TeXet TM-511R review: a rugged phone with a 2,700 mAh battery
Perhaps the most vulnerable spot of modern secure smartphones are touch screens. Such devices can be drowned and wallowed in the sand without much concern, but it's worth dropping them carefully - what if it falls down, and even onto pebbles? It is clear that dropping something carefully and at the same time by chance is almost impossible, such situations happen suddenly. You can’t hook straws in advance, and a sandwich (in this case, the smartphone is the equivalent) most often falls with oil (touch screen) down.
I remember, six months ago, my friend and I had a very serious test smartphone teXet X-Driver, and he managed to maintain honor and dignity. But everything could have turned out differently: after each throw, we looked apprehensively at the screen - did it suddenly crack? So, if you still need a protected device, but you don’t want to communicate with “sensors”, you should look towards off-road push-button phones. Today we are talking about just one of them - teXet TM-511R.
Brief technical specifications teXet TM-511R :
Protection against water and dust class IP67
Two active SIM cards Standard GSM / GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
Display: 2 inches, TFT, 240 x 320 pixels.
Photo / video camera: 2.0 MP + flashlight
Bluetooth
FM-radio: 87.5-108.0 MHz
Expansion slot: microSD / SDHC (up to 16 GB)
Headphone jack 3.5 mm
micro-USB
Lithium-ion battery for 2,700 mAh
Dimensions: 128 x 60 x 22 mm
Weight: 168 g
About battery life
Today there are a lot of similar models on the market, and from different brands. What is the specific feature of teXet TM-511R? You may already have noticed her on the TTX list, but I’ll emphasize it again: this phone has a battery capacity of 2,700 mAh.
That is, just a little less than the Samsung Galaxy S5 (2 800 mAh) and a little more than the Samsung Galaxy S4 (2 600 mAh). It’s hard for me, as a person with a vacation, usually to be divided into three to four weekly days off at different times of the year, why someone might need to sit somewhere a month away from outlets. But the fact is that teXet TM-511R is quite ready for this. After receiving the device, I charged it, and now the third week of work without recharging is ending, and the indicator shows another quarter of the charge. I’m sure the phone will reach the cherished month. For comparison: most of these phones have 1,400-1,600 mAh batteries.
About functionality
However, it should be understood that such autonomy was achieved largely due to the far from wide functionality of the phone. Roughly speaking, he can make calls, provide messaging, play music / video and take pictures, plus he offers a voice recorder, alarm clock, calendar, organizer, currency converter, a couple of games and a very simple browser. In a word, all the possibilities of the simplest “telephone” MediaTek platform are available. In fact, you won’t see a movie on a 2-inch display, the browser allows you to open only the simplest sites (and you can’t open them on GPRS often - EDGE is not supported), and the quality of music playback will suit only the most picky user. However, teXet TM-511R is quite suitable for audiobooks. Moreover, it has a 3.5 mm jack for headphones, and you can experiment, replacing the complete headset with something more interesting. This is important, as in the case of many push-button SUVs, their terrible complete headsets are connected to miniUSB / microUSB ports and cannot be replaced.
The phone interface looks like this. In the sun, the screen fades greatly, so I had to take one photo at home.
It's nice that under the control of teXet the device was well localized. That is, there are no strange abbreviations, errors in the Russian language and other jambs of translation in the interface. I will never forget the Caterpillar CAT B25 : it does not correctly indicate the screen unlock scheme in the tooltip when switching to Ukrainian. Why, why, whom to blame for this - open questions. So teXet TM-511R has nothing of the kind, the device is localized to the top five.
Strange as it may seem, the camera is worth a separate mention. Yes, you won’t create a photo masterpiece with it. But she shoots better than cameras that were installed in similar devices last year. Moreover, teXet TM-511R is more or less suitable for capturing text. This picture was taken in a poorly lit room - in good light, everything is much better.
