The micro smartphone that built like a GoPro I wish I had

When I first got my hand on the Unihertz Atom, I immediately wish I had it a few years ago for my trip to Colombia. Whether you have an iPhone or a Google Pixel, it is not built for a six-day trek in a tropical forest.  

If we have to compare the Unihertz Atom to a popular consumer product, GoPro is the first thing that comes up.  This is the phone for the weekend warriors. You can burn it, smash it, or dunk it in water or even swim with it. 

Unihertz extends the spirit of minimalism into their packaging, a sim card slot pin, a USB-C charging cable, a wristband plus the phone in a small box.  

 We also need to point out, the Atom is not a companion phone. It doesn’t need to be attached to another smart phone. It functions independently with the Android 8.1 Oreo system.  

The phone is built to be durable. The Corning Gorilla Glass means you can slash it with a knife, burn it with first without affecting the display. It has the highest dust protection rating and an eight out of nine waterproof rating, meaning it could withstand continuous immersion in water. So you can jump in that waterfall, or go surfing with this phone without worry about it. 

For the next step, we had to find out if it is a feasible smartphone. Although it’s not fair for the Atom to compete against an iPhone,  we only use it as a reference. 

The Atom Herz has an eight-megapixel front camera and a 16 megapixel back camera. Both cameras have higher resolution than the iPhone 7. However, upon testing, the iPhone wins with better sensor and image processing quality. 

The phone has a 64GB storage, and 2000mAh battery. We would say the storage is more than enough. Although is the battery is smaller than most of the popular smartphones on the market, it last as long as a new iPhone because it uses less power with a much smaller screen. It also comes with a headphone jack.  

However, the compact size does come with a lot of sacrifices. Typing on a small keyboard is doable, but less ideal. It won’t be able to handle apps that require a fast image processor. And watching a video on the 2.4 inch, 240 times 432 pixels screen took us back to the Nokia era. 

Overall, we think this is a phone that is worth looking into for the people who work in difficult conditions or like to explore nature without worrying about their phones. The $259.99 price tag is solid in range for most people to buy it as a second phone. 

Check out our full review video here