TeXet X-driver off-road smartphone: swimming with cucumbers, moving the seventh “Boomer” and much more
In the comments to this post, which dealt with the “off-road” Caterpillar CAT B25 phone, I was invited to consider a protected smartphone of the same brand - Caterpillar CAT B15. I went in search of this model and in the process came to the conclusion that ... yeah, the British-Chinese partners Caterpillar want too much money for their devices! Let me remind you that the Caterpillar CAT B25 and teXet TM-510R phones, assembled at the same factory and coinciding by 90%, cost 5,000 and 2,700 rubles, respectively. Meanwhile, for the Caterpillar CAT B15 smartphone in Russia, they are asking for more than 14 thousand rubles.
Slowly ordering this model for testing, I made an elementary search in the teXet catalog and found in it the X-driver model for 10 thousand. That is, it is cheaper by almost a third.
teXet X-driver and Caterpillar CAT B15
As for the characteristics, here is a comparative plate:
In short, I took the teXet X-driver for the test, because it is more interesting in terms of characteristics at a noticeably lower price. As for the quality level, I don’t drink any special illusions regarding products under the CAT brand for a long time - just look at the “back” of the Caterpillar CAT B25 phone. And this is despite the fact that its direct owner keeps the device on a shelf and has not yet subjected it to severe tests - not season-s!
The panel in the logo peels off and scratches, alphanumeric buttons began to “squish” ...
So, teXet X-driver. The device is sold in this box:
Two microUSB-USB cables are included (in principle, one is enough for the eyes, but the more the better), a charger unit, a simple stereo headset, a carbine with an analog compass and a screwdriver for unscrewing the bolts (about them below), and two interchangeable plugs for 3.5 mm and microUSB connectors.
The design of the device is brutal - neither give nor take. teXet X-driver looks great next to climbing equipment, scuba gear, a mountain bike and other extreme gizmos. Meanwhile, for everyday use, I can not recommend it. Tell me - would you take a girl to a restaurant on the GAZ-66? Hardly.
- Honey, are you fucking ?!
So teXet X-driver is suitable for hunting, fishing, relaxing at sea and in the mountains, but not for fashion shows along the main street of the city in a white shirt and skinny jeans. Actually, he’ll hardly fit into these narrowest jeans: the dimensions of the smartphone are 139 x 74 x 18 mm, weight - 265 g. But it fits perfectly into the pocket of the backpack:
The case is made of various types of plastics and rubber. There is metal here: it reinforced a removable back cover trimmed with rubber on top and screwed in with a pair of bolts.
The sidewalls are completely rubber, and with “influxes” above the front panel about 1 mm high. Thanks to them, the screen is more likely to survive when falling on a hard surface.
As mentioned above, the 3.5 mm headphone jack and microUSB port are covered with caps on the cogs. If during the hard operation these same plugs are fixed, it will be possible to replace them with a “spare" from the kit. I’ll add here that the volume control button - by the way, very hard - is on the right side of the case, while the power key of the device and its display are on the top.
There are also plastic inserts resembling a soft touch - they are provided in the upper and lower parts of the smartphone. For greater reliability, these inserts are also bolted together.
Orange “pieces” are like a frame of a smartphone made of durable, but not fragile plastic. A loop for fastening a carbine protrudes from the frame on the rear panel.
The final touch is screen coverage: teXet X-driver uses Japanese Asahi Glass. It can be called an analogue of Gorilla Glass, except that it is thicker and, most likely, harder.
Unlike the IP67 certified Caterpillar CAT B15, the teXet X-driver complies with the IP68 standard. That is, both devices are completely indifferent to dust, you can “wet” CAT with a depth of up to a meter, and teXet X-driver - up to a meter and deeper. This should not affect performance.
As for impacts, in the case of protected devices, information is usually given on compliance with the American military standard MIL-STD 810 (its different versions). It, unlike IP, also involves impact tests. In the case of the X-driver, there is no such information, so ...
... what could be nicer than testing a smartphone for “indestructibility” on its own?
