Is this the best rugged smartphone money can buy? BV8000 Pro is built to take a pounding, and shoot underwater
Chinese-made, US$300 BV 8000 Pro is designed to survive a drop undamaged, does everything you need pretty well and operates in up to 1.5 metres of water, making it an ideal second smartphone for beach and outdoors
Gadget geeks are a superficial bunch. How else can we explain our unquenchable thirst for handsets that are curvier, slimmer, and “glassier” than previous versions, despite knowing full well those attributes also make them more fragile?
The Samsung Galaxy S8 may look stunning, with its edge-to-edge screen and curved glass back, but it’s almost certainly more prone to cracking from a drop than the plasticky Galaxy S5 with chunky bezels.
Smartphone maker Blackview, based in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, is banking on there still being consumers out there who value durability above all else with its new device, the BV8000 Pro.
Design and hardware
With a thick bumper on each end of the device and a black kevlar back that looks like it came from Batman’s costume, there’s no mistaking the intent of the BV8000 Pro’s design – to survive drops. The metal frames on the left and right side and over the 16-megapixel camera add additional structural support and give the handset a satisfying heft. This much protection adds quite a bit of bulk to what is a small-screen device (5 inches), but the fit in the hand is still comfortable.