My wife says standing over the sink at 3am cleaning tea infusers with a brass tooth brush, dremel tool, and dental picks is not normal. Is she right?
How else do you clean those pesky gums off of your teeth and expose ALL of the pearly whites?
This is my personal favourite. Asking for sources in general conversation, and refusing to participate further in any discussion without them. Then it turns out their own sources are just links to some "journalist" opinion from a web site, written by a different human being without any sources.
The image that captures the one consistent truth of the internet. GG.
I dig it. I wish I never tasted the sweet nectar of the juice.
That is very true, but it's a pirate's life for me.
You'll need a port pass, sailor moon. Otherwise known as a pass port, because you need it to pass through a port.
Those pesky laws of the land really only kick in once you hit land. Until then you're in international waters. Technically you might already be considered to be in Mexico but only the coastguard would argue such a thing until you dock.
In practice, if you just anchor in a bay and row to shore...you might enjoy whatever you came to enjoy and then get all the way home without anyone asking you about anything.
This is good because it saves you dealing with beaurocrats but you also don't get a nice stampo in passporto.
AGM's current flagship is the G2 Guardian, and it really does feel like a flagship.
Ulefone have a huge variety of options over the last 18 months. They release phones every 5 minutes. There's big differences between them though, especially in battery capacity and device size, which are obviously directly related. It's impossible for me to know what will suit you. They have models like the Armor 12 5G which are closer to standard sized phones but with only 5180mAh battery, right up to devices with 13,000+mAh for some of their larger offerings.
I had the Power Armor 13 and it was way too big and heavy. 13200mAh battery. I could go almost 2 weeks without charging! Entirely too big though, it pulled my pants down.
If I were buying a new phone tomorrow the Power Armor 18T (with FLIR sensor), or the Power Armor 18 look like the best combination of features recently. Remember what I said about their release cycles! The Dimensity 900 is a better chip all round than the G99. The fact that the older PA 18 costs more than the PA19, 20 and 21 tells me what I need to know. Power Armor 18 looks like it was their most recent flagship and specs confirm this.
Power Armor 18 or 18T both weigh about the same as my G2 Guardian. I don't find this to be too much. They fit in my normal pants pockets but they ARE going to be significantly larger and heavier than you are used to. Anything more than that is just getting ridiculous but even 400g is a major adjustment and not for everyone.
That battery will change your whole user experience. You just don't need to think about charging. Camera should be good, great refresh rate, super fast charging and even on the standard version it has a built in laser thermometer. You decide if the thermal cam is worth the extra 170 dollars to you. Anything with a FLIR brand sensor has a premium on it. Very cool feature for me, but maybe not for you.
The G99 chipset in some of their non-flagship models is still ok and would save you a lot of money. It is still significantly faster for most tasks than what you had in the Xcover pro, but it would annoy me in daily use. I'd prefer the Dimensity 900 any day, or a snapdragon.
Stay away from their "X series" line. Same cases, shitty hardware.
Non-alcoholic beer makes my brain go crazy. I do not like it at all. WHERE IS THE JUICE?!
Ulefone are right up at the top of this market segment. Their devices look cheap, but they are generally very durable and they work really well. They have figured out VoLTE and VoWifi connectivity globally and they shift a LOT of units. Cameras are pretty decent but share the same caveats as everyone else here. Battery is generally stellar and they should last you a good couple of years. BEWARE the tick, tick, tick, TOCK cycle. They release a lot of underspecced garbage and it can sometimes be difficult to tell what is their actual flagship. Their warranty SUCKS, but you shouldn't need it unless you abuse your device. Extra points for making them impossible to kill on the software front too. When unlocking bootloader, rooting or flashing custom firmware Ulefone have baked in a hardware level safety net that can bring a device back from the absolute brink of death. Scenarios that would guarantee a brick on many other devices, you can ALWAYS flash back to factory state with an Ulefone. They're the kings in that area.
