I reviewed the 8849 Hike rugged phone and with a big battery and built-in flashlight it's perfect for adventures

8849 Hike: 30-second review

The 8849 Hike has been designed as a mid-range rugged smartphone. While like other rugged smartphones, it features a tough waterproof design, it focuses its target audience on hikers who need solid battery performance that will keep the phone charged for days, if not weeks, and integrates a powerful flashlight.

The battery is one of the big standout features of the 8849 Hike, but the other leading feature is the 1200 lumens 200 meter flashlight that's far brighter than those you usually find integrated into smartphones. This flashlight is complemented by a camping light and a warning red and blue light, just to add to the illumination features.

While this mobile phone might not be one for day-to-day use due to its bulky size, if you are heading into the field, then it features a good range of features and mid-range power that will enable you to view media, work on documents and listen to music. A key highlight here is the small but relatively decent integrated speakers.

However, whilst for day-to-day use the Hike offers plenty of power and a good amount of storage, the overall CPU and GPU performance is decidedly mid range so if you are looking for a phone that's able to play the latest games or run some of the more media intensive applications such as CapCut or even Lightroom, then you will be pushing the phone to its limits.

However, for more general applications such as using all of Google Docs, the large 6.79-inch full HD screen gives plenty of real estate, and the touchscreen is good and responsive even in wetter conditions, although not underwater.

One of the other features that really stood out to me was the quality of the main camera, which is backed by a Sony IMX766 sensor, and this really shows with the quality of the images that would be captured.

Despite the Hike being a new release, it only features 4G connectivity, so whilst there is capacity to have Dual SIMs and plenty of Storage expandable with a MicroSD/TF card. When it comes to mobile network strength, it's slightly limited compared with other rugged smartphones on the market.

The key focus of the 8849 Hike is for anyone interested in the best rugged phones for hiking or camping, where the powerful flashlight and high-capacity battery will be essential.

8849 Hike: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? $299
• When is it out? Now
• Where can you get it? Widely available

With the launch of the 8849 Hike, we are offering a few different promotions on the price. The first 100 people to purchase the phone can get it for just $299, after which, from the 101st to 300th person, it will be available for $319, and after that, it will $339, which is the regular retail price. The phone is presently available through 8849 tech.com and will inevitably be available from Amazon.com, although there is no listing at the time of review.

• Value: 4 / 5

8849 Hike: Specs

CPU: MediaTek Helio G200 (6nm)
Graphics: ARM Mali-G57 MC2
RAM: 12GB LPDDR4x + 12GB Memory Extension
Storage: 512GB UFS
Left Ports: Dual SIM slot, TF card slot
Right Ports: Power button, volume, flashlight toggle
Connectivity: Dual SIM, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo
Audio: Dual stereo speakers with Awinic Smart PA
Camera: Rear: 50MP (IMX766) + 64MP night vision + 8MP telephoto / Front: 32MP
Size: 673 g, 178 x 85 x 30mm
OS Installed: Android 14
Accessories: Charger, cable, SIM tool, documentation

8849 Hike: Design

There's no mistaking the 8849 Hike for anything other than a rugged smartphone; the pure size and bulk of the phone instantly highlight exactly what it is and its intended application. Checking over the phone itself, it has all of the usual features, including the dual SIM card slot with the option for TF/MicroSD storage expansion.

On the back, the large camping light dominates alongside the camera array, with the headline flashlight consisting of two LED lamps that are positioned on the top of the camera. Then on the front, the large 6.79-inch full HD touchscreen with 120Hz refresh rate makes it ideal for media playback and games. Reinforcing the water and dust-proof credentials is an IP68-rated.

When it comes to those sizes and dimensions, it measures in at 178 x 84 x 30 mm and weighs in at 678 g, so even by rugged smartphone standards, the 8849 Hike is bulky.

Checking over the body of the phone and features, there's a good mix of metal, rubber, and plastic that gives it that durable feel, with all four corners being protected by a hard rubberised casing, a common feature for this style of phone.

All of the ports as well are sealed, and there's a rubber cover that protects the 3.5 mm audio jack and the USB-C data and charging port. There's also plenty of venting around the phone to help keep it cool, especially with those flashlights in use, and you can hear the cooling fans kick in as soon as the lights are powered on.

One of the big reasons for the size of the phone is that huge internal battery; however, the design means. Once in the hand, it does feel relatively comfortable, and it's been well designed for portability. However, I wouldn't really want to put this one into my trouser pocket due to its size and weight.

As ever, along the side of the phone are a series of different buttons enabling you to quickly adjust volume and use some of the customisable buttons, including a red SOS button. There's also the dual SIM card slot and space for a TF/MicroSD card, so that you can expand the Storage up to a huge 2 TB.

