CUBOT KingKong Dura: 30-second review

Most rugged phones chase bigger and bigger batteries, often to the point where they become a viable replacement for a sea anchor.

The oddly named KingKong Dura takes a different route: it comes with a modest 5000mAh battery you can remove, and CUBOT includes a second one in the box.

That is a rare feature in rugged phones, and a useful one. Run one battery flat, swap in the other, and carry on. No power bank is needed, and in this context charging the battery doesn’t involve putting it in the phone.

The replaceable battery enables a design slimmer than the usual rugged brick. It measures 13mm thick and weighs 299.5g. The screen is 6.88 inches, with a 120Hz refresh rate. The phone carries IP68, IP69K and MIL STD 810H protection.

Phones that have replaceable batteries are often expensive, and this one isn’t, so how does that work?

In short, CUBOT pared the specs down to the bare minimum to run Android 16. The Unisoc T620 is an old 12nm chip, with a screen resolution of only 720 x 1640. There is no 5G, and WiFi is only WiFi 5, to mention just a couple of shortcomings.

You get what you pay for, but thankfully you don't pay much.

So this is a working phone for people who need power on tap, or only occasionally need a rugged phone. It isn't for people who want speed, and it isn’t the best rugged phone I’ve seen. This pitch by CUBOT is decidedly niche.

However, it’s easy to be snobbish about the lack of performance in devices like this, and CUBOT clearly see a market for these devices, and a customer who won’t be phased by its lack of grunt.

CUBOT KingKong Dura: price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $190/€210/£143
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? CUBOT's European store and online retailers

Direct from CUBOT, two SKUs of the KingKong Dura are available. One has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and another, my review hardware, has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Both options are available in black or green.

For EU customers, the lower-spec model is €209.99, and the higher one is €259.99, making 50% more RAM and 100% more storage only a 50 Euro bump.

For whatever reason, I couldn’t get the CUBOT website to map these prices into US Dollars or UK Pounds, but American customers might want to consider buying it via an online retailer like Amazon.com. In the USA via Amazon, I found only $189.99 for the 8GB+128GB model.

It’s not available on Amazon UK yet, so you can buy it directly from CUBOT or use AliExpress. On that site, I found it for £142.01 and £206.15 with free shipping to the UK, but delivery from China was about 10 days.

That is a low price for a rugged phone running Android 16, and it undercuts every replaceable-battery design I’ve seen by some margin.

With both batteries included, the Dura is a bargain for its niche.

• Value score: 4/5

CUBOT KingKong Dura: Specs

CUBOT KingKong Dura: Design

• Slim by rugged standards
• Removable battery
• By-the-numbers layout

The Dura looks like a rugged phone that has been given slimming injections. It is plainer than most. There are no excessive sci-fi flourishes, and the lines are utilitarian.

At 13mm and 299.5g, it is slimmer and lighter than most rivals. It is thicker than the 11.9mm WP68 Air, but only just. It should sit in an average pocket without an issue.

The removable battery is the feature that shapes everything. Rugged phones with swappable batteries were common years ago, and they have mostly vanished.

The battery uses a simple Lock/Unlock slider on the rear of the phone, though it's worth noting that there is no capacitor in this phone, so before the battery is swapped, you need to shut down the Dura.

Somewhat confusingly, the battery has a circular depression and the CUBOT logo, which looks like it hints at wireless charging. But it turns out this is misplaced styling, and neither the battery nor the phone has this feature.

As I’ve already mentioned, you get a second battery, and it comes with a holder that has a USB-C port, so you can charge it without the phone. I don’t think it charges as quickly as in the phone, but that’s an incredibly useful feature that doesn’t cost extra.

The only downside to that charging shoe is that, other than a red power light, there is no feedback on the battery's charging status. Even four LEDs showing the state of charge would have been fine.

What’s clever about the battery design is that it has an integrated seal to keep out water and dust. That’s been achieved without making the battery difficult to remove. Once unlocked, two slots at the bottom let you hook a fingernail and pop it out.

Above the battery area is the camera cluster with the sensors on the left and a small-ish camping light on the right. What’s mildly confusing is that this area is the highest point on the back, but CUBOT chose glass as the surface, which seems like a poor choice.

The rest of this phone is rather boring, as it goes with the predictable side-mounted fingerprint scanner/power button and volume rocker on the right, and PTT button and SIM tray on the left.

The only other external feature of note is that there is a hole on the bottom right for a lanyard/strap, but one isn’t included.