So, the first test. Roll the teXet X-driver into a jar of pickles for an hour and a half. We periodically call him and observe such a picture. The apparatus passed the test with flying colors.
The second test. Without further ado, they shot an entire movie about X-driver - “Boomer. The third film ";)
As you can see in the video, a very angry young man in a BMW 750 talks on this smartphone, and then throws him out the window in a fit of emotion. And then it moves on the grass. X-driver is not at all friendly, in principle, on the drum - the smartphone has not received a crack or scratch.
The third test. Now the girl is already angry. Then crushes the smartphone with his foot. And then they kick him like a ball.
The fourth test - they threw it “face” on the stones from a height of one and a half meters. And he is more alive than all living things.
In the fifth test, we again return to the long-length version of the BMW 750i, which weighs as much as 2.6 tons. We put teXet X-driver on the asphalt and carefully move so ...
A characteristic crack indicates that the screen glass could not stand it. But! The device, as it turned out, remained in full working condition. Despite 2.6 tons of Boomer. Yes, the glass cracked, but the display itself did not “drip”. Other functions also work flawlessly. What does it mean? Glass can be replaced at any teXet certified service center (yes, I recognized) to get a practically new smartphone in the end.
In general, is it worth it to clarify once again that the device withstood the test of both "waterproof" and impact resistance? In the intervals between the above tests, we trampled him in the mud, bathed in an ice river, played football on the leaves for them ... The relevant photos are below.
I would also like to say about the camera installed in the teXet X-driver (8 megapixels, autofocus, LED flash). I liked it - the quality of images is much higher than most budget smartphones. A few examples are below. And yes, the camera’s interface is standard, from Android 4.0 ICS.
Unfortunately, there is no separate button for taking pictures in teXet X-driver. This means that taking pictures under water will not work - capacitive touch screens in a liquid environment do not work. You can, of course, get the root on the device and use some tricky third-party applications to assign the photo function, say, to the volume buttons, but not the fact that everything will turn out and work. I personally did not try.
But it’s even possible to shoot video under water - if, however, you activate the recording before diving. The maximum video resolution is HD720p, the quality is not super, but sane.
I’ll say briefly about the hardware platform: teXet X-driver uses the simplest version of the Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play chipset with a 2-core ARM Cortex-A5 GHz processor (this platform, I recall, also exists in versions 1.2 and 1, 4 GHz) and Adreno 203 graphics. There are enough of its capabilities for smooth operation of the interface, as well as for quick saving of 8-megapixel images. Well, for games of the level of Dead Trigger. I think that it is not worthwhile to demand more from such an apparatus. By the way, the difference in power consumption between the 2-core Qualcomm MSM8225 and the 4-core Qualcomm MSM8225Q is about 1.8 times in favor of a solution with fewer cores. So it turns out that for a “hiking” smartphone, the choice in favor of relatively weak iron is justified. From a 2500 mAh battery, the teXet X-driver lived for about two and a half days; the mode was something like this: 40 minutes of conversations per day (1 SIM card installed, 10-15 photos), a couple of hours of sitting in social networks.
Performance tests: The
screen in the device is 4-inch with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Matrix Technology - TFT-IPS. The display is very good, the picture is nice looking. You can’t say more about him - you don’t expect anything extraordinary from the figures just above. Unless it is worth noting the wide viewing angles.
The software part is represented by the Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system with minor modifications. In particular, in the notification panel there is such a task manager. True, far from all running processors are displayed in it. I’ll also highlight a set of “near-sports” wallpapers, a file manager and another “dialer”.
Curiously, the desktop can be displayed in horizontal mode.
There are a number of applications from teXet - the catalog “teXet recommends”, software for downloading games, information about films and so on. All these are pleasant trifles, but I will not concentrate on them.
What was somewhat frustrating in the software was the inability to download updates over the air. That is, if teXet releases any update, you will have to install it from the computer with loss of data and settings.
