Rugged smartphones 2022: the best models | Articles | Phones

A reli­able smart­phone is a col­lec­tive image of a device that works sta­bly, rarely breaks, is pro­tect­ed from shock and mois­ture, etc. There is no ide­al device that can com­bine every­thing. But there are wor­thy rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the class — strong, pro­duc­tive, durable. We chose the three best, most reli­able smart­phones of 2022 accord­ing to key para­me­ters, empha­siz­ing their strengths and capa­bil­i­ties. At the end of the mate­r­i­al — a bonus, the fourth device with amaz­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics.

The most reli­able smart­phone accord­ing to cus­tomer reviews and tests is Black­view BV9500. But it is of inter­est to a minor­i­ty. Pho­to: elperiodico.com

The selec­tion is sub­jec­tive, based on the results of cur­rent research by Roskach­est­vo and teams of West­ern engi­neers and enthu­si­asts. Impor­tant: reli­a­bil­i­ty is not always syn­ony­mous with shock resis­tance, body strength and mois­ture pro­tec­tion. If you are look­ing for a smart­phone for out­door activ­i­ties or work on a watch, your choice is rugged devices. The main dis­ad­van­tage of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of this class is poor ergonom­ics and heavy weight.

One­Plus 10 Pro — sol­id soft­ware and great bat­tery life
Sam­sung A52 — mid-bud­get with pre­mi­um fea­tures
Xiao­mi Mi 11 is a main­tain­able and styl­ish semi-flag­ship
AGM Glo­ry Pro — an unkil­l­able mon­ster with a ther­mal imag­ing cam­era
Results

OnePlus 10 Pro — solid software and great battery life

The One­Plus 10 Pro does not have an offi­cial IP rat­ing (pro­tec­tion against water and dust), the One­Plus 10 Pro does not have an air­craft-grade alu­minum case — the device is not suit­able for extreme sports. But the smart­phone sur­pris­es with the sta­bil­i­ty and con­ve­nience of the OxygenOS 12 firmware, rein­forced ceram­ic mod­ule of good cam­eras, per­for­mance and weight of 201 g.

One­Plus 10 Pro can­not be dipped into the ocean or dropped from a height. But you can enjoy its design, sta­bil­i­ty and build qual­i­ty. Pho­to: forbes.com

One­Plus 10 Pro man­aged to “bor­row” Sam­sung’s ele­gant design fea­tures and bypass the Galaxy S22 Ultra in the rat­ing lists. The title of the best Android smart­phone went to 10 Pro from experts, not least for the case. Strong but light­weight plas­tic does not col­lect fin­ger­prints, and ceram­ics around the cam­eras can sur­vive a cou­ple of gen­tle blows. The engi­neers have not for­got­ten about ergonom­ics: the smart­phone instant­ly fits in the hand, work­ing on the dis­play with one fin­ger does not cause incon­ve­nience.

Weighty bonus­es One­Plus 10 Pro — per­for­mance, shell and cam­eras. Snap­drag­on 8 Gen 1 proces­sor — pow­er­ful, reli­able, trou­ble-free even at max­i­mum load. Eas­i­ly copes with resource-inten­sive appli­ca­tions and demand­ing games. OxygenOS 12 is a clean, fast skin with a choice of col­or pro­files, respon­sive home screen wid­gets, and a smooth expe­ri­ence.

Shots from the One­Plus 10 Pro rarely fall short of those from the iPhone 13 Pro Max in terms of detail and sat­u­ra­tion. The new Mag­ic­Styles mode opens up shoot­ing in dif­fer­ent pho­to styles, which are acti­vat­ed with one click. The cam­era per­forms reli­ably even in low light con­di­tions thanks to Nightscape. Evening shots are clear, there are no prob­lems with sta­bi­liza­tion when shoot­ing hand­held.

Evening shots on the One­Plus 10 Pro work out with­out com­plex manip­u­la­tions with the set­tings. Pho­to: tomsguide.com

Roskach­est­vo notes the excel­lent auton­o­my of the device, which works for 33 hours at an aver­age load. For a smart­phone with a pro­duc­tive fill­ing and a 6.7‑inch AMOLED dis­play, this is an indica­tive result. One­Plus 10 Pro con­verts phys­i­cal reli­a­bil­i­ty into tech­ni­cal sta­bil­i­ty, a vari­ety of cam­era set­tings and a good body.