Overall, there is little here to get excited about, but also not much to dislike either.

Design score: 3.5/5

CUBOT KingKong Dura: Hardware

• Unisoc T620
• 720 x 1640 display
• 2x 5000mAh battery

The Unisoc T620 is an entry-level chip that was first released in mid 2024. It uses an older 12nm process, not one of the newer 6nm, 4nm, or even 2nm processes flagship SoCs use today. It pairs two Cortex-A75 cores with six A55 cores, which has been a popular configuration for Octo-core SoCs since it first appeared with the MediaTek Helio P65 back in 2019.

To put that in perspective, this is older technology than the Dimensity 7025 in the Oukitel WP68 Air, which is itself a 6nm design from 2022. The Dura is a step behind that in the chronology of its technology. Even if it looks only2.5 years old to the casual observer.

The RAM is 8GB or 12GB, depending on the model. CUBOT adds virtual memory on top, quoting totals of 20GB and 32GB. As ever, that is storage borrowing the name of memory. Ignore it, since most people will run fine without the need to activate that feature.

Storage is 128GB or 256GB. A TF card slot is available, but it shares space with the second SIM. You can have dual SIMs or a card, not both, and there is no eSIM to fix that limitation.

The screen is the same 6.88-inch, 720 x 1640 panel as the WP68 Air. It runs at 120Hz. At this resolution, text looks soft in some situations, and it's difficult to read a document without zooming in. It’s reasonably bright, but the glossy coating makes outdoor viewing a challenge.

What makes this design interesting is the two batteries, each rated at 5000mAh, giving a total potential battery of 10000mAh. To be totally accurate, the rated capacity is 4850mAh or 17.945Wh, but the typical capacity is 50000mAh and 18.50Wh for each.

With 33W charging, these can be brought back to full capacity quickly, and both can be recharged at the same time. The only caveat is that the phone only comes with a single 18W charger, but I think this was a mistake at the factory. Why? Because it also came with an old-style MicroUSB cable, which would destroy the USB-C port if you forced it in there.

Therefore, if you buy this phone, I’d check that you have the right power supply and cable before hooking things up.

From a hardware perspective, you should also know there is no 5G comms available. For a phone aimed at workers and outdoor use, 4G is usually enough. But it limits future value.

• Hardware score: 3/5

CUBOT KingKong Dura: Cameras

• 64MP and 2MP on the rear
• 16MP on the front
• Three cameras in total

CUBOT KingKong Dura has three cameras:

Rear cameras: 64.2MP main camera (OmniVision OV64B40 or Samsung S5KGW1SP03), f/1.8, with phase-detection autofocus +2MP macro camera.
Front cameras: 16MP.

This is a basic arrangement that matches the price. The 64.2MP sensor is either an OmniVision OV64B40 or a Samsung S5KGW1SP03, but CUBOT doesn’t say which it is.

Based on the slightly flattened colour profile, I'd bet on the OV64B40, but I could be wrong.

Either captures decent daylight pictures, but isn’t especially remarkable when the light level drops.

The 2MP macro is, once again, the weakest link. Fixed-focus lenses of this type rarely deliver. Cropping the main camera works better, making the 2MP sensor, probably by GalaxyCore, superfluous.

The 16MP selfie camera is a fixed-focus unit and should be adequate for video calls, but again the actual sensor isn’t declared. It might be Samsung, Sony or OmniVision, since these all make 16MP sensors for phones.

The primary camera becomes exceptionally disappointing in video mode, since a 64MP sensor still only offers 1080p. What is completely inexplicable about this is that there are only three resolutions available in the camera app: 1080p, 720p and 480p, but when you choose the FPS, there is only 30fps available. I assumed that as the resolution lowered, I’d get 60fps, and maybe 90 and 120fps. So having an FPS selection feature where the only option is 30fps seems incredibly dumb.

Interestingly, the forward-facing sensor has the same resolution and FPS limitations, showing how underutilised the rear sensor is for video. The only thing that the rear sensor has that’s better is stabilisation.

As with all phones, I tested what video encryption it supports, specifically Widevine, and was surprised to find that this phone supports Widevine L1. With the limited resolution of the screen, that only bumps streamed video capability up from 480p to 720p, but it's better than L3.

• Camera score: 3/5

CUBOT KingKong Dura: Performance

The table compares the Dura with the WP68 Air, which I tested in an earlier review. It is only 14.5g heavier, but it has enough internal space for an 8000 mAh battery instead of the Dura's 5000 mAh battery.

