This $400 rugged 5G smartphone claims to be the toughest yet

(Image credit: Blackview)

Challenger rugged smartphone brand Blackview has launched the campaign for its first 5G smartphone on Indiegogo just in time for Black Friday. At the time of writing, it had reached more than $275,000 with 25 days to go.

The BL6000 Pro owes its name to the 2016 BV6000, the company's first successful foray into rugged smartphones, but will prove to be a different beast entirely with 5G connectivity baked in.

Based on the MediaTek Dimensity 800, it also features 8GB of RAM and 256GB onboard storage (hopefully UFS) with a triple rear camera setup that includes a 48-megapixel AI camera - likely to be the same as the one on its predecessor, the Blackview BV9900 Pro.

Add in a 5,280mAh battery and IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810G certification out of the box and you have a pretty convincing all-terrain smartphone that will prove to be a tough nut to crack.

The BL6000 Pro will face stiff competition from the Ulefone Armor 8 and the Oukitel WP10 Pro, also down for a November launch. The latter has a special pre-sale price of $399.99 at Aliexpress.

Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.