What made it to the list of the most reli­able smart­phones in 2022:

• ceram­ic cam­era mod­ule;
• light weight and good ergonom­ics;
• sta­ble OS;
• excel­lent auton­o­my;
• pro­duc­tive proces­sor with­out weak points.

What is impor­tant to con­sid­er:

• the man­u­fac­tur­er guar­an­tees only three years of sup­port;
• the tele­pho­to lens is mediocre (only 8 MP).

Key Fea­tures of One­Plus 10 Pro:

• proces­sor: Snap­drag­on 8 Gen 1;
• dis­play: 6.7 inch­es, AMOLED (3216 x 1440);
• RAM: 8/12 GB;
• bat­tery: 5000 mAh;
• size: 163 x 73.9 x 8.55 mm.

Samsung A52 — mid-budget with premium features

The Sam­sung A52 stands out among good rugged smart­phones with its low price, pro­pri­etary build qual­i­ty, and 90Hz screen refresh rate. And the device with IP67 pro­tec­tion is not afraid of dust and short-term immer­sion in water.

For the mon­ey, the A52 has a bright and crisp AMOLED dis­play for every­thing from watch­ing videos to play­ing games. Pho­to: xataka.com

A52 was released in March 2021, but has not lost rel­e­vance in 2022. With­in 32,000 rubles, it is dif­fi­cult to find a device sim­i­lar in per­for­mance, pro­tect­ed from water and dust. The smart­phone is the­o­ret­i­cal­ly capa­ble of short-term immer­sion to a depth of up to one meter. In prac­tice, swim­ming with the Sam­sung A52 is not worth it, but acci­den­tal­ly get­ting water on the case or falling into a pud­dle will not lead to break­downs.

The Snap­drag­on 720G proces­sor is not the most pow­er­ful, but it pro­vides smooth oper­a­tion. There are no prob­lems with games either: Asphalt 9, COD:mobile and oth­er hits on the A52 run at 40–60 FPS — with­out case heat­ing, image tear­ing, or slow­downs. On the tra­di­tion­al con­trast dis­play with a refresh rate of 90 Hz, every­thing looks real­is­tic and dynam­ic. Smooth ani­ma­tions and scrolling with­out image reten­tion are guar­an­teed. Sam­sung A52 is reli­able and sta­ble in apps, launch­er and web.

The pic­ture is com­ple­ment­ed by soft­ware proven over the years: Android 11 com­bined with One UI 3.1 out of the box. The user gets full inte­gra­tion with all Google ser­vices, a Google Dis­cov­er news bar on the home screen, screen record­ing and alerts when the dis­play is off (AOD).

The main cam­era of the Sam­sung A52 at 64 MP with opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion takes pic­tures accept­able in terms of detail and dynam­ic range, and com­pen­sates for hand shake. There is no pre­mi­um clar­i­ty and qual­i­ty, but there are no cam­era phones in the mid-bud­get seg­ment.

Arti­facts and noise in the pho­to from the main cam­era are notice­able, but not crit­i­cal. Pho­to: www.gsmarena.com

Sam­sung A52 is the choice of peo­ple who like to be con­fi­dent in the device and do not want to pay a lot of mon­ey. An autonomous, trou­ble-free device with a chic AMOLED dis­play is a wor­thy rep­re­sen­ta­tive of reli­able smart­phones from Sam­sung in 2022.

What made it to the list of the most reli­able smart­phones in 2022:

• famous assem­bly from Sam­sung: per­fect fit­ting of parts, wear-resis­tant plas­tic, scratch-resis­tant dis­play;
• work offline up to two days (the exact time depends on the load);
• high-con­trast, bright AMOLED dis­play with a refresh rate of 90 Hz;
• dust and mois­ture-proof hous­ing;
• stereo speak­ers.

What is impor­tant to con­sid­er:

• SIM card tray — hybrid (either two SIM cards, or one SIM card and a microSD card);
• no head­phones includ­ed.

