Samsung brings a new rugged phone with a modern design and reasonable price to the US
Samsung has long given up on its relatively popular family of Active variants of mainstream flagship handsets, but that doesn't mean the company is out of the rugged smartphone business altogether. Quite on the contrary, as the robust Galaxy XCover Pro is officially released in the US mere weeks after the commercial debut of the Galaxy XCover FieldPro.
Despite their extremely similar names, the two new rugged Android soldiers have very little in common as far as designs and specifications are concerned. The Galaxy XCover Pro is significantly trendier, adopting a modern look with razor-thin bezels and a hole punch selfie camera while packing a humbler Exynos 9611 processor compared to the 9810 silicon powering the Galaxy XCover FieldPro.
In case you're wondering, that's the same chipset found under the hood of respectable mid-range phones like the Galaxy A50s and Galaxy A51, so it's certainly no pushover, especially paired with a decent 4GB RAM count. Another great thing about the Galaxy XCover Pro is that it runs Android 10 out the box in the US, and although it's not generally wise to expect timely major OS updates for niche devices like this one, Samsung is vowing to deliver frequent security patches for no less than three years after launch to "ensure business continuity."
By the way, it almost goes without saying that this bad boy means business, catering primarily to the needs of "frontline workers playing a vital role in our economy today" with Samsung Knox customization capabilities, push-to-talk, barcode scanning, easy Microsoft Teams integration, and Glove Mode functionality among others.
Of course, anyone can buy the 6.3-inch handset directly from Samsung, as well as Verizon and Microsoft, be it for personal or professional use, and one of the key selling points is undoubtedly its removable 4,050mAh battery with 15W fast charging technology and pogo pin support.
Incredibly enough, the Galaxy XCover Pro manages to be significantly thinner and lighter than the XCover FieldPro, at 9.94mm and 218 grams, while resisting water immersion, dust, drops, and exposure to things like extreme temperatures, humidity, and other severe environmental conditions.
But the greatest thing is the $499.99 price, undercutting the Android 8.0-running XCover FieldPro on AT&T by a whopping 600 bucks. Even better, Verizon allows network switchers to save up to $400 by activating a new line of service on a monthly installment plan.
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