And that should be the focus of this section, because the performance of both SoCs is dire compared with more modern designs, and the one in the Dura is especially lacklustre.

If you combine the two 5000 mAh batteries on the Dura, you would get over 21 hours of operation, an hour more than the WP68 Air. However, the WP68 had more unused capacity at the end of the test, and that phone had only 80% of the combined Dura battery.

This all comes down to power efficiency, and the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 appears to use its power much more effectively than the Unisoc T620.

Given that the Unisoc T620 is 12nm, and the MediaTek Dimensity 7025 is 6nm, this shouldn’t be shocking. And the GPU on the T620 has 32 shaders, a quarter of that in the IMG BXM-8-256.

Neither is a performance platform, but the Dura has one advantage: you could carry more than two batteries if CUBOT starts selling them separately.

But even with three or four batteries, there are rugged designs out there that could run for longer with their internal capacities.

• Performance score: 2.5/5

CUBOT KingKong Dura: Final verdict

The KingKong Dura has a self-evident personality. It is a cheap, tough phone with a battery you can swap, and its pitch is not any more complicated than that.

That could be a real advantage on a long job, a camping trip or a remote site, if you bring the extra battery along and you’ve remembered to charge it.

Its weaknesses are equally clear. The chip is slow, the screen is soft, and there is no 5G comms. These are budget compromises, and they are honest ones at this price, if you can accept them.

If you only need a phone that lasts, and you don't want to carry a power bank, it makes some sense. However, if you want a fast daily driver, the WP68 Air or something newer is a better bet. As the power equation is tied to efficiency and performance, not having either of these things can only save you so much battery capacity.

Should I buy a CUBOT KingKong Dura?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

For more ruggedized devices, we've reviewed the best rugged tablets, the best rugged laptops, and the best rugged hard drives

8849 TANK 5 Pro: 30-second review

The Tank 5 Pro has but one purpose - it adds thermal imaging to the Tank 5 and changes almost nothing else from the prior design. 8849 admits as much on its own website - the only difference between the two phones, it states, is the thermal camera.

This design was already the most complete rugged projector phone on the market. It had a flagship chip, a gorgeous screen and a battery that recharges in about 90 minutes. The Pro keeps all those strengths and adds one more: thermal imaging.

You get a FLIR Lepton 3.1R sensor with a 95-degree field of view. 8849 claims that is a world first for a phone. Most thermal phones manage 50 or 57 degrees. A wider view means you see more of a room, a wall or a fuse board without having to move the device around.

The price of that view is resolution. The sensor delivers 160 x 120 native pixels. Software upscaling takes it to 480 x 360, and visible light edges are overlaid to help you read the image. It is useful, but it will not rival a dedicated high-end imager.

So who is it for? Electricians, builders, surveyors, solar installers and rescue teams spring to mind. Anyone who has ever wondered where the draught is coming from might also apply. If you will never point it at a hot pipe, save your money.

Would I consider this one of the best rugged smartphones? That depends on how much functionality you want in a single handset, but it deserves some recognition for its unique feature set.

8849 TANK 5 Pro: price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $1150/£885/€809
• When is it out? Available by November 20 2026
• Where can you get it? Direct from the maker or via an online retailer

8849 has announced that this phone will be available from November 15, 2026 in the USA, with other regions from November 20, 2026, directly from the maker.

There are three SKUs: 16GB+512GB, 18GB+512GB and 18GB+1TB - US pricing for the three is $1149/ $1,199/$1,299, respectively. In the UK, that’s £885/£924/£1001, and in the EU those prices are €1.045,95/€1.091,95/€1.182,95.

Where is it cheapest? America obviously. It’s more than $20 per SKU in the EU and $45 more in the UK, making that location the most expensive place to buy.

Not sure why the UK gets the thin end of that wedge, but that’s the price 8849 decided.

I’ve noticed that 8849 has ditched the 16GB model of the original Tank 5, and it now only comes in the 18GB+512GB option for $999.99, £770 or €910,95 depending on your region.

That makes the inclusion of a Thermal camera an extra $200, £154 or €181 for each area.

But if it were my money, I’d buy the 16GB+512GB Tank 5 Pro model, as most people would never notice the difference, and it’s only $150 more than the 18GB+512GB Tank 5, and it has the thermal camera.

