48 reviews for 8849 Tank 3 Pro Rugged Smartphone 2024, 23800mAh Rugged Projector Phone 97dB Loud Speaker, 36GB+512GB Dual Sim 5G Android 14 Unlocked Mobile Cell Phones 6.79″ Big Screen, Camping Light/2TB Expand/OTG
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1) The projector is a really cool feature that you probably will only ever use once or twice. The sound and video quality are surprisingly good, but unless you're leaving your phone sitting down and projecting a movie, it just doesn't make much sense to use the projector most of the time. Given the angle you have to keep the phone to have it project correctly, it is almost unusable for things like TikTok where you need to constantly touch the screen to scroll to a new video. That said, the projector does pack some WOW factor when you're showing off this behemoth of a phone.
2) The battery life is SICKKKK. Unfortunately the trade-off here is this thing is heavy and it honestly kind of hurts your wrist to hold it for extended periods of time. I don't think I would ever put this in my pants pocket - I usually use a hoodie pocket to hold it. It's heavy enough to pull down your pants. But man, the battery life. I use this phone almost exclusively for Pokemon Go and I can play for several hours every day and still only have to charge it once a week, whereas my Google Pixel 9 Pro XL has to be charged twice a day to survive 24 hours.
3) It comes with a freaking 120 watt wall block. That's insane power. And they also threw in a screen protector, although I'm not a huge fan of how durable they are. There are cases on the market to protect this monolith, but none of them have the raised edge to protect the screen, so if you ever drop this bad boy on the ground, prepare to order new screen protectors because the one you have will most certainly shatter.
4) It has hella features. Unfortunately the one I wanted to work the most, didn't work so well. This phone has pass through charging so you can use it as a charging block to power your other devices. Unfortunately this didn't work to charge my Pixel 9, although that's most certainly Google's fault with their super picky protection measures. The feature definitely is there, though, and it does work I think, just don't go expecting fast charging on a Google device.
5) I couldn't figure out how to get the IR blaster to work, although admittedly I didn't try. I assumed this would come preinstalled with an app, but perhaps you need to download one from the play store to get this feature to work.
6) Other neat features: MicroSD slot and two sim card slots. And a headphone jack. And a super bright flashlight on the back.
Bottom line, if you can handle the heft, this is a solid buy. I've loved using it for the past two months. Highly recommend.
I enjoy the camping light and easy pull-down screen access to various controls. The media audio is robust. One of my favourite features is the built-in projector: I can view photos, text, and applications on large screen in real time.
One of my main disappointments is the incoming phone call audio, which is rather flimsy for such an otherwise super and superb phone; with the receiving volume at full loudness, one can barely hear the incoming voice. Is there a built-in application to improve this? The photo quality is also a huge letdown for a photo enthusiast such as I. My cheap Samsung phone takes far more appealing photos, in terms of colour resolution, saturation, image definition, and exposure. I feel like I should receive some form of compensation for putting so much interest and trust in a phone I like so much, only to find these flaws that I have highlighted.
Yes there are some cons but few. I'll start there.
I saw a review that said it does not work on cricket. I initially had AT&t, phone calls and text messages worked just fine. 5G INTERNET DOES NOT WORK ON THE AT&T NETWORK WITH THIS PHONE. I switched to T-Mobile and it works just fine.
YOU WILL HAVE TO USE THE CHARGER IN THE BOX. I haven't been able to test the theory yet with my other fast chargers, but even plugged in for 2 hours in the truck with Android auto and the battery increase was minimal. Battery lasts forever not that big of a deal.
It's big but fits in my deep pocket jeans no problem.
There is a place on the bottom back for lanyard. I put a necklace lanyard on day one.
It's heavy but not unmanageable.
The camera stabilization is kinda crappy at max zoom. There will be no updates to the software that I'm aware of.
Due to the thickness of the phone it is somewhat difficult to type at times, and requires two hand operation. Just a learning adjustment.
PROS
Phone is a conversation starter with just about anybody.
