It can be truly said that there are many benefits to living on this planet.
All the delicious free air, for starters. The circumstellar habitable zone (Goldilocks zone) it sits in, making it not too hot, not too cold, but just right for hanging out on the beach with a piña colada and catching a nice tan. And let’s not forget the fact that it’s not ruled over by an unstoppably evil galactic overlord who sees humans as mere cattle there for the harvesting. So next time you’re thinking of having a moan about life on Earth, just dwell on those points.
However, one massive drawback with this planet is all the incessant gravity. While it helps keep us grounded, they never turn it off – not even on Bank Holidays. Which leads to an all-too-common clash: gravity and smartphones.
Never the twain should meet, but it’s an unfortunate, undeniable issue in that many people are cack-handedly clumsy and smartphones are excruciatingly expensive, which is why you encounter countless people with cracked screens, battered cases and barely functioning phones. Sure, cases and screen protectors can help, but cases add to the bulk and make the whole thing even more fumblesome, leading to yet more moments of frozen horror as the phone finds the floor.
But if you happen to be one of those people whose mobile is always diving down the toilet, hurling itself at the ground or bouncing down stone steps shedding bits of itself as it goes, there is a way to escape the expense: arm yourself with tougher tech.
Yep, I’m talking about smartphones specifically created to withstand whatever this world can throw at them, be that screen-shattering drops, Biblical-esque dust storms, unexpected underwater antics, crushing automobile attacks, and even taking a direct hit from a fireman’s hose. Obviously, if you’re holding the phone in all these scenarios, you might not survive, but your smartphone will. So, some comfort there.
Just what are these super-smartphones and what other modern mobile miracles are they capable of? It’s time for Jackass, smartphone style…
Best tough smartphones at a glance:
- Best for excess abuse in all areas: Nokia XR21 - £499, Nokia
- Best for the extreme ends of life: Cat S75 - £550, Cat
- Best for double the durable: Unihertz TickTock - £199.99, Amazon
- Best for budget-based smartphone brawn: Blackview BV9200 - £306, Amazon
- Best for aesthetics and adamantine ability: Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro - £590, Samsung
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Nokia XR21
Best for: Excess abuse in all areas
As a tech journalist and to get your hand on a review model, you usually have to sign somewhere that you absolutely won’t knacker the unit you’ve been sent either by accident or by malicious design. However, when I called upon the all-new Nokia XR21 for trial, I was told that I should try running it over with the car as part of test proceedings. And that’s a suggestion I’m ill-equipped to ignore.
First off, though, while sounding a bit like an 80s boy-racer’s dream hatchback, the Android OS-run XR21 is a sizable smartphone with a brilliantly bright (some 550-nits), sharp and colourful 6.49-inch IPS LCD display complete with 120Hz refresh rate, covered in Corning’s most resilient Gorilla Glass vet, Victus. Indeed, offering both scratch and drop protection, Victus survived drops of up to 2m onto hard surfaces in lab tests, which is quite the feat for a phone.
Reasonably light thanks to a recycled reinforced aluminium chassis, the XR21 is certified IP68/IP69K and MIL-STD-810H, the first two relating to the fact that it can survive at under 1.50-metres of water for an hour, is designed to combat excessive dust, and has a Military Standard rating that shows it can shrug off extreme heat and cold (-20°C and +55°C), shock and moisture. What’s more, we’re told it can also withstand a direct blast from a 100-bar water hose with a temperature of 80°C Nokia’s own drop test rates the newbie at 1.8m, so, yeah, tougher than old boots.
But a lot better looking and infinitely smarter than old boots, obviously. Running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, with 6-Gig of RAM and 128GB of memory (expandable via microSD card), the new Nokia leaps into action like a startled gazelle and offers capacious storage for all your stuff.
And for those who are not that actually clumsy and want a solid smartphone to document themselves indulging in extreme activities, the XR21 doesn’t disappoint, delivering a 64MP main camera for stunning snaps and 4K video footage at 30fps, and an 8MP shooter around the front for extreme selfies and 1080p@30fps filming.
With all the usual accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer functions onboard, stereo speakers and a – quite elusive on many smartphones these days – a 3.5mm jack for wired headphones, the Nokia XR21 is full featured.
Which is all marvellous, but we’re here to test toughness. So, how did the XR21 react to the simulated toilet test? Well, after accidentally bouncing off the side of the bathroom sink, it sat happily submerged for the best part of an hour, laughing off the experience with a mere pat down of a towel.
