I reviewed this indestructible phone with a projector – and it’s way better than you’d expect

Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro: 30-second review

The Tank 3 Pro, like its predecessor, has been designed as a complete toolset for anyone working or adventuring in the great outdoors. First of all, it includes a powerful set of features such as the robust build including IP68 certification, 23,800 mAh battery, camping light and DLP projector built in.

Over the previous iteration, the Tank 2 Pro (see our review here), the Tank 3 Pro has seen an upgrade to its core network and processing specifications, overcoming performance issues that I experienced when I looked at the Tank 2 Pro in 2024. For the most part, navigating options and settings and running many apps was a lot faster, although there were some issues with apps not being compatible due to some extensions. 3DMark is an example requiring Vulkan extensions that were absent in the Android 14 build used on the phone; however, all other software did seem to work absolutely fine.

More importantly, when it came to productivity applications such as the Google suite, Docs, Sheets and, of course, Drive, the Tank 3 Pro was able to handle both viewing and editing files from those applications quickly, especially over the 5G network, which is a major upgrade from the previous generation.

Once again, the phone is huge, and there’s nothing small or lightweight about the design. If you think you’re going to slip this into a trouser pocket, then think again. It’s just a little bit too large and bulky, and whilst you can just about get it into a trouser pocket, it’s not that comfortable.

However, when you look at the positives of this tough phone, they do outweigh the negatives, especially with its intended audience in mind. First, it proved to be incredibly robust. Then there are tools such as the camping light and toolbox apps, which came in handy during evening shoots for shedding illumination on our setup. There’s the huge battery life, which essentially lasted over three days, with phone, projector and reverse charging use.

Unlike the previous generation, this battery can now be used to reverse charge other devices, which makes it even more handy.

The big feature of the Tank 3 Pro is, of course, the built-in mini projector, and again, this is surprisingly good. While it won’t win awards for the visual quality—especially with such limited resolution, tonal range and a brightness of 100 lumens—it’s still surprisingly effective. My only reservation would be the built-in speakers, which really do lack the depth of sound you’d expect. However, for business presentations, the effectiveness of the projector is surprisingly good, and when you combine that with the extensive range of tools, lighting options, battery, 5G and robust build, you have one of the best rugged phones for anyone needing a phone that will withstand the elements and work for extended periods between charges.

Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? £629 / $629
• When is it out? Now
• Where can you get it? Widely available

The Tank 3 Pro is available for purchase through the Unihertz website by clicking here, and selected retailers including Amazon.

• Value: 4 / 5

Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro: Specs

CPU: MediaTek Dimensity 8200
Graphics: Mali-G610 M6
RAM: 16/18GB
Storage: 512 GB
Ports: 3.5mm audio, USB-C
Connectivity: Wifi, BlueTooth 5.3, NFC, 5G, GPS + GLONASS + BEIDOU + Galileo
Audio: 3.5mm
Camera: 200MP Main Camera + 64MP Night Vision Camera + 50MP Wide Angle Camera + 8MP Telephoto, 50MP Selfie Camera
Size: 179 × 86 × 30 mm
OS installed: Android 14
Accessories: Screen protector, power adapter, USB-C to USB-C cable

Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro: Design

The Tank 3 is once again a huge phone and, when it comes to size and weight, is one of the largest on the market at 179 x 86 x 30 mm and weighing in at 696 g, making it even more brick-like than its predecessor.

While the phone is large, it is extremely well made and meets IP68 and military-grade certification for toughness, which means that it will withstand water, dust, and being dropped. This makes it ideal for anyone working on-site or heading off on an adventure and needing a phone that will withstand more than most.

The screen once again features a 6.7-inch LCD with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1080 x 2460. Likewise, the projector is again a DLP with a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels (WVGA). This projector offers 100 lm of brightness and a 120 Hz refresh rate, which means that when watching movies, the visuals remain smooth. One thing to note about the projector is that, while it has auto-keystoning like the previous generation, it once again uses a small metal focusing wheel on the body of the phone to focus manually.

The cameras on this smartphone are far from the main focus, but the 200-million-pixel main camera is quite impressive. The back of the phone, which is usually solely dominated by the camera array, shares the space with the superb camping light. This light can also be accessed through the tools app to offer a range of different brightnesses and a warning simulator, essentially a red and blue emergency light. This is all part of the toolset, which also includes other tools such as a speedometer, magnifier, protractor, plumb bob, bubble level, and other tools that will definitely appeal to those in the trades.

Over the body of the phone, there are plenty of buttons and dials. On the very top, you have the DLP projector and a slot for cooling. Down the right-hand side, as you look at the screen, you have more venting for cooling and the power button with biometric fingerprint recognition. On the base, under a protective flap, you have the 3.5 mm audio out and the USB Type-C port for charging and other devices. On the left-hand side, you have two customisable buttons—one that can be used as quick access to SOS—then the two volume buttons (up and down), followed by the SIM card tray, which can take up to two SIM cards as well as two TF or microSD cards. Finally, you have the small metal focus wheel for focusing the projector in use.

