Whoever said that smartphones were getting boring obviously has never seen this guy.
Inside of this rather plain looking, nondescript cardboard box is the world's loudest smartphone...which
also just happens to have infrared night vision.
I'm not sure who was asking for the world's loudest smartphone, but here it hath been
given to us.
Think of the possibilities...we've got super loud notifications, super loud gaming, or
listening to some really good opera.
[Opera music playing]
Speaking of opera, did you know one of the very first web browsers ever invented at the
dawn of the internet was also called Opera?
Huge thanks to that same web browser for sponsoring this video.
Come around to this side of the desk and let me show you how it works.
This is the view of my desk from where I sit.
And we have the main camera here and two video monitors so I can see what I'm filming.
And the top down camera up here so I can see my desk.
But we're getting distracted.
We're here for the browser.
Opera is a free download that obviously lets you browse the internet, but also includes
some pretty nifty features that aren't normally seen on an internet browser.
It can import all of your bookmarks from whatever browser you were using previously, but it
also has a builtin VPN, or virtual private network.
The integrated VPN secures your internet traffic and also has no subscription, no logins, no
data limits, and no payments of any kind.
Opera also includes a builtin ad blocker which protects your privacy as well as speeds up
your internet browsing.
Not to mention Opera has a built-in messenger that allows you to chat with all of your friends
using Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook in one spot without having to open a bunch of
tabs.
Speaking of tabs, pinboard is Opera's glorified bookmark manager that helps keep my different
project groups organized and easy to select at a glance.
It also has a built-in player which handles music and podcast playback without needing
to open up the individual websites.
My favorite feature, though, is probably going to be the pop-out video player which allows
me to take a video and put it wherever I want, which is especially useful while I'm researching
or taking notes.
I can just float that video around wherever I need to.
So if you're looking for the absolute Swiss Army Knife of web browsers, I'll leave a link
for Opera down in the video description.
It's hard to beat a free VPN and free ad blocker.
The link is down in the description.
And now I think it's time to see how durable the world's loudest smartphone really is.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
The world's loudest smartphone is made by a company called AGM Mobile.
They've been around for a while now, making inexpensive ultra rugged smartphones.
But this is our first look at what the company can do here on my channel.
I doubt they've ever experienced an unboxing quite like mine.
Inside the box the phone is an absolute unit with a centrally located loudspeaker right
in the middle of the back panel, making this one of the most unique looking phones we've
seen in a long time.
Also in here is a USB-C charging cable and an18 watt fast charger.
The AGM H5 feels pretty solid.
First impressions are important.
Kind of reminds me of the Kyocera Duraforce Sapphire phone we tested last year.
Surrounding the rear large speaker protrusion is a decorative carbon fiber looking back
panel.
Size-wise it has about the same footprint as my almost 3 year old Note 10 Plus.
But even with my case, the H5 is nearly twice as thick, but that's kind of what we expect
when getting a rugged phone.
Before we get too far, let's see what it sounds like just in case it doesn't survive until
the end of the video.
[Opera music playing]
There is a lot to take in here, especially for only $260 dollars.
The 3.5 watt speaker is actually pretty loud.
I was not expecting the RBG's to be dancing back here.
But maybe a little pizzazz is all opera needs to make a comeback.
AGM is saying this speaker outputs 109 decibels, which is way louder than a MacBook or iPad.
And while my music isn't an alarm or a notification, it's definitely getting up past the 100 decimal
range, which means AGM's on par for their specifications.
Nice work.
The speaker is pretty legit.
Let's see how the rest of the phone holds up and what that night vision camera looks
like.
Getting our Mohs hardness scratch test laid out.
I noticed there is a plastic screen...also a nice inclusion.
It's still pretty mind blowing that this phone is only $260.
Usually we're testing phones here on my channel that cost 4x as much.
There is quite a bit of rockage to the phone, and not because of any camera bumps, but because
of the speaker bump, which is something I've never said before.
After working our way up the scale, we see scratches at a level 6, with deeper grooves
at a level 7, which is something I've said before...once or twice.
