Best Outdoor/Rugged Smartphones
Waterproof alone just does not cut it, at least not for this category of smartphone. Let us be honest - how often do smartphones really kick the bucket after being submerged in fresh water for a few seconds? In our opinion, the fact that most smartphones are made entirely out of glass for reasons of design is much more problematic and risky, and this trend has been spurred by the increasing popularity of wireless charging technologies.
Unless you have purchased an extended warranty, repairing an iPhone X’s or XS’s broken display can cost around $280. However, repairing the glass panel on the back of these exact same phones will set you back at least $550. In other words, unless the phone is brand spanking new, a broken back panel nearly constitutes a total loss. Accordingly, using such a phone without a protective shell can almost be considered grossly negligent.
Outdoor enthusiasts are faced with a tough dilemma. Should they opt for a thick protective rubber case in order to continue using their phone even in adverse conditions? The downside is that considering the excessive repair costs an element of risk remains. Or should they opt for a smartphone specifically made to withstand the most adverse conditions humans can think of? Those can be used without protective covers, are capable of surviving high drops, and are dust- and water-proof to boot.
Please also take a look at the following top 10 lists:
- Notebookcheck Top 10 smartphones
- Notebookcheck Top 10 phablets (smartphones bigger than 5.5 inches)
- Notebookcheck Top 10 smartphones smaller than 5 inches
Here are the 10 best rugged outdoor smartphones reviewed by us. The table can be sorted by clicking on the headers.
The Best Outdoor Smartphones
Position | Total Rating | Date | Image | Model / Review | Height | Weight | Size | Resolution | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 81.6 % v7 (old) | 03 / 2021 |  | Blackview BL6000 Pro MediaTek Dimensity 800 ⎘ ARM Mali-G57 MP4 ⎘ 8 GB Memory, 256 GB UFS 2.1 | 12.8 mm | 273 g | 6.36" | 2300x1080 | Android 10 |
| 2 | 81.1 % v7 (old) | 08 / 2021 New! |  | Nokia XR20 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G ⎘ Qualcomm Adreno 619 ⎘ 6 GB Memory, 128 GB UFS 2.1 | 10.6 mm | 248 g | 6.67" | 2400x1080 | Android 11 |
| 3 | 78.2 % v7 (old) | 10 / 2020 |  | CAT S62 Pro Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 ⎘ Qualcomm Adreno 512 ⎘ 6 GB Memory, 128 GB eMMC | 11.9 mm | 248 g | 5.70" | 2160x1080 | Android 10 |
| 4 | 78 % v7 (old) | 10 / 2021 New! |  | Motorola Defy Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 ⎘ Qualcomm Adreno 610 ⎘ 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 10.9 mm | 232 g | 6.50" | 1600x720 | Android 10 |
| 5 | 78 % v7 (old) | 03 / 2020 |  | Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro Samsung Exynos 9611 ⎘ ARM Mali-G72 MP3 ⎘ 4 GB Memory, 64 GB UFS 2.0 | 9.94 mm | 218 g | 6.30" | 2340x1080 | Android 10 |
| 6 | 77.2 % v7 (old) | 01 / 2020 |  | CAT S52 Mediatek Helio P35 MT6765 ⎘ PowerVR GE8320 ⎘ 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 9.7 mm | 210 g | 5.65" | 1440x720 | Android 9.0 Pie |
| 7 | 77 % v7 (old) | 01 / 2020 |  | Blackview BV9800 Pro Mediatek Helio P70 ⎘ ARM Mali-G72 MP3 ⎘ 6 GB Memory, 128 GB eMMC | 14.8 mm | 322 g | 6.30" | 2340x1080 | Android 9.0 Pie |
| 8 | 76.8 % v7 (old) | 02 / 2021 |  | F150 Bison 2021 Mediatek Helio G25 ⎘ PowerVR GE8320 ⎘ 6 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 18 mm | 318 g | 5.86" | 1520x720 | Android 10 |
| 9 | 74.3 % v7 (old) | 04 / 2021 |  | Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 Samsung Exynos 850 ⎘ ARM Mali-G52 MP1 ⎘ 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC | 9.2 mm | 172 g | 5.30" | 1480x720 | Android 11 |
| 10 | 73.5 % v7 (old) | 02 / 2021 |  | Cubot King Kong Mini 2 Mediatek Helio A22 MT6761 ⎘ PowerVR GE8300 ⎘ 3 GB Memory, 32 GB eMMC | 12.1 mm | 123 g | 4.00" | 1080x540 | Android 10 |
Top 10 der letzten Monate zum Zeitpunkt der Artikelerstellung, aktuelle Tests zuerst
Link: alle getesteten Geräte dieser Klasse, gereiht nach Gesamtwertung
Editor’s Note
The best way to protect the display against direct pointed impact is an additional layer of protective tempered glass, which is specifically designed to absorb the energy by shattering, thereby protecting the display underneath. At a price of $10 to $20, tempered glass is usually well worth it, and can be easily and safely applied and replaced at home. Among others, Amazon offers a large selection of protective tempered glass covers for the most common smartphones.