In terms of design and build, there is absolutely no doubt that the Tank 3 Pro is designed for the outdoors and for anyone who needs a really tough phone—working on-site or looking for a phone to travel with. It’s going to withstand far more abuse than most and will be able to retain charge not just for a day or two but possibly going into a week or more.

• Design: 4.5 / 5

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Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro: Features

The Unihertz Tank 3 Pro is about as packed with features as any smartphone on the market, but headlining the list are obviously the built-in DLP projector and the 23,800 mAh built-in battery, alongside the upgrade to full 5G network compatibility, which makes this phone one of the most versatile on the market, alongside being one of the heaviest.

With some of the big feature upgrades—including that network capability from 4G to 5G and the high-resolution cameras—there also needed to be considerable improvements to processing capabilities over its predecessor. The Tank 3 Pro is powered by a 4nm-class Dimensity 8200 octa-core chipset, which almost doubles the processing ability of the Tank 3 Pro over the Tank 2 Pro. Partnering with the new 5G Dimensity chipset is a Mali-G610 MC6 GPU, which helps supply this phone with the graphics capability to power the 6.79-inch full HD 120 Hz display with a clear and crisp screen that can be viewed in all sorts of situations, including bright sunlight.

The DLP projector, which offers 100 lm of brightness, is the headline feature of this particular smartphone. Whilst the resolution is a little limited, it still offers a decent viewing experience, enabling a projection size. While Unihertz doesn’t officially specify full specs, it’s in the range between 0.5 to 3 m. At 0.5 m, you get a projection area of around 20 inches diagonal, and at 2 m, you get about an 80-inch diagonal. Considering the size and simplicity of the phone, this is exceptionally good.

Powering the phone is a 23,800 mAh battery, which will essentially keep the phone on standby for an entire week without issue. During this test, it certainly stood up to those claims. A big upgrade over the Tank 2 Pro—which also had a large battery—is that the fast-charging capabilities have been vastly improved, so now a charge to 90% only takes 1.5 hours.

As with all smartphones, there’s a good array of cameras, even if here they’re far from the main feature. On the back of the Tank 3 Pro, there’s a quad array with a 200-million-pixel main camera, a 50-million-pixel wide-angle lens, an 8-million-pixel telephoto lens, and a 64-million-pixel night vision camera. On the front, you also have a 50-million-pixel selfie camera.

This smartphone has been designed for use outdoors and for people working away from civilisation, where you often don’t have all the network or connectivity options you would usually have. As such, the Tank 3 Pro features a 40-in-1 navigation system and L1 + L5 dual-band GPS. That means it supports GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo navigation systems, and this dual-band GPS system should be far more accurate than most standard smartphones.

Again, sticking with the outdoor theme, there are all sorts of extras in the toolbox, including a very powerful outdoor camping light as described before.

Finally, one of the other big features for network connectivity as well as storage is that the SIM card carrier can hold up to two SIMs—so you can have one from Vodafone and one from EE, as I did in this review. In addition to this, you can also have two TF (microSD) cards to boost the 512 GB of internal storage.

• Features: 5 / 5

Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro: Performance

One of the first observations when starting to use the Tank 3 Pro is its size and bulk. While the phone will fit into a jeans pocket, it’s not like the slimline comfort that you get when carrying a standard smartphone. Using a dedicated phone holster might be a better option for carrying this device around. Throughout the test, I just popped it into the side pocket of a backpack rather than carry it around in my jacket or chest pocket, as I did find the weight uncomfortable.

This bulk and weight really signify that this isn’t just your average smartphone. It’s designed for those working on site who need a smartphone that can withstand more than a knock or two—or if you’re heading out on adventures and need a phone that can stand up to the elements and also has enough battery life to last in between visits to civilisation and access to mains power.

In reality, it’s the huge battery and the DLP projector that take up the space, and there’s no way around this. So, if you’re looking for a tough smartphone, consider the Tank 3 Pro not just as a smartphone but also one with a built-in power bank, projector, and camping light, and then it all starts to make a lot more sense.

When it comes to actual use as a mobile phone, the 5G network compatibility ensures it has far better coverage and signal use than the Tank 2 Pro, and this is very noticeable when loading up apps from the Google suite or browsing the internet. The connection speed and power do seem exceptionally good. What I did notice—when compared side-by-side with my iPhone 15 Pro, both on the Vodafone network—was that the Tank 3 Pro actually achieved a much better network connection. It should be noted that despite the size it’s relatively comfortable to hold if a little heavy.

Using the Tank 3 Pro with standard productivity apps such as Google Docs, the speed of the new processor and GPU combo certainly does the job. This feels a lot more responsive than I remember the Tank 2 Pro feeling. When going into many of the apps, the large 6.7-inch screen makes it easy to navigate. It’s also nice and bright, with good clarity, making it a very easy phone to work with.

Using Google Docs or Sheets, both applications felt good and responsive. As long as you don’t mind the small keyboard, then typing or adding information to a spreadsheet is just as easy as with any other smartphone. The only time I noticed any slowdown was when I used the camera app. With the 200-million-pixel camera, sometimes switching between options, settings, and effects through the app resulted in a slight lag in responsiveness.

