I tested the Oukitel's latest rugged phone - I love the price, size, and camera, but one baffling decision means it will struggle with the most demanding apps

Oukitel WP60: 30-second review

There is a logic amongst rugged phone makers, one I don’t entirely agree with, that rugged phone buyers want something oversized. Sometimes the phone is so large because it has a massive battery or a projector.

But in the case of the Oukitel WP60, it's because the maker decided it would have a 7.2-inch display, and no other reason I can fathom.

That takes this uniquely styled design into the borderlands of phablet, and might make it ideal for those who like to watch TV and movies on the go. However, the screen has a resolution of 720 x 1560 pixels, which is less than ideal for high-definition content.

Where this design shines is for those who want an inexpensive phone for outdoor work or adventure holidays, with a decent 108MP camera sensor to capture all those majestic locations. It also has a 10000mAh battery, which isn’t the largest rugged battery, but it's enough to keep the phone running for a few days, and it’s a 5G and dual-SIM design.

Beyond specifications, the best aspect of the WP60 is undoubtedly the low asking price. At launch, it will sell direct from the makers for £208.55/$279.99 with 44% off the official MSRP for the first 500 orders.

What the price will be after this promotion is unclear, but it’s certainly a bargain right now. While other rugged designs are better across the board, it's certainly one of the best rugged phones for the cost.

Oukitel WP60: price and availability

• How much does it cost? $280 / £209 / €240
• When is it out? Available globally from late October
• Where can you get it? Direct from the maker or via an online retailer

As I’ve already mentioned, Oukitel will launch the WP60 today (October 25) with an impressive promotion, slashing 44% off the cost for direct purchasers. Direct from Oukitel, which offers this phone at only $279.99 / £208.55 / €240.17, which, considering the specifications, seems a remarkably low price.

The official price is $499.99 / £372.41 / €428.88, although I’d be surprised if the WP60 returned to those levels after the promotion ends.

A competitor product that this most closely aligns with is the Doogee S200 that we reviewed, a phone that still sells for $333 on Amazon.com. That model is officially discontinued and has been replaced by the S200 Ultra and Plus models, which are dramatically more expensive. Direct from Doogee, the Ultra is $629.99 and the Plus is $469.99 for US customers.

For Europeans, the prices aren’t tariff-impacted, and the Plus sells for £350.16 in the UK or €403,36 in the EU. While the spec of the WP60 doesn’t quite match the Doogee S200 Plus, it’s close, and the price looks to be highly competitive.

• Value score: 4/5

Oukitel WP60: Specs

Oukitel WP60: design

• Sci-fi styling
• No headphone jack
• Camera cluster stands proud

Just after the Earth cooled and before the dinosaurs appeared, I was a young graphics designer, and two of my heroes were illustrator Chris Foss (Asimov’s Foundation books) and film production designer Ron Cobb (Star Wars, Alien, The Last Starfighter).

I mention this purely because the graphical look of the WP60 draws on both these artists and the styling they applied to fictional starships.

And, in the context of the review hardware, the mustard yellow against black certainly enhances the whole future-tech aesthetic. This phone also comes in silver and black, but neither offers the same head-turning appearance of the yellow option.

The other stand-out feature of this phone is just how large it is, making even my sausage-adorned shovels seem dainty when holding it. For a person with small hands, or a child, this isn’t a practical device to hold, since it’s 87mm across.

At a little over 300g, it isn’t cumbersome, as Oukitel didn’t go overboard with the battery capacity, but it’s large.

The layout is distinctly by-the-numbers with the power button (fingerprint reader) and volume rocker on the right and a user-definable button on the left. The SIM card slot is also on the left, and Oukitel cleverly designed it to be removable with a fingernail rather than requiring a push-pin device. The SIM tray holds either two Nano SIMs or one and a TF memory card.

There is no headphone jack if you like those increasingly rare functions.

One interesting feature of the WP60 is that it is rated IP68, IP69K, and MIL-STD-810H, but the bottom USB-C port lacks a rubber plug. I’ve seen other designs where the USB-C port is left open, but they are still considered waterproof. My only concern is that if the phone is wet, and water is still in this port, plugging it into a charger might let the magic smoke out, so be careful.

