Oukitel has launched what it's calling as the world's first industrial-grade modular rugged phone, the WP300. It's seriously tough, but also the most fun I've had with a smartphone in a long time.
Chinese consumer electronics brand Oukitel is almost 20 years old, yet you may not have heard of the company before – unless you're after a rugged device and Amazon is where you're looking. The WP300 isn't launching straight to Oukitel's online stores, but heading to Kickstarter for a funding round first – and I've spent the last week or so finding out what it can do.
In some ways the WP300 is very similar to the WP200 Pro launched just a couple of months ago, with both handsets including nifty modules. The newer phone gains more girth and a much bigger battery, but loses a little processing power and a lot of memory/storage, though does get AI chops.
Either way, you're not looking at a super-slim handset or even a moderately thick phone. You're dealing with a chunky brick that's designed to laugh in face of the kind of challenging conditions you might find yourself in if you work in construction or are in the military. The WP300 measures 177.3 x 82.4 x 23.2 mm (6.98 x 3.24 x 0.91 in), and weighs in at 499 g (1.1 lb).
Getting down to modular business
In my head, when I was opening the box to discover what was on offer here, I imagined being introduced to the tech and capabilities by serious tones of Desmond Llewelyn from Q Branch/Division of the British Secret Service in the Bond movies. It definitely has that multi-gadget, smart spy tech vibe. Or maybe that's just me.
Other than the chunkiness and heft, one of the first things I noticed as I turned the phone around in my hands was the 4.2 x 2.4 x 1-cm (1.65 x 0.94 x 0.39-in) modular slot next to the rear camera array. Out of the box, this was home to a LED camping light unit that puts out up to 396 lumens over three brightness levels, plus SOS and strobe modes. The light has an operating temperature range of between -20 °C to 40 °C above (-4 - 104 °F).
But the WP300 also comes with a smartwatch module called the BT11 as well as a silicone strap and spare earplug (more on that in a bit). The display part of the smartwatch can be popped out of the metal frame and pushed in the phone's slot to provide a secondary display around back.
However, this touchscreen essentially just mirrors the functionality of a smartwatch, so you might be wondering what the point is. As I handled the watch module, I noticed a squishy earphone around back. This allows the unit to do double duty as a single-ear Bluetooth earpiece and microphone for taking calls while looking up construction blueprints or deployment plans on the phone. As such, this could be useful to dock instead of the light module, depending on your planned work day.
This earphone comes in one size only and can be detached if desired, but doesn't plug in like an earbud. Instead it kinda hangs near the ear canal. I found the fit to be more than a little loose, meaning that I lacked confidence moving about with the thing essentially dangling from my ear. But when it stayed put, the call clarity was fine at both ends of the conversation.
When used as a basic smartwatch on the wrist, this module functions pretty much as you'd expect – monitoring health and fitness metrics, serving up a clock face, fielding notifications for calls and messages, and so on.
It includes a heart rate sensor, an activity center which records steps, calories and distance, more than 100 sport modes are available and there's support for sleep monitoring too. There's 128 MB of built-in storage, but the device flings data to Oukitel's Da Fit app over Bluetooth for storage and analysis.
The smartwatch can be used to control music playback, and to remotely trigger the phone's rear camera. A useful addition to this module's toolkit would be a virtual view through the rear lens so you could line up selfies using the higher-res camera – but perhaps that's just me being greedy.
Its 150-mAh battery is reckoned good for 10 days on standby and I got around a working week's worth in regular use during office hours. It's charged over a magnetic cable or you can take advantage of the phone's big battery and top up when docked.
While on the subject of a module's battery, the camping light has its own battery too. Away from the phone, it can be mounted within the metal frame of the smartwatch if it's being used elsewhere, and worn on the wrist or on the head via the supplied stretchy band. However, the battery here only lasted for around half an hour at the highest beam, so is probably best saved for emergency use only rather than long hikes after sunset. Docked in the WP300 it will last a whole lot longer.
A powerbank that happens to be a smartphone
The WP300's generous 16,000-mAh battery accounts for much of its 1-inch girth, along with its durable metal frame, to allow you "to explore the outdoors for days" without worrying about have to seek out a wall outlet every few hours.
I tend to switch off stuff I don't need and activate them when I do, but I've been using the handset during daylight hours for more than a week – plus some after-dark excursions – and still have more than 50% battery remaining.
During that time of relatively light use compared to friends who seem to spend all of their waking hours glued to a screen, I've watched videos, made calls, played around with the modules, took photos and videos, and checked socials as well as generally pushing all the buttons to see what the WP300 had to offer.
Heavy users may have to recharge more often, but I've been suitably impressed by the battery performance so far. When it is time to plug in, the phone supports 45-W fast-charging via the included USB-C adapter, along with very useful 18-W reverse charging – meaning that you can use the WP300's huge battery to top up mobile gadgetry while on the move. Wireless charging is not supported.