The model has two slots for SIM cards, their work is organized as standard: in standby mode, both SIM cards are available, and when talking one by one, the second one is turned off. With the connection, everything in a beam is clearly audible in both directions. There is a very important point here: according to teXet TM-511R, you can speak normally right after extraction from water. Yes, it will be heard a little worse than in a completely dry state, and yet - normally. Often, the conversational dynamics of protected devices after immersion in water fail for an hour or two - until they dry out.
About the package
A very simple headset, a USB-microUSB cable, a charging unit, a warranty and a quick user guide are the basic set of almost any modern phone.
Meanwhile, teXet TM-511R comes with a couple of non-standard accessories. The first is a carbine with an analog compass and a screwdriver plate, necessary to unscrew the back cover.
The second is spare plugs for microUSB and 3.5 mm ports, and they come with small bolts. What is all this for? Well, over time, the caps attached to the phone at the factory can become frayed. For example, if you often drop it on the asphalt. In this case, the “reserve" is useful: you don’t have to buy a new phone. Again, back to my personal Caterpillar CAT B25: if you damage the plug tightly screwed to its body, it will lose one of its main qualities - water resistance. With teXet TM-511R such a number will not work, you can just change the caps and operate it further.
About the body
Perhaps the main “near-case” feature of the teXet TM-511R is a matte metal plate screwed to the side faces. They look good and, importantly, make the device ... more civil, or something. Well, that is, I wouldn’t go with the majority of such off-road phones in the city, but teXet TM-511R is quite suitable for this. He does not seem to be a “tractor” or, let’s say so, a kind of military weapon. Although, of course, the device is by no means small and not light - you cannot hand such an elegant lady over.
In this case, not metal, after our tests, there were a few more scratches and dents than on rubber and plastic - these are two other materials used in the teXet TM-511R case. So the use of metal plates can be called justified, and not very. They have a positive effect on the design, negatively on the scratch resistance. However, scars - they adorn real men, and teXet TM-511R is just such a peasant phone.
The build quality is very high, no cracks and extra holes that, in theory, could let sand and water inside, were not found. But, of course, before diving it will be superfluous to press the port plugs with your finger once more and check whether you tightened the back cover tightly. I recall, it is attached using two steel bolts.
I especially note the convenience of the keyboard and joystick. In terms of clarity, they differ little from the keyboards of some Nokia Asha push-button phones. For a protected device, this is really a plus, because the developers of such models usually spit on ergonomics from a high mountain.
About security
The teXet TM-511R housing complies with the IP67 standard, that is, the phone can be immersed without consequences for half an hour under water to a depth of one meter. Plus he is not afraid of dust. It is more difficult to hit: teXet does not declare compliance with one of the standards of the MIL-STD-810 family, which, unlike IP, also imply impact resistance. Nevertheless, the casing of the apparatus made of metal, rubber and durable plastic hints that it can also be dropped.
To begin with, we lowered the device into the river. For about 40 minutes he lay there in various poses.
This was followed by an hourly “spin” in a jar of pickles. Everything is OK too.
They kicked him on the beach. A couple of scratches appeared, but the shells were relatively sharp, and this was to be expected. But “football” had no effect on its performance.
We also tied the phone to the Parrot Ar.Drone 2.0 quadrocopter and threw it from the height of 10 meters onto the ground with gravel, drowned in the bathroom and threw it on the asphalt. Here is a video of such a fall:
teXet TM-511R has withstood all these bullying, no problems have been fixed. Well, maybe the SIM card moved in the slot, which led to the loss of communication with the cellular network, and that’s only because the slot is in miniSIM format, and I inserted my “micro SIM card” there.
Total
teXet TM-511R, I’m not afraid of this word, is a cut above analogs - at least those 5-6 button “off-road” devices that I came across. In terms of security, they are all about the same, but in this case some attention is paid to the “little things”: the camera (those who disagree can look hereand admire the pictures taken by the phone under the brand name CAT), plugs in the kit, localization and, most importantly, battery capacity. The same Caterpillar CAT B25 is about the same in size, it is no less, and the battery there is almost two times weaker. But the funny thing is, it’s more expensive: about 5,000 rubles, compared to 2,900 in the case of Texet.