Competition is thin. Rugged phones with thermal cameras exist, but none that I know of also pack a projector that I’m aware of. The Oukitel WP70 Ultra offers thermal imaging and a 16,000mAh battery, but it’s not released, and no price has been confirmed.

The real comparison is with a standalone thermal imager, like those by ThermalMaster, but these typically start at around $250 for a USB-connected camera.

What these add-on cameras lack is the ability to merge the thermal data with conventional light camera data for image fusion, which makes for much better readability.

Obviously, this isn’t a cheap phone, but in terms of specifications and features, it seems like good value, especially if you live in America.

Unfortunately, the flip side of being in the USA is that the service providers are notoriously anti-consumer, and you will need to be on AT&T to use the Tank 5 or Tank 5 Pro. Curiously, other 8849 phones and tablets support Verizon and T-Mobile only.

In Canada, you can use Bell, Rogers, Videotron, Freedom, and Telus. In the UK, most will work, including EE, H3G, Sky, Telefonica(O2), Virgin, Vodafone and Gamma. Australians can use Optus, Telstra and VHA. Major carriers in other countries are supported, so you should be good if you check the supported frequencies before buying.

• Value score: 4/5

8849 TANK 5 Pro: Specs

8849 TANK 5 Pro: Design

• Thick and heavy
• Vents for the projector on both sides
• Now with a thermal camera

Hold the Tank 5 Pro, and it feels exactly like the Tank 5, which is good if you want something that feels built to double as a sledgehammer. The chassis blends brushed metal plates, rubberised corner armour and polycarbonate panels. It’s built for abuse, and if you drop it on your foot, you'll be the one giving, not the Tank 5 Pro.

The dimensions are identical to the Tank 5 at 177.1 x 87 x 33.8mm. So is the weight at 715g. That is surprising. A thermal module with its own shutter and optics has to go somewhere, and it must weigh something. Well, when I weighed it, the scales said 733g, so the thermal electronics don’t snub the laws of physics.

The thermal lens sits top right in the centrally positioned camera cluster, with the IR emitter below it. The visible light sensors are on the left. What’s great about this arrangement is that the primary sensor is physically close to the thermal camera, so when the two images are overlaid, there is almost no difference in the viewing angle between them, producing a good alignment when the data is merged.

The camping light bar, night vision lens, and four infrared LEDs remain in a V-shape in the middle of the back, which prevents this phone from offering wireless charging. Given the battery size, that wasn’t a practical option, so it's not a real loss.

The projector vents still split the left frame in two, and the right frame still has its second grille and fingerprint power key.

My verdict about this phone design remains unchanged, because the form factor is almost identical, and it's slightly heavier.

To be precise, this isn't a pocket phone, but one better suited to a belt holster or vehicle mount. Those travelling on foot wouldn’t take long to conclude this wasn’t the best phone to carry any distance.

One new note on the Tank 5 I made related to the thermal camera. 8849 recommends an operating range of 0°C to 35°C for the phone. That is fine for a summer survey, but not being able to handle below-zero temperatures might be an issue. It is less helpful for a winter loft inspection, which is exactly when thermal imaging earns its keep. However, if you want to warm up the Tank 5 Pro, running the projector for a couple of minutes will noticeably raise the device's temperature. And the thermal sensor has a range of -10°C to 400°C.

Design score: 4/5

8849 TANK 5 Pro: Hardware

• MediaTek Dimensity 9400e
• AMOLED display
• 17600 mAh fast charge battery

The Dimensity 9400e remains the star of this show, as it was on the Tank 5. It is a 4nm flagship chip, and it sits far above the mid-range silicon found in most rugged phones. The Immortalis G720 MC12 GPU keeps games and sustained workloads moving.

As I’ve already mentioned, this phone comes in three flavours, matching 16GB or 18GB of RAM with 512GB or 1TB of storage. My review hardware has 18GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. And I noticed that the only Tank 5 SKU now comes with this much memory.

The 6.73-inch AMOLED display is also unchanged. It runs at 3200 x 1440 with a 120Hz refresh rate and 3000 nits peak. My only complaint about this screen is that it needs a reflection-reducing coating or screen protector, but it can still be seen outdoors, thankfully.

Thermal work often means bright roofs and sunlit walls, and this screen copes most of the time. Protection is still Panda Glass rather than Gorilla Glass Victus, which remains a disappointment, if you like the latter.

The battery is 17,600mAh, built as two 8800mAh cells. That is how 120W charging works. A full charge takes about 90 minutes, and reverse charging at 25W turns the Pro into a field power bank.

