Hotwav T5 Pro

Hotwav T5 Pro Rugged Smartphone with Android 12

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer Hotwav has presented a new outdoor mobile phone. The T5 Pro costs around $100 and offers a huge battery, a processor from MediaTek.

The T5 Pro weighs 280g, which is acceptable for rugged smartphones especially with large-capacity batteries. Many of the ones of this type are over 300g. Grey, orange colour options are available.

For once, the coloured accents are not only on the back. Once completely around the front, there is a narrow bar in the colour chosen at the time of purchase. This looks particularly cool on the orange version. If you like it more simple, you can simply go for grey. Apart from the optional accent, by the way, the front has a rather classic design. The 6-inch display lies flat in the casing and the corners are not rounded.

The big advantage of this design is the symmetry – the display edges are all about the same thickness. In many current models, we have to deal with thin edges all around, only the chin is usually much more voluminous. On the back of the T5 Pro, the coloured lines continue directly. The rubber corners are accentuated in grey or orange, as is the hook for the key fob at the bottom centre. The three cameras are placed in the centre and in a vertical arrangement and are surrounded by an element of metal. Otherwise, the T5 Pro is made of rubber and plastic.

The T5 Pro runs on the latest Android OS – Android 12, which is not common among budget smartphones in its cadre. It, therefore, comes with the latest complement of software features and security. Like all current outdoor smartphones, the T5 pro is certified to IP68. With this model, IP69K and MIL-STD-810G are also added. In practice, these certificates mean that the smartphone is protected against drops and shocks. It is also protected against the ingress of dirt and water.

In one and a half metres of fresh water, the smartphone can stand for 30 minutes without being damaged. As always, however, we warn against deliberately treating smartphones roughly. Even the best protection wears off after a while, and damage caused by water is not covered by the warranty.

Hotwav continues to rely on processors from MediaTek – in this case the MT6761 is used. The chip is better known under the name Helio P22 – a frequently chosen model for affordable smartphones.

Hotwav installs 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 32GB of EMMC memory in the T5 Pro. The latter can be expanded by up to 128GB via microSD card. It is currently unclear whether dual-SIM will then have to be dispensed with.

The main argument for buying the HOTWAV T5 Pro is certainly the battery. 7,500 mAh is really something, especially for a smartphone with a rather small display. By the way, charging is done with 10W and only via cable – wireless charging is not on board. However, the T5 Pro can last for quite a long time without the cable. As always, these figures should be taken with a grain of salt. However, at 7500mAh, more than twice the capacity of average smartphones is available, which is why the runtime should be truly outstanding.

With a diagonal of 6 inches, the display of the HOTWAV T5 Pro is relatively small. It has a resolution of 960 x 480 pixels and thus 192 pixels per inch. There are two camera lenses on the back of the outdoor smartphone.

However, the data sheet of the T5 Pro only mentions one sensor – it is quite possible that we are presented with two dummies here. The main sensor has a resolution of 13MP and is a S5K3L8. The wide-angle lens has an aperture of f/1.8 – a flash is also built in. In addition to photos, videos can also be recorded; a maximum of 1080P at 30 frames per second is possible. On the front, HOTWAV has installed a selfie camera with 5MP (HyundaiHI-553).

There is a promotion sale on Aliexpress for this product from May 2nd to May 6th. The price will be 89.99 USD with a five-dollar coupon for the first 100 items. The T5 Pro is interesting for those who have to get by for a very long time without a power socket. The large battery is a great feature, but comes at the cost of weight and dimensions. However, if you are out and about a lot and need a very robust mobile phone that, in the worst case, doesn’t need to be connected to the charging cable for several days, you should take a look at the HOTWAV T5 Pro.

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