Like many ADVers, I’ve taken to utilizing my smartphone for a lot of roles on my travels—digicam, navigation, music streaming whereas banging out the freeway miles. When you wished such luxurious 15 years in the past, most of us had been hauling alongside two or three separate devices for all of this. Now, a pocket-sized gadget can do all of it, and much more, all of the whereas conserving you in contact with house.
Nevertheless, many people have discovered that whereas a smartphone is beneficial on the street, it’s no good if it breaks. That is the place the concept of a so-called “rugged cellphone” comes into play; (see final 12 months’s evaluation of the Kyocera DuraForce Extremely 5G for an instance).
A couple of months again, AGM (see the corporate’s story right here) contacted ADVrider to see if we’d be keen on reviewing the same cellphone from its lineup, the Glory Professional 5G. Right here’s what I’ve came upon about this tools, after working all of it spring via broadly diverse circumstances. The check outcomes are listed beneath; skip to them, if that’s all you need, however a fast learn via the specs beneath could be helpful.
Specs
A giant, unhealthy brute
The very first thing you discover opening the AGM Glory Professional’s field is—this factor is big. The display is 165mm throughout diagonally (equal to a 6.5-inch cellphone), and the cellphone’s plastic chassis extends barely past that in each course. This isn’t a smooth, screen-to-the-edge cellphone that matches properly into your hipster denims, particularly when you think about it’s 23 mm deep at its thickest half. It is because there’s a large onboard speaker there, together with a big flashlight LED array.
AGM says the entire cellphone weighs 370 grams, or 13 ounces—virtually a full pound. The place’d all the load come from? From the cellphone’s ruggedization therapy, apparently. AGM claims IP68/IP69K water resistance, which suggests it’s supposed to withstand strain washing and steam cleansing! It carries a MIL-STD-810H impression resistance score as properly. AGM additionally claims the cellphone’s 6200 mAh “Arctic battery” is sweet for a full day’s energy in temperatures of -27 Celsius.
I didn’t pull the cellphone aside to look at its electro-guts, however I presume that each one this weatherproofing and ruggedization is the rationale this cellphone is so giant, you could possibly use it as a self-defense weapon, clubbing a would-be mugger to senselessness. It’s heavy.
That speaker and the twin-LED flashlight, plus the ruggedized chassis, means it is a very thick and heavy cellphone. Picture: AGM
Distinctive options
It’s an enormous cellphone with spectacular ruggedization claims, however the AGM Glory Professional additionally has different attention-grabbing options. That LED flashlight is meant to be the brightest you’ll find on a cellphone; I had no approach of testing this declare, however I can attest that it’s far, far brighter than another cellphone I’ve utilized in my life. I might don’t have any worries about utilizing this as my solely cellphone on a tenting journey.
There’s additionally a built-in 3.5-watt speaker on again. I can say it’s a lot louder than another cellphone I’ve used, and virtually talking, it labored simply in addition to an auxiliary Bluetooth speaker for evenings listening to music whereas I work within the storage.
There’s additionally an infrared digicam perform! I do not know why an ADVrider would want this, however for contractors and different tradesmen (conventional rugged cellphone patrons), it might be worthwhile, so I presume that’s why it’s included. So far as I used to be involved, it was only a cool gimmick for the primary few days, and I haven’t wanted it since. Possibly in case you had been tenting within the deep darkish woods, you could possibly use it to detect tentsite intruders?
The Glory Professional comes with wi-fi and USB-C charging capabilities, however can be arrange with a proprietary AGM four-pin charger, and there’s a user-assigned multifunction button on the cellphone’s facet. Supposedly, each these options are supposed for fleet utilization.
Different specs
The AGM Glory Professional 5G comes with 8 gb of RAM, and 256 gb of onboard reminiscence, which might be expanded to 512 gb through the SD slot. Because the identify implies, the cellphone has 5G wi-fi functionality. There’s a 48 mp fundamental digicam, sourced from Sony, with 2 mp macro functionality. The rear-facing digicam is 16 mp decision. There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G / 8nm Octa-core chipset and Qualcomm Adreno 619 GPU. Android 11 comes pre-loaded, with no phrase on whether or not it should keep on with future updates. There’s a 3.5 mm headphone jack on backside of the cellphone. The LTPS TFT, 16.7-million shade display has full HD/2340×1080 decision. There’s a fingerprint reader on the again of the cellphone, which you need to use for biometric ID.
One main bonus: AGM ships this cellphone with stripped-down apps, not one of the bloatware that so many different Android producers embrace.
So how did it work?
The spec sheet for the AGM Glory Professional is spectacular, with many attention-grabbing options, however I feel ruggedization is what would appeal to most motorcyclists to this cellphone.
Right here the cellphone is mounted in RAM’s extra-large claw-type mount. See the amount and display on/off buttons on the cellphone’s facet? With the smaller RAM claw mount, these buttons had been frequently depressed until you positioned it in there “good.” Picture: Zac Kurylyk
Safety that works
A few of the weather-resistance is of little use to riders. A cellphone battery that resists sub-zero temperatures is of little use to most riders, who could be tucked away heat at house lengthy earlier than the mercury hit the freezing level. Nevertheless, the acute water resistance is very enticing in case you’ve ever had an digital machine ruined by rain. Right here, I can say the AGM Glory Professional handed testing with flying colours. Whereas on a motorbike tour in early spring, I used to be trapped in one of many worst downpours I’ve ever been caught in. I figured that, at a minimal, the speaker’s efficiency could be diminished afterwards. Not so! It’s as loud and as ever.