There is a small caveat, and I only noticed it with this phone, not its predecessor. After charging at 120W for 90 minutes, the charger gets hot to the touch. I suspect this also happened with the Tank 5, but for whatever reason I didn’t notice.

In my experience, electronics that get hot eventually fail, so keep your receipt.

Another area worth mentioning is connectivity, since this platform supports WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0, dual-frequency GPS, and eSIMs.

When I covered the Tank 5, the specs said Bluetooth 5.4, and now, magically, it's become version 6.0. Not sure what, if anything, changed there, but now both phones say the same BT 6.0 capability.

The eSIM shares the second SIM interface, so you can pair it with a Nano SIM and a microSD card, making a microSD less of a deal.

Overall, this is a terrific spec for a rugged phone.

• Hardware score: 4.5/5

8849 TANK 5 Pro: Cameras

• 50MP main + 50MP telephoto + 50MP night vision + Thermal camera
• 32MP on the front
• Five cameras in total

The 8849 Tank 5 has four cameras:

Rear camera: 50MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN1SP, 50MP OmniVision OV50C40, 50MP OmniVision OV50D40, FLIR Lepton 3.1R Thermal camera
Front camera: 32MP OV32B40

Here I’m going to focus exclusively on the Thermal sensor, because you can read my opinion of the other sensors in my Tank 5 review.

The Pro uses a FLIR Lepton 3.1R, which captures 160 x 120 native pixels, 19,200 calibrated temperature points. VividIR fuses frames in real time and upscales the image to 480 x 360. MSX overlays edges from the visible camera, making pipes, wires, and structures easier to read.

Those numbers sound modest, because they are. This is a compact sensor, not a professional handheld imager. Treat it as a very capable tool for finding problems, not for documenting them to survey grade.

Where it diverges from many phones that include a thermal sensor is the field of view, as 95 degrees is exceptionally wide. Typical thermal phones offer a 50 to 57-degree view, according to 8849, and that wider field is super-useful when you are working in a confined space. In a small room or a loft, that could be a big gain. You see more per frame, so you can scan faster and miss less, hopefully.

There is a trade-off, and it is simple maths. Spread 160 pixels across 95 degrees, and each pixel covers about 0.6 degrees. At 10 metres, one pixel spans roughly 10cm. That is my calculation from the stated field of view, not an 8849 figure. A small target at distance will be a handful of pixels, so that’s less of an issue.

I estimated that the nearest that this sensor will focus is about 15cm, which probably isn’t near enough to easily track problematic components on a circuit board unless they’re big.

Thermal sensitivity is under 50mK, or 0.05°C. That lets the Tank 5 Pro pick out subtle differences, such as damp patches or a warm pipe behind plaster.

There are two gain modes. High gain covers minus 10°C to 140°C, with finer detail for building work. Low gain stretches to 400°C for engines, machinery and flames.

Despite the resolution limitations of this sensor, what makes it exceptionally easy to use is the MyFLIR Pro app, which comes pre-loaded onto the phone.

As you might expect, it offers spot and area temperature readings, alarms, nine colour palettes, photo, video and time-lapse capture and picture-in-picture. Images are compatible with FLIR devices and FLIR Thermal Studio Suite for desktop analysis. That is a proper workflow, and it sets the Pro apart from cheaper thermal add-ons.

For those who need thermal accuracy, it’s a mixed bag. In high-gain mode, accuracy is ±5 °C or 5%, whereas in low-gain it's double that. To put that in simpler terms, low-gain isn’t suitable for soufflé baking if your oven isn’t reliable.

In terms of Emissivity, there are four choices: matte (recommended, semi-matte, semi-gloss and glossy (not recommended. These settings allow you to match the texture of the object you are scanning, avoiding wildly inaccurate readings.

In video capture, the rate is only 7.9 fps, but with these devices, less than 9 fps is normal.

The team behind MyFLIR has focused on making it easy to use, and it certainly ticks those boxes. It still won’t compete with a dedicated camera for flexibility and accuracy, but for jobs like plumbing and working on engines, it's more than adequate.

8849 TANK 5 Pro Camera samples

• Camera score: 4/5

8849 Tank 5: Performance

• 4nm SoC
• Premium performance

Not sure if there is much value in comparing the Tank 5 Pro and the Tank 5, since under the hood it’s the same hardware. But if only to prove that, I cycled the benchmarks, and they’re within 1% of each other in most tests.

