Rugged smartphones don’t have to be huge

September 03, 2020

If you spend most of your working day in a nice air-conditioned office, then you don’t have to think too much about how rugged your devices. But if you are an engineer or technician who has to work outdoors in the rain, wind, dust, mud, burning heat, or by water, then durability is something that comes into play.

But most of the rugged smartphones out there are built like tanks. I happen to like smartphones built like tanks, but even I have to admit that finding room for a huge slab of glass and plastic in a pocket can become tedious.

So, I’ve been excited to take the new Blackview BV6300 Pro for a spin.

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Regular readers will know that I’m quite a fan of Blackview hardware. I really love the BV9800 Pro with its built-in FLIR thermal camera, and keep finding more and more uses for this gadget. The BV6300 Pro doesn’t have a thermal camera, but it has almost identical performance and durability specifications (the biggest difference is the smaller display).

Priced at $269.99, the Blackview BV6300 Pro is cheap when compared to the iPhone, but it’s quite an expensive Android handset (until you get to Samsung hardware). That said, the BV6300 Pro is a very nice, very capable handset. I’m going to be putting this handset through its paces over the next few weeks and will have more detailed thoughts about it later, but so far this handset looks like the perfect device for those who work outdoors, want a rugged handset, and don’t have deep pockets.