Summing up my impressions, I will say this: teXet X-driver definitely liked it. First of all, with its indestructibility and a good (in my unprofessional opinion) camera. And yet - quite a decent battery life. In principle, more from the "off-road" smartphone, focused on recreation and all sorts of adventures, is not required. In fact, it’s not all the same devices in a row to measure the usual megahertz, gigabytes and megapixels. If we ignore the numbers and evaluate the quality of the performance of the tasks assigned to it by this device, then it can be called more than successful. And inexpensive - remember the CAT B15 with its creepy 14 thousand.
Slowly ordering this model for testing, I made an elementary search in the teXet catalog and found in it the X-driver model for 10 thousand. That is, it is cheaper by almost a third.
teXet X-driver and Caterpillar CAT B15
As for the characteristics, here is a comparative plate:
In short, I took the teXet X-driver for the test, because it is more interesting in terms of characteristics at a noticeably lower price. As for the quality level, I don’t drink any special illusions regarding products under the CAT brand for a long time - just look at the “back” of the Caterpillar CAT B25 phone. And this is despite the fact that its direct owner keeps the device on a shelf and has not yet subjected it to severe tests - not season-s!
The panel in the logo peels off and scratches, alphanumeric buttons began to “squish” ...
So, teXet X-driver. The device is sold in this box:
Two microUSB-USB cables are included (in principle, one is enough for the eyes, but the more the better), a charger unit, a simple stereo headset, a carbine with an analog compass and a screwdriver for unscrewing the bolts (about them below), and two interchangeable plugs for 3.5 mm and microUSB connectors.
The design of the device is brutal - neither give nor take. teXet X-driver looks great next to climbing equipment, scuba gear, a mountain bike and other extreme gizmos. Meanwhile, for everyday use, I can not recommend it. Tell me - would you take a girl to a restaurant on the GAZ-66? Hardly.
- Honey, are you fucking ?!
So teXet X-driver is suitable for hunting, fishing, relaxing at sea and in the mountains, but not for fashion shows along the main street of the city in a white shirt and skinny jeans. Actually, he’ll hardly fit into these narrowest jeans: the dimensions of the smartphone are 139 x 74 x 18 mm, weight - 265 g. But it fits perfectly into the pocket of the backpack:
The case is made of various types of plastics and rubber. There is metal here: it reinforced a removable back cover trimmed with rubber on top and screwed in with a pair of bolts.
The sidewalls are completely rubber, and with “influxes” above the front panel about 1 mm high. Thanks to them, the screen is more likely to survive when falling on a hard surface.
As mentioned above, the 3.5 mm headphone jack and microUSB port are covered with caps on the cogs. If during the hard operation these same plugs are fixed, it will be possible to replace them with a “spare" from the kit. I’ll add here that the volume control button - by the way, very hard - is on the right side of the case, while the power key of the device and its display are on the top.
There are also plastic inserts resembling a soft touch - they are provided in the upper and lower parts of the smartphone. For greater reliability, these inserts are also bolted together.
Orange “pieces” are like a frame of a smartphone made of durable, but not fragile plastic. A loop for fastening a carbine protrudes from the frame on the rear panel.
The final touch is screen coverage: teXet X-driver uses Japanese Asahi Glass. It can be called an analogue of Gorilla Glass, except that it is thicker and, most likely, harder.
Unlike the IP67 certified Caterpillar CAT B15, the teXet X-driver complies with the IP68 standard. That is, both devices are completely indifferent to dust, you can “wet” CAT with a depth of up to a meter, and teXet X-driver - up to a meter and deeper. This should not affect performance.
As for impacts, in the case of protected devices, information is usually given on compliance with the American military standard MIL-STD 810 (its different versions). It, unlike IP, also involves impact tests. In the case of the X-driver, there is no such information, so ...
... what could be nicer than testing a smartphone for “indestructibility” on its own?
So, the first test. Roll the teXet X-driver into a jar of pickles for an hour and a half. We periodically call him and observe such a picture. The apparatus passed the test with flying colors.
The second test. Without further ado, they shot an entire movie about X-driver - “Boomer. The third film ";)
As you can see in the video, a very angry young man in a BMW 750 talks on this smartphone, and then throws him out the window in a fit of emotion. And then it moves on the grass. X-driver is not at all friendly, in principle, on the drum - the smartphone has not received a crack or scratch.