The Tank 5 Pro is a high-performance phone, as was its father before it, but what these numbers can’t show is the impact of running the thermal camera, as they don’t show the impact of using the conventional sensors or the projector.

Those tests are beyond the remit of this review, but undoubtedly the projector is a major drain on power, based purely on how warm the phone becomes when running it. The thermal sensor is much less demanding, and with 17600 mAh to play with, most users are unlikely to notice much impact.

The Tank 5 Pro is a powerful phone, so there is no change from its predecessor.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

8849 Tank 5: Final verdict

The Tank 5 Pro is the most capable rugged projector phone yet made, and it puts the cherry on that cake by being able to see heat.

Without question, the thermal camera is the reason to buy, as it makes the Tank 5 Pro the complete package. It isn’t the highest-resolution thermal solution around, but the 95-degree view makes it quick to use, and the FLIR software makes it credible.

Nothing else has changed, including the drawbacks. The phone is very heavy. The projector still needs darkness. And an update policy that 8849 now says covers five years needs to be proven. But given how competitive the rugged phone market has become, launching phones on a two-year life cycle probably isn’t enough for more savvy purchasers.

The choice is straightforward. Need thermal imaging? Buy the Pro. Do not need it? Buy the Tank 5 and pocket the extra cash. Well, not pocket it, since the phone definitely won't fit then, if it does now.

Should I buy a 8849 Tank 5?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also Consider

For more ruggedized devices, we've reviewed the best rugged tablets, the best rugged laptops, and the best rugged hard drives

Oukitel WP63: 30-second review

Oukitel has a strange approach to phone naming: they release phones in seemingly random order. Therefore, the WP66 has been around for a while, and now the WP63 has arrived.

But perhaps the problem isn’t the order in which these devices were announced, but when they actually get delivered.

With so many phones on Oukitel’s stable, you might be wondering, not unreasonably, what makes this one different?

On the surface, this is a heavy rugged design where battery capacity is paramount, mostly at the expense of fitting in a normal-sized pocket.

That hints it's aimed at the adventure market, since this phone could easily last a week without a charge, if you use it wisely. Reinforcing that notion, it also has a big speaker and a camping light. But one feature on this phone I’ve never seen before sounds a little bonkers.

This is the first phone I’ve reviewed that has an ‘ignitor’ in it. Yes, something to intentionally start fires, not just accidentally. If you need to start fires, or you just can’t give up smoking, then the WP63 might be the perfect phone for you.

In other respects, this isn’t an especially powerful smartphone, but it can reverse charge at 18W using an inbuilt USB-C cable, and it is running Android 16. It’s also not expensive, making it a good candidate if the rugged requirement is only for a specific trip or job. However, I can’t see myself putting this in our best rugged phone collection, even with its unique features.

Oukitel WP63: price and availability

• How much does it cost? $390/£295/€405
• When is it out? Available from Oukitel in early November
• Where can you get it? Only from Oukitel

While I was writing this review, I was slightly confused by the lack of a web page for this device, since I knew its release was imminent.

Thankfully, now the WP63 has a webpage, and I’ve been promised it should be available to purchase by the time you read this review.

The quoted US price is $389.99, supposedly 35% less than the $599.99 MSRP Oukitel imagined when they cooked up this phone. UK customers pay £294.58, and in the EU it’s €348.05. But keep in mind that prices can change. Unusually for a Chinese phone maker, these prices are roughly identical based on the current exchange rates between the US dollar, British pound, and Euro.

While the WP63 has some unique features, plenty of rugged designs offer 20000 mAh of battery capacity, but most pack more processing power than this model.

A phone with a similar spec is the Blackview XPLORE 1, which costs $359.99 on Amazon.com, and at that price you do get more RAM and 55W charging.

That pricing suggests the WP63 isn’t a bargain, but if it saves you from carrying another ignition source, the cost difference may be worth it.

The WP63 isn’t an expensive phone, but it also has modest specs.

• Value score: 4/5

Oukitel WP63: Specs

Oukitel WP63: Design

• A chunky monkey
• In-built USB-C cable
• Light the blue touch paper

If I were inclined to hike a long way, maybe over several days, I’m not sure I’d take the WP63 along. At 629g and an awkward fit in most pockets, this is a hefty device that you wouldn’t want to carry in open water.

However, Oukitel sloped the undersides, so it’s relatively easy to handle unless you have weak wrists.

