforgiving super-hardened floor without so much as smashing their screen. Smartphones that come armoured up to solid Military Standard specification (MIL-STD) and yet still possess all the interior intelligence to keep you in constant communication with what remains of the outside world.
Or, with all that unpleasantness just one possibility of days to come, maybe, right now, you just have a rough and tumble type of job or extreme sporting hobby that also calls for a phone that can be fumbled and left to fall without becoming a financial write-off.
Either way, addressing any and all of these events and/or eventualities like the tech trooper I am, I’ve been out and about testing the very toughest smart-telephones in some of the most trying conditions imaginable: the British winter. Welcome to the survivors’ party…
Best rugged smartphones at a glance:
- Best for solid smarts, slimline design: Motorola G75 - £230, Amazon
- Best for bumpy business: Lenovo ThinkPhone 25 - £450, Amazon
- Best for eye-catching endurance: DOOGEE S200X - £309, Amazon
- Best for everyday extremes: HMD XR21 - £300, HMD
- Best for surviving anything: JCB Toughphone Max TP232 - £500, Amazon
- Best for getting down and dirty: JCB Toughphone - £250, Amazon
- Best for extreme entertainment: Unihertz 8849 TANK 3 Pro - £480, 8849
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Motorola G75
Best for: Solid smarts, slimline design
Some extreme smartphones very much look the ‘action’ part. Far from the slimline supermodels that slip neatly into a suit pocket, these are rugged phones that come designed to hang from a tool belt or, indeed, a cliff face, coming with extra armoured exteriors and all the associated bulk that this brings. The Motorola G75 is not one of these. Rather, at just 8.34mm thick and weighing a feather-ish 205g, this slick, sleek and slim example of rugged smart art has more in common with fashion phones thanks to a choice of three enticing finishes of Charcoal Grey, Aqua Blue, Succulent Green, plus a sizeable 6.7-inch Full HD+ (2388 x 1080-pixels) display and low-profile power and volume buttons. So, while perhaps not the perfect pick for those who have to wear protective gloves for a living or those whose idea of fun is scrambling through muddy rivers and woodland tracks, but for people who want a seriously hardy smartphone designed for day-to-day life, the G75 couldn’t be better suited.
Featuring a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip, 8GB of storage and 256GB of RAM, expandable to 16GB and 1TB, respectively, via microSD, the Motorola is lighting fast in action, while the 120Hz refresh rate display is remarkably responsive.
A 16MP front camera and 50MP rear camera give 4K video capture, while the latter also boasts a Sony LYTIA 600 sensor for image excellence with Optical Image Stabilisation and 8MP Ultra-wide angle and Macro Vision.
Running on the latest Android 14, the G75 is supremely well-specced for a phone costing just £230, down to the Dolby Atmos-blessed, Hi-Res Audio capable stereo speakers and latest Bluetooth 5.4, so looks and talent in abundance.
But just how tough is it? Surely it can’t go toe-to-toe with the considerably more muscled mobiles I’ve toyed with here? Well, no. But with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protects the screen, an IP68 rating meaning that it can combat the ingress of dust and dirt and survive submersion in up to one metre of water for up to 30 minutes, plus a MIL-STD-810H certification which brings shock-resistance to the play-hard party and also sees the G75 verified to perform in extreme conditions to boot, there’s toughness enough for adventures above the everyday.
So, tasteful, talented and tough as old boots, the Motorola G75 is a suitably steeled smartphone at a ludicrously low price.
Buy now £230.00, Amazon
Lenovo ThinkPhone 25
Best for: Bumpy business
The Lenovo ThinkPhone 25, is made by Motorola. Yep, Lenovo has owned the Motorola Mobility division for the last 10 years, and just like the ThinkPad and ThinkCentre PC ranges, the ThinkPhone falls very deliberately into Lenovo’s ‘business’ series.
To that end, the 25 comes armed with a nicely speedy MediaTek Dimensity 7300 chip at its heart, ensuring that all functions run smoothly and quickly, while 8GB of storage and 256GB of RAM will prove ample when it comes to catering to the needs of most multitasking business people, and the front mounted 13MP camera and rear 50MP camera, complete with Sony LYTIA 700C sensor and Optical Image Stabilisation is more than enough image oomph for the above-average snapper.
Running on Android 14 the ThinkPhone is snappy in all the right places, the Super HD (2670 x 1220-pixel) display is stunningly sharp, bright and colourful, and the 6.36-inch size makes it a more comfortable fit for those not in possession of the hands of a mountain gorilla, which also means you’re less likely to drop it. But, in that gravity-dictated scenario, just how would it fair?
Well, let’s start with what is, arguably, the most important part of a touchscreen device, the touchscreen. In this instance we find the display protected by none other than Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, making it virtually scratchproof and resistant to quick trips to the unforgiving ground of up to one metre in height. Add to that an IP68 rating for resistance to dirt, dust and depths of up to a metre for up to half an hour AND a MIL-STD-810H military spec that certifies it for action in extremes of hot and cold and shaking off shock, and the ThinkPhone 25, despite its slender dimensions and slight weight of just 171g, is hard as Jimmy Nails.
