Unihertz Tank review: an indestructible lamp that thinks it’s a telephone

In the package we find a 66W power supply and a USB-C / USB-C cable. Unfortunately we do not find specific accessories to accompany it. For a similar smartphone, for example, we would have appreciated a strap.

Unihertz Tank it’s a huge smartphone. It is so large that it is almost difficult to compare it with other smartphones on the market. It will not fit in any pocket of dressier trousers and will only fit in looser or business trousers. And in any case it weighs 560 grams and without an adequate belt you could remain in your underwear. It is also 23.9 millimeters thick, three times the size of virtually any smartphone on the market and twice as thick as many rugged smartphones.

It was obviously not possible otherwise: not only does the smartphone have all the “armor” to be really robust, it also has a battery that is at least four times larger than almost all the competitors out there. More than many power banks you could buy. It could not be compact.

However, it is resistant to dust and water according to the IP68 standard and to “mistreatment” according to the MIL-STD-810H standards.

Tank’s hardware is from a mid-range smartphone. We have Mediatek octa core 3.2GHz Helio G99 processor with Mali G57 MC2 GPU and 8GB of RAM. The internal memory is 256 GB, although unfortunately not expandable. The only removable trolley is for two SIMs in format dwarf. We then have 4G connectivity, dual band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3 and NFC chip for payments. There is also a discreet fingerprint reader on the power button on the right and the audio jack for the 3.5 mm headphones, hidden together with the USB-C port under a rubber gasket in the lower part of the smartphone. We then have two additional keys on the left side. Both are programmable for press and hold. Basically the first turns on the torch of the led flash and the second the 1,000-nit light post on the back.

This is what Unihertz calls a camping light. The power of this light is well understood by watching our video. Much more like a great flashlight than any other LED flash you’ve ever seen in a smartphone. An absurd but unique function that could make the difference for someone in emergency situations or work in uncomfortable conditions.

The smartphone is equipped with three cameras. The main one is from 108 megapixelswhile the secondary is a curious 20 megapixel for the night vision via infrared. The latest is a 2 megapixel macro. It’s a fairly inexpensive photographic kit and the results prove it. The photos have never convinced us 100%, but we can also say that none of the shots were even really to be thrown away. You don’t buy this smartphone for its cameras essentially, but the addition of the infrared night vision sensor is definitely something not found on many smartphones and helps this Tank stand out from the competition.

The front camera instead of 32 megapixels.

The screen of Tank is a very large 6.81 inches in LCD technology with FullHD+ resolution (1080 x 2340 pixels). The screen isn’t the brightest, but it still holds up honorably even outdoors. Some data sheets report the presence of a 90Hz refresh rate, but the function is not present on our specimen and is not even reported in the official data sheet. Well the olephobic treatment of the pre-installed protective film. Usually this factor is largely underestimated on smartphones of this type.

Unihertz Tank has no particular surprises regarding the software. We have some additional items such as the one to limit internet access to some apps only in Wi-Fi or only via data, the one to record phone calls or the ability to turn the screen back on when notifications are received. The system is Android 12 Updated to November 2022 patches and we have to say we were amazed to have received 3 updates during the trial period.

This is something that usually doesn’t happen for smartphones from lesser-known brands.

The whole system is then sufficiently fast and snappy. Certainly this Tank is not the perfect device to hold in hand for hours to play mobile titles, but even in that case we can say that we have not had any problems.

The battery of this Unihertz Tank is undoubtedly the most important interpretation. We have a 22,000 mAh specimen which guarantees about 100 days of standby according to the company and even a week of average use in our tests. In addition, recharging is also rapid (again this thing is not at all obvious) thanks to the support of the maximum power of 66W which allows you to charge it up to 90% in less than two hours. Of course you can use it as a wired power bank for other devices.

Unihertz Tank is sold for just under €400 on Aliexpress. This is a fair price, although certainly not accessible to everyone.

Too bad it’s not sold on other stores too.