1st – Blackview BL6000 Pro
The Blackview BL6000 Pro is very different from other outdoor smartphones. Its case design is rather subtle, it offers a high level of performance, and as one of the first in its class supports 5G.
Wi-Fi performance is decent, the display is bright, and the smartphone is capable of recording video in 4K.
The Blackview BL6000 Pro is a good-looking and very fast outdoor smartphone with 5G support. Its camera, however, is mediocre at best
Our main gripes are the inaccurate autofocus and its mediocre overall sharpness in fine details. Another drawback is its short warranty of just 12 months.
The Blackview BL6000 Pro is available among others on Amazon.
Price comparison
2nd – Nokia XR20
The Nokia XR20 offers an exciting smartphone package. A well-protected smartphone with long running warranty, good-looking case, an update promise for four years, good battery life, decent performance, a bright display, fast Wi-Fi, a cool modus operandi, a freely programmable button, and finally decent camera performance.
The Nokia XR20 is a good-looking rugged outdoor smartphone with great features and extensive warranty and update promises.
Overall, Nokia created a great rugged smartphone with attention to detail, such as for example a hook for a wrist loop. Samsung’s Galaxy XCover Pro may be a great and powerful outdoor smartphone with a freely programmable button as well, but it is outperformed by the XR20 in some areas, such as for example battery life or performance.
The Nokia XR20 is available among others on Amazon with prices starting at just over $500.
Price comparison
3rd - CAT S62 Pro
Smartphone or tool? Hard to say when looking at the CAT S62 Pro.
Its thermal imaging camera renders it particularly interesting for professional industrial users. It no longer features its CAT S61 predecessor’s laser-supported rangefinder and its ambient air quality sensors but comes at a significantly lower price in return.
Even though it is practically pointless to compare this ruggedized smartphone to regular smartphones of its price class we have to note that for $600 you can get much more than a mid-range SoC and a simple rear-facing camera in regular smartphones. In return, the CAT S62 Pro is made to withstand pretty much all environmental conditions and situations.
If you don’t need a thermal imaging camera you might find the CAT S62 Pro overpriced. However, specialists and professionals may find this to be an indispensable tool.
Overall, the smartphone is a well-made tool for professionals that require a thermal image camera. If, however, you don’t need this feature you can save a lot of money by looking at its competitors.
Price comparison
4th – Motorola Defy
The Motorola Defy features the immensely robust Gorilla Glass Victus, a rubberized case, and a touchscreen that can even be used when wet. In return, its Wi-Fi performance is not the fastest, and we would have wished for a brighter display.
Designed by Motorola and the Bullit Group the Defy is a solid outdoor smartphone with a good-looking case and decent camera.
We liked its long battery life, its good performance, and its good-looking case that turned out be very robust and well-made. The device remained comparatively cool under load and managed to maintain its high initial level of performance. Its camera takes sharp photos, and the devices come with pure Vanilla Android.
The Motorola Defy is currently not available in North America.
Price comparison
5th – Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro
While the Galaxy XCover 4s was sort of old-fashioned and traditional, the Korean manufacturer spent a lot of effort on the Galaxy XCover Pro. The $500 expensive outdoor smartphone even received a camera worthy of that name. In addition, the devices features fast storage memory, freely configurable buttons, modern software, fast Wi-Fi, accurate GPS, and last but not least a swappable battery.
Great outdoor smartphone with swappable battery.
In return your expectations regarding call quality should be kept in check, and performance fluctuated wildly under load. All things considered the Galaxy XCover Pro is a great smartphone even though it might not be protected well enough for the roughest of environments. If you want a USB-C port, a 3.5-mm headphone jack, and a discreet case the XCover Pro might be worth a second look.
Price comparison
6th – CAT S52
The CAT S52 is the pretty boy among its outdoor smartphone brethren. However, the question on everybody’s mind is whether or not a slim case like this will offer enough protection. At least according to the tests that we performed it does, and we liked the device a lot. It offers plenty of performance, it is comparatively small and handy, and comes in a very well-built case. The camera is okay for an outdoor smartphone, the screen’s color accuracy is fairly high, and the GPS modem is pretty accurate. In addition, it comes with an extensive warranty and remains comparatively cool.
The CAT S52 is a decent good-looking outdoor smartphone.
