Blackview BV9200 review

Introduction and specs

Although rugged phones are out of fashion these days, a few smartphone makers are still catering to this niche market segment, Blackview being one of them. Today's smartphones are sexy, functional and offer a set of features that would be unthinkable five or ten years ago. However, they are easy to break, and people in certain occupations may require a device that's more resilient than your average glass slab.

So if you spend a lot of time outdoors, in nature, or you are in construction, for example, Blackview has you covered. The new BV9200 could be coined as a successor to last year's BV8800, and there are many changes to go through. Most of those are upgrades, so kudos to Blackview.

Blackview BV9200 specs at a glance:

• Body: 174.5x81.8x13.6mm, 310g; Gorilla glass 5 front, metal sides, rubberized back; IP68/IP69K dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min), Drop-to-concrete resistance from up to 1.8m, MIL-STD-810H compliant.
• Display: 6.60" IPS LCD, 120Hz, 1080x2408px resolution, 20.07:9 aspect ratio, 400ppi.
• Chipset: Mediatek Helio G96 (12 nm): Octa-core (2x2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G52 MC2.
• Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM; UFS 2.1; microSDXC (dedicated slot).
• OS/Software: Android 12, Doke-OS 3.1.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, 1/2.76", 0.64µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, 120˚; Depth: 0.3 MP.
• Front camera: 16 MP, (wide), 1/3", 1.0µm.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 1440p@30fps, 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p.
• Battery: 5000mAh; 66W wired, 30W wireless.
• Connectivity: LTE; Dual SIM; Wi-Fi 5; BT 5.2; NFC; FM radio.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); dual speakers.

Even though we still find a MediaTek Helio G96 under the hood, the new BV9200 boasts a faster 120Hz display, newer Android, better drop protection, faster charging and adds a couple of useful features such as a microSD card slot, wireless charging, set of stereo speakers tuned by Harman Kardon and double the storage. And Blackview was able to fit all that into the same starting price as last year's BV8800.

In fact, this BV9200 feels a bit more like a normal smartphone. It delivers roughly the same hardware as its "normal" rivals while providing that extra protection. We are quite surprised to see such fast wired and wireless charging in the €300 segment as well as the 8GB/256GB memory configuration by default. Let's see what else lies beneath that hard shell.

Unboxing the Blackview BV9200

The device ships in a standard retail box containing all the usual user manuals, a USB-C to USB-C port for charging and data transfer and the corresponding 66W fast-charging brick.

There's no case for the phone, but we don't think it's necessary. That's the whole point of the BV9200, after all. Additionally, we are happy to see the charger included this time around, as last year's BV8800 shipped without one.