Most people don't need a rugged smartphone. If you work a desk job and don't spend a lot of time out in the wilderness, you can probably slap a regular case on your phone and not have to worry about anything.

However, if you work at a construction site or you're often outdoors, you need a phone that can take a beating. There's a whole world of rugged smartphones out there with waterproof ratings, the ability to withstand giant drops, and so on.

Today, we're going to take a look at one of those phones: the Blackview BV6300. Not only is it a rugged Android smartphone, but it's also quite affordable at less than $150. But there's a lot more to making a good phone than just making sure it can take a beating. Does the Blackview BV6300 bring the total package to the table, or is it just a little too affordable to keep up with the competitive smartphone market?

Blackview BV6300 Initial Impressions

If there's one thing Blackview has down to a science, it's the packaging. The boxes the company uses are sleek, and they make you feel like you're getting a high-end product, even though you're getting a cheap phone.

The positive first impressions continue when you open the box, as everything is packaged well, and it all looks great. You'll find the phone, headphones, power brick, and USB cable all right in front of you. Under the phone sits the documentation and even a screen protector that should further protect the rugged phone. (That's assuming you can put it on correctly. I'm horrible at putting them on straight.)

As for the phone itself, it's a decent-looking device. You can immediately tell that it's rugged based merely on the look of it. Despite the rugged look and feel, the phone isn't all that beefy. It doesn't look too large when compared to some other rugged phones on the market.

All in all, the Black BV6300 makes a pretty good first impression. Between the stellar packaging, aesthetically pleasing design, and size, you can't help but feel like you got a pretty good deal with how cheap this phone actually is.

Blackview BV6300 Rugged Design

The thing that will attract you to this device is the rugged design. The phone is designed to take a beating with its IP68, IP69K, and MIL-STD-810G certifications.

Blackview says it puts the phone through some extremely rigorous tests to make sure the phone is prepared to deal with some pretty intense treatment.

The company says it performed 12000 drops on the front side and 12000 times on the backside. It also does 6000 soft pressure tests on the front and 6000 times on the back. That sounds like a lot, but the company also performs a salt test for 48 hours and thousands of tumbling and distortion tests. By the time it released the BV6300, the company has made sure it can literally handle everything.

That's all well and good, but we needed to test the phone's ability to get beat up as well. Ultimately, it handled whatever we threw at it. While I didn't run it over with a car, I threw it around, stepped on it, kicked it, and put it in the water. No matter what I did, it kept on ticking. Obviously, you're not going to go out of your way to break the phone, but if an accident happens, you should be okay.

Every port on the phone is sealed with a cover, preventing water and dust ingress from causing damage to the internal. Speaking of powers, there's a USB-C and headphone port on the BV6300. Not many phones include headphone jacks anymore, so it's nice to have that option.

As for the glass, Blackview used Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which is not the latest tech from Corning, but it's still quite durable, and it held up as we tossed the phone around and put it through its paces.

Blackview BV6300 Specifications And Pricing

The first thing that's attractive about the BV6300 is the price. It's super cheap. Right now, it's $129, but the full MSRP is $179. Of course, at that price, the phone doesn't come with compelling specifications. Starting with the processor, Blackview included a MediaTek A25 12nm Octa-core chip. It's the very definition of an entry-level ARM SoC with its 1.8GHz. In terms of benchmarks, the processor is between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 429 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 439.

Also, on the entry-level side of the equation is the RAM, as Blackview only included 3GB. While it's basic, 3GB is actually a pretty decent amount of memory for ultra-affordable phones. For example, the LG K40, Moto E6, and Samsung Galaxy A11 (all of which retail for between $150 and $180) feature 2GB of RAM.

As for internal storage, the BV6300 comes with only 32GB. Fortunately, there's a MicroSD slot with support for up to 128GB, so you can add a lot more memory if you need to.

Blackview BV6300 Performance Tests

To test the phone, we put it through Geekbench 5 to see how the processor can handle a wide variety of tasks.

For its single-core test, it scored a 147, which puts it on par with phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Motorola Nexus 6, and OnePlus One. To provide a little more perspective, high-end flagships like the OnePlus 8 and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G score in the mid to high 800 range on the single-core tests.

For multi-core performance, the BV6300 got a 686. The Sony Xperia XZ has the same score, though that phone came out in 2016. Other phones in that same range are the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and the LG G5 SE. Those are both rather old phones as well, so that should give you an idea of what to expect. Again, for perspective, the highest score currently belongs to the OnePlus 8 with a 3224.

For our next test, we tried to run the phone through the Wildlife test in 3DMark. As this is an entry-level phone, we didn't have very high expectations, and we were right. The phone actually couldn't run the benchmark test at all.

So we tried the Sling Shot test in 3DMark, and while that benchmark worked, it felt like we were watching a slideshow. For the graphics tests, the phone averaged 2.3 frames per second. It ended up with a score of 530, which is not great, but about where we'd expect to see a phone at this price. According to 3DMark, that score is better than 19% of all phones that ran the test.

Blackview BV6300 Camera

The camera on the BV6300 is nothing special, but it's also not terrible for a phone at this price. It has a fundamental quad-camera setup on the back. The phone features a 13MP primary shooter and three 0.3MP lenses supporting the primary.

While the hardware won't knock your socks off, the phone can make up for that with great software. Unfortunately, taking photos with the BV6300 feels sluggish, and the pictures looked mediocre at best. In low light, the camera is basically useless, but even with my professional lighting, the pictures still look like they were taken with a camera from five or six years ago.

There are plenty of options for tweaking your pictures within the default camera app, but no matter which settings you adjust or which mode you shoot with, you're just not going to get great photos with the sensor on the BV6300. You'll get decent photos, but nothing that will blow you away.

If photography is important to you and you want an affordable, rugged phone, you're much better off looking at the BV6300 Pro, as its quad-camera setup features 16MP, 8MP, 2.0MP, and 0.3MP shooters.

If you're buying this phone as a work phone, you might not worry too much about the camera, but if you plan to use the BV6300 as an everyday phone, you'll be disappointed with the results.

Should You Buy The Blackview BV6300?

In the end, I have a hard time recommending the Blackview BV6300 as anyone's only phone. Yes, it's incredibly cheap and durable, but I found the mediocre specs and weak cameras lacking.

However, if you're looking for a phone that'll be used strictly while on the job site, and you're not concerned with anything other than the phone not breaking while making calls, sending texts, and performing essential functions, you should give this phone a look. You won't be too upset with the performance at the incredibly affordable price, and you can relax knowing that the phone probably won't break no matter what you do to it.