When subjected to our Wi-Fi test battery life was just okay at 10:37 hours, and not on a par with other devices. GPU power is also limited, and gaming in the wild is probably not a good idea. In addition, the number of supported LTE frequencies is pretty low, and the device thus not particularly well-suited for world travelers.
Price comparison
7th – Blackview BV9800 Pro
The Blackview BV9800 Pro Pro is one of Backview’s flagship outdoor smartphones. It includes a thermal imaging camera and is very heavy at an impressive 322 g. It passed all important and relevant certifications, and you can thus be sure it is well-suited for rough outdoor adventures. We were also particularly surprised by its good Wi-Fi and its smooth system performance.
A massive smartphone with decent performance and a thermal imaging camera.
Thanks to its ginormous battery – the main culprit behind the device’s high weight – the smartphone lasted for an impressive 25 hours in our Wi-Fi test. Thus, when used sparsely it should easily run for a full week. The thermal imaging camera worked very well, but the camera was certainly nothing to write home about.
We would strongly advise you to buy the Blackview smartphone from a reputable seller. Otherwise, you might run into issues with warranty claims.
Price comparison
8th – F150 Bison 2021
The exotic Oukitel F150 Bison is not officially sold in North American and must therefore be imported. But is it really worth it? Well, let us put it this way: should you be looking for a smartphone with the very long battery life the answer is a resounding yes. Thanks to its ginormous 8,000 mAh battery the device lasted an impressive 32:33 hours in our Wi-Fi battery test, and thus almost 3x as long as the Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro.
The F150 Bison is an exotic smartphone with extremely long battery life one the one hand but also open questions regarding future software updates on the other.
Unsurprisingly, the device is rather large, bulky, and heavy, and its golden color may be somewhat controversial with some users. Its camera did not perform very well, and its SoC is fairly slow.
Overall, this is a smartphone for individualists looking for a smartphone with extremely long battery life that don’t mind taking a risk.
The device has to be imported from China and currently sells for around $200.
Price comparison
9th – Samsung Galaxy XCover 5
The Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 is a gentle evolution of last year’s model. It features a fairly fast processor that does not thermal-throttle under sustained load, a large battery, and a sleek case design. We also like Samsung’s promise of long-term update support, two years of availability guarantee should you need additional identical devices after a while, and its fast Wi-Fi. The cherry on top of the cake is the single individually customizable button.
The Galaxy XCover 5 can be a great outdoor smartphone if you are looking for long software support and don’t mind the missing fingerprint reader.
The battery is replaceable, and its performance is adequate for everyday tasks and challenges. At 64 GB its internal storage is large enough, and the devices comes with both a microSD card slot and a 3.5-mm headphone jack. And last but not least its camera is decent overall.
The Samsung XCover 5 is not available in North America.
Price comparison
10th – Cubot King Kong Mini 2
The Cubot King Kong Mini 2 may look like a ruggedized smartphone, with its rubberized outer shell and its beveled and protected display but it is not IP-certified, which means you cannot be 100 % certain of its water- and dust proofness.
Well protected against impact and with good battery life the Cubot King Kong Mini 2 is not IP-certified.
If you’re looking for a compact outdoor smartphone that is not going to be taken to the extremes this might be the right phone for you.
Additional benefits are its long battery life, its bright display, and its fast Wi-Fi modem.
The device is not official available in North America and has to be imported from China or other European countries where it sells for around $120.
