Unihertz is without doubt one of the extra adventurous rugged smartphone distributors on the market with outlandish fashions such because the BlackBerry-esque Titan (and Titan Slim), the lilliputian Atom, the two-faced TickTock and the massive Tank. Turns on the market’s a Tank 2 and it comes with a novel function, one not seen because the Samsung Galaxy Beam. That’s proper, greater than a decade after the thrilling however brief lived projector smartphone was launched, there’s a brand new smartphone that wishes you to make use of it as a projector.

Massive, daring and brash might be three phrases used to explain it; it’s hefty (weighing greater than 500g) and ponderous – at 23.5mm, it’s virtually twice the thickness of the just-announced 15-inch Apple MacBook Air. It’s powered by a Mediatek CPU (Helio G99) and comes with 12GB RAM (expandable to 22GB utilizing some onboard wizardry).

Add in 256GB storage, a 6.8-inch FHD+ show, Android 13, a quartet of digicam sensors (32-megapixel entrance dealing with, 108-megapixel, 64-megapixel night time imaginative and prescient and 16-megapixel huge digicam) and an enormous 15.5mAh battery and you’ve got a reasonably compelling rugged smartphone already.

A cellular projector

Nevertheless it’s a quite distinctive promoting level that seals the deal: its laser projector. Don’t anticipate miracles although; Unihertz claims it has a local decision of 1280 x 720 (i.e. HD) and a brightness of 40 lumens. Its throw and distinction ratios of 1.2:1 and 80000:1 respectively means that it’ll barely be usable for a big viewers. So, sure, it’s a nice moveable projector, however no, it may possibly’t be used as a enterprise projector (saved from boring Powerpoint shows)

However then, what number of underwater projector have you learnt of (the Tank 2 is IP68/IP69Ok licensed, so I’d anticipate it to be waterproof). At lower than $340 (excluding taxes) at Chinese language on-line retailer, Aliexpress, it’s not as costly as I’d anticipate, particularly given the projector function. Simply concentrate on its limitations: there’s no 5G, no wi-fi charging, the processor is a bit sluggish and aftersales is more likely to be a problem.

Let’s simply hope that it doesn’t get the identical lukewarm reception because the Lenovo Smartcast smartphone, the Blackview Max 1 and the Voga V. Can’t wait to see what Unihertz has subsequent in retailer for us? Our cash is on a 2024 tackle the long-lasting, but under-appreciated, Samsung Galaxy Digital camera.