I Replaced My Pixel 9 Pro With A $400 Rugged Android Phone - And Now It's $100 Off

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Oukitel WP56 is now disposable for $299 connected nan charismatic site.
• The WP56 is simply a mid-range telephone that performs supra its value and has an awesome artillery life.
• Like astir Oukitel phones, nan WP56 is very heavy.

Let maine group nan shape for you. 

You're retired successful nan wilderness. Maybe you're moving connected a occupation site, aliases you've taken your Jeep for immoderate off-road action. The terrain and nan upwind are rough, and you mightiness not person nan intends to springiness your telephone a charge. On apical of that, you mightiness find yourself retired location successful nan mediate of nan night, and could usage immoderate superior illumination.

Also: This inexpensive Android telephone has a show and artillery life of a handset that's doubly nan price

If you're sporting an iPhone aliases a Pixel phone, you cognize to beryllium observant pinch those delicate devices. But you're carrying astir nan Oukitel WP56, truthful you person nary concerns astir nan elements aliases nan artillery dying connected you. You tin besides radiance a very agleam LED to ray up nan area.

All from a azygous phone.  

Oukitel is well-known for its rugged phones, and nan WP56 is nary slouch. This instrumentality tin not only withstand nan elements, but it tin besides crank up nan measurement pinch a powerful 128dB loudspeaker. Can your iPhone do that?

But what is this telephone for illustration to clasp successful nan manus and use? 

My experience

Every clip I unbox an Oukitel phone, I'm shocked by its weight. Since I've reviewed respective of these phones, their heft shouldn't astonishment me, and yet present I am. The WP56 weighs 524 grams. That's good much than nan iPhone 16 Pro Max (227 grams) and nan Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (218 grams) combined.

This telephone could surely measurement your pants down.

When you clasp an Oukitel phone, it feels for illustration a ceramic -- not conscionable because of its weight but besides because of its ruggedness. You could astir apt propulsion this telephone astatine nan TV successful a fresh of pique, and nan TV would not fare well.

Also: The astir durable Android telephone I've tested has a marathon artillery (and it's connected sale)

The setup of nan WP56 is arsenic straightforward arsenic immoderate Android device; erstwhile you've completed that task, you'll find yourself astatine a location surface filled pinch app launchers and widgets. The first page connected nan location surface is dedicated (mostly) to Google apps; nan 1 objection is nan Cleanup app, and I person nary thought what it does. 

I'm guessing it cleans nan phone's cache aliases performs immoderate benignant of optimization. Regardless, I thin not to spot specified apps, truthful I usually uninstall them. Fortunately, you tin do that, arsenic nary of nan WP56 bloatware is locked from uninstalling. 

The bully news is that nan WP56 doesn't person astir arsenic overmuch bloatware arsenic I've seen connected different devices.

That yellowish chevron emits a ton of light.

Jack Wallen/ZDNET

How does nan WP56 perform? Surprisingly well. 

The type I was shipped included 12GB of RAM, but (as pinch astir of Oukitel's phones) allows you to grow nan RAM up to a full of 36GB (12 beingness and 24 virtual). Keep successful mind: When utilizing nan representation description feature, soul retention is utilized for nan virtual RAM. If you bump it up an other 24GB, that intends you suffer 24GB of soul storage, truthful usage it wisely. When you alteration nan representation description , you do person to restart nan device.

I went up and bumped my reappraisal portion to nan maximum magnitude of virtual RAM to spot if I could announcement immoderate capacity boost. Before I did that, I ran a benchmark, and present are nan results:

• CPU Benchmark: single-core people - 968 and multi-core people - 2560
• GPU Benchmark: 2609

If you comparison those results to different phones, a peculiar image gets painted. For example, nan Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra scores astir 2136 connected nan single-core trial and 6675 connected nan multi-core test. As for GPU comparisons, my Pixel 9 Pro scored 8383, truthful nan WP56 is rather a spot down connected that trial arsenic well. Notably, nan virtual RAM didn't impact CPU benchmarking astatine all.

Also: Finally, a rugged Android telephone that doesn't look for illustration a ceramic (and won't break nan bank)

Clearly, nan WP56 is not a flagship device. Instead, this telephone sits successful nan little midrange conception of Android phones. Still, nan handset feels for illustration it outperforms its scores. However, if you're much willing successful powerfulness complete ruggedness and artillery life, this is astir apt not nan telephone for you.

When utilizing nan WP56, apps unfastened quickly, and animations are smooth, truthful it's comparable to astir midrange phones I've tested. Where nan WP56 really shines is artillery life. According to Oukitel specs, nan WP56's 16,000 mAh artillery tin get up to:

• Standby clip - 1,818 hours
• Calling clip - 117 hours
• Music clip - 56 hours
• Video clip - 28 hours
• Game clip - 21 hours

Those numbers are crazy. I've tested nan standby clip of different Oukitel models, and they do guidelines up to nan specs. Think astir it this way: 1,818 hours is 75 days -- seventy-five days!

ZDNET's buying advice

The Oukitel phones really do entreaty to definite personification types. You person to emotion (or need) a good, rugged design, not attraction astir having flagship performance, and want a artillery that tin past for a very, very, very agelong time. If that sounds for illustration you, nan WP56 could beryllium correct up your alley, particularly now: The telephone is presently trading for only $300 (that's 25% off).

Just retrieve what you're getting into. Like each of Oukitel's phones, nan WP56 is dense and brick-like. If that's not a woody breaker, nan WP56 is simply a slayer deal.

The specs

• CPU - MTK Dimensity 7050 @ 2.6 GHz and 8 cores
• GPU - Mali-G68 MC4
• OS - Android 15
• Display - 6.8" FHD+ astatine 1080 x 2460 resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, 396 PPI pixel density, and 550 nit brightness
• RAM - 12GB + 24GB virtual
• Storage 512GB (with description up to 2TB)
• Camera - beforehand 32MP pinch a Sony IMX616 sensor astatine F2.2 aperture
• Camera - main 108MP pinch an S5KHM6SX03 sensor astatine F1.88 aperture
• Battery - 16000 mAh Polymer, 45 W charging pinch 18 W reverse charging
• Connectivity - 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (2.4G+5G+WIFI6), Bluetooth 5.2, USB-C
• Sensors - Fingerprint, G-sensor, proximity, ambient light, compass, and gyroscope
• Ruggedness - Rated MIL-STD-810H, rated IP68 (immerse successful 1.5m h2o for up to 30 minutes), rated IP69K

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