There is a front facing 20 megapixel camera protected by the front glass inside of a tear
drop notch.
And right above that we have a plastic grill covering the earpiece.
And this is where we get our first glimpse of some of that budget build quality.
The earpiece grill is just glued into place and will probably fall out on its own over
time.
The AGM H5 is also ip69 water resistant, but that resistance definitely isn't visible on
the outside of the speaker grill.
Hopefully there's more protection on the inside, but we won't know until we open it up.
Speaking of opening it up, the sides of the phone are covered in a thick layer of rubber,
just like a built in case.
And digging past the layer of rubber we find a plastic sub-layer underneath.
The textured power button and volume rocker are made from metal.
We have some protruding rubber and plastic corner bumpers, and quite a bit more rubber
with a microphone hole up top.
On the left side we have more rubber with a watertight flap covering the SIM and SD
card tray.
The flap is what probably helps this phone achieve its IP69 rating.
There is a metal programmable button on this side as well.
And if we make our way down to the bottom of the phone we get another watertight flap
covering the USB-C port and the headphone jack.
Making our way to the back of the phone, we see the massive speaker is taking up a whole
ton of real estate – almost like a little turtle shell.
The rear carbon fiber looking panel isn't actually carbon fiber, it's just a rubberized
layer with a carbon fiber texturing on top, which is fine.
The last carbon fiber phone we tested didn't turn out too well, and I think rubber would
go much farther towards impact and drop protection than carbon fiber would.
The aesthetic texture does look pretty cool though.
The turtle shell loudspeaker is made from metal.
-[Phone speaking] At Amazon, hourly employees earn benefits that support themselves and
their families.
-Well that was a strange advertisement, especially when 4,000 of Amazon's warehouse workers qualify
for food stamps.
Instead of buying advertisements saying they pay good, I think Amazon should just pay good.
Where were we?
Oh yeah.
The camera lenses are made from plastic, which is something we haven't seen since the HTC
M9 back in 2015.
Plastic lenses are pretty rare.
I assume AGM chose plastic for its impact protection while assuming the loud speaker
hump would keep the plastic from scratching.
Plastic does have its benefits of course, it just probably wouldn't be my first pick
for camera lenses.
Speaking of cameras, let's check out the infrared night vision.
There are several different kinds of night vision.
There's these super expensive opto electronic military grade goggles that have the classic
green image.
But then there are much cheaper versions that use infrared LEDs to illuminate the surroundings.
The infrared light isn't picked up by human eyes, but it can be seen by the cameras, which
is why a lot of security cameras use this technology.
The AGM H5 is using a singular LED on the back to illuminate my desk.
Invisible to our eyes of course, but visible to the camera itself.
Which is then picked up and displayed in back and white on the screen.
It's actually pretty cool.
Not something I would probably use every single day, but still very interesting, especially
in a sub $300 phone.
Finally, the burn test.
The H5 has a 5.6 inch 720p display, and since we can see the pixels start to go black after
about 10 seconds, we know it's an ips display, which is definitely less expensive than the
LED panels.
And another reason this phone is quite a bit cheaper than we would normally see, even though
it has a 7,000 milliamp hour battery.
The screen pixels do completely recover though, which is kind of fun.
There is a fingerprint scanner on the back panel, a capacitive scanner.
Once my fingerprint is set I can rough up the surface with some more scratches than
it should ever be seeing in real life.
And it looks like even with the damage it's unlocking the phone every single time.
Nice.
Finally, the bend test.
I mean, with a phone this thick, we can pretty much assume it's a solid brick, but it's still
nice to know for sure.
When bent from the back it's inflexibly immobile.
And same when bent from the front.
AGM is definitely making budget rugged phones here, with plastic camera lenses, and lower
resolution screens than we're used to.
But it does make up for the cut corners with the price, and a pretty cool speaker and infrared
cameras.
I have to say I'm a fan.
The AGM H5 passed my durability test and is definitely a phone I'll remember.
It'll be fun to see the insides of this guy.
Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already.
Let me know what phone you want to see tested next down in the comments.
And come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter.
Thanks a ton for watching.
I'll see you around.