Stylish too, finished in Carbon Black, the Lenovo ThinkPhone 25 is your almost unbreakable business buddy that’s just as brilliant in the boardroom as it is on some awful Outward Bound style team-building wet weekend in Brentford.
Buy now £450.00, Amazon
DOOGEE S200X
Best for: Eye-catching endurance
Now we step into the realms of the angry, as we clap eyes for the first time on the DOOGEE S200X, an armoured smartphone with an alienesque Mecha design that gives you not just a 6.72-inch FHD+ display coated in Corning Gorilla Glass but also a 1.32-inch AMOLED multifunctional sub-screen on the back that lets you view essential info on calls, messages and your calendar, plus allows for control of the camera and music playback.
Running on Android 14 and powered by a nippy octo-core MediaTek Dimensity 7050 chip clocking 2.6GHz, the S200X is as slick in action as it is on the eye, while offering the best on connection thanks to dual 5G sim slots, ensuring you stay capable of reaching out over the ether should your latest jaunt on the wild side take a terrible turn.
And should it not, you can document your adventures in brilliant style thanks to the S200X’s 20Mp front camera and frankly ludicrous 100MP rear camera, complete with night vision, 4K recording capability and underwater, HDR, and 360° panorama modes.
Offering a battery life of up to 40 hours, protection from the elements and, indeed, the elephants (should any be rampaging nearby), the DOOGEE comes IP68 and IP69K rated, meaning it can take on the worst of dirt, dust and even extremely hot water down to 1.5-metres for up to half an hour without the need to check your insurance, while MIL-STD-810H is also on the list of achievements to complete your confidence.
Easily the most striking-looking smartphone in this round-up of the most rugged around, the DOOGEE will not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you’re looking for a first-class phone with all the speed you need that can both make and take an epic impact, then the S200X marks the spot.
Buy now £376.00, Amazon
HMD XR21
Best for: Everyday extremes
Now, I’ve known the HMD XR21 since back when it was the Nokia XR21, so its prodigious powers and ratio of ruggedness are very well known to me. Indeed, on my initial testing of this device, I even drove a car over it – on purpose, I should add – to push its resilience to reality to domestic extremes. Yes, it survived, unscathed as it happens. And it did that and many other tough tricks, such as being dropped a full 1.8 metres onto a cold, uncaring ground without spreading its bits about and laughing off spending up to an hour under 1.5m of water. What’s more, it can also undergo extremes of -20°C to +55°C, shrug off shock and moisture and even take a direct blast from a 100-bar water hose without buckling.
With all this to shout about, it earns itself an IP68/IP69K rating and scrubs up to MIL-STD-810H. So tougher than a boiled owl, but also imbued with a Snapdragon 695 5G chip, a 6.49-inch FHD+ display covered in Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, Android 13 as OS, 16MP front and 64MP rear cameras, and 128GB ROM and 6GB RAM, meaning that it’s a rapidly responding, fully specced battle-ready bruiser.
Now, and here’s the thing, when I say “bruiser” I’m doing the XR21 a disservice, as it’s also beautifully unassuming. By which I mean that it doesn’t look like anything other than a normal, smart, smartphone; no extra padding, no corner bumpers or any of that aggressive stuff. Rather, it’s slim, elegant and inside suit jacket pocketable, making it the ideal option for those who are either enormously clumsy or whose life occasionally takes a tougher turn.
If I had one complaint about the XR21, it would be that it’s a tad top-heavy, so you need to hold it with your index finger sat more or less central over the power button to get a comfortable balance. But that’s it, that minor quibble is my only grumble, as everything else about this phone comes together in perfect harmony to form a glorious union of form, tech and the toughness to tackle even the most Jean-Claude Van Damme of days.
Buy now £300.00, HMD
JCB Toughphone Max TP232
Best for: Surviving anything
Big, bold and brazen, behold: JCB’s Giant Killer, the Toughphone Max 5G TP232. An undeniable behemoth of a smart-blower, weighing in at 420g and measuring an elephantine 179.8 x 88.6 x 19.5mm in sheer, epic scale. This is a smartphone for the kind of people who need full-on 5G comms out in the worsts of wilderness, a smartphone that could slip through a hole in space-time, get savaged and swallowed by a T-Rex and come out the other end without a scratch, in short, a smartphone that can not only survive a nearby nuclear strike but can also take stunning footage of the fallout.
So, you get the idea, it’s tough. Shrugging off downpours, submersion in water down to 1.5 metres for half an hour, dirt, dust and debris, and drops of up to 1.8 metres in height, all thanks to a steel chassis, a shock-absorbing TPU and tough polycarbonate body complete with reinforced corner bumpers, and a 6.7-inch display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass as the rock-hard icing on the indestructible cake. Because of all this, it warrants a MIL-STD-810G rating, so even in the absolute worst of environmental conditions, the Max skips on along like a jolly tank.