Up front is a 6.8-inch FHD+ display (1,080 x 2,460) topped by scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 5. This boasts a snappy 120-Hz refresh rate for buttery smooth videos and mobile games, and shines bright with 650 nits. Center top is a 32-MP selfiecam for 1080p video chats at 30 frames per second.
Around back, a 108-megapixel main camera is built around a 1/1.8-inch-type Samsung image sensor, and comes with AI smarts for automatic optimization of "sharpness, detail and vivid color." There's 4K video at 30 frames per second available, poorly lit subjects can be captured with the help of a LED flash, and there's a 2-MP macro lens for grabbing close-ups.
The camera app presents a number of camera modes – night, video, picture, beauty, 108M, portrait, panorama, a GIF maker, macro, slow-mo, QR reader, and monochrome. There's a Pro mode too – which essentially puts the user in control of parameters. AI tools are included as well, allowing users to remove objects from a photo or change the background, as well as make an avatar or create a "digital human."
The WP300 runs Android 15 out of the gate, which appears to be pretty much stock – in other words, little to no bloat from useless proprietary apps. One useful extra here is the Oukitel ToolBag, which gathers together such things as a sound meter, plumb bob, magnifier, gradient tool, and digital spirit level. There's a separate app for activating the camping light when docked, and the Da Fit health app is onscreen too.
Inside is a MediaTek 7050 5G chipset with 2.6-GHz octa-core processing and integrated graphics, supported by 12 GB of GDDR5X RAM cooked in, but the phone can dip into the generous 512 GB of UFS3.1 storage for 24 GB more when needed, making a total of 36 GB of combined actual and virtual memory. MicroSD card expansion is included as well, should more space be needed for your digital archive.
Rounding out the key specs are Wi-Fi 6 and 5G for zippy connectivity, along with Bluetooth 5.2, and the phone can tap into GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo satellites for global navigation potential. A side fingerprint scanner and face ID support are also onboard for peace-of-mind security.
For those who like to nerd out on rugged capabilities – the phone is certified durable to MIL-STD-810H standards, which means that it's been drop tested multiple times from a height of 1.5 m (~5 ft). An IP68 rating could see it submerged in water at a depth of 1.5 m for up to 30 minutes without issue, while IP69K dust rating keeps particles from spoiling the smartphone party. It's designed to operate in temperature extremes, should you ever find yourself in environments where -20 °C or 55 °C (-4 to 131 °F) is the norm. Oukitel does note that a powered-off phone could actually withstand -40 °C to 70 °C (-40 - 158 °F) though.
The bottom line
A friend suggested that you could simply buy a cheap Android phone, wrap it in a tough case, buy a separate headlamp, grab a fitness tracker or simple smartwatch, add in a capacious power bank and finally bring a BT earpiece to the party, and get close to what's on offer here – possibly for less money.
But I'd argue that the ease of use, the military toughness and the multi-tool nature of modular gadgetry designed to match this Transformer phone perfectly out of the box all go to make the all-in-one case for the WP300. Plus if you tape a battery brick and a handset together, it would probably be a close call on which is thinnest and lightest.
Bond-like modularity aside, this proved a solid performer with a snappy response and modern smartphone experience. There's plenty of storage and memory cooked in, the lack of bloat in the app department was welcome, and a 100+ megapixel main camera should provide all the detail needed for recording imagery in the field.
Yes, it's a chunky monkey and won't be to everyone's taste – particularly when super thin appears to be in again – but it's designed to be a survivor. I dropped it, dunked it, buried it and generally abused it and still it performed without issue. While the battery isn't the biggest in the rugged phone world, it kept me away from the wall outlet for the whole review period (and still has juice to spare at time of writing) while sharing its charge with the docked modules.
The camping light isn't as bright as my headlamp of choice, but not having to carry extra gear when heading into the wild after dark was very welcome indeed. It's a pity that its own battery doesn't last long, but docked in the phone sees it last and last.
Sadly, a user manual for the smartphone isn't available, so you'll need to stab at the screen to discover what in can do. But it's not overly complicated and lacks many of the bells and whistles of more capable standalone wrist candy from the likes of Samsung, Apple or Google. In short, it's a basic smartwatch and health tracker that can also serve as a wireless earpiece for calls. Nifty.
Originally revealed at CES 2025 back in January, the WP300 will carry a suggested retail price of US$599 at its consumer release. But before that happens Oukitel is launching on Kickstarter. Early backers will be able to take advantage of a 33% discount, meaning that they will only have to stump up $399 to nab one of these multi-tool smartphones – and that includes free worldwide shipping.
Of course, all crowdfunders carry an element of risk, but Oukitel is an established company rather than a startup or garage project, and judging by our production-level review unit, we'd say it's a pretty safe bet that these things will be released into the wild. If all goes according to plan, shipping is estimated to start from July.
I had a lot of fun with this brick of a rugged phone and its modules, despite it being pitched as a serious work phone, so it's an easy recommend. I just need to don my military workwear more often so I have pockets large enough to house it when on the move.
Source: Oukitel