On the underside, the camera sensors are well protected with octagonal projections that stick out at least 3mm from the main body. Why they stick out so much, I’m unsure, but it certainly scuppered any chance of wireless charging being used on this phone.

What’s not in doubt is that this phone can handle some knocks, with cushioned corners and metal banding on the sides. I’d be surprised if it couldn’t shake off more than the quoted 1.5-meter drops, although it likely depends on what surface it falls.

Overall, I’ve seen much worse designs than the WP60, even if the styling might not be to everyone’s taste.

Design score: 4/5

Oukitel WP60: hardware

• MediaTek Dimensity 7025
• Low-resolution display
• 10000 mAh battery

MediaTek has an unfortunate marketing strategy: they like to take old technology and rebrand it in a misguided attempt to make it seem new and current.

Exhibit A is the MediaTek Dimensity 7025, a 7000 series SoC that MediaTek launched in April 2024. Except looking at the specification, this is remarkably like the 7020, and that was merely a renaming of the older Dimensity 930.

That explains why this chip, and also all the 70XX SoCs, are made using a 6nm process, and all the 73XX and 74XX chips use a superior 4nm process.

Therefore, with a few minor changes, the WP60 uses a chip that was first released in May of 2022, which seems a little dated by phone SoC standards.

The general view of this SoC is that its processing power is fine, but its weakness is the
IMG BXM-8-256 GPU, one of those PowerVR IMG designs. This chip can drive the Android 15 interface smoothly enough, but it's hardly a gaming GPU, and in this phone, the screen doesn’t require 4K or even 2K rendering.

If you like to game using the more demanding 3D titles, this probably isn’t the platform for you, but for everyday use, it's acceptable.

One oddity of the WP60 is that it has a massive 7.2-inch display, but with the curiously low resolution of 720 x 1560 pixels. That effectively means that it can only display 720p videos at full resolution, even if the camera can capture 1080p and 1440p video.

It’s an IPS panel, and while the colours are reasonably good, most of the included wallpapers either lack sufficient contrast or are just the wrong resolution.

I like the size of this display and it's relatively bright, but I’m slightly confused about how you can make use of its scale, since it's relatively low resolution.

Like the Oukitel WP58 Pro, the WP60 comes with 10,000mAh of battery, a capacity that’s double the typical smartphone battery, but modest when compared to the 20,000+ batteries I’ve seen on other rugged designs. It charges at a maximum of 33W and can reverse charge at 7W to other devices, if you like to waste power transferring it around.

To summarise the hardware in this phone, it’s not cutting-edge. But if the price is right, it is workable, unless you want a device that can last a week on its battery or you need gaming performance.

One final complaint. In many promotional materials, Oukitel claims this phone has 48GB of RAM, when in reality it has 16GB that can be expanded by mapping another 32GB of storage for those with more applications than common sense.

I wish they wouldn’t do this. If you map that storage, you don’t have 512GB of space, and mapped flash isn’t the same as actual RAM from a performance standpoint.

The fine irony of this embellishment is that 16GB of actual RAM and 512GB of storage is better than decent, and most users would be fine with those more accurate numbers.

• Hardware score: 4/5

Oukitel WP60: cameras

• The Oukitel WP60 Pro has four cameras:
• Rear camera: 108MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KHM6, Macro 2MP GalaxyCore GC02M1, Night vision 8MP SK Hynix Hi-846
• Front camera: 32MP GalaxyCore GC32E1

This is a similar configuration to the Oukitel WP210, with the main sensor being the 108MP Samsung ISOCELL S5KHM6. This is a sound sensor, but as it did on the WP210, it has no optical zoom, making the only way to frame closer being to actually move or to select 2x digital zoom.

That’s a bit poor, but the sensor can still capture some decent images if the owner is prepared to work a little harder at getting the right composition. It can capture in the full 108MP resolution, but mostly it reduces noise and enhances contrast by processing a 108MP image into a 12MP one for storage.

