REVIEW – Sometimes, as a reviewer, we come across products that are far from ‘normal use’. It’s an opportunity to use a product as it was designed. The 8849 Hike Rugged Phone looks to be designed for travel and extreme outdoor use. Read on to see if this design would work for your extreme adventures.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $479.99 $339.99
Where to buy: 8849 Tech Online Store and Amazon
What is it?
The Hike 8849 Rugged Phone is a beast of a phone that almost serves as a Swiss Army knife of items needed while outdoors. Besides being a phone, it’s also a flashlight and a power bank.
What’s included?
- 8849 Hike Rugged Smartphone
- Screen Protector: 1 preinstalled, 1 extra
- USB-C to USB-C cable
- 65W charger USB-C
- User Guide
- Warranty
- SIM card Tray pry tool
Tech specs
- Battery: 23800 mAh & 120W Fast Charge
- CPU: MediaTek Helio G200 6nm 8-core
- Display: 6.79″ FHD+ (1080 x 2460) @ 120Hz
- RAM: 12gb physical + 12gb virtual
- Storage: 512gb + expandable storage (up to 2 TB)
- Bluetooth: 5.3
- SIM: Dual Physical SIMs
- Operating System: Android 14 (Upgrade to Android 15 by the end of October)
- Rated: IP68
- Speakers: Dual Speakers
- Flashlight: 1200 Lumen
- Camp Light:
- Warning Lights:
- Main Camera: 50MP AF (Sony IMX766)
- Night Vision Camera: 64MP (1/2in sensor)
- Front Camera: 32MP
- Telephoto Camera: 8MP 3X AF
- Reverse Charging: Yes
- Biometrics: Side Fingerprint
- Cellular Network: 4G
- Weight: 1.47 lbs
Design and features
Ok, let’s get this out of the way….for most people, the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone will not be your EDC (Every Day Carry) phone. It’s comically huge and heavy, but for good reason, because it was designed for a particular purpose. This review is based on that purpose and not necessarily as an everyday phone.
The 8849 Hike Rugged Phone weighs 1.47 pounds. Every single person I let handle the phone commented immediately on how heavy the phone is. Usually, they had a huge smile of disbelief on their face when handling the phone. While looking the phone over, most people were not exactly sure what they were holding. I guess that’s the angle I’m taking. It’s so far out of the normal that the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone becomes an object of curiosity.
The Battery
The weight is mostly attributed to the gigantic battery (23,800 mAh). A quick scan on Amazon for other similarly sized portable power banks shows average weights between 1.2 and 1.5 pounds. The battery on the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone is fast charging, accepting up to 120W of power. In the box, my unit came with a 66W charging brick. You are going to want to use a high-powered charger when charging, or it’s going to take a long time (forget about using a 20W charger). Two more comments about the battery. One, because of its capacity, you will not need to charge the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone often. It has more than enough power to go an entire weekend camping without needing to be plugged in. Around the house, it’ll go weeks before needing to be charged. The second thing is that the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone supports reverse charging. That’s right, it is also a portable power bank!
The Lights
The biggest feature of the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone is the flashlight. Now, this isn’t the “flashlight” function that’s on my iPhone. This is a legitimate, high-powered flashlight. 8849 claims that it is rated for 1200 lumens! For perspective, the iPhone 16 Plus flashlight function is estimated to have approximately 40-50 lumens, which makes the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone 2,300% brighter! According to AI, the standard low beam headlights on my 2023 Ford Maverick are about 1200 lumens. I hope you get how bright the flashlight feature is. And with something that bright, 8849 states that it can shine 200 meters. That is two football fields, or one end of Costco to the other. Imagine standing on one end of Costco and using the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone to light up something on the opposite side of the store!
In addition to the flashlight, the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone has a camp light and separate warning lights that can flash combinations of red, blue, and green.
The Cameras
The 8849 Hike Rugged Phone comes with four cameras:
- 50 MP rear camera with a Sony IMX766 sensor (with LED flash)
- 64MP night vision rear camera (with 4 infrared fill lights)
- 8MP 3x optical zoom rear camera
- 32MP front camera
It was fun going outside to test the night vision camera. Again, something that’s not on every phone.
The Screen
The 8849 Hike Rugged Phone has a 6.79-inch display with a resolution of 1080×2460, slightly better than FHD. It has a max refresh rate of 120Hz. According to 8849, the Hike Rugged Phone uses “reinforced glass, so it can handle scratches and the rough stuff you run into outdoors”. It comes with a “Three-Layer Anti-Explosion Screen Protector” pre-installed, and an extra one in the box. I do wish the screen got a little brighter.
The Phone
As a phone, the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone worked as expected. I could make and receive calls, texts, etc. As noted later in this review, the phone is limited to 4G coverage and must use physical SIM card(s).
Other Items
Some of the other noteworthy features are:
- 12GB of physical RAM (but can allocate up to 12GB of virtual RAM)
- 512GB of built-in storage, expandable up to 2TB with a microSD card
- Dual SIM support (must use physical SIM cards – eSIMs are not supported)
- Android 14 installed (mention of an upgrade to Android 15 by the end of October)
- IP68 rated
- Dual Speakers
- Quad Satellite (GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU, and Galileo)
Assembly, Installation, Setup
There is really only one setup feature that you need to be aware of to use the 8849 Hike Rugged, and that is that the phone requires a physical SIM card.
I like this feature because it would make switching your number from device to device pretty easy, like from your daily driver phone to this extreme phone for camping. Well, that is providing that your daily phone also has a physical SIM. Since the iPhone 14, Apple has stopped supporting physical SIM cards in the US. My daily driver is an iPhone 16 Plus, so I needed to order a physical SIM card. I ended up going with a Prepaid SIM from US Mobile, operating on the T-Mobile network.
Performance
The 8849 Hike Rigged Phone operates on the 4G network band. And for the purposes of using the phone in remote areas, this makes sense.
Final thoughts
So what does the design of the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone tell me about its purpose? To me, it’s a Swiss Army knife of features and functions for outdoor adventures. It’s a:
- portable power bank
- super bright and long-distance flashlight
- camplight
- a camera for anytime use (day and night) and waterproof too
- portable speaker with good sound
- phone
- and more!
One thing to note, on the Hike website, it states:
“What’s more, at 666g (1.47 lbs), the Hike can even double as a self-defense tool in outdoor settings, adding an extra layer of security.”
This phone is extreme and is purposely built to be able to handle pretty much any environment and survival situation you may find yourself in.
Would I recommend this phone as an everyday carry? Nope, not a chance. Besides being big and heavy, the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone cannot be put in a pants pocket. While taking some of the pictures for this review, I had to carry a small backpack to transport the phone.
But this would be perfect for a bugout bag or weekend adventure camping, where I would be noticeably concerned about my slim iPhone.
Every tool has a purpose. I would encourage those who need such a tool; the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone is the one to have.
What I like about the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone
- The flashlight is seriously amazing
- The battery life removes any battery anxiety
- Does what it was designed to do very well
What needs to be improved?
- Would like to see 5G implemented
- A brighter screen
- Will need a bag (sling/backpack) to carry it around
I do have a few suggestions, as they are not necessarily improvements, but rather ideas that could take the 8849 Hike Rugged Phone to 11! How about fully embracing the extreme adventure purpose and finding a way to incorporate:
- a small solar panel: I see other portable power banks that have that feature
- a flint or other fire-starting device (maybe a magnifying glass)
- a “Find My” feature or another way to track
- a red light to use at night and not impair night vision
Price: $479.99 $339.99
Where to buy: 8849 Tech Online Store and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by 8849 Tech. 8849 Tech did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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