Drop test? As a man standing some 1.9m tall myself, allowing the phone to fall from around chest-height to the cruel concrete below was an easily estimated and oddly nerve-wracking experience, but one the XR21 took in its stride, clattering down hard but surviving without so much as scratch. When it came to emulating a fireman’s hose, the patio pressure washer came nicely into play, and as the Nokia skidded off and slammed into the shed because I’d not secured it properly, I feared its limits may have been met. But, no, still in one piece, still unharmed, just damp. So, the final question: how does the seemingly nuke-resistant Nokia deal with the slow rolling wheels of a full-laden subcompact car? With a terrible cracking noise, that’s how; a terrible cracking noise from my knees when I crouched down to retrieve the utterly undamaged XR21. Unbelievable stuff.
So, there you have it: an impressive, fully featured smartphone that isn’t oppressively heavy or hideously ugly, can slip neatly and almost unnoticed into an inside suit jacket pocket and which can withstand incredibly above-average abuse, including the weirdly deliberate weight of a family car. Unstoppable, unrelenting, unyielding – Nokia knocks it out of the park.
Tech Spec
OS: Android 12
Network: GSM, HSPA, LTE, 5G
Display: 6.5-inch IPS LCD display, 2400 x 1080-pixels
Glass: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
Memory: 128GB
RAM: 6GB
Camera: 64MP, 2MP macro camera (rear) and 8MP (front)
Protection rating: IP68 and IP69K, Mil-Spec-810H
Drop survival: 1.8m
Dimensions: 16.8 x 7.8 x 1cm
Weight: 231g
Buy now £499.00, Nokia
Cat S75
Best for: The extreme ends of life
Question: what’s big, yellow and capable of knocking your house down on a whim? That’s right, a brobdingnagian mutant banana hell-bent on home-destruction, clearly. Also, by odd coincidence, any of the equally huge, heavyweight machines built by American construction colossus Caterpillar.
Indeed, focusing on the latter, famed for just how utterly unbreakable its awesome instruments of construction and demolition options are, it seems only fitting that Caterpillar should also have its own range of correspondingly hardcore phones in both smartphone and feature phone flavours. And so it does, seven in fact. But it’s the very latest addition to the range that I’ve turned my attention to here, as it’s the absolute epitome of endurance in many ways. Welcome to the Cat S75.
Weightier than the Nokia and ever so slightly larger, the Cat S75 still plays the part when paired with the looks and pockets of more formal attire, but that’s not what it has been created for at all. No, this is a phone designed to be dragged along behind the kind of people who work and/or play in extreme environments and, as such, is IP68, IP69K and Mil-Spec-810H rated, meaning it’s waterproof (submerged 5m deep for up to 35-minutes) and dustproof to the hilt and can survive conditions only military tech should be cable to cope with.
The Cat has a nicely sized 6.58-inch FHD+ display featuring a 120Hz refresh rate and is clad in virtually impenetrable Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. It also comes with a powerful processor, ample and expandable onboard storage, and with a combination of 50-megapixel, 8-megapixel super wide and 2MP macro cameras on the back and an 8-megapixel forward firer upfront, both offering 1080p@30fps video, you’re never going to suffer anything but razor-sharp, crystal clear snaps and recordings.
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass sensors are all present and correct, along with a loudspeaker, wireless charging and all the usual wireless connectivity options, making the Cat S75 fully stocked with smart.
Proving that it’s designed to go where no other mobile can, it also comes imbued with Bullitt Satellite Connect, a tech that utilises the planet’s geostationary satellites to deliver an always available connection even when you own service provider fails, letting you indulge in two-way text conversations, share your location if your situation is looking dicey and, of course, send SOS with a tap to Cat’s own Crisis Response Centre (monitored 24/7, 365-days a year) when that dicey situation ramps up to full-on dangerous.
So, how to test such a formidable phone’s death-defying abilities in a manner akin to the unspeakable environment of violence it was born to overcome? Well, without immediate access to an unstable stone quarry, an almost inaccessible mountain range or the unexplored wilds of the innermost Amazon rainforest, I had to do the next most risky thing you can do with a phone – I gave it to my seven-years-old, took her down to the local play park and boating lake and let her run riot with strict instructions to take as many photos as she likes but take absolute care of the Cat. Oh, she took care of it alright. I don’t think I could have dropped the Cat S75 more times had I been doing it on purpose. Static drops from playground equipment, edge-of-seat action drops from her bicycle, and one tumble that almost defied the laws of physics to take a dip in the duck pond. A brilliance of butterfingerness all round. The Cat S75, however, simply brushed it all off. Or rather I brushed it off to find the phone grubby but still in stunning as-new nick.