Sam­sung A52 Key Fea­tures:

• proces­sor: Snap­drag­on 720G;
• dis­play: 6.5 inch­es, Super AMOLED (1080 x 2400);
• RAM: 4/6/8 GB;
• bat­tery: 4500 mAh;
• size: 159.9 x 75.1 x 8.4 mm;
• water­proof: IP67.

Xiaomi Mi 11 is a maintainable and stylish semi-flagship

Released in 2022, Xiao­mi Mi 12 is the undis­put­ed flag­ship with a high degree of reli­a­bil­i­ty, but its pre­de­ces­sor, Xiao­mi Mi 11, looks no less attrac­tive. At a cost of 40,000–42,000 rubles, the smart­phone is in demand among fans of spec­tac­u­lar solu­tions with a large and beau­ti­ful AMOLED dis­play. And Xiao­mi Mi 11 can be dis­as­sem­bled with just one screw­driv­er.

Xiao­mi Mi 11 is a smart­phone that helped the com­pa­ny out­sell Apple com­peti­tors in 2021. Pho­to: androidauthority.com

The 2.5K dis­play works in HDR enhanced clar­i­ty and con­trast, and includes built-in pre­sets for adjust­ing bright­ness. The frame rate (max­i­mum — 120 Hz) is auto­mat­i­cal­ly adjust­ed by the sys­tem. This saves bat­tery pow­er and makes work­ing with the device com­fort­able in all sce­nar­ios (in the launch­er, appli­ca­tions, games, etc.).

The mod­el has reli­able and juicy stereo speak­ers from Har­man Kar­don. After a cou­ple of min­utes of adjust­ing the equal­iz­er, you can get a spa­cious, clear sound with a dis­tinct bass and clear highs. The glass body is not shock­proof and needs a case or care­ful han­dling, but the dis­play with Goril­la Glass is pro­tect­ed from scratch­es.

The Snap­drag­on 888 chipset has not lost its pow­er since its release. The proces­sor scores 3569 points in the Geek­bench 5 syn­thet­ic test — any appli­ca­tions and games run and work with­out freezes and slow­downs. In mul­ti­task­ing mode, you can switch between five, sev­en, ten pro­grams in the back­ground — the smart­phone quick­ly process­es any request.

Pho­tos from the main cam­era of Xiao­mi Mi 11 are wor­thy of a place on the front pages of pho­to col­lec­tions. Pho­to: techradar.com

The impres­sion is enhanced by the 5 MP telemacro cam­era. An f/2.6 lens is capa­ble of tak­ing close-up shots of objects at a dis­tance. A grand bonus called “Mak­ing Mag­ic” is sewn into the Xiao­mi Mi 11 video mode. With an aspect ratio of 20: 9, the pic­ture gets a cin­e­mat­ic effect and looks very pre­sentable. Shoot­ing videos on your smart­phone is quick­ly becom­ing a favorite hob­by.

The cost of Xiao­mi Mi 11 in 2022 (41,000–42,000 rubles) com­pen­sates for all the minor flaws of the phone. This is a reli­able com­pan­ion for a lover of pho­tos, videos, pre­mi­um style and cus­tomiz­able shell.

What made it to the list of the most reli­able smart­phones in 2022:

• per­for­mance at a high lev­el (with a mar­gin of a cou­ple of years);
• AMOLED screen 120 Hz with excel­lent col­or repro­duc­tion and sat­u­ra­tion;
• the dis­play is pro­tect­ed by durable glass Goril­la Glass Vic­tus;
• stereo speak­ers;
• 108 MP cam­era with sen­sor from Sam­sung, telemacro cam­era.

What is impor­tant to con­sid­er:

• fin­ger­print scan­ner and prox­im­i­ty sen­sor do not work per­fect­ly;
• no tele­pho­to lens.

Key fea­tures of Xiao­mi Mi 11:

• proces­sor: Snap­drag­on 888;
• dis­play: 6.81 inch­es, AMOLED (1440 x 3200);
• RAM: 8/12 GB;
• bat­tery: 4600 mAh;
• size: 164.3 x 74.6 x 8.1 mm.

AGM Glory Pro — an unkillable monster with a thermal imaging camera

The bonus smart­phone of the list is a must-have mod­el for climbers, extreme tourists, builders and employ­ees of the Min­istry of Emer­gency Sit­u­a­tions. AGM Glo­ry Pro — armor-pierc­ing body, oper­a­tion at ‑40 degrees, built-in bright flash­light and 370 grams of tech­no­log­i­cal pow­er.

