from Hacker News

Unihertz Tank – 22000mAh Phone

by xendo on 12/7/22, 6:02 PM with 29 comments

• by troops_h8r on 12/7/22, 11:17 PM

  Honestly? I'm a fan of this company. It seems like they just make phones that break the universal "palm-sized glass rectangle" meta that's completely subsumed all designs. I remember when I was a kid, there was so much diversity in phone designs! Sliding keyboards, folding screens, the little trackball on blackberries, etc. Now, it feels like the only variation available is size/OS/camera/CPU.

  I'm currently using their Jelly 2, which is a smartphone that's just exactly tiny enough to do all the things I need and no more. The screen is 3", and the tiny form factor is still enough for what I want to use my phone for: messaging, calls, all my music apps, all my podcast/audiobook apps, maps/transit schedules, checking email. What the tiny screen is NOT enough for is content consumption - and that's the point. Such a simple idea, but it's worked wonders for my phone addiction. I just do all that on an actual computer now, where it's much more manageable and not constantly in my pocket.

  Anyways, the 22,000 mAh phone looks like a miss to me, but I really respect that they're trying to do something different.

• by coder543 on 12/8/22, 12:35 AM

  Once again...[0] at least say "22Ah Phone", but seriously just market the phone on the actual energy capacity, which amp hours are not.

  This is an "82Wh Phone", assuming they're using a standard lithium ion battery in a normal configuration, which is a lot of assumption.

  Watt hour is an actual unit of energy.

  22 thousand thousandths of an amp hour is a ridiculous use of units, and it doesn't actually tell you how much energy the battery holds.

  [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33891055

• by GekkePrutser on 12/8/22, 1:03 AM

  Be aware though that unihertz is exceptionally bad at updates.

  I had the original jelly (non-pro) and they didn't even provide the Android 8 Oreo update they promised in the Kickstarter. Only the pro version got that but it was promised for both.

  Also security updates were few and far between. Only buy this if you don't care about updates at all.

  With their later models there have been a lot of quality concerns, like the rugged Atom losing rubber parts and getting water in the camera despite being sold as waterproof. I didn't get that one but I followed the Kickstarter comments waiting to buy it in case it turned out really good.

• by smallerfish on 12/8/22, 1:54 AM

  Don't go near Unihertz. I have an atom xl, and it's the worst phone I've ever had. It's riddled with major bugs. Their support completely sucks. Their business model seems to be focusing 100% of their r&d budget on new phones, and ignoring existing models.

• by throwaway81523 on 12/8/22, 9:05 AM

  This is dumb, once you're no longer trying to make the phone paper-thin, why keep the battery non-removable? Just give me a phone that runs on a couple of swappable 18650's and call it a day. I don't need 22000 mah. Make an snap-on enclosure for more 18650s if people want that.

• by duffyjp on 12/7/22, 10:05 PM

  Reminds me of the hilarious Energizer Phone.

  https://www.anandtech.com/show/14045/energizer-power-max-p18...

• by vanillax on 12/7/22, 10:09 PM

  Just buy a dang external battery pack charger. All these phones remind me of something ill see at 5 below in the future. The worst part about these phones is the extreme lack of software updates,patches,and security fixes. This phone is for fools.

• by pdc56 on 12/7/22, 8:54 PM

  Haha it has night version cameras, and 256GB ROM!

• by klyrs on 12/8/22, 5:36 AM

  Maybe this is my light-sensitive headache speaking, but I think I would live in fear of accidentally turning the flashlight on. That is a freaking monster.

• by zikohh on 12/7/22, 9:29 PM

  560 g - not surprised but also gonna hurt if you drop it in your foot.

  It's 2.5x the weight of the Google pixel 6.

• by eternityforest on 12/8/22, 2:06 AM

  I wouldn't trust a phone that isn't from a big name, seems like software updates might be a bit lacking.

  As far as hardware goes, looks great, aside from the lack of microSD. If they really need space I'd rather they ditch 3.5mm and FM radio.

  Also, this doesn't have UWB or a stylus.

• by orf on 12/7/22, 10:43 PM

  I don’t know what that means to me (as a consumer), and between the obnoxious hard to hide chat window and the bright, garish graphics instead of a description, I’m not impressed.

• by pengaru on 12/8/22, 1:45 AM

  256GB ROM?