All of the ports as well are sealed, and there's a rubber cover that protects the 3.5 mm audio jack and the USB-C data and charging port. There's also plenty of venting around the phone to help keep it cool, especially with those flashlights in use, and you can hear the cooling fans kick in as soon as the lights are powered on.

One of the big reasons for the size of the phone is that huge internal battery; however, the design means. Once in the hand, it does feel relatively comfortable, and it's been well designed for portability. However, I wouldn't really want to put this one into my trouser pocket due to its size and weight.

As ever, along the side of the phone are a series of different buttons enabling you to quickly adjust volume and use some of the customisable buttons, including a red SOS button. There's also the dual SIM card slot and space for a TF/MicroSD card, so that you can expand the Storage up to a huge 2 TB.

• Design: 4 / 5

Image 1 of 1

8849 Hike: Features

On the phone, there are two main highlights, the first being a 1200-lumen flashlight that features two powerful LEDs mounted on the top edge. You can access the flashlight through the phone's toolbox folder under the "Super Flashlight" App, which will then give you the ability to turn on the flashlight, set the duration, and adjust the beam brightness from 1 to 3.

Unfortunately, there's no ability to adjust the focus of the beam, but the throw of light is exceptionally good and much like you'd expect from most high-powered LED torches.

Alongside the super flashlight is also a standard "Camping Light" that uses the huge LED panel on the back, and again, this utilises an app from within the toolbox folder. The Camping Light App enables you to switch it on, adjust the power, set the light to SOS, Explosion and Flash.

At all power levels, when adjusting the LED lights, the fan kicks in, helping to keep the electronics inside the phone cool. Alongside the flashlight and camping light is a Red and White emergency light again, this is accessible through that toolbox option, just as the warning simulation app.

The second feature is, of course, that huge 23,800 mAh battery, and supporting this is the fast charge potential of 120 W, which means that if you are on an off-grid hike and do get to civilisation, you'll be able to top up the battery in just over two hours, faster than many other rugged smartphones of this type.

One of the other great features about this battery is that it also has office reverse charging, so if you do have other electric devices that need to be charged, then you can just plug them in through the USB-C in the base, and the internal battery can be used to charge other devices.

The phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio G200 CPU, this is decidedly mid range so whilst you'll be able to flick through Google Docs browse the Internet and playback media when it comes to more intensive media creation tools suchas Car and Lightroom the phone will start to struggle however if you're out on a hike in office enough power for day-to-day use without issue.

The phone's Storage is also well balanced with 12 GB of RAM +512 GB of internal ROM. This can be boosted with the addition of an additional TF or microSD card that can be placed into the same carrier as SIMs and offers a storage boost of up to 2 TB.

The phone also supports dual SIM cards, although you need to select through the Android OS which one is your main choice, then the second SIM acts as backup when needed.

The screen itself is excellent, with a bright display. The 6.79" full HD 1080 x 2460 resolution screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate is viewable in most situations. The quality of the image is also superb when playing mid-level games.

A key feature that I wasn't expecting was the decent array of cameras on the back, with a 50MP main camera backed by a Sony IMX 766 sensor. This camera is complemented by an 8 MP tele, 3x telephoto, a 64 MP night vision camera, and the forward-facing selfie camera boasts a 32 MP.

When it comes to connectivity, there's a good range, including GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, and Galileo. There's also support for NFC, Bluetooth 5.3 and 4G connectivity, which is a bit of a shame that he doesn't take that up to full 5G.

A few of the other key features include biometric side fingerprint recognition and dual Awinic SmartPA, speakers backed by a 3.5 C chamber for better audio.

• Features: 4 / 5

8849 Hike: Performance

The first thing that struck me about the 8849 Hike was its size. It's considerably larger than your standard smartphone, even many of the rugged phones that I've looked at over the last couple of years. The size is due to that huge battery that will last for days if not weeks on standby, and even in use, through testing, it proved impressive. While the phone is large and there's plenty of cooling and vents built in around the body, it is still water resistant with an IP68 certification, so not only did it withstand being caught in a downpour, but also being submerged under water.

The user group of this phone is very focused, essentially as the name suggests, hikers, but also campers. Therefore, the feature all reflect this with the huge internal battery, which means that if you are hiking off the beaten trail, then you can leave this smartphone in your backpack on standby for up to 75 days, although due to time constraints of this test, I wasn't able to leave the phone unattended for that length of time. However, having charged the phone two weeks ago and run all benchmarking tests as well as using this phone, it's still on 70% after some quite extensive use. The other big feature is, of course, the 1200-lumen flashlight.