In conclusion, then, as indestructible as Evel Knievel, the Cat S75 is easily the adventurer’s smartphone of choice – packed with all the very latest smart telephony tech and hard as a diamond-encrusted rhinoceros, this is a mobile made for both everyday existence and a world of extreme exploits.
Tech Spec
OS: Android 12 (upgradeable to 13 and 14)
Network: GSM, HSPA, LTE, 5G
Display: 6.6-inch FHD+
Glass: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus
Processor: Mediatek Dimensity D930
Memory: 128GB
RAM: 6GB
Camera: 50MP, 8MP (back) and 8MP (front)
Protection rating: IP68 and IP69K, Mil-Spec-810H
Drop survival: 1.8m
Dimensions: 17.1 x 8.0 x 1.2cm
Weight: 268g
Also available at Clove
Buy now £550.00, Cat
Unihertz TickTock
Best for: Double the durable
A rather snazzy looking smartphone from a brand you’ve probably not come across before, Unihertz is a Chinese brand that launches one or two phones per year using Kickstarter campaigns, with some considerable success, and the TickTock is the model that caught my sturdy smartphone seeking eye.
Firstly, I like the design – it looks angry, like the Mr T of phones, it pities the fool but dares you, absolutely dares you to push it. The reinforced corners and aluminium sides mean it looks ready for the business of ‘tough’, and the IP69 water-, dirt-, dust-proof rating, certified shock resistance and Corning Gorilla Glass protecting the 6.3-inch FHD+ screen back that business up.
Under the hood, there’s an octo-core MediaTek Dimensity 700 chip running at a nicely rapid 2.2GHz, while its ultra-efficiency gives you battery life for much longer. With this you get 8GB RAM and 128GB memory utilising UFS 2.1 (Universal Flash Storage) for The Flash-fast read-write speeds.
Capable of surviving clumsiness at a height of up to 1.5-metres, the Unihertz TickTock has a 48-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel option upfront, and an enormous 6000mAh battery with 30W fast charging.
But what makes the TickTock a standout to me is the handy subscreen. Located around the back, this 1.3-inch circular touch screen lets you handle small tasks on the go without bothering the big screen, stuff such as checking the compass, clocking the time, or simply taking better selfies, it’s a very nice feature unique to the TickTock.
A bit of a chunk at 308g, that’s a reassuring weight for any extra-hard smartphone to be carrying, and with a loudspeaker, NFC, G-sensor, gyroscope, proximity, ambient light sensor, and a baroreceptor all built-in, the TickTock is rugged and ready to – literally – hit the great outdoors.
Tech Spec
OS: Android 11
Network: GSM, WCDMA, LTE, CDMA, 5G
Display: 6.3-inch FHD+ LCD
Glass: Corning Gorilla Glass
Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 700
Memory: 128GB
RAM: 8GB
Camera: 48MP (rear) and 8MP (front)
Protection rating: IP68
Drop survival: 1.5m
Dimensions: 17.6 x 8.56 x 1.49cm
Weight: 308g
Buy now £199.99, Amazon
Blackview BV9200
Best for: budget-based smartphone brawn
I’m going to go out on a limb here – you’ve never heard of Blackview, have you? But then, unless you’ve swum the tempestuous waters of the rugged smartphone seas before, there’s probably no reason why you should have done. Hailing from China’s sprawling, new-tech-renowned Shenzhen city, it’s a name with some clout behind it.
So, what have we got? In short, a rock-solid smartphone for a ludicrously low asking price. And I do mean ‘ludicrous’ – £306 of ludicrous on Amazon, which is chips cheap for any smartphone, let alone one that comes IP68, IP69K and Mil-Spec-810H rated, thus capable of surviving 1.5-metres underwater for 30-minutes, the worst dust- and/or sandstorms that you might find yourself mixed up in, hard drops of up to 1.8-metres and even the dictates of a unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party authoritarian political system. Well, certainly the first three, anyway.
Unlike the other options, the Blackview looks like a phone forged for the business of battling both the elements and your own crippling lack of coordination, with thick, ruggedised rubber corners to reduce impact and increase shock resistance, double-shot moulding TPU (Thermoplastic polyurethane) and glass fibre casing for drop protection, and aluminium alloy side frame panels fixed with screws and stamped with ‘Shockproof’ for added reassurance. Yep, although still relatively light at 310g, the BV9200 much prefers to hang out a tactical vest as opposed to any stuff from civvy street.
