This Tank Of A Phone Has A Built-in Projector, But That's Not Why You Should Care About It

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The 8849 Tank 4 Pro is disposable now for $759.
• It's a big, beefy handset pinch a elephantine artillery and a agleam 6.73-inch display.
• Its mid-range CPU is compensated for pinch tons of RAM.

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Even earlier nan merchandise of nan iPhone, it was clear that nan smartphone would go a convergence instrumentality that took complete nan usability of a full big of different ones, from nan portable MP3 subordinate to nan in-car satnav. 

But I ne'er thought that I'd spot a smartphone packing a projector. Yes, a projector, agelong pinch a bewildering array of different cool features. The only drawback -- this point is simply a tank!

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The Unihertz 8849 Tank 4 Pro -- nan world's first rugged smartphone to battalion a 720p DLP (Digital Light Processing) projector is simply a immense smartphone -- measuring 174.9 x 87 x 22.5 mm and weighs a monolithic 530 grams (that's complete a pound). This is built for durability pinch precocious levels of daze proofing, and is h2o and dustproof to IP68 and IP69 standards. 

On nan beforehand is simply a immense 6.73-inch 3K/1440 x 3200 solution 20:9 facet ratio AMOLED 120Hz show that delivers silky soft graphics and is tin of dealing pinch agleam sunlight acknowledgment to its 1,800 nits of brightness. 

On nan wrong is simply a 3.35GHz octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 8300 spot and a Mali-G615 MP6 GPU that's moving nan Android 14 retired of nan container (mine upgraded to Android 15 pinch nary problems) operating system, a task that it does smoothly. 

The backmost of nan Tank 4 Pro is dominated by nan camping light.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

There are besides a bewildering array of cameras. There's a 50-megapixel main rear camera, a 50-megapixel telephoto camera, a 64-megapixel nighttime imagination camera for peering into low-light, and a 32-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video calls.

Infrared nighttime vision, anyone?

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

When it comes to RAM and storage, location are 2 options -- nan humble 16GB RAM (plus 16GB representation extension) pinch 512GB storage, and nan all-out 18GB RAM (with an further 18GB representation extension) pinch 1TB of storage. 

Note that for nan exemplary I person for testing and reappraisal is nan 18GB version. 

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On nan backmost of nan Tank 4 Pro is simply a immense 1,200 lumen LED COB camping ray that's insanely agleam (not to mention hot), and tin of lighting up a monolithic area. 

The camping ray is ace agleam -- and gets rather hot!

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

The artillery is appropriately immense for specified a large smartphone. Inside is simply a 11,600mAh which is much than capable to opportunity that it has all-day artillery life. I ran immoderate benchmark tests and sewage complete a time of web browsing from a afloat charge.

Normally, nan downside of a large artillery is that it takes ages to charge. Not pinch nan Tank 4 Pro. This tin complaint astatine up to 120W, and I recovered that nan supplied charger and cablegram could return this artillery from level to afloat successful astir an hour.  

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There's besides that 100 lumens, 1280 x 720 pixel projector pinch built-in laser autofocus and automatic trapezoidal distortion correction that allows you to toggle shape nan surface into a large screen. This is awesome for group who want to protect a movie onto a blank wall, aliases put their ideas onto a surface astatine a meeting. 

The projector is useful, and nan autofocus and automatic trapezoidal distortion correction makes it easy to use, but it struggles successful mild lighting. 

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET

The projector useful well, and nan autofocus is decidedly an betterment compared to different smartphone projectors I've travel across, but 1 downside is that 100 lumens isn't capable for nan projector to triumph against agleam sunshine.  

Ultimately, nan Tank 4 Pro is coagulated erstwhile it comes to specs. While nan processor is beautiful middle-of-the-road, nan 36GB of mixed beingness and virtual RAM does a batch of dense lifting to support this instrumentality running. It's not going to triumph you immoderate bragging powerfulness erstwhile it comes to benchmarks, but it's capable to support it moving smoothy.  

Oh, and it besides features a 3.5 mm headphone jack for those who still usage old-school headphones. 

ZDNET's buying advice

The Unihertz 8849 Tank 4 Pro is not a telephone for everyone. It's a massive, ruggedized handset kitted retired pinch nighttime vision, a large camping light, and a projector -- a beautiful niche wishlist point erstwhile it comes to what group want. 

However, I've heard from capable group to cognize that there's a marketplace for this benignant of handset. It's a celebrated prime for group who spell camping and RVing, and I've heard from a number of outdoor engineers who find a projector a useful tool.

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The Tank 4 Pro isn't cheap, nan 18GB RAM/1TB ROM type is $770, while nan 16GB RAM/512GB ROM type is $690. That said, there's a batch of tech packed into this one-pound ceramic of a smartphone.