TCL has ventured into a hardware segment far removed from its usual interests, pulling the TCL 3189 out of the hat, a 4G feature phone with great autonomy, decidedly rugged for outdoor pleasure or business.
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There was a time when it wasn’t smartphones that were armored, but simple phones, now known as feature phones. Recalling those times, TCL Electronics, fresh from the launch of the Stylus 5G productivity smartphone, presented, with availability already in Italy, the inexpensive TCL 3189, priced on the official store, in Illuminating Himalaya Gray and Yellow colors, at 79.90 euros.
The new feature phone TCL 3189 has a body (from the measures of 132.3 x 64.9 x 16.1 mm for 180 grams, which drop to 150 grams by detaching the buckle) with a Ridge Forrester chin to cushion shocks during falls: it is not missing a button to send the SOS on the fly, and waterproofing according to the IP68 degree, which protects it not only from dust, but also from water when diving up to 1.5 meters deep for half an hour.
The battery, from 2,200 mAh, takes 4 hours to charge but, from that moment, it ensures a stand-by of 420 hours, which translates into 35 hours of phone calls in 4G LTE VoLTE (via dual SIM).
The TCL 3189 phone presents at the front, above the keypad with the central pad, a 2.4-inch TFT-TN display well readable under sunlight: the interior houses the UMS 9117 processor, a single core A7 clocked at 1 GHz already seen at edge of the clamshell rival Alcatel 3082X: accompanying it are 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB for storage, sufficient to host the proprietary operating system Nucleus OS, but still expandable via microSD up to 32 GB.
There is no lack of Bluetooth, perhaps to connect headphones or earphones: on the back, there is a 2 megapixel camera, to document the environment on outdoor trips or if the report of an external work intervention is needed, with the possibility of using a powerful flashlight to make or shine.