Behind the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protective glass lies a vibrant and bright (480-nits) 6.6-inch FHD+ display with a 120Hz fresh rate to keep visual smooth whether video or games, all kept in order by a nicely nimble octa-core MediaTek Helio G96 processor. On the memory side of things, you get 256GB of storage (expandable to 1TB via microSD) and 8GB of RAM built in, so ample for saving high-res images and video of that enemy base you’ve been surveilling ahead of calling in that devastating drone strike.
Speaking of cameras, round the back you’ll find 50MP and 8MP optical options and, up front, a 16MP snapper for seriously sharp selfies and video at 1440p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, respectively.
Upping the audio ante, the Blackview comes with an impressive set of dual speakers enhanced with Harman AudioEFX, giving you bigger bass and, overall, delivering far superior sound as you storm your adversaries’ compound to the motivational strains of AC/DC’s ‘Shoot to Thrill’.
With all that and a hefty 5000mAh battery thrown in for good measure, the Blackview DV9200 certainly looks to be quite the ‘outside’ option in the strapping smartphone stakes, and priced at just over 300 quid, for extreme outdoorsy types on not exactly rolling in resources, this could be a match made in rough-and-tumble heaven.
Tech Spec
OS: Doke OS 3.1 (based on Android 12)
Network: GSM, HSPA, LTE, 4G
Display: 6.6-inch IPS FHD+
Glass: Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Processor: Octa-core MediaTek Helio G96
Memory: 256GB (expandable to 1TB)
RAM: 8GB
Camera: 50MP, 8MP (rear) and 16MP (front)
Protection rating: IP68 and IP69K, Mil-Spec-810H
Drop survival: 1.8m
Dimensions: 17.4 x 8.2 x 14cm
Weight: 310g
Buy now £306.00, Amazon
Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro
Best for: Aesthetics and adamantine ability
I’ve been a fan of Samsung’s Galaxy smart blowers for many an ‘s’ model upgrade and – although I’m clearly tempting fate now – I’ve managed to never drop any of them so far. But if I was clumsy-inclined, the shiny new XCover6 Pro would be right up my street.
Firstly, it looks great, every inch just a standard smartphone that would fit into any sophisticated social scenario with its refined, minimalist lines and black finish.
And it’s these unpretentious aesthetics that makes the sheer ruggedness all the more impressive, with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus covering the screen for drops of up to two-metres, and IP68, IP69K and Mil-Spec-810H dealing with any amount of water, dirt, dust, sand, rough knocks, drops on the body of up to 1.5-metres and, of course, utter extremes of temperature.
Running on a nicely nippy mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (expandable to 1TB via microSD), the XCover6 Pro is fast as an impenetrable Usain Bolt so all apps appear at even a wet-fingered tap without delay.
With a 6.6-inch FHD+ display featuring a 120Hz refresh rate, images are sharp, beautifully vibrant and rich in colour and detail, while video playback is smooth.
Featuring a fast charging battery to boot, the Samsung XCover6 Pro is a triumph of tough tech and looks that, equally at home at the table of a high-stakes black-tie poker game as it is escaping agents of SPECTRE on skis down a snow-covered mountain pass, make it very much the James Bond of the tough phone tech stage.
Tech Spec
OS: Android 12 (upgradeable to 15 or One UI 5)
Network: GSM, HSPA, LTE, 5G
Display: 6.6-inch FHD+
Glass: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon SDM 778G
Memory: 128GB (expandable to 1TB)
RAM: 6GB
Camera: 50MP, 8MP (rear) and 13MP (front)
Protection rating: IP68, MIL-STD-810H
Drop survival: 1.5m
Dimensions: 16.9 x 8.0 x 10
Weight: 235g
Buy now £590.00, Samsung
Motorola Defy
Taking the title for the most affordable durable phone, the Motorola Defy is fuss-free and accessibly priced thanks to its focus on all-round functionality without any of the frills you find in competitor handsets.
That’s not to say it won’t do the job. With a waterproof inner casing and shockproof outer casing, it’s picked up both IP68 and MIL-SPEC-810H ratings, works down to -25°C and has a Gorilla Glass Victus coated screen; there’s no question about it coping with the heavy-duty demands of the workplace.
The specs are decent for the price point, with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. There are also four cameras and a large 5,000mAh battery that can last up two days on one charge. An area where it struggles is the 720 LCD display, which is average at best.
With an OS still on Android 10 (although Motorola claim it’ll be updated soon), it’s not the most state of the art handset, and its internal specs can’t compete with pricier models. However, the Motorola Defy is an extremely rugged and wallet-friendly buy.
Buy now £169.99, Amazon