Projector is what attracted me to the Tank 3 Pro. It's not the greatest if the room isn't dark, BUT when zoomed out to cover the entire wall of my bedroom, the quality is still there. You'll notice pixelation if you get real close but it's not enough to bother anybody. Even if you just use the projector for a 12-in screen, it's still worth it for sure.
This is day three and as I type this review on the tank 3 my battery sits exactly at 50% I have plugged it in for a little bit here and there when in the car for Android auto
camping light is brighter than bright, then has an even brighter setting..
There is a red and blue LED strobe above the camping light that can be accessed in the native toolbox app.
IR cameras pretty cool but I haven't tried it outside yet.
IR blaster native app works really well, better than a lot of the Play store universal remote apps I've used in the past with phones that have IR blaster
Native toolbox has lots of cool stuff. Fan control, red blue leds, plumbob, compass, and more.
Fingerprint scanner has been nice to have.
Call quality has been okay.
The speaker is decently loud, however it's not always super crisp due to the location of the microphone. If you're watching something and cup your hand at the bottom of your phone naturally while holding it, sound quality is perfect.
Physical durability of the phone, I haven't dropped it yet but it came with a screen protector installed and an extra one as well. The review video that I watched showed someone throwing this phone at a boulder in the side of a cliff over and over again. I was waiting to see how long it would take to break the phone but the phone never broke instead The Rock dislodged from the cliff...
I haven't tested the waterproof yet, however from the disassembly reviews of watched, there is a decently thick gasket around the entire phone with a secondary gasket around the cooling fan. I don't see myself going to take underwater pictures, but if I drop it in a bucket of water accidentally I'm not going to stress at all.
Compared to the price of any other flagship phone this probably has the best value for your money if you can find a way around the few cons. I paid $680 ish total and received in 2 days.
Lastly there's a ton more features I could probably talk about. Some things are definitely different from my other Android phones but all in all I am pleased.
What really stands out, though, is the company's dedication to its customers. They genuinely care about user satisfaction, responding quickly to any questions and ensuring any issues are resolved. It's refreshing to see a company that stands behind its product with such great support, you don't get that with Samsung or Apple....
If you need a durable phone that won’t let you down, the Tank 3 Pro is a fantastic choice. Highly recommended!
On 12/26, the seller reached out to me regarding my review and the defective camera. Upon seeing the image (which I have attached again since it seems missing), they did not hesitate to send me an entirely new phone. They were very friendly about the entire ordeal, and for that I have to give back one star. But, I have to leave off the last star because, even though they made right by it, swapping devices (again) is a major inconvenience. I'd still recommend this phone if you think it is right for you, and it is still my daily driver.
--- Original Review ----
The main "200mp" camera has a small line in it, as can be seen in the black photo I took of the lens being covered, in the top right, there is a 1 pixel wide horizontal line. It only seems to effect the main camera, not the other three. But for a nearly $800 phone ($769.99 at time of review) I would expect there to not be a damaged sensor out of the box. Therefore this costs it 2 stars.
The phone is heavy, like this is what a smartphone would look like in the early 90s if we had them back then. It feels like a battery pack, so imagine carrying a fat battery pack around with you everywhere. I personally don't mind it but some may.
The projector is a nice touch, but when you activate it, it returns to the lock screen. If you don't have bio-metrics set up this means you'll be putting in your pin code for all to see, since it does nothing to filter the view of the pin code being entered on the number pad (light up and fade effects of the button).
The design seems rugged but I don't see any bezel to protect the screen if it was to drop and fall face down. I drop tested this on my bed and there is no gyro or anything to flip it to fall on its back, so it definitely can and will fall on its screen.
The box comes with an additional screen protector. There is already one applied from the factory (you have to look close at the earpiece speaker to see it)
The phone charges at up to 120w, my charged at 106w over a 100w cable. The cable didn't get warm but the phone certainly did. Not "hot", but a tad warm.
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With the cons out of the way, there are plenty of good things about this phone too.
This is actually a pretty decent mid-level phone. It seems to have the RAM and ROM it claims to, which makes it feel responsive. The settings admit that the "+18GB" is just swap space (it is off by default, I don't see why you'd need it though).