The third test. Now the girl is already angry. Then crushes the smartphone with his foot. And then they kick him like a ball.
The fourth test - they threw it “face” on the stones from a height of one and a half meters. And he is more alive than all living things.
In the fifth test, we again return to the long-length version of the BMW 750i, which weighs as much as 2.6 tons. We put teXet X-driver on the asphalt and carefully move so ...
A characteristic crack indicates that the screen glass could not stand it. But! The device, as it turned out, remained in full working condition. Despite 2.6 tons of Boomer. Yes, the glass cracked, but the display itself did not “drip”. Other functions also work flawlessly. What does it mean? Glass can be replaced at any teXet certified service center (yes, I recognized) to get a practically new smartphone in the end.
In general, is it worth it to clarify once again that the device withstood the test of both "waterproof" and impact resistance? In the intervals between the above tests, we trampled him in the mud, bathed in an ice river, played football on the leaves for them ... The relevant photos are below.
I would also like to say about the camera installed in the teXet X-driver (8 megapixels, autofocus, LED flash). I liked it - the quality of images is much higher than most budget smartphones. A few examples are below. And yes, the camera’s interface is standard, from Android 4.0 ICS.
Unfortunately, there is no separate button for taking pictures in teXet X-driver. This means that taking pictures under water will not work - capacitive touch screens in a liquid environment do not work. You can, of course, get the root on the device and use some tricky third-party applications to assign the photo function, say, to the volume buttons, but not the fact that everything will turn out and work. I personally did not try.
But it’s even possible to shoot video under water - if, however, you activate the recording before diving. The maximum video resolution is HD720p, the quality is not super, but sane.
I’ll say briefly about the hardware platform: teXet X-driver uses the simplest version of the Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play chipset with a 2-core ARM Cortex-A5 GHz processor (this platform, I recall, also exists in versions 1.2 and 1, 4 GHz) and Adreno 203 graphics. There are enough of its capabilities for smooth operation of the interface, as well as for quick saving of 8-megapixel images. Well, for games of the level of Dead Trigger. I think that it is not worthwhile to demand more from such an apparatus. By the way, the difference in power consumption between the 2-core Qualcomm MSM8225 and the 4-core Qualcomm MSM8225Q is about 1.8 times in favor of a solution with fewer cores. So it turns out that for a “hiking” smartphone, the choice in favor of relatively weak iron is justified. From a 2500 mAh battery, the teXet X-driver lived for about two and a half days; the mode was something like this: 40 minutes of conversations per day (1 SIM card installed, 10-15 photos), a couple of hours of sitting in social networks.
Performance tests: The
screen in the device is 4-inch with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. Matrix Technology - TFT-IPS. The display is very good, the picture is nice looking. You can’t say more about him - you don’t expect anything extraordinary from the figures just above. Unless it is worth noting the wide viewing angles.
The software part is represented by the Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system with minor modifications. In particular, in the notification panel there is such a task manager. True, far from all running processors are displayed in it. I’ll also highlight a set of “near-sports” wallpapers, a file manager and another “dialer”.
Curiously, the desktop can be displayed in horizontal mode.
There are a number of applications from teXet - the catalog “teXet recommends”, software for downloading games, information about films and so on. All these are pleasant trifles, but I will not concentrate on them.
What was somewhat frustrating in the software was the inability to download updates over the air. That is, if teXet releases any update, you will have to install it from the computer with loss of data and settings.
Summing up my impressions, I will say this: teXet X-driver definitely liked it. First of all, with its indestructibility and a good (in my unprofessional opinion) camera. And yet - quite a decent battery life. In principle, more from the "off-road" smartphone, focused on recreation and all sorts of adventures, is not required. In fact, it’s not all the same devices in a row to measure the usual megahertz, gigabytes and megapixels. If we ignore the numbers and evaluate the quality of the performance of the tasks assigned to it by this device, then it can be called more than successful. And inexpensive - remember the CAT B15 with its creepy 14 thousand.