AGM M7

Perfect phone for a harsh environment – The AGM M7 is one of the newest generations of phones to come from AGM. Coming in at the lower end of price for phones it sets itself up as a budget phone that is hearty and nearly unbreakable. Measuring in at 142mm tall, 61mm wide, and 19mm thick (thicker around the speaker) the M7 is a chunky phone, however it still sits comfortably in one hand with ridges on the side for easy grip. The tactile buttons make it easy to use with gloves and also have a satisfying 'Click' when pushed. The AGM M7 is not a phone for everyone though. It's less of a smartphone and more of a "old school" phone with some smartphone features. If you are looking for a phone with the best camera and specs, then this phone is not made for you. This phone is made for people who want a phone that can handle the elements, hard-working environments and that arent looking at taking high-quality photos or browsing social media.

With 1GB of ram and 8GB of internal memory (expandable up to 128GB with a micro-SD card), the AGM M7 is running on a simplified Android 8.1 base operating system. To power this operating system is the MT6739 chipset. This means you will have a download limit of 150MBit/s and an upload limit of 50MBit/s. Video Encoding and playback are also limited to 30fps. This chipset seems to be popular in the rugged phone category with the Ulefone Armor X, Blackview BV5500 Pro, and Doogoo s40 also running on it. Though the chipset isn't as powerful as some of the new ones, e.g. Snapdragon 480, I have found no problem with the responsiveness of the phone (most likely due to its simplified operating system). With its simplified OS and the use of a 2500mAh battery, the phone can last 13 days on standby and has 15 hours worth of talk time. The battery is also fully accessible by sliding the rear cover off and removing the waterproof case, meaning you can purchase a new one when the time comes. The phone also has dual sim capabilities in the 4G/3G/2G range.

One downfall is the lack of Google support. All though the phone comes pre-installed with google chrome, you are unable to link your google account and there is no google play store. Even without the play store you can still install apps if you download the APK of the app you want from the web (I did this with Spotify and it works like a charm). The lack of Google integration means that if you want to transfer your contact from your old phone you will need to export them to a sim card or a micro-SD card to get them onto the M7. When I tried importing from the sim, I was unable to (this may be a fault with my sim though). It also means you don't have any cloud backup of your photos and other content.

This phone comes with a USB-C port for charging that is protected by a cover to maintain its waterproofing (more on that later). Charging accepts up to 5V/2A but doesn't seem to have fast-charge capabilities. You can purchase a charging dock separately, allowing for easy charging. Within the box is also a USB-C to 3.5mm audio adapter allowing you to plug in your headphone. With the headphones plugged in you will also be able to listen to FM radio with the phone using your headphones as an antenna. You can also pair up an audio device through the phone's Bluetooth.

With that being said, you will most likely not use your headphones or even need to connect to a speaker as this phone has a massive 3.5W (over 100db) built-in waterproof speaker. It has been the loudest phone I have owned, and it even beats some of my portable Bluetooth speakers. This is great for loud workplaces as the ringer can sound like a fire alarm when going off, meaning no more missed important calls.

With its P68/IP69k/MIL-STD-810H certification, this phone can be dropped at 2m onto the ground and withstand the impact. The build of this phone also means it can be immersed in water up to 1.5m deep and still function. This makes it great for cleaning off the mud after a drop at the worksite/hike and means it is easy to keep hygienic in the workplace (something that the recent pandemic has shown us the importance of). Simply fill up a sink, chuck it in and give it a scrub.

On the side of the phone, you can find a customizable button. You can map the button to play/pause music, open the camera, Push-to-talk (through any app that allows it. Zello is pre-installed for this) and turn on the torch. I have personally mapped this button to the torch for ease of use (you can activate the torch by also pushing the * key on the keypad). The torch on this phone is super bright and unlike most phones it is located on top of the phone for a more classic torch experience. This being the only light on the phone does mean that you cannot take photos with a flash.

The cameras on the phone are located on the rear (2 Megapixels) and front (0.3 Megapixels) and in my experience the M7 doesn't take the best quality photos. The overall image is viewable but if your personal or work life requires photos with a lot of detail then the cameras on this phone probably won't do. Viewing images and videos on the phone is bearable but not preferable. The 2.4" (142mm x 61.9mm) QVGA touch screen means that unless the phone is at the right angle the image becomes too dark to make out.

The integration of the keypad system and the touch screen is nice to use compared to solely keypad. Some apps allow for navigation with the directional pad, whereas for others you will need to use the touch screen (like navigating the photo gallery). When in an app the volume up and down keys are solely for navigating through the menus, meaning you are unable to turn the volume up or down unless you go into the pop-down menu or back to the main screen. To type on this phone, you must go back to your roots by using the 1-9 keypad. Though the supplied virtual keyboard (iME) has some predictive text capabilities the suggestions only show up after typing some letters. What would have been nice is a predictive text set-up like T9 allowing you to push the key once as some of the older generations of phones had.

In conclusion, I think that the AGM M7 is not a phone for everyone but where I do see this phone standing above the rest is in the workforce and trades. Due to its sturdy build, you wouldn't have to worry about a broken screen/case and when your phone is built this strong the main thing to worry about is the life of the battery, which for the AGM M7 is fully replaceable. With the ability of the dual sim card slot, it allows you to have one phone for your personal and work numbers as well as the option for people out in the field to swap between providers to get the best reception wherever they are. Throw in some affordable charging docks and now you have a fleet of phones that are easy to pick up and go.