This rugged phone with secondary display and huge battery uses a tele extender for 10x optical zoom

Blackview Xplore 6 offers a small secondary display on the back

We took a closer look at this smartphone, which is rather unusual for the outdoor segment, right here at the trade show. Its specs are not on the same level as those of a Vivo X300 Pro or the soon-to-be-released Vivo X500 Pro Max. As is customary for rugged phones, the hardware is protected from the outside world by a thick (18.2 mm), heavy (428 grams), and durable case. According to the manufacturer, the device is based on a MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip and comes with 18 GB of RAM as well as 512 GB or 1 TB of storage. The 6.73-inch AMOLED display has a very high resolution of 3,200 x 1,440 pixels and offers a 120 Hz refresh rate. 

Interestingly, Blackview has also installed a 1.47-inch secondary display with a resolution of 368 x 194 pixels on the back, which can be used for status information or media controls, for example. It also offers basic camera controls, allowing the main camera to be used for selfies. The 179.5 x 85.4 mm smartphone houses a huge 12,000 mAh battery that can be quickly recharged thanks to 120-watt fast charging, while wireless charging is said to support 80 watts. The highlight of the Xplore6, however, is probably its comparatively sophisticated camera system, consisting of three 50-megapixel sensors. The main camera uses a 1/1.3-inch OmniVision OV50H sensor with OIS. A 50-megapixel f/2.45 selfie camera is installed on the front.
 

Teleconverter turns 3x telephoto into 10x optical zoom

A look at the camera app shows that the 3.33x extender turns the 3x periscope telephoto camera with OIS into a 10x optical telephoto camera. The same zoom level is also available without the lens, as a purely digital zoom. The lens screws into the matching protective case, although there is no release button like the one found on Vivo phones. Nevertheless, the setup seemed stable in our brief hands on time, although we cannot say whether it will remain so over the long term. As with Vivo, a small teleconverter icon appears in the camera app, adjusting the focal length display to 230 mm and rotating the image. Up to 1,600 mm is possible with the teleconverter and additional digital zoom. The software responded somewhat sluggishly during our test; for example, the image repeatedly rotated when switching between captured photos and the live view. Otherwise, the system appears to work similarly to Vivo's, but we did not test the camera quality.
 

Availability and price

The Blackview Xplore 6 is expected to be available in Europe from the end of September and will cost just under 950 euros (US$1,100) directly from the manufacturer. This price already includes the teleconverter and additional accessories such as earbuds, a charging dock, and a protective case. The operating system is currently still based on Android 16, three years of Android updates are guaranteed. As a rugged phone, the Blackview device is certified to MIL-STD-810H, IP68, and IP69K standards. Drops from heights of up to 2 meters are not expected to have any serious consequences accordimng to the manufacturer. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2.