What about impression resistance? I’ve managed to drop this cellphone a couple of occasions from various heights and haven’t damaged and even cracked the display but. Given the rugged plastic chassis, I don’t see how you could possibly break this cellphone with out taking a hammer to it. When you’ve ever purchased one thing like a Lifeproof case in your Samsung/Apple/no matter, then the best approach to clarify the AGM’s impression resistance is that this: The Glory Professional primarily has its impact-resistant case already built-in. That’s why it’s so cumbersome. And boy, is it cumbersome; it barely suits in a pants pocket, and it’s too large for the pockets on no less than one in all my driving jackets.
The built-in case additionally appears to additionally work properly in opposition to vibration; I had no issues with my digicam’s lens, not like different smartphones available on the market, and that’s after many hours mounted to thumper handlebars, and miles of robust backroads. I used to be truly stunned the cellphone by no means fell off the handlebars; due to the form of the again of the cellphone, I wasn’t capable of correctly mount a common stick-on QuadLock. Too unhealthy—it could have been extremely helpful when mixed with the cellphone’s wi-fi charging functionality. As an alternative, I jammed it right into a claw-style RAM mount. First, I used the smaller-sized RAM mount with no elastic retainer; the cellphone barely match into this mount, and it appeared a really sketchy association. I purchased the larger-sized claw mount, and this simply swallowed the cellphone. Nevertheless, the cellphone is so giant that it rapidly snapped the elastic retainer on this
mount as properly, so if you wish to mount it to your handlebars this manner (I feel it’s the one sensible approach), then purchase some additional elastics, or be able to journey with out that security cushion.
Notice the peeling display protector. When you purchase one in all these, anticipate to exchange that half each 2-3 months. Fortunately, they’re simply accessible on eBay they usually’re low-cost. Picture: Zac Kurylyk
One space that isn’t ruggedized: The display. The display isn’t much-respected damage-resistant Gorilla Glass; I’m unsure what they used, however AGM ships the display with a display protector already put in. It’s already scratched up; fortunately, this accent is already accessible via the Web (so far as I can inform, it’s the one add-on you possibly can simply purchase for the cellphone, although!).
That display protector works in opposition to the AGM Glory Professional whenever you’re making an attempt to make use of it in direct daylight, the place the show tends to get a bit washed-out. I might not wish to rely solely on visuals if I used to be utilizing the AGM for navigation mid-day, with overhead solar blazing away. When you’re arrange with turn-by-turn audio cues in your helmet, you have to be OK. Following GPS tracks within the desert on a brilliant day would positively be an issue. On barely darker days, it was tremendous; I used the OsmAnd app with this cellphone for woods navigation, and had no points seeing the display or following the observe.
Getting the job finished
As for the digicam perform: It labored tremendous, though generally I discovered the digicam app a bit of sluggish to load. To me, pictures didn’t look pretty much as good as they did on my outdated Samsung S9, and I wouldn’t anticipate the AGM Glory Professional to carry up in opposition to the latest-gen Apple/Google/Samsung flagships. However, it’s not made to, both, and most shoppers gained’t actually discover the distinction.
Whereas the digicam labored properly, I did discover some occasional glitchiness with my Instagram app, in addition to GoPro Quik. I’ve seen this with different Android telephones as properly, so I don’t suppose it is a dealbreaker. Simply take into account that this cellphone won’t be for the content material creator who needs to edit IG reels or different multimedia productions.
As for the large speaker on again: I beloved it, for speakerphone calls. I didn’t, nonetheless, love the cellphone’s built-in mic. Whereas holding the cellphone, I discovered it straightforward to maneuver the mic to a place the place it barely picked up my voice. At the least I feel that was the issue; it may have been a software program concern. Both approach, I more and more relied on the speakerphone the longer I used the Glory Professional.
The AGM Glory Professional will take good photographs when you have respectable composition and lighting. Nevertheless, the AI behind the digicam is not so good as what you’ll discover with Google, Samsung or Apple, though the sensor itself is a top quality Sony unit. Picture: Zac Kurylyk
Battery life was ample; it lasted me a few days simply. Charging was slower than I’m used to with Samsung flagship telephones. As for utilizing with a gloved hand, I didn’t actually strive it, as I don’t like twiddling with my cellphone mid-flight and I normally take away my gloves at a cease. Having stated that, I used to be in a position to make use of the display with gloves on so long as that they had the fingertip inserts for that goal.
Abstract
The positives: This cellphone boasts distinctive options, a few of that are helpful to riders, and a few that aren’t, however could also be enjoyable or good to have (the speaker, as an example—in case you’re a “music on the campsite” fan, then you definitely’ll recognize the amount). After three months of standard utilization, I need to say I’m extremely impressed with how rugged this cellphone is, in inventory format, with no case or different safety. The software program and {hardware}, whereas nothing spectacular, are actually ample for many customers. I feel this cellphone is good for the traveler who needs one thing that’s super-tough, and isn’t as fussed about processor and digicam efficiency. When you prize bodily reliability, this cellphone has acquired it.
The negatives: The display needs to be brighter, I’d prefer to unravel the mic points, and the cellphone is simply too large. When you’re conserving it in a handbag, or maybe an exterior gear pocket, it’d be tremendous, however I might not wish to journey the world with this in my hip pocket. Now, another better-known cellphone firms like Samsung are moving into the rugged cellphone market, and if their telephones are smaller and extra flashy, they’ll probably tempt away among the broad Chinese language rugged cellphone market. Maybe that can drive the Glory Professional’s value down a bit; in reality, I feel that development is already beginning, with eBay costs now underneath $600, $250 lower than the MSRP.
Discover extra particulars on the AGM Glory Professional right here.