In general, lovers of long mountain or sea adventures teXet TM-511R can be recommended. Especially if you are taking on vacation something more “Internet” (a smartphone or tablet) - with the World Wide Web on devices like teXet TM-511R, everything is very complicated. However, a break from this same Web is also useful.
I remember, six months ago, my friend and I had a very serious test smartphone teXet X-Driver, and he managed to maintain honor and dignity. But everything could have turned out differently: after each throw, we looked apprehensively at the screen - did it suddenly crack? So, if you still need a protected device, but you don’t want to communicate with “sensors”, you should look towards off-road push-button phones. Today we are talking about just one of them - teXet TM-511R.
Brief technical specifications teXet TM-511R :
Protection against water and dust class IP67
Two active SIM cards Standard GSM / GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
Display: 2 inches, TFT, 240 x 320 pixels.
Photo / video camera: 2.0 MP + flashlight
Bluetooth
FM-radio: 87.5-108.0 MHz
Expansion slot: microSD / SDHC (up to 16 GB)
Headphone jack 3.5 mm
micro-USB
Lithium-ion battery for 2,700 mAh
Dimensions: 128 x 60 x 22 mm
Weight: 168 g
About battery life
Today there are a lot of similar models on the market, and from different brands. What is the specific feature of teXet TM-511R? You may already have noticed her on the TTX list, but I’ll emphasize it again: this phone has a battery capacity of 2,700 mAh.
That is, just a little less than the Samsung Galaxy S5 (2 800 mAh) and a little more than the Samsung Galaxy S4 (2 600 mAh). It’s hard for me, as a person with a vacation, usually to be divided into three to four weekly days off at different times of the year, why someone might need to sit somewhere a month away from outlets. But the fact is that teXet TM-511R is quite ready for this. After receiving the device, I charged it, and now the third week of work without recharging is ending, and the indicator shows another quarter of the charge. I’m sure the phone will reach the cherished month. For comparison: most of these phones have 1,400-1,600 mAh batteries.
About functionality
However, it should be understood that such autonomy was achieved largely due to the far from wide functionality of the phone. Roughly speaking, he can make calls, provide messaging, play music / video and take pictures, plus he offers a voice recorder, alarm clock, calendar, organizer, currency converter, a couple of games and a very simple browser. In a word, all the possibilities of the simplest “telephone” MediaTek platform are available. In fact, you won’t see a movie on a 2-inch display, the browser allows you to open only the simplest sites (and you can’t open them on GPRS often - EDGE is not supported), and the quality of music playback will suit only the most picky user. However, teXet TM-511R is quite suitable for audiobooks. Moreover, it has a 3.5 mm jack for headphones, and you can experiment, replacing the complete headset with something more interesting. This is important, as in the case of many push-button SUVs, their terrible complete headsets are connected to miniUSB / microUSB ports and cannot be replaced.
The phone interface looks like this. In the sun, the screen fades greatly, so I had to take one photo at home.
It's nice that under the control of teXet the device was well localized. That is, there are no strange abbreviations, errors in the Russian language and other jambs of translation in the interface. I will never forget the Caterpillar CAT B25 : it does not correctly indicate the screen unlock scheme in the tooltip when switching to Ukrainian. Why, why, whom to blame for this - open questions. So teXet TM-511R has nothing of the kind, the device is localized to the top five.
Strange as it may seem, the camera is worth a separate mention. Yes, you won’t create a photo masterpiece with it. But she shoots better than cameras that were installed in similar devices last year. Moreover, teXet TM-511R is more or less suitable for capturing text. This picture was taken in a poorly lit room - in good light, everything is much better.
The model has two slots for SIM cards, their work is organized as standard: in standby mode, both SIM cards are available, and when talking one by one, the second one is turned off. With the connection, everything in a beam is clearly audible in both directions. There is a very important point here: according to teXet TM-511R, you can speak normally right after extraction from water. Yes, it will be heard a little worse than in a completely dry state, and yet - normally. Often, the conversational dynamics of protected devices after immersion in water fail for an hour or two - until they dry out.
