If you think all smartphones are starting to feel the same, you may want to look at 8849, a brand many people have never heard of. This company quietly makes phones with unusual features, including built-in projectors.
The Tank X is its newest phone. We previously wrote about the Tank 4, which also has a projector, but that one is only 100 lumens. The Tank X’s projector is much brighter at 220 lumens.
This is still far less powerful than a real home projector, but for a projector built into a phone, it is quite bright.
The Tank X also has a huge 17,600mAh battery, which is much bigger than even the 10,001mAh Realme P4 Power. It supports 120W fast charging.
Other features include:
- A 1,200-lumen camping light
- A 6.78-inch display with 1080 × 2460 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate
- A 50MP main camera
- A 64MP night vision camera
- An 8MP 3x telephoto camera
- A 50MP front camera
- A MediaTek Dimensity 8200 processor
- 16GB RAM and 512GB storage
Because of all this hardware, the Tank X is very large and heavy. It is 31.9mm thick and weighs 750g. For comparison, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is only 8.8mm thick and weighs 233g.
The Tank X is not meant to be a normal smartphone. It is a special-purpose device designed for outdoor use, where features like the big battery, camping light, and night vision camera can be very useful.
The built-in projector is still a bit questionable. Marketing images show the phone projecting onto a surface while placed on a rock, so if you can find a good surface, it might work for watching movies while camping. It would probably work better indoors than outdoors, but having a projector anywhere could still be useful.
8849 keeps making phones like this, so clearly some people find them valuable. If you are one of them, the Tank X will be available from February 1, though the price has not been announced yet.