But brawn is only part of the equation, as the Android OS Max is driven by an octa-core MediaTek MT6833 chip clocking 2.2GHz, while storage is expandable from the supplied 256GB to 1TB and RAM resides at 12GB, so nicely responsive and capacious. Camera-wise, you get a 20MP front firer and a 48MP main snapper at the rear, which will make for stunningly sharp video and images of stuff out of the edges of nature or on the building site, depending on what you require such an unerringly durable phone for.
Then there’s battery life – with big phone comes big battery, in this case, 12,200mAh, giving up to 72 hours of usage, so should your surprisingly brutal life see you lost in the deepest depths of Epping Forest for days or accidentally locked inside an onsite portable toilet for the weekend, you’ll have plenty of time to try and summon some kind of help.
With On/Off, Volume buttons and a fingerprint scanner all set on one solid side, you may be intrigued to find a lone button featured under your thumb (if you’re holding the Max in your left hand) on the other. This, making the Max absolutely bang-on for the building site, is the customisable PTT (Push-to-Talk) button as found on two-way radios, letting you talk to coworkers in the field.
Not one for the weak of arm, yes, the JCB Toughphone Max is heavy and, equally yes, it is large. But for those who live and/or work in the roughest, toughest environments there is no finer, more fitting phone.
Buy now £500.00, Amazon
JCB Toughphone
Best for: Getting down and dirty
So, you like the idea and look of the MAHOOSIVE JCB behemoth above, but simply don’t have either the upper body strength or hands the size of shovels to be able to cart it around with you? Well, fear not, because the titans at JCB have gazed upon your puny human hands and rendered a more manageable model.
Yes, just as well-hard as its considerably chunkier sibling, but only 5.7-inches in size and some 180g lighter, the Toughphone can withstand every savage assault that the Max can and also sports a similar spec list, except that screen resolution here is 1570 x 720-pixels, rear camera size is reduced to 20MP and, naturally, storage, RAM and battery life are all lesser; though at 128GB (expandable to 512), 6GB and up to 30-hours, absolutely no-one should be complaining.
Powered by a speedy MediaTek MT6762 chip and running on Android 13, the Toughphone leaps into action without delay and toils away like a performance powerhouse while all the time openly mocking the likes of dirt, dust and depths both 1.8m of air and 1.5m under water and, while decidedly rugger in looks with reinforced corners and pleasing metal plates (albeit more fashion than function), the Toughphone is – as is its raison d’etre – never more at home than on the building/demolition suite, yet has diminutive enough dimensions and svelte good looks to adorn the dining tables of the ritziest of restaurants too. Just make sure you hose any mud off it first. And don’t answer calls during dinner. And if you do, don’t talk with your mouth full. Honestly…
Buy now £250.00, Amazon
Unihertz 8849 TANK 3 Pro
Best for: Extreme entertainment
The brand new 8849 TANK 3 Pro from Unihertz is decidedly less tanken than the JCBs I chucked around earlier, but the still not-insubstantial 6.79-inches comes powered by an octa-core Dimensity 8200 processor with a hard focus on power efficiency and thermal management, but more on that in a moment, so its certainly no slouch. Also blessed with 512GB of ROM that can be expanded all the way up to a whopping 2TB and RAM that can be ramped up from an initial choice of 16- or 18GB right up to 36GB. So, plenty of powerful and cavernous capacity.
Now, this could be for images snapped with the considerable 50MP front camera or the ridiculously overblown 200MP rear camera. It could be for that and very probably, in part, is. But it’s very likely to have more to do with the TANK 3 Pro’s built-in 100-lumen 120Hz DLP projector, isn’t it? Yep, your eyes do not deceive you and, equally, I have not lost the plot, this tough-phone tough act to follow can indeed project images and movies with a 1.2:1 throw ratio, at screens sizes from 40 inches to 80 inches to 100 inches at 1m, 2m and 4m respective distances, with automatic correction and adjustable focus, with cooling fans to ensure you can enjoy your visual entertainment wherever the merry hell you are uninterrupted by anything other than, if camping, the horrors of nature at night.
Rated IP68 and with a screen covered in protective glass, even if you fumble the TANK 3 Pro onto some inconveniently placed rocks during set-up of outdoor cinema night, you can just dust it down and… wait, did you hear that? There’s something moving, over there, near that clump of shrubs. There! Heard it again. Hang on, pass me down the TANK 3 Pro. Why? Because it has all of the amazing stuff above, plus a 64MP Night Vision camera too.
To conclude, with an impressive battery life of up to 56 hours to boot, the 8849 TANK 3 Pro possesses all the bells and whistles. And at a score under a monkey, as stated earlier, the Tank 3 Pro is a tough-phone tough act to follow, so we’re not even going to try. I mean, if you haven’t spotted the right rugged phone for you from this selection of the seven most smart and stalwart, then you’re clearly not after a ‘tough phone’ at all but rather a ‘tufted foam’ mattress, meaning you’ve wasted both your time and mine. Frankly, if anyone wants me, I’ll be in the woods watching The Revenant…
Buy now £480.00, 8849