Getting started with the phone was extremely straightforward, and using the Wi-Fi connection to connect to my home network enabled speedy downloading of all applications. Initially, starting with checking through various websites, including techradar.com, of course, everything seemed to work quickly. The screen in size and quality was impressive and very viewable in bright conditions, and was generally very responsive as long as the screen was dry.

Running all standard apps highlighted that this phone was more than proficient for most tasks, including running Google Drive and workflow apps. Again, the size of the screen just makes it easy to navigate.

As I started to push the system's abilities, I downloaded CapCut and Lightroom. Here, the ability to boost the internal Storage with a MicroSD card, on top of the already very decent internal capacity, made it a great option for capturing, storing and editing video. CapCut worked absolutely fine; however, as the complexity of the edits grew, especially with 4K footage, it did start to slow down slightly. CapCut is, however, designed to work with a vast variety of phones, and I was able to get some pretty good edits using the phone's camera, although I wouldn't like to push this particular model too far in media production. Likewise, switching over to Lightroom and again it was nice and responsive, although there was a slight delay with some of the edits, and it's by no means as fast as you'd expect with more premium phones. However, once again, the large, bright screen is of definite benefit.

Switching over to playing a few games, and again Asphalt Legends worked absolutely fine with a clear, crisp screen and relatively decent gameplay, showing that if you do want to play mid-range graphically intensive games, then whilst the performance of the smartphone is in the mid range, it is more than adequate for a good level of gaming.

Essentially, when it came to performance, the benchmark scores were decidedly mid-range, especially on the graphics potential. However, weigh this up against similar phones from a year ago, and now even these mid-range phones are able to put in a strong performance.

While for the most part I have been impressed with the performance, I was a little disappointed to discover that there was only 4G and not 5G. However, the signal strength did seem to be exceptionally good, and it was very capable for everyday use over the Vodafone network, although the data connection was a little slower on that 4G connection. It was still relatively decent, and I was able to get good-quality streaming from YouTube and Vimeo.

So when it comes to most standard performance features, the 8849 Hike actually stands up very well. It is decidedly mid-range on the processing performance, but that should be more than enough if you're looking for a phone to use away from civilisation.

When it came to the two highlight features, the battery and flashlight, the phone really cuts a niche more than a must-have.

The flashlight is powerful with that 1200 lumen beam made possible by the two LED lights mounted at the top. There's a decent amount of adjustment available to the brightness, but no control over the beam spread; it is just focused, which I suppose is a good thing, especially when you consider the camping light on the back.

My issue with the 8849 Hike as a flashlight is that when you compare it against a standard, powerful flashlight, it is far bulkier, and the quality of the beam just isn't as good. When I'm camping, I would definitely prefer a dedicated torch over the built-in flashlight on offer.

When it comes to the internal battery, this is impressive and enabled me to charge up other devices with that huge 23,800 mAh battery. It was also more than enough to last out the full duration of the test. Through the test, I was able to charge my wireless earphones and even a camera battery from a Sony A7 IV without too many issues, although the charge rate is lower than you expect from the mains charger.

Through the test, the other thing that really surprised me was the quality of the small internal speakers. These were actually able to put out a decent quality and volume, which was great for watching back videos and listening to music, although the quality of the sound will be OK for most of us, audiophiles will inevitably want more.

• Performance: 3.5 / 5

8849 Hike: Final verdict

If you're looking for a rugged smartphone, there are lighter-weight options available. Where this model comes into its own is for those needing a rugged smartphone that has plenty of internal battery capacity, with that built-in flashlight and camping light. The phone does offer a good amount of all-in-one utility, so if you are a hiker, camper or working in the rescue services, then this mobile rugged smart phone with all of its durability makes it a great option. However, outside of that very focused group, there are better options.

Once again, 8849 has created a phone that is durable with superb build quality. It also focuses on a very specific user group with features that will appeal to Hikers, Campers and those working in the rescue services. The phone performance is good, although mid-range, and it is disappointing that there is no 5G network ability.

For me, the battery worked especially well, and while the flashlight was useful, I still prefer a dedicated device. The feature that really impressed me was the quality of the 50 MP camera. This offered good clarity for the images and plenty of detail and tone. Whilst the cameras might not have the headline-hitting resolution that some other smartphones are offering, the quality of the image is good.

As a rugged smartphone, it really does carve a niche for anyone looking for a mobile device that also includes a powerful flashlight and high-capacity internal battery. If you are looking for something lighter, however, there are lighter-weight and slimmer smartphones out there.

Should I buy a 8849 Tank 4?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

For more durable outdoor devices, we've reviewed the best rugged laptops and the best rugged tablets around.