Another key point I found with the Tank 3 Pro was that some applications wouldn’t run initially, and a couple of updates were required but I still couldn’t get the likes of 3DMark to run. This was due to some of the Vulkan extensions not being installed. While I looked for a workaround, I couldn’t find a solution.

Throughout testing, I used most applications, including the Google Suite, Asphalt, Adobe Lightroom and CapCut, and all ran on the system without issue. Even playing games like Asphalt showed that the performance of this top smartphone was definitely a considerable step up from what I had seen with the Tank 2 Pro.

As a phone, the Tank 3 Pro will satisfy most mid-range professional users. It has enough functionality and speed for productivity applications as well as watching multimedia. But where this phone differs from most—aside from the durability—is with that built-in projector.

Now, the built-in projector is small and only has 100 lumens of brightness, which is relatively low. You’re not going to be able to watch in bright sunlight. However, as soon as the sun sets, the projection brightness becomes decent enough. The brightness and clarity of the image are actually surprisingly good. While you can see the limitations in tonal and dynamic range, when you consider how small the projector is and that it’s built into a phone, the performance is impressive. It won’t win awards for projection quality, but in the middle of nowhere, it enables you to watch films or TV—so long as you’ve got a network signal—or use it for business presentations to playback slide decks you might need to show on site.. Compared with crowding around a small laptop screen, being able to project at a larger size with a portable projection screen is definitely advantageous.

One thing to note is that, while it has auto-keystone correction, you’ll need to manually focus it. If you prop the phone up on a rock or with books to fill your projection space, the focus is adjusted using the small metal focusing wheel on the side. While this is a little archaic, it works perfectly well.

As with all smartphones, the cameras dominate a large portion of the back. That’s certainly the case here, and with the 200-million-pixel sensor, you have a relatively decent main camera that is quite vibrant, captures plenty of detail, and ultimately produces huge images. While the images do look good, and anyone capturing images on site would be happy with the quality, compared with many smartphones today, the image quality is lacking slightly in tonal graduation and dynamic range.

Likewise, when switching between the wide-angle lens and the telephoto lens, the image quality is again okay. Through the camera app, you have the option to apply a few effects—nothing exceptional, but they do the job. The night vision camera also performs well, although it tends to overexpose slightly. A quick tap on the screen adjusts the exposure, as with most camera apps. It’s a nice feature to have, especially in low-light conditions where you wouldn’t normally get a decent shot. It’s worth noting that these are black-and-white, not full-colour.

One of the interesting features of this tough phone, as with the Tank 2, is the toolbox, which includes a series of applications that will appeal to those working in the trade. More interestingly, though, is the lighting on the back of the phone. In the toolbox, you have the warning simulator—basically a blue and red light with siren sound effects. It mimics police or ambulance lights, although I can’t really think of a situation, especially in the UK, where that would be advisable.

More useful is the camping light, which is a really decent bright light you can use in a variety of situations. One restriction is that, while you can use the half-bright and slightly bright options freely, the full-bright setting can only be switched on once every 10 minutes. So, if you switch it on, you need to leave it on. If you then switch to a lower brightness and try to return to full brightness, it will alert you that it cannot be turned back on for another 10 minutes. This camping light also includes SOS and explosion flash modes, both of which are useful in different situations.

When out in the field or camping, having a powerful light built into the phone is a great feature. In use, I used it to search through my camera bag in low-light conditions and found that even the slightly bright setting was more than enough to illuminate the contents clearly.

• Performance: 4 / 5

Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro: Final verdict

When I looked at the Tank 2 Pro, I was impressed by the overall durability and slightly surprised by the quality of the DLP projector despite its size. Once again, the Tank 3 Pro essentially boosts the overall performance of the phone. While there are a few issues with the Vulkan extensions—which meant that some apps wouldn’t run—for the most part, using the apps you would on a day-to-day basis, the overall performance of the Tank 3 Pro is definitely a step up from its predecessor.

With the Tank Pro, I really like the projector. Though limited in resolution and tonal range, it doesn’t fail to impress. There’s something extremely useful about having a projector built into your smartphone. If you’re running a workshop or doing a presentation out on site, then as long as it’s not in glaring sunlight, being able to project onto a wall with your phone to run through slideshow presentations is extremely useful.

Once again, I was also really impressed with the durability of the phone and the fact that it features such a large internal battery that can now also reverse charge. So, you can top up camera batteries and other devices using that internal battery, which just further adds to its usability.

With the Tank 3 Pro, this is a phone that you would only really buy if you need those headline features: the large internal battery that enables you to use it as a power bank as well as a phone, the camping light which offers decent brightness and saves you from carrying additional kit, and finally the DLP projector which allows you to watch movies and other media content, as well as support more professional endeavours. All of this makes the Tank 3 Pro quite a unique offering. Considering that it combines the functionality of several other devices into one unit, it will certainly appeal to a dedicated following of users.

Should I buy a Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

For more outdoor equipment, we’ve reviewed the best rugged laptops and the best rugged tablets around.