Samsung Alt/Rugged phone?

[Will721]

I'm looking for advice for what my next smart phone should be and am looking for as many opinions as possible.

A bit of background, I live in the US and not in town. I am a very much outdoors kind of person and work in an industrial enviroment. I also am a heavy user when it comes to my phone for streaming during downtimes and for work itself. Outside of work I'm constantly streaming music.

Currently I have a Galaxy S10. Or should I say I am on my third S10 since it launched. I have always had good experiences with samsung products until now. This phone has been nothing but an issue for me. Easily broken I have destroyed two screens even while using cases. Including this one. What inevitably keeps killing phones for me though is charging port failures. I am also in a constant battle for signal both at work and at home. I also feel like I'm constantly tethered to the wall with this thing or leaving it behind to charge assuming I can even get it to keep charging on its own. About the only thing I've been hapoy with since day one is performance.

I have even gone through with changing networks from sprint, to at&t, and now tmobile. I know the phone is the issue. Even running battery saver function has been on since the first week to keep it alive on each phone. Co workers on the same carrier don't have an issue at work, and friends and family that visit don't seem to have an issue at my home. I get on my bike and go for a ride and hit dead zones all over that my friends don't have an issue with. This has remained the same for all three phones.

So this has me looking into new and different phones. I've started looking at rugged phones due primarily to battery size. I need the extra battery. Battery cases that I've been looking at online seem to have either terrible reviews or offer little to no protection. Looking at friends and co workers phones many are lacking key features I actually use. Looking around online at some of the rugged phone manufacturers all I can seem to find are strange brands that I'm not sure I trust or old releases that are already out of date. My wife recently picked up the newest note from the note 9 and is now also having signal problems so I'm starting to believe its a samsung problem.

So basically what I'm looking for is a phone that has a large battery, fast charging, durable, and gets good reception. It needs to be waterproof and a headphone jack is a huge plus with hardware comparable or close to my s10. Id also really like it to be 5g compatible as I don't want to change phones any time soon and would like that bit of future proofing aspect. Other features like infared would be nice for work but not required.

If anyone could help that would be great, I just need to know whats out there that actually is good.

 

[J Dubbs]

Part of what might help you is to get the right case for your needs... I've used an OtterBox Defender with built in screen protector for my first pixel... it was a gnarly 2 piece inner/outer style case with waterproof flaps for all the ports... one of the most protective cases I've ever used. It was awesome.. but it bulked up the phone quite a bit. I've used something similar from LifeProof... also great, but also bulked up the phone. But if you get a rugged type phone it's going to be bulky as well, but without the quality, software support or features of a known brand. The name brand phones have all day battery life for most users, the one current problem can be with 5G, not the phones as much as the service itself. In certain area's you'll get better signal and battery life by turning 5G off.

I doubt you could go wrong with a new Samsung/Pixel etc and a super protective case

 

[tadpoles]

^^^ This.

As stated, you'll likely be best served by a known brand with a rugged case, and there are A LOT of options there.

However, there are those rugged-phone brands with massive batteries and extra-stegnth built-in durability.

A quick Amazon search yields these and more...

 

[Laura Knotek]

As you can see, the rugged phones are already behind in terms of the Android version. They're still running Android 11 when the current version is Android 12, and Android 13 will be out soon. These rugged phones almost never get much in the way of operating system and security updates from their manufacturers. I agree with @J Dubbs that you'd be better off getting a good phone that isn't rugged and getting a rugged case.

 

[tadpoles]

The rugged phones are so big that I can't imagine using one as my only device but for special occasions where protection is paramount. They might be an okay tertiary device but if you only want to have one phone I would definitely go the route of the known brands with a rugged case, for the aforementioned reasons. You could also get mobile insurance through your carrier for $10-$15/month for extra peace-of-mind.

That said a 13,000 MAH tank-phone sounds like it'd be kind of fun to play around with, practicality be d***ed. ...but I'd have 10 phones in a heartbeat if I could.

 

[Will721]

I dont mind the idea of a case. I've always had one, and for the most part they have served me well until I upgraded to my s10.

As far as 5g is concerned Id like the option to help future proof my device, I don't have it now and my coverage is still spotty everywhere. Which again isn't the carrier as I've switched carriers and transferred phones and observed friends and family have signal where I don't.

So for the main brands since that seems to be the consensus that I should stick with, which phone would have the best battery life and reception? As ive stated I'm happy with the performa ce my s10 has so I don't necessarily need the latest flag ship.