Button placement is typical, with the power and volume rocker on the right and a PTT custom button on the left with the SIM slot. One mild annoyance was that when it wants a fingerprint for access, it places a fingerprint icon on the screen, where some phones have the sensor embedded under the display. This isn't one of those phones, and the fingerprint reader is actually on the power button.

That said, most people should be able to transition to this device easily.

On the rear is a 3W speaker for summoning beach-party people, and that pushes the two rear cameras out to the edge of the phone. What space is left by the speaker and camera cluster is taken up with a substantial camping LED, one of those that can temporarily blind you if set to full brightness and looked at. This device has no wireless charging because there is no open space for it.

None of this is especially unusual, as I’ve seen a dozen or more rugged phones with a big lamp and speaker, probably in the past year. Where the WP63 goes off into uncharted territory is with two other special functions, one of which is a short but integrated USB-C cable. This cable can be used to charge and also reverse charge other devices, making it unnecessary to carry a charging cable with you. I like this idea, and even with the shortness of the cable, it's useful.

The other special feature is slightly more controversial, because the WP63 can set things on fire, hopefully when you intend for it to do so.

Given how phones and other battery-powered devices are often blamed for starting fires, it seems contradictory to actually design a phone specifically to set things on fire, but Oukitel did.

Along the top edge is the ignitor, which comes out of a tube when pressed down and sideways, so it doesn’t deploy accidentally. A phone app controls when it heats and for how long, so it should be impossible for this to happen unintentionally.

The minimum heating time is four seconds, the maximum is ten, and then there is a longer period during which the ignitor must cool down before it can be fired again. You are advised that the ignitor gets extremely hot, and it is best not to touch it when in use.

So what is this practically useful for? Well, I suspect it's fine for lighting cigarettes, the odd firework, but you would need some paper or dry tinder to start a campfire using it.

The box includes a spare igniter element, so it will eventually burn through the heated wire it uses, and you can replace that part. Some grease is also provided to make sure the igniter deploys smoothly when you want it.

I don’t know how much power this feature uses, but it will have an impact if you use it repeatedly.

As a non-smoker and non-pyromaniac, this isn’t a feature I’d find much use for, but I accept that others might find it useful. I just wouldn’t want to be found with this phone in an era which has had an unexplained forest fire recently.

Design score: 4/5

Oukitel WP63: Hardware

• UNISOC T8200
• 256GB of UFS 2.2 storage
• 20000 mAh battery

The UNISOC T8200 (UMS9621S) is a mid-range 5G chip. It has eight cores in two clusters, with two Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.3GHz and six smaller cores at up to 2.1GHz. A two-core Mali G57 handles graphics, and the chip is built on TSMC’s older 6nm process. That process is a little dated now, but it remains perfectly efficient if underwhelming.

Memory support is sensible. The controller handles LPDDR4 and LPDDR4X, with the latter used here. That means no speedy LPDDR5, which holds back peak performance.

The integrated modem covers sub-6 GHz 5G with carrier aggregation. There is no mmWave here, but few phones at this level need it.

The camera and display features are generous for the price. UNISOC says the chip supports sensors up to 108MP, 4K video recording and a 120Hz FHD+ display. Variable refresh rate support should also help battery life. However, not all of those features apply to this phone.

So how does it perform? Day to day, it should feel fine. Scrolling, browsing, social media and video streaming sit well within its abilities. The two A76 cores give it a useful turn of speed when apps need it. Notebookcheck lists a Geekbench 6 single-core score of around 750. That is respectable, and clearly better than entry-level silicon.

Gaming is where limits appear. Two GPU cores will manage casual titles and older 3D games without fuss. Demanding modern games will need lower settings and will not hold high frame rates for long. I would not buy it for that job.

Against the competition, it sits below chips like the Dimensity 8100, which uses a 4nm process and much faster Cortex A78 cores. It is a budget-friendly alternative, not a rival, and Oukitel only use UFS 2.2 storage because it works in this context. The allocation of 256GB is plenty for most people, and you can add a 1TB microSD if you need to capture lots of video.

For a rugged or value-focused handset, the T8200 is a sound choice. It is quick enough, frugal enough and well connected. Just keep expectations realistic.

The one area where Oukitel pushed the boat out is battery capacity, with 20000mAh to splurge. That obviously provides a substantial running time, but it can also be used through reverse charging to keep other devices powered. One nice note about that feature is that if it is charging another phone, for example, and the battery capacity hits 20%, it will stop so it doesn’t exhaust the battery entirely.