About the package
A very simple headset, a USB-microUSB cable, a charging unit, a warranty and a quick user guide are the basic set of almost any modern phone.
Meanwhile, teXet TM-511R comes with a couple of non-standard accessories. The first is a carbine with an analog compass and a screwdriver plate, necessary to unscrew the back cover.
The second is spare plugs for microUSB and 3.5 mm ports, and they come with small bolts. What is all this for? Well, over time, the caps attached to the phone at the factory can become frayed. For example, if you often drop it on the asphalt. In this case, the “reserve" is useful: you don’t have to buy a new phone. Again, back to my personal Caterpillar CAT B25: if you damage the plug tightly screwed to its body, it will lose one of its main qualities - water resistance. With teXet TM-511R such a number will not work, you can just change the caps and operate it further.
About the body
Perhaps the main “near-case” feature of the teXet TM-511R is a matte metal plate screwed to the side faces. They look good and, importantly, make the device ... more civil, or something. Well, that is, I wouldn’t go with the majority of such off-road phones in the city, but teXet TM-511R is quite suitable for this. He does not seem to be a “tractor” or, let’s say so, a kind of military weapon. Although, of course, the device is by no means small and not light - you cannot hand such an elegant lady over.
In this case, not metal, after our tests, there were a few more scratches and dents than on rubber and plastic - these are two other materials used in the teXet TM-511R case. So the use of metal plates can be called justified, and not very. They have a positive effect on the design, negatively on the scratch resistance. However, scars - they adorn real men, and teXet TM-511R is just such a peasant phone.
The build quality is very high, no cracks and extra holes that, in theory, could let sand and water inside, were not found. But, of course, before diving it will be superfluous to press the port plugs with your finger once more and check whether you tightened the back cover tightly. I recall, it is attached using two steel bolts.
I especially note the convenience of the keyboard and joystick. In terms of clarity, they differ little from the keyboards of some Nokia Asha push-button phones. For a protected device, this is really a plus, because the developers of such models usually spit on ergonomics from a high mountain.
About security
The teXet TM-511R housing complies with the IP67 standard, that is, the phone can be immersed without consequences for half an hour under water to a depth of one meter. Plus he is not afraid of dust. It is more difficult to hit: teXet does not declare compliance with one of the standards of the MIL-STD-810 family, which, unlike IP, also imply impact resistance. Nevertheless, the casing of the apparatus made of metal, rubber and durable plastic hints that it can also be dropped.
To begin with, we lowered the device into the river. For about 40 minutes he lay there in various poses.
This was followed by an hourly “spin” in a jar of pickles. Everything is OK too.
They kicked him on the beach. A couple of scratches appeared, but the shells were relatively sharp, and this was to be expected. But “football” had no effect on its performance.
We also tied the phone to the Parrot Ar.Drone 2.0 quadrocopter and threw it from the height of 10 meters onto the ground with gravel, drowned in the bathroom and threw it on the asphalt. Here is a video of such a fall:
teXet TM-511R has withstood all these bullying, no problems have been fixed. Well, maybe the SIM card moved in the slot, which led to the loss of communication with the cellular network, and that’s only because the slot is in miniSIM format, and I inserted my “micro SIM card” there.
Total
teXet TM-511R, I’m not afraid of this word, is a cut above analogs - at least those 5-6 button “off-road” devices that I came across. In terms of security, they are all about the same, but in this case some attention is paid to the “little things”: the camera (those who disagree can look hereand admire the pictures taken by the phone under the brand name CAT), plugs in the kit, localization and, most importantly, battery capacity. The same Caterpillar CAT B25 is about the same in size, it is no less, and the battery there is almost two times weaker. But the funny thing is, it’s more expensive: about 5,000 rubles, compared to 2,900 in the case of Texet.
In general, lovers of long mountain or sea adventures teXet TM-511R can be recommended. Especially if you are taking on vacation something more “Internet” (a smartphone or tablet) - with the World Wide Web on devices like teXet TM-511R, everything is very complicated. However, a break from this same Web is also useful.