Meet the Oukitel WP19, the only smartphone with a battery that can power a laptop

The smartphone with the world’s biggest battery has just launched

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An obscure Chinese smartphone vendor is set to enter the Guinness World Records with the world’s largest battery on a smartphone.

Oukitel has announced that its WP19rugged smartphonewill pack a 21,000mAh battery, which is enough to charge anAppleiPhone 13 six times over.

The huge battery could even be used as an emergencyportable laptop battery chargerto trickle charge laptops that have a Type-C connector. With the appropriate tweaks, you should be able to use it as amobile hotspotor a true wireless security camera.

A powerbank glued to a rugged smartphone

Given its headline feature, one cannot expect this phone to be slim. At 29mm, it is the thickest smartphone we’ve come across with a weight of 570g. The rest of its specification is solidly mainstream; 8GB RAM, 256GB onboard storage, a Mediatek Helio G95 system on chip, a large 6.78-inch FHD+ screen, Android 12 and more.

While the lack of 4G connectivity will dampen our enthusiasm, the presence of a 64-megapixelSamsungcamera sensor, a 2-megapixel macro one and a 20-megapixelSonynight vision camera at the back could prove to be a winner for those looking for a good all-rounder device that can used in the wild without fear of running out of battery.

The handset is currently on pre-order atOukitel’s official store on Aliexpressfor just under $600 (about £480, AU$830), a price that includes free delivery for most territories worldwide but excludes custom duties and taxes as well as any handling fees couriers may charge. Expect the first shipments to be delivered in August 2022.

Oukitel does rugged tablets as well>Have a look at our list of the best rugged laptops around>Even Nokia is jumping on the rugged smartphone bandwagon

Smartphones with big batteries have become more widely available since the buzz generated by the ill-fatedEnergizer Power Max P18K Popback in February 2019. Since then two 13Ah smartphones (Ulefone Power Armor 13andBlackview BV9100) and a 15Ah smartphone (theOukitel WP15) have been launched.

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The price tag might be a bit hard to swallow though given that smartphones with the same feature set (bar the massive battery) can be had for half the price. So would the convenience of having a huge battery justify that equally-humongous price premium?

Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled inwebsite buildersandweb hostingwhen DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.

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