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Showing posts from February, 2018

The Race for the Rugged Smartphone - Vernee Active vs Blackview BV8000 Pro vs Homtom HT20 Pro

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Homtom HT20 Pro My journey into rugged smartphones started with the Homtom HT20 Pro. As this was my first experience with Chinese phones, I wanted to play it safe and go for value, as I tested the waters. I got it for the low price of about $115 when it was first released, and it was impressive value for the money. It was quick enough to run the basic apps I use, the battery lasted up to 2 days (and is removable / replaceable), it has an LED notification light, it runs stock Android 6.0, and was very stable. It also has a fingerprint sensor on the rear side. It went through many rounds of abuse, bad weather, etc., and it never failed on me. It handled 2 micro SIMs simultaneously plus an expandable micro SD slot. It was a pain to take out all the screws and put the case back together, which was required at the beginning to insert the SIMs but it proved to be a reliable phone. Voice / audio quality is very good too. It's a bulky phone, but as far as rugged phones go, it was pr