No.1 M2 Waterproof smartphone review
This review was scheduled to be a special report from France featuring huge waves, Atlantic storm beaches, sun, sea and heavy metal (well Dexter wedges and Megabass Vibe lures) what could be better?
Unfortunately for reasons that will become clear later it has morphed itself into a waterproof Android smartphone review.
Android or IOS
First let me say I’m an Apple iPhone man through and through, in fact in my other job as an IT Comsultant I always recommend using iPhones when people ask advise.
So why am I using an Android phone? The answer is simple choice!
For years I have been trying to waterproof my iPhone to make it safe when I have been using it on the water. I’ve tried the scary LifeProof Nud, the fragile LifeProof original and bomb proof but ugly, Slxtreme from Snow Lizard to name but a few. While they all provide a differing range of protection from water damage they all suffer from one basic problem which is sound quality!
By the very nature of what they are trying to do every case has to protect the speaker and microphone from water ingress,. They usually do this by covering them with some sort of Gortex like material which has the inevitable effect of muffling the phone. You may not be using you phone under the water but it will certainly sound like it!
So when it was time to upgrade my iPhone this year I finally took my Apple blinkers off and realised that I was wasting a lot of time and money trying to make an iPhone into something it was never meant to be i.e. A rugged, go anywhere, long battery life, phone for fishing. So I did a bit of research on Android phones and found there is a growing choice of ruggidised phones on the market. These range from the Sony Experia (Sean has this and likes it.) to cheap Chinese manufactured models.
At the time of looking however only one phone came with the latest version of Android installed i.e 5.0 or lollipop. I could go into great depth about why I insisted on getting an Android 5 phone but let’s just say if you are an iPhone user you will find the transition over to Android a lot less painful as it feels a lot more joined up and mature than previous versions!
What finally pushed me over the edge was the realisation that such a phone could be bought for less than I’ve paid for a case for my iPhone in the past. So I give you my new phone. The No.1 M2 IP68.
It’s chunky, has a long battery life and can handle a fall but sound quality is not great as its little more than a slim phone fitted with a custom waterproof case which brings us back to the muffling by waterproof membrane again !
Which brings me to another problem with the phone, No.1 supply a special USB cable with an extra long shank this is to get in past the outer waterproof case and connect properly to the phone without this you cannot connect anything to the phone as standard USB cables don’t reach long enough! The same goes for the audio port burried deep inside its plastic case except it’s worse as No.1 do not provide an adaptor at all so headphones do not work!
It lasts a lot longer than my iPhone and while the camera is not up to iPhone 6 standard the 13mp camera works quite well.
But, and it’s quite a big but, on inspection I didn’t think it’s water rating was really up to ip68 standard as is claimed!
IPXX what does it mean?
The first digit is for dust ingress i.e. dust proof with 6 being the highest. The second digit refers to water resistance with 8 being the highest. So IP68- rated for no dust ingress and continuous immersion in water to a depth of three metres.
Generally this means double gaskets all round often with a double locking mechanism for any port covers. However on the M1 this means single gasket on the sim cover and a simple rubber plug on the charging and audio port.
On seeing this I mentally downgraded my expectations of this phone to splash proof and no more. Which brings me back to where we started with the big wave heavy metal review that is not to be! The phone coped admirally well with the splashes it got taking the photos the surf but it died completely the next day when it got wet in my pocket when a creek proved to be a bit deeper than expected!
So as I feared it’s really not up for full submersion and despite being dried for a week it shows no sign of recovery so no photos for my review.
All in all its been an interesting experiment but would I do it again? Yes but not without a more serious method of port protection or better still give me a phone with no ports at all! With wireless induction charging and Bluetooth headphones who needs ports?
So the search is still on for the perfect fishing phone, my requirements are:
- Properly waterproof
- No fragile port covers
- Induction charging
- Long battery life
- Decent camera
- Bright screen that can be read in full sun
- GPS
- Good sound quality.
Not much to ask surely? Unbelievably cheap waterproof android 5 phone. Not as waterproof as claimed! a phone inside a custom waterproof case gives a poor sound Non standard ports restrict connectivity Unbelievably cheap waterproof phone but flimsy gaskets and port covers render it useless, treat it as a rugged phone rather than waterproof None standard port openings limit connectivity.
If you think you have already found the perfect fishing phone please leave a comment!
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Try Mann phones 99£ smartphone start price but truly are good phones. Hope this helps. Rated ipx68
Thanks for this they look good – which do you have?
I have bought a Kyocera KC-S701 and so far its going well-look out for a review soon!
Luckily for me I bought my M2 no1 before reading the review above, as it was a rugged waterproof phone I wanted that had a bit of power to go with it. Having previously had a samsung rugby, which was frankly awfull and nowhere near as good as the M2.
My claim that it is waterproof is my visit to the Icelandic outdoor spas, with freezing temperatures out of water to bath temperatures in the water, well my M2 no1 lived quite happily in my swims pocket, and performed fine when I made a phone call and took some photos above water, only to be pt back in my pocket.
The phone is fantastic, It is a quad core processor which means it is fast, the battery lasts about three days and the sound quality is not muffled at all. i do not understand what went wrong with the previous review, perhaps he got adodgy one, mine is great.
The only bad point is the ligh, which is also the flash, it is absolutly rubbish. It about as powerfull as a candle and it becasue of this it doesnt take pictures in the dark, a huge downer if you want it for photos, and my iclandic pictureswhilst in one of the caves are useless. By all in all what a bargain, Oh and I just remembered it also survived a drop of about 5 feet onto carpet, it bounces quite well.
Hi Geoff.
Thanks for your feedback. This is exactly the reason why we encourage people to give their rating of the items we review. We have our opinion and sometimes it is not the same as others. The more people like yourself that contribute, the more neutral the review will be.
After one fall down on the wooden floor, the phone has broken. One corner completely and all other corners has cracks. So the phone is not “rugged” anymore. This happened after having the phone for only two months.
Don’t recommend this phone.
Plastics are too rigid for effective shock absorption and the corner screws are too near the border: when the smartphone falls and bumps on the edges, plastics cracks are guaranteed (my No.1 M2 has two cracks, one per upper corners).
Furthermore, after one year the battery doesn’t mantain the charge and I have to connect my No.1 M2 to the charger two or three times a day.
Definitely, I don’t recommend this phone.