Chapter 5 Electrons In Atoms

TechRadar Verdict

The Unihertz Cantlet focuses on a niche audience, 1 that understands the shortcomings of such a form factor. If y'all can live with the modest screen and don't mind the short-ish battery life, then this rugged device is unbeatable.

Pros

+
First-class all-round performance
+
Great structure
+
Very good promo cost
+
NFC and dual 4G standby

Cons

-
Screen is too small
-
Battery capacity is tiny
-
No 802.11ac Wi-Fi
-
No status lights

(Update: The Kickstarter page is now up (opens in new tab) and has already reached $376,000, collected from about 1,800 customers, with 34 days left. The original goal was only $l,000).

Today marks the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for the Unihertz Atom which is billed equally the world's smallest 4G rugged smartphone. Information technology is the second attempt from Unihertz at a crowdfunded smartphone; the commencement attempt, Project Jelly (opens in new tab), saw almost 11,000 backers pledging more than than $1.25 one thousand thousand (around £950,000). With Cantlet, the company is aiming for something even bigger.

Where to purchase?

Unihertz sent u.s. the review sample and the Cantlet is now on auction for $159 (£120) for the Super Early Bird (first 100) customers; the price will go up significantly, to $233 (£175), after the promotional period. The Kickstarter page is up here (opens in new tab).

Note that this cost excludes commitment (shipping to the The states, Nihon, and almost European countries is free, with the remainder of the earth costing $20) and any taxes that may be levied by HMRC or the courier companies on behalf of the vendor. Desire to buy tech from online retailers? Read this first.

Note that the estimated delivery date for the Unihertz Cantlet is October 2018, which is four months away at the time of writing. The unit that we were sent for testing was a production-grade model.

Design

The Atom is different whatsoever smartphone nosotros've seen up until now – it is tiny (97 x 45 x 19mm) and weighs only over 100g. Call back of information technology every bit a rugged smartphone that has been squashed and compressed into something stockier, which should, in theory, help it survive being dropped better. With rubber used all over its chassis, the Atom feels solid and durable.

Where others would have used yellow lines to accentuate its rugged looks, Unihertz chose red every bit the accent colour for the Atom. At the forepart of the device is a camera and three capacitive buttons, one of which as well doubles equally a fingerprint reader.

A USB Type-C connector, an sound port (both not covered by any flaps), a dual nano-SIM tray, two volume buttons, a ability push button and a dedicated button-to-talk push button can be found on the iv sides of the Atom.

The back – which is textured – hosts another camera with flash, a speaker grill and the Unihertz logo. At that place'southward also a notch that tin can be used to attach accessories or a neckband.

Unihertz Atom specs

CPU: Mediatek Helio P23 MT6763

GPU: Republic of mali-G71

RAM: 4GB

Storage: 64GB

Screen size: 2.45-inch

Resolution: 432 ten 230

Weight: 107g

Dimensions: 97 x 45 x 19mm

Rear camera: 4.9MP

Forepart camera: 4.9MP

OS: Android viii.one

Battery: two.02Ah

Specifications

The device has been IP68-certified which means that it has been tested and should easily withstand life outdoors, and be capable of dealing with its fair share of water, dust, shock, vibration and extreme temperatures.

Despite its low toll, the Atom is kitted out with components ordinarily found on mid-range handsets: an 8-cadre CPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB on-board storage. There's no microSD card slot, though, and no 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

The screen is a two.45-inch brandish, offering effectually a quarter of the surface area of a device like the Vernee Active (with a 5-inch display). The deviation is even more obvious when it comes to sheer resolution: a Total Hard disk drive brandish has 21x more pixels to manage compared to the 99,360 pixels on the Atom's screen.

The 2Ah battery is powered by a 5V,ane.5A power supply unit of measurement. The battery was i of the compromises that had to be fabricated considering of the express infinite available in this handset.

Unihertz plans to follow GoHero'southward example and offer a few accessories for outdoorsy types. Three volition be available to begin with: an armband for $13 (£10), a cycle mount costing $xv (£eleven) and a clip priced at $12 (£9), or it's $20 (£15) for all three when purchased with the Atom.

Benchmarks

Here's how the Unihertz Cantlet performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Geekbench: 926 (unmarried-core); 4,305 (multi-core); 3,291 (compute)

Antutu: 95,179

PCMark (Work ii.0): v,343

Passmark: 5,137

Passmark CPU: 114,079

Androbench (sequential): 285 (sequential read); 213 (sequential write)

Androbench (random): 59 (random read); 22 (random write)

3DMark Slingshot: 723

3DMark Slingshot Extreme: 479

3DMark IceStorm Farthermost: 8,702

HWBot Prime: 4,647

In utilise

The small size and low resolution of the display means the GPU on the Atom didn't accept to work every bit hard as other handsets. That helps explain why it managed to significantly outperform many other rugged smartphones that are powered by similar system-on-flake solutions.

The screen – which is oleophobic and covered with Corning Gorilla Drinking glass – has its own problems, all associated with its minor size. It is usable but don't expect the aforementioned level of condolement as a bigger model – on the default setting, the text is absolutely tiny and volition strain your eyes, especially if you lot wear glasses.

Starting and swiping apps works okay but typing on-screen is a proper hassle with keys on the virtual keyboard that are only a few foursquare millimeters in size. Writing emails or typing on WhatsApp volition be a major pain, y'all have been warned!

It's all keen though. We were surprised to find that the Atom is powered by the very latest version of Google's mobile operating system, Android 8.1 (Oreo), and that it even comes with NFC and face unlock.

There's also a toolbox that comes with a audio meter, a compass, a bubble line, a pic hanging app, a heart rate measuring app, a plumb bob and a protractor.

One thing we did notice is while the minor screen will help save juice, the smaller battery capacity translates into a much shorter usable battery life, every bit the components used here are nevertheless standard ones.

The competition

The Atom has no real rival: it is the only 4G smartphone of this size, and it is by far the cheapest IP68 device with the popular 4GB/64GB of retentiveness/storage combination.

Final verdict

We had mixed feelings near the Unihertz Atom. On the one hand, it is very affordable, quite compact and very capable. And on the other mitt, the small battery chapters and the screen size and resolution just practice non experience right. Y'all won't be able to use it for almost tasks that require typing.

That said, information technology will appeal to outdoor users, and nosotros tin can foresee use cases where the device will exist used with a plethora of accessories to accost its shortcomings: laptop docking stations, Bluetooth headsets etc.

For now, we'd honey to run across Unihertz endeavour its paw at a more conventional form factor. A 4-inch Android IP68 device mayhap? 1 to replace the likes of the Sony Z5 Compact.

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Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and spider web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society merely earlier the start of the Y2K hysteria at the plough of the last millennium.