The Blackview Rock 2 Pro is just the latest of the company’s products we’ve been checking out from afar. There was the industrial tablet that contains a full projector, and the rugged smartphone that also includes a walkie-talkie. This one’s a little less spectacular. But only a little.
The Rock 2 Pro is absolutely a rugged device, but it drops much of the fancier tech features in favour of a large 400-lumen torch as part of the rear panel. That’s bright enough to let you find your way around a darkened garage. It’s not so bright that it’ll chew through the 15,000mAh battery before Eskom gets its act together.
I wanna Rock (2 Pro)
The rest of the internals aren’t too shabby either. The Unisoc T8100 chipset adds 5G connectivity, even if it’s not spectacularly powerful. Each unit ships with 8GB of system memory and 256GB of storage (and up to 512GB of microSD). The 6.67in display could be better, though. It only features a resolution of 720 x 1,604, but at least the panel runs at 120Hz.
Blackview’s rugged phone skimps on the cameras a tad. This is unsurprising when you consider the price, but still — a 13MP front and a 16MP rear are only barely trying to get your attention. As for the other camera sensors in the rear? Those… don’t actually appear to be functional. Or, if they are, the company isn’t talking about them. But it will mention the IP68/IP69K and MIL-STD-810H ratings that all of its rugged phones seem to get.
The handset is available directly from the Hong Kong manufacturer, as well as on BangGood. Unfortunately, the latter doesn’t ship to South Africa (probably for massive battery reasons). It’s a pity, too, because that R4,050 price tag looks… pretty good.
