The Rugged Phone Market is big business with the likes of Samsung, Land Rover, CAT all taking a decent market share. Chinese brands like Doogee & AGM have been trying to provide alternative options for these who need a phone that can handle anything. Head to your nearest building site am sure you will find a rugged phone user.
In this review, we got the opportunity to review the AGM A10 which is the latest rugged device released by AGM. The review sample I received is the 4GB RAM/64GB ROM is available for the modest price of £189.99 from the AGM website. Compare this to the CAT S42 £228 (Price from C247.com) and you can see it a great price. Let’s see if this rugged phone can hit the mark.
Design
When you think of a Rugged Phone you think bulky, extreme style many for these in the building trade. However, AGM has produced a device in the shape of the A10 that does not make you think it’s rugged at all in fact it’s got a great look to it. Unlike the Land Rover Explore that I reviewed last year. The A10 is lightweight at only 230g. The phone is also very slim in design and does not come with the knurled buttons you come to expect from a rugged device.
What gives the game away that in fact it is a rugged device is you have 4 rubberised corners connected to mental banding. On the back of the phone, it comes with a high impact plastic to handle that rugged need for the user.
The controls on this handset are as you would expect Power and volume are on the right side and the and the left side is a user-programmable button. In this review, I set that to shortcut the camera. You also have your Sim tray all as you would expect. It was the USB-C charging port that got me looking! it’s not at the bottom of the phone how I have become so used to.
In fact, bottom left you have what a first inspection looked like the sim port in fact it’s a rubberised cover for the USB-C port. Cleaver as it will keep the port safe in everyday use. The downside is you won’t be able to use your USB-C charging dock. In my view, this is not a deal-breaker but seems odd as you do have space at the base of the handset.
This phone also comes with a fingerprint reader that is located towards the top on the back of the phone. You will notice this phone also comes with 2 cameras 8MP on the front and 13MP on the back. The only thing this phone does not have is an audio jack but AGM provides a converter if you wish but if you’re like me just connect your wireless headphones via Bluetooth.
Another aspect that makes the phone Rugged is this phone IP68 rated which means it can handle dust, dirt, sand and can be submerged in freshwater to 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. The handset even offers a waterproof front speaker.
You might be wondering what’s inside this device to make it tick?
The AGM A10 is run using two Corex-A75 plus a couple of Cortex-A55 and a PowerVR Rogue GE8300 GPU. Sounds powerful. That is because it is as it provides more power efficiency which in turn provides a longer life battery.
The A10 also comes with 4GB RAM which should be fine for the average user but it also comes with 64GB of ROM for any internal capacity needs. The A10 is also supplied with Android 9 you won’t find any use issues but some rugged devices are coming with Android 11 so its surprising they did not go for Android 10 as it would have offered a better OS and with Android 9 it will become outdated very soon.
Battery Life comes in at 4400mAh which is great for a standard phone that price but for a rugged phone it’s actually quite small compared to the likes of the new DOOGEE S96 Pro that comes with a 6350mAh battery. Moving on to the screen you get a 5.7-inch display which offers a 720×1440 resolution which is disappointing compared to others in that range but it did not affect the day to day use.
The camera on the A10 comes with is an 8MP fixed focus and the rear camera offers a 13MP sensor with autofocus and flash. Below are some of the images taken on the A10.
Daylight shot -Zero Zoom
Daytime Shot- 4x Zoom
Panoramic Image was taken on AGM A10
Night Vision image was taken on the AGM A10
As you can see the images are not bad they are quite acceptable but you are limited when it comes to the controls given to make the images even better. You can also make video footage but that only on 1080P resolution which offers a standard quality but nothing special.
Performance
I have been using this phone now every day for the last 2 weeks and I found the performance to be acceptable. When you run the benchmarks of this device the processor performed very well. However, it was the storage tests that this phone slipped up and showed a slow score.
If you are going to use this phone for everyday use as mentioned it will perform well but to try and use this phone for anything more demanding and it can not handle it. However, look at who would buy this phone. They are hardly going to try and use it for VR applications. The phone is very practical and it’s very light for a rugged phone. You also get the side covering where the USB-C port is keeping it safe and adding to the overall resistance of this phone to dust & Water.
Overall Opinion
Overall the AGM A10 is a great rugged phone for under £200 but it is a little limited in design, for example, the position of the USB-C port will put some people off as they won’t be able to charge it properly on a charging dock. The use of Android 9 is a strange choice considering Android 11 is now available. However, the camera is acceptable you will get a decent quality image for the kind of user who is likely to take pictures of the countryside or for the use on a building site the images you get will be acceptable.
I was a little disappointed you did not get either wireless charging or fast charging option for that matter but with a 4000mAh battery, it will give you a decent amount of battery use. So if you’re looking for a reliable, rugged device while also on a budget the AGM A10 is a great option.
Review Ratings:
Design: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
Speed: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Camera: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Battery: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Value for Money: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
OVERALL RATING: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
The AGM A10 available for £189.99 from the AGM Website
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