CAT I would not bother with at all. You are paying for the brand, but underneath it is the absolute bottom of the barrel hardware dressed up in a premium image. They're shite, and they fall apart to boot.
Blackview is a weird one. I have major trouble picking which of their releases are decent and which are not. They HAVE released some stellar devices over the years, and they have been around a long time but they have had some massive failures and then failed to provide any warranty or support for those that got unlucky. Screens spontaneously cracking, bits falling off, screens coming unglued, failed waterproofing etc etc. And then next quarter they will go and release something with zero flaws. Too much of a risk for my liking, but I have been tempted by their recent small form factor rugged phone. It looks great.
Doogee, Umidigi, IIIF150, Unihertz I would not touch again with a ten foot pole. I would not be at all surprised if these brands turn out to be subsidiary of one of the more successful manufacturers where they use their poorly binned chips and scrapped body designs. They're cheap as shit, but they are pretty disposable. If you want a cheap bag of problems, that nobody will help you with...go for it.
AGM is an interesting case. I own their current flagship offering and I've described that experience in detail above. They have traditionally positioned themselves as the premium offering in the rugged space. Snapdragon processors, extremely high quality body manufacturing and a generally very premium feel with a price to match. They do not shift as many units as Ulefone, but they offer a physically far higher quality product. That lack of scale comes with a few issues on the software side, but in reality it is rare to see a major version update from any of these manufacturers and AGM have actually addressed several release issues via firmware updates. It's tricky business for AGM. They have recently joined the rest in releasing low BOM devices to allow them to keep producing a true halo product when they can. When they do, the price tag at first glance makes them seem completely unappealing: why pay double the price when the feature set seems comparable to Ulefone or Blackview? It's not the same experience. AGM actually have a real warranty which I have used, and they have real customer support agents. They worked directly with Qualcomm to build me a firmware that would get VoWifi working! You will not get that from any of the others, and it won't feel the same when you pull it out of your pocket either. They are certainly not without issues, but it's the best experience I've had to date and seems to be the only rugged brand dealing with Qualcomm. Be warned. They are steadfastly against unlocked bootloader, root or any other software mods. I doubt it will ever happen, their stuff is locked down HARD.
If you are in the USA, it would also be worth looking at what Kyocera and Sonim are up to. Both are priced relatively high, and for Kyocera I think they occupy much the same space as Samsung with the xcover line: not quite fully ruggedized, but certainly good enough for most people. I had a Kyocera back when 3G was sufficient and it was a GREAT phone. These days with VoLTE and VoWifi basically being essential, it's not really an option for me anymore but if they entered the market here in Aus I'd jump ship. They're great. Sonim tend to be pretty far behind on specs and super expensive, but they are pretty much impossible to beat for signal and durability...again same issues with IMS features internationally.
Well, that's about all I have to say about that.
This has become something of an area of expertise for me over the last 10 years owing to my profession and how much time I must spend in the wilderness.
I'll do my very best to keep this brief but I can't make any promises.
Rugged phones are generally a major compromise in one way or another. More often than not it is the camera where you have to be willing to accept compromise. It's not so much quality; you can get a 108MP+ main sensor made by sony or samsung in most of these devices now. It's the software behind the camera.
I've used rugged phones from pretty much every manufacturer in the space and it is a problem for all of them. You can generally run a GCAM port, but your 108mp array based sensor is now only capable of producing a 12MP image, and it isn't fast enough to capture high quality photos of moving subjects. As a still camera they can now be absolutely spectacular. Google's HDR algorithm and AI will crank out fantastic images and amazing lighting, but they can't cope with movement and you won't have any hardware based stabilisation. For some of us, that lack of hardware based stabilisation is actually an asset: strapped to a motorbike or vehicle across rough dirt roads, your iphone or galaxy will suicide its image stabilization sooner or later.
The other major compromise is not universal, but it is common. Performance.