The battery life seems nice, it only lost 1% overnight, whereas my Pixel 7 would lose about 5%. This is with the same background apps.
It benchmarks pretty low compared to modern $1000+ devices but does seem capable of 30fps gaming, including Fortnite. The 3D Mark benchmark was 5983 with an average FPS of 35.83 (Wild Life benchmark).
My device came with developer mode already enabled. The security patch is March 2024, and as of this review there are no updates available. My only concern is if we will get security updates or not. I don't see any custom ROMs on XDA or anywhere.
Overall I am liking this phone so far, despite the camera issue. My AT&T SIM works in it without issues, and I set it up to be my daily driver, and haven't had any issues so far.
And the phone part is in its own right excellent. The only two things it's missing is a top of the line OLED screen, and the very best of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor. Therefore, the screen isn't as nice, and the phone isn't as powerful. But in everyday use, and especially since you are buying this as a rugged phone for the outdoors, I think it's a fair compromise to not include an OLED screen. The version that I received for testing has 18GB of RAM, and 512GB of memory. The extra 18GB of RAM is virtual RAM, and just a gimmick. However, having 18GB of actual RAM is already unheard of, so this phone is a beast in its own right. Also, the 23,800mAh is pretty incredible. And just putting it on standby and not using, I was able to get it to last more than a week (I had to finally use it for this review, so it would have lasted even longer). The only downside then, is with all these features - the huge battery, and rugged material construction - is that the weight makes this phone a literal brick, at more than 600 grams, which is more than double the weight of the heaviest iPhone Pro Max, and the heaviest of Samsung in the Galaxy Fold series. You DEFINITELY feel the weight in your hand(s), and especially when in your pocket. I would even say it's pretty impractical for everyday normal use because it's like carrying two Samsung Folds stacked together. It is big, thick, and heavy. Therefore, this phone is mainly suited for people who work or play outdoors and are used to carrying heavy things, such as construction workers, handymen, plumbers, delivery service workers, etc. If you're going camping or hiking, I would recommend you putting this in your backpack, gear bag, etc., and not your pockets. If you can forego these misgivings, this is actually a good phone for its intended purposes, and you can get it for just over $600 with the current $50 off coupon.
On the negative side, the wifi doesn't seem to be very fast. I've only seen it get up to around 150ish in a speed test. It's got very good range though.
I've only test one game with it. Genshin Impact runs well. I'm not much of a mobile gamer, but I thought I would try to run a popular game on it.
1. Infared Blaster
2. Headphonejack
3. Side button finger print scanner
4. expandable memory
5. Functional Auto Call recording
6. Gaming Ready
7. Giant battery
8. Giant Light
9. Police Light Gag
10. Custom Buttons
11. 5G Ready
12. Android 14
13. Loud AF
14. Infared Night Vision Camera
15. water proof
16. shock resistance
17. freaking projector
CON
1. Heavy AF
2. Passable Camera system
3. Screen Could be brighter with such a huge battery installed.
So happy with mine!
The build quality is off the charts.
The Battery is about as large as they come.
The Camping light is blinding.
It even has a freaking projector. Lol
Can last five days under heavy use.
Superb performance and durability with excellent battery power….. will not change for others
Not for every day carry, battery drains faster than expected, phone and charger get really hot while charging.
Great PROJECTOR with an attached phone to it. Lost interest after a few hours of use and went back to my old phone.
Great gadget but not an everyday carry phone.
I primarily use it when travelling and camping... very sturdy. One last thing that I was impressed
with is the seller's amazing after sale support. Overall, a great purchase.
What really surprised me is the sound. This phone is loud. Whether I'm on a call or blasting music, the audio is crisp, clear, and incredibly powerful. Talking on the phone is crystal clear, and listening to music is a total pleasure—deep bass, full sound, and no distortion.
If you want a phone that stands out, sounds amazing, and gets people talking (in more ways than one), the Tank Pro 3 is it. Be ready for questions… and compliments.
The down side is that it's not 100% T-Mobile compatible.