The world’s first 5G rugged smartphone will be the Blackview BL6000 Pro

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(£86.56/AU$159.49)
We have to admit, the Oukitel WP5 is not 5G-ready like the BL6000 Pro. However, it does have an 8,000mAh battery capacity, Android 10 OS, a quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM and a 5.5-inch display, so it's worth a look!View Deal

Blackview has revealed that its first 5G rugged smartphone, the BL6000 Pro, will start life on Indiegogo, with a super early bird price tag likely to fall between $400 and $500.

In an email exchange, a company spokesperson told us that the device is expected to debut within days on the popular crowdfunding site and the entire specification sheet has now been published by the vendor.

Other than the Dimensity 800 CPU from Mediatek, there’s 8GB LPDDR4X memory, 256GB UFS 2.1 storage (which should be far faster than eMMC 5.1), a 5.28Ah battery and a massive 6.4-inch FHD+ display with a 19:9 aspect ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 overlay.

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The optics are some of the best on any rugged smartphones we’ve tested to date. There’s a Sony IMX582 48-megapixel sensor, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera, a supporting 0.3-megapixel sensor, plus a Samsung 16-megapixel front-facing camera.

As expected, it comes with IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810G certification, an air pressure sensor and an ice mode that allows the smartphone to function at -30 degrees centigrade. The rest - Android 10, NFC, Wi-Fi 5 and wireless charging - is pretty standard for a mid-range device.

The vendor initially indicated that it would release a 5G rugged smartphone with a 2D Honeywell scanner, but this version doesn’t come with the feature.