The ter­mi­na­tor phone can­not be acci­den­tal­ly bro­ken, bro­ken or frozen. Pho­to: singletrackworld.com

Beau­ty and design — aside! AGM Glo­ry Pro passed tests in the freez­er and lost only 2% of the bat­tery charge in an hour of freez­ing. Its woven fiber shell is built to with­stand painful falls from great heights — no mat­ter the sur­face. A flash­light with an aper­ture of 120 lm will illu­mi­nate a piece of land or water on the dark­est night at a dis­tance of about 30 meters. Com­pli­ance with IP68, IP69K and STD 810H stan­dards — a guar­an­tee of 100% pro­tec­tion against dust, dirt, hail, snow, water. In extreme con­di­tions, AGM Glo­ry Pro will nev­er let you down.

On board is a Snap­drag­on 480 proces­sor with an Adreno 619 graph­ics accel­er­a­tor. In the world of games, the proces­sor feels com­fort­able only at medi­um graph­ics set­tings. But on the web, the launch­er (thanks to pure Android 11) and the appli­ca­tions impor­tant for work and leisure cope with the load with­out brakes. 8 GB of RAM adds speed to the device when mul­ti­task­ing.

The ther­mal imager is an impor­tant addi­tion to the AGM Glo­ry Pro. Pho­to: digitalcameraworld.com

The most reli­able smart­phone of 2022 has four rear cam­eras. The main one, with a 48 MP Sony sen­sor, takes accept­able shots in suf­fi­cient light. There is enough detail and dynam­ic range to cap­ture the impor­tant nuances of the envi­ron­ment. The 20 MP infrared cam­era and the ther­mal imag­ing cam­era take all the atten­tion. The lat­ter mea­sures the tem­per­a­ture of objects and mon­i­tors its change. The ther­mal imager helps with con­struc­tion, search­ing for liv­ing beings, etc. You can detect an uncon­scious per­son from a dis­tance of 50 m.

AGM Glo­ry Pro is impos­si­ble not to hear even dur­ing a storm. The 3.5W speak­er with 110dB deliv­ers ultra-loud sound. You can set your smart­phone to play a warn­ing mes­sage in a loop.

A sim­ple user does not need AGM Glo­ry Pro. A heavy, mas­sive exter­nal­ly device does not fit into the canons of design and style in 2022. But rep­re­sen­ta­tives of risky pro­fes­sions and lovers of con­quer­ing moun­tains will put this device, best in the class of reli­able smart­phones, in the bag first.

What made it to the list of the most reli­able smart­phones in 2022:

• ready to work in con­di­tions of extreme cold and bad weath­er;
• not afraid of falling from a great height;
• two days of bat­tery life in nor­mal con­di­tions, more than an hour — at a tem­per­a­ture of ‑40 degrees;
• loud, very loud speak­er;
• ther­mal imag­ing cam­eras and night vision cam­eras.

What is impor­tant to con­sid­er:

• weight is not suit­able for every­one;
• per­for­mance is aver­age: the phone is not for gam­ing at ultra set­tings or com­plex video edit­ing.

Key Fea­tures of AGM Glo­ry Pro:

• proces­sor: Snap­drag­on 480;
• dis­play: 6.53″ LTPS (2340 x 1080);
• RAM: 8 GB;
• bat­tery: 6200 mAh;
• size: 175 x 84 x 23 mm;
• dust, mois­ture and shock pro­tec­tion: IP68, IP69K and STD 810H.

Results

A reli­able smart­phone is an ambigu­ous con­cept. The adjec­tives “cheap”, “qual­i­ty”, “Chi­nese” are often added to it, each time mean­ing some­thing spe­cif­ic for a par­tic­u­lar case. Objec­tive­ly, no device can guar­an­tee 100% reli­a­bil­i­ty — nei­ther tech­ni­cal, nor soft­ware, nor body. It remains to make a choice based on their ideas. Maybe in your sit­u­a­tion, reli­a­bil­i­ty equals auton­o­my. Or advanced iron. Or maybe the main thing is not tech­nol­o­gy, but sim­plic­i­ty? Choose wise­ly.