Price comparison
The Best Outdoor Smartphones in Comparison
Test Results
| Blackview BL6000 Pro Mali-G57 MP4, Dimensity 800, 256 GB UFS 2.1 Flash | CAT S62 Pro Adreno 512, SD 660, 128 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro Mali-G72 MP3, Exynos 9611, 64 GB UFS 2.0 Flash | CAT S52 PowerVR GE8320, Helio P35 MT6765, 64 GB eMMC Flash | Blackview BV9800 Pro Mali-G72 MP3, Helio P70, 128 GB eMMC Flash | F150 Bison 2021 PowerVR GE8320, Helio G25, 64 GB eMMC Flash | Blackview BV9700 Pro Mali-G72 MP3, Helio P70, 128 GB NVMe | Gigaset GX290 Mali-G71 MP2, Helio P23 MT6763V, 32 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 Mali-G52 MP1, Exynos 850, 64 GB eMMC Flash | Cubot King Kong Mini 2 PowerVR GE8300, Helio A22 MT6761, 32 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | ||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 40 ? | 45.6 ? | 46 ? | 66 ? | 64.8 ? | 60 ? | 47 ? | 34.4 ? | 60 ? | 46 ? |
| Response Time Black / White * | 26 ? | 22.8 ? | 20 ? | 28 ? | 32 ? | 32.8 ? | 26 ? | 17.6 ? | 34 ? | 22 ? |
| PWM Frequency | 544 ? | 2358 ? | 250 ? | 2500 ? | 90.9 | 354.6 ? | ||||
| Screen | ||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 583 | 506 | 569 | 521 | 511 | 398 | 521 | 635 | 525 | 624 |
| Brightness | 518 | 489 | 562 | 530 | 508 | 393 | 525 | 615 | 491 | 633 |
| Brightness Distribution | 83 | 86 | 91 | 91 | 89 | 86 | 87 | 91 | 87 | 90 |
| Black Level * | 0.6 | 0.41 | 0.42 | 0.16 | 0.29 | 0.42 | 0.29 | 0.39 | 0.53 | 0.87 |
| Contrast | 972 | 1234 | 1355 | 3256 | 1762 | 948 | 1797 | 1628 | 991 | 717 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 4.78 | 6.9 | 6.14 | 2.69 | 8.1 | 4.7 | 6.22 | 10.5 | 5.54 | 5.21 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 8.7 | 12.6 | 10.92 | 5.07 | 15.2 | 8.6 | 9.5 | 17.9 | 10.23 | 10.59 |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 5.5 | 8.5 | 7.9 | 1.8 | 10.9 | 5 | 11 | 11.8 | 6.7 | 4.8 |
| Gamma | 2.22 99% | 2.4 92% | 2.256 98% | 2.243 98% | 2.08 106% | 1.97 112% | 0.558 394% | 1.86 118% | 2.318 95% | 2.585 85% |
| CCT | 6830 95% | 8818 74% | 8696 75% | 6622 98% | 9859 66% | 7107 91% | 8077 80% | 9570 68% | 8555 76% | 6953 93% |
| Heat | ||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 39.5 | 38.9 | 40.4 | 40.3 | 36.2 | 35.6 | 40.1 | 36.3 | 37.7 | 45.6 |
| Maximum Bottom * | 38.2 | 39.2 | 39.5 | 40.8 | 30.4 | 27.7 | 41 | 32 | 37.9 | 44.6 |
| Idle Upper Side * | 31.8 | 35.2 | 29.3 | 27.9 | 34.8 | 33 | 29.5 | 33.3 | 25.7 | 41.5 |
| Idle Bottom * | 30.9 | 27.9 | 26.9 | 28.8 | 27.6 | 26.3 | 28.8 | 28 | 25.3 | 34.3 |
| Battery Runtime | ||||||||||
| WiFi v1.3 | 846 | 668 | 731 | 637 | 1492 | 1953 | 1033 | 1316 | 657 | 1072 |
| Reader / Idle | 1259 | 1246 | ||||||||
| Load | 268 | 213 | ||||||||
| Power Consumption | ||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 1.68 | 0.9 | 1 | 0.87 | 0.67 | 1.2 | 0.89 | 1.3 | ||
| Idle Average * | 2.75 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.91 | 1.85 | 1.5 | 2.09 | 1.9 | ||
| Idle Maximum * | 2.8 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 2.03 | 1.88 | 2.8 | 2.15 | 2.7 | ||
| Load Average * | 4.84 | 5.4 | 3.6 | 4.4 | 3.21 | 3.5 | 4.49 | 4.3 | ||
| Load Maximum * | 7.79 | 6.9 | 5.2 | 7.49 | 4.5 | 7 | 5.78 | 6.2 |
* ... smaller is better
Benchmarks
| AnTuTu v7 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Geekbench 4.4 | |
| 64 Bit Single-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| 64 Bit Multi-Core Score (sort by value) | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| CAT S62 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro | |
| CAT S52 | |
| Blackview BV9800 Pro | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Gigaset GX290 | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| CAT S62 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro | |
| CAT S52 | |
| Blackview BV9800 Pro | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Gigaset GX290 | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 | |
| GFXBench 3.0 | |
| on screen Manhattan Onscreen OGL (sort by value) | |
| CAT S62 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro | |
| CAT S52 | |
| Blackview BV9800 Pro | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Gigaset GX290 | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 | |
| 1920x1080 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| CAT S62 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro | |
| CAT S52 | |
| Blackview BV9800 Pro | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Gigaset GX290 | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| CAT S62 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro | |
| CAT S52 | |
| Blackview BV9800 Pro | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total (sort by value) | |
| CAT S62 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro | |
| CAT S52 | |
| Blackview BV9800 Pro | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 | |
| WebXPRT 3 - Overall (sort by value) | |
| CAT S62 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro | |
| Blackview BV9800 Pro | |
| Blackview BV9700 Pro | |
| Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 | |
* ... smaller is better