Most of the players in this space will claim every new device as 'flagship', 'flagship killer' etc. In reality, many of them run something resembling a tick, tick, tick, TOCK cycle where they are forced to produce several low BOM devices (bill of materials) and sell them for far more than they are worth, before they produce something that actually builds and maintains their brand and reputation.
Before you put your money down, you need to build an awareness of this behaviour and learn the capability of some of the chipsets that you might not have come across before. Many of the newer mediatek dimensity chipsets are highly capable and will come very close to standing their ground against midrange or industrial snapdragon chipsets. Price is often the best indicator here. As with most things, if you want something decent then you must pay for it. If the price seems too good to be true, it is.
There are MAJOR advantages in this space for those that need them. My current phone only needs charging every 4 or 5 days. It came with a really well made charge dock that does not require me to daily defeat the rubberized gasket protecting the USB-C port from water and dust. It has a thermal camera with a focusing lens over it that allows me to spot koalas at a ridiculous distance, and it works well into the daylight after my $2400 thermal scope has become useless. It has a focused LED torch on the TOP of the device that I can turn on with a physical button. It has a 3.5 watt speaker on the rear that lets me make hands-free calls in stupidly loud environments, or listen to a podcast in the shed at high volume. There's a 1TB MicroSD for all the time that I am out of service areas and a 3.5mm jack for when my ears are feeling saucy. It feels and looks like an extremely well made NUGGET of a thing, and it makes me happy to pull it out of my pocket. It rocks an industrial snapdragon chipset and is fast as fuck with a battery that WILL NOT QUIT. I could drop it from a fire tower and it would probably live.
It also cost me $1000AUD. It also weighs 400 grams. I also had to work directly with the manufacturer to get a firmware that would enable VoWifi in Australia. I also had to wipe my phone like 3 times to get it going. It was a total pain in the arse. Overall it is a fantastic piece of hardware that fits my weird needs almost perfectly, but unless you have a similarly weird set of requirements, would I recommend that you go down the same road? Probably not.
The day I retire I will pick up the sleekest, smallest device with the most ridiculously high-speed, high-quality camera I can get my hands on. Until that time, I have a genuine need for this ridiculousness including the battery life and all the other extras.
Having said that, I do feel like rugged phones are the only segment of the market that are still actually innovating and offering unique features. Foldables are cool, sure - but besides that, in terms of mainstream phones it really doesn't matter what you buy! They're all making the same rectangular glass slab. The features are identical, they're just better or worse between models and brands. At least this segment of the market still has the balls to take some risks and offer crazy shit that some people need or want.
Like you, I jumped at the xcover pro, and then the xcover 6 pro. They both died spectacularly quickly and samsung did not come to the party with anything resembling honouring a warranty. Their warranty isn't worth shit.
In comparison, when the fingerprint sensor died on my current device, AGM had a new phone in my hand in 4 days, and didn't ask me to return the broken one until I'd received the replacement.
I won't receive an android version update (just security updates). The camera makes me sad, and sometimes the data connectivity going in and out of service areas takes longer than I would like.
Just based on the content of your post, I would wager that you are better off with a device from a mainstream manufacturer in a heavy duty case. If your life is as weird as mine however, maybe it is worth looking into this segment a bit further. It is far from perfect, but when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Continues...
I'm starting to think Mr Musk might actually be a CIA asset. If he was doing this shit without signoff he'd turn up dead.
Which government? Do you imagine that the vast network of live-feed surveillance satellites run by the various arms of the US intelligence services and military is under the slightest control of the elected government?
It's fucking gross.
I've no idea how they convince themselves they're going to get away with this sort of shit.
If that is their thing, I'm sure they could find any number of people willing to play around with consensual non consent instead of destroying someone.
Why has a Hollywood celeb gotta be out there raping? Why? I just don't understand.
Righto debatelaird. Enjoy your internet supremacy, I've got work to do.