• Hardware score: 3.5/5

Oukitel WP63: Cameras

• 64MP and 8MP on the rear
• 20MP on the front
• Three cameras in total

The Oukitel WP63 has three cameras:

Rear cameras: 64MP Omnivision OV64B40 , 8MP Hynix Hi-846 (Night Vision)
Front camera: 20MP Sony IMX376

The camera sensor collection on this phone isn’t the best, but it isn’t junk either.

I’ve seen the 64MP Omnivision OV64B40 on many devices, and it performs decently on most of them, even if it’s not a sensor a premium phone would use.

The biggest issue is that it has no optical zoom, so all zoom is digital. That undermines the premise of using a 64MP sensor with pixel binning to deliver 16MP images that are sharp and perfectly saturated. The results without zooming are therefore much better than those with. I took some decent pictures using this sensor, but it does like plenty of light.

One positive aspect of this sensor is that it will capture 4K video, but only at 30 fps. In fact, it's locked to 30 fps at all resolutions unless you use ‘slow motion’ mode, where the frame rate jumps to 120 fps for 1080p or 720p capture.

The second rear sensor is an 8MP Hynix Hi-846 Night Vision chip. An SK Hynix part with an 8-megapixel 1/4-inch sensor and 1.12 µm pixels. It outputs 3264x2448 natively, so the resolution in your screenshot matches its true array and not a cropped one. Works well if the subject is close enough to be illuminated by the IR array,

The front-facing 20MP Sony IMX376 seems ideal for selfies, but it is limited to 1080p video.

And, as I always check, this phone is rated for Widevine L1 encryption, so streamed video can be higher than 480p. However, the screen resolution isn't enough for 1080p streaming, so it's not a huge benefit.

Overall, the cameras can take decent photos and video, but these choices seem mostly budget-driven and not meant to deliver photographic excellence.

• Camera score: 3.5/5

Oukitel WP63: Performance

To be direct, if I put this phone up against one of the many Dimensity 8200 phones, it would look like it was going backwards. So instead, I chose the UleFone RugKing 5 Pro, another relatively low-power handset that also uses a Unisoc SoC.

The T8200 appears to have about 50% more power than the T7250 from a compute perspective, and the G57 MP2 is double the performance of its base counterpart.

Neither phone would excite anyone who likes to game, but the WP63 beats the RugKing 5 Pro in all but one area.

That’s the flipside of powerful phones, in that delivering that performance consumes more power. Here, the extra performance of the WP63 comes at a cost of battery life. Although being able to run PCMark for nearly 30 hours and still have 14% of the capacity left is an accomplishment that many phones would be envious.

One major issue I ran into with the review hardware was that the provided charger refused to charge the phone, even with the cable that Oukitel provided. That should not be a problem, since I have plenty of USB-C chargers.

Except when I used one of my 100W-capable chargers, it peaked at 20W while charging the phone, which meant after 30 minutes it had only recovered 16% of its power. That said, even if it accepted the full 33W, I calculate it would still take four hours to recharge the WP63, and possibly longer.

So this isn’t a phone you want to wake up next to after forgetting to charge it. Overall, the WP63 is power-efficient enough to deliver a reasonable user experience and run most Android apps, but it's hardly rocket-powered.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

Oukitel WP63: Final verdict

What an odd phone.

If we ignore the slightly charred elephant in this room, this is a mid-order rugged phone with plenty of battery capacity to keep it alive for a decent number of days away from civilisation.

The cameras can take acceptable photos and video, and the asking price isn’t excessive. This is something you could say about a dozen or more other designs.

But people won’t be buying this phone for only those features, will they? No, they’ll want the phone that can light a cigarette, or fireworks, or burn down half of Canada.

Part of me thinks this wasn’t a great idea, but it’s possible to create a fire with a glass bottle, a magnifying glass, or a battery and two wires, so am I overreacting? Possibly.

My concern is that, since this is a phone and can be remotely controlled, someone might use it to initiate something remotely. But then phones have been used to do that without having an ignitor in them, so perhaps the truly dangerous part is the phone?

Whatever the answer is, because I’m far from being an expert, the WP63 does have a feature that no other phone I’ve seen sports. Will it spawn a whole new generation of fire-starting phones? I doubt it. But if you need to carry something that can start a fire in a pinch, the WP63 exists.

Should I buy a Oukitel WP63?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

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