Android

That's definitely a big issue with these. This one ships with Android 13, its very likely that it will never get an update or security patch after release.

From a security/privacy standpoint these are bad. I have not seen any custom ROMs for any of them, for the usual reasons, limited uptake, Mediatek processors, unreleased source code.

If none of that is important to you, then they seem to work pretty well. An old coworker had one, I used it briefly a few times. Battery life was great, seemed to get reception where other devices didn't, hers was waterproof, and survived many drops. It was great for site surveys in the back of Bourke.

I wouldn't use one, but if none of what I consider the downsides was an issue then its a phone with good specs (Android version notwithstanding) for very reasonable money.

THIS 👆.

Xiaomi has big issue with phone ownership, I think their new OS called HyperOS is step solely to make it as hard as possible to Unlock the bootloader..

Found malware in the voice recorder app on one out of the box (from Amazon while in Japan). So that was fun.

I have their power armor 18t, bought it cause it was the only rugged phone that had all the tmobile 4g and 5g antenna bands, as well as a headphone jack and sd card slot. It was a total risk as I'd never bought a Chinese phone before, but I think it may be the best phone I've ever had. (Only had Samsung and Sony phones before this)

I took it snorkeling in the ocean several times, came out completely unscathed.

My only complaint is that the thermal camera replaces a wideangle camera on the non-thermal version, which I would have realized if I'd read the specs closer.

It would probably be a gimmick for most people but I use the thermal for my job (electrical inspections) and it is as good as my other IR tools. I found it so handy I picked up another one for my field team.

I also bought an armor pad 2, and although I don't use it as much as I thought I would, it's still great on the occasions that I need it. Again, it comes in real handy on construction job sites, no need to baby it or worry about rain.

Yes! I had one, from 2016 till 2020. Ulefone vienna (not a rugged phone).

If you like modding like me, then it's probably not a good idea, as they usually have little community support and the mediatek chipset contributes to this even more.

Back then, I think it did probably had some kind of a malware, but with root I removed it (I could also do it with adb commands if I knew back then).

If you want a hardened phone and for some reason you cant find a proper case to protect your device, then such phones may be suitable, otherwise I'd look somewhere else.