Much less impressive is the 2MP Macro, which gives grainy results and has a narrow focus field. This is certainly the weak link in the camera cluster, as the SK Hynix Hi-846 night vision sensor produces impressive results in complete darkness, although it only captures in monochrome.

Where other recent Oukitel phones have used a Sony chip for the forward-facing sensor, some cost-saving saw this swapped out for a GalaxyCore GC32E1, which isn’t quite as good. But then it’s a 32MP sensor that’s mostly being used for 1080p video, so it's still overkill from a technical perspective.

What I find mildly annoying is that with 512GB of storage, someone at Oukitel decided that instead of offering 4K captures on the primary Samsung sensor, it would cap that at 1440p.

This choice fits with the general lack of camera options, some of which are most curious. I often complain that there is no frame rate control on these devices, but the WP60 has the choices of ‘Auto’ or 30 fps.

I set the resolution to 640 x 480, thinking logically that might illicit the fastest framerate, and recorded some video. The result was 30 fps. So whatever you choose, it appears, you get 30fps. There is a slow-motion mode, which I assume is 120fps, but it doesn’t implicitly say what it is, and it plays at 30 fps.

For still-image work, there are panorama and night view modes, but this version of the standard Android camera app is hardly overflowing with options. But, thankfully, there is no phone-killing underwater camera mode.

It is important to highlight that this phone does not support Widevine L1 video encryption; it only offers L3. As a result, when streaming from major services such as Netflix or Disney+, users will be limited to a maximum resolution of 480p, even when connected to a high-speed 5G network. But given the screen resolution, this isn’t a huge loss.

Oukitel WP60 Camera samples

Image 1 of 14

• Camera score: 3.5/5

Oukitel WP210: performance

• Decent SoC
• GPU is game-friendly
• Big battery

I chose the Ulefone Armor 30 Pro to demonstrate the impact of having a Dimensity 7300 under the hood, rather than the 7025 that the WP60 was given. The Mediatek Dimensity 7300 is a 4nm SoC with a better GPU and even an NPU, whereas the Dimensity 7025 has no NPU, an older GPU and 6nm fabrication.

When you take all that into account, the poor WP60 gets something of a thrashing, especially in those tests that involve graphics. Where things are slightly less one-sided are on the PCMark score and battery life. In fact, given that it has about 25% less battery capacity than the Armour 30 Pro, the running time of 25 hours and 13 minutes is highly respectable.

There is an argument that the WP60 did less work in its time, but if you want a phone that can operate for three working days with constant use, then the WP60 fits the bill.

• Performance score: 3.5/5

Oukitel WP60: Final verdict

The Oukitel WP60 stands out for its massive, smooth display, huge battery, rugged build, and flagship-level camera. It’s ideal for users who want a “phablet-sized” rugged phone with 5G and lots of storage. However, it is heavy, has a relatively low screen resolution for its size, and lacks wireless charging. Its main competitors are other Oukitel rugged phones like the Oukitel WP58 Pro and the Doogee S200 Plus.

With a mix of older technology and Sci-fi styling, the WP60 relies heavily on a compelling story to justify its cost. If Oukitel can keep it competitive, even if it can’t match the launch deal in the longer term, this phone could sell well.

There are many people who want a second phone for working in harsh environments or taking on holiday, and the WP60 makes a good alternative to taking a premium smartphone into harm's way.

Should I buy a Oukitel WP60?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also Consider

Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro
Another practical, rugged design with an inbuilt camping light, night vision camera and about 60% of the battery capacity than the WP60. It’s cheap, but conversely, the cameras aren’t as good, and the SoC isn’t as powerful. For those needing a cheap, tough phone, the Ulefone Armour Mini 20 Pro might be a good choice as it's easily pocketable.

Read our full Ulefone Armor Mini 20 Pro review

ThinkPhone 25 by Motorola
The ThinkPhone 25 offers a powerful SoC, robust package, practical form factor, high-quality camera sensors and decent battery life at a mid-range price point. But, it’s not available in the USA, sadly.

Read our ThinkPhone 25 by Motorola review for more information.

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