It's not really the same thing though, is it?
I watch a show once and I'm done. I have some games in my library with over 1000 hours of playtime. I'm about as careful with those purchases as I am with a good pair of boots, and buddy I am the most annoying man at the hiking store.
I have used piracy to determine if a product is worthy of a retail purchase my entire life with everything from Android apps to AAA games. I know that you are making the argument that I am an outlier here but I don't think I am.
Avenza maps is a good example. I tried it out with a cracked copy years ago and found it so useful in my personal and professional life that I have maintained an annual commercial license now for probably 10 years. I don't receive any additional functionality compared to using a cracked copy, and maintaining the license between installs is actually FAR more difficult than just installing a cracked APK. Avenza has become so essential to my life that I directly support the development at a level above what I require, to hopefully ensure the continued development of this reasonably niche software into the future.
Given the forum we are in, I would compare it to the paid versions available for several popular linux distributions these days. You can download Zorin OS completely for free and have a very close to fully featured operating system much like you can have an almost fully-featured version of a pirated game. You could use this daily without paying a cent. That still didn't stop me buying Zorin OS Pro. It's the same deal. I want Zorin OS to stick around and keep doing what they are doing, just like I want ID Software to stick around and keep doing what they are doing. That doesn't make any of them immune from releasing a box of garbage for full price (I'm looking at you, Rage and Rage2).
The only significant change in the landscape here in the last 30 years is the advent of services like EA Play Pro and Xbox games for Windows live. For me these services serve exactly the same purpose as piracy. If there's something I'm interested in I can sign up for a month, try the thing that I'm interested in and then cancel the service without any significant penalty. If the game is good, then I'll grab it when it becomes available on steam. So long as there continues to be no penalty for cancellation, this is an acceptable compromise to me but otherwise I am going to pirate your shit and if it is garbage then I won't buy it.
I tried Battlefield 2042 via EA Play Pro for one month. At release it was an absolute joke. Not even close to finished. A truly terrible game. Those that managed to win a refund were ok, but many people were deemed to have played too many hours in a day to qualify for a refund. My friends and I bought the game on steam for a steep discount a full 18 months after release. That's how long it took for them to fix the many issues and turn it into a worthwhile experience and a worthwhile purchase.
You can't hire games from the video shop these days to try them out and I'm not about to be somebody's sucker. The gaming industry is a complete mess, constantly pushing unfinished garbage and broken games. You've got to look after yourself.
I think you would be surprised.
Games are expensive as hell in my country and the tech press have become completely disingenuous worldwide. A good review means nothing. I'm not about to drop $100AUD to $150AUD unless I know for sure that I am going to get a large number of enjoyable hours out of it.
I'm well aware of the old adage “never attribute to malice what can easily be attributed to stupidity.” But...the number of times that a completely unprotected update is pushed in the first week of a release is too damn high for it to be accidental.
2012 Toyota. Toyota T-Connect didn't become available until 2014.
It's also a paid service! It requires a sim card and a plan, and would have relied on the factory entertainment unit which I have removed.
I think you are mistaking 'black box' type data logging with an always-on internet connection phoning home with the ability to turn features on and off which is a more recent and far more sinister phenomenon.
Dude, I literally played the pirated version for a weekend and then bought Doom eternal because it was so damn good. I do it all the time. It's in my steam library and I finished it twice and bought 2 expansion packs for it.
I will now also download version 6.66 + All DLC's from a pirated source for safe keeping to avoid any future fuckery via online services shutting down etc.
This is not uncommon behaviour at all. Many games are absolute trash these days even when the tech press gushes over them. In spite of your assertions, demos are almost a thing of the past. Hardly anyone does demos anymore.
My personal experience with chasing a refund after purchase does not reflect your experience either. Until critical mass builds into a full public backlash, if you've exceeded the return period (mere hours) then you are done.
A dremel is not a quiet tool. Don't they spin at some obscene RPM?