Blackview BL8800 Pro review: an affordable smartphone with a thermal imager

This model of the device was sent to me using sdek-delivery. To do this, I had to fill a huge

amount of data, almost what I eat onlunch and how many times I take out the trash. Nevertheless, after only three weeks (which is good - the previous device took 45 days to arrive via classic AliExpress delivery), the Blackview BL8800 Pro smartphone arrived by courier at the appointed time and place. No waiting in the Russian Post queue.

What is BL8800 Pro?This is the most secure smartphone according to IP68 and MIL-STD810. And with the prefix "N". In theory, it can withstand not only immersion in water, but also light shocks, vibration, temperature changes, sand and dust, salt fog, explosive atmospheres, and so on.

The main feature of the model was a capacious battery for8380 mAh. I can say in advance that miracles do not happen: even with such a large battery, the device does not show you a week of work. But you can easily live two days with the device. By the way, this time the manufacturer put a 33W fast charge in the kit. Can be used as Power Bank.

Another interesting feature is the thermal imager.We already had a review of a similar device with such a sensor. In principle, a useful thing in everyday life, especially if you are in the country or often poking around in wiring, shields and various switches. In addition, they can check for heat leaks. For example, when installing windows, doors, and so on. Here, I think everyone will find their own way of using it.

I'm not sure if this is relevant today, but the BL8800 Pro is equipped with 5G. Naturally, there is all the necessary spectrum of 2G/3G/4G frequencies.

The processor is not the freshest, but built on 7 nmprocess technology - MediaTek Dimensity 700. This model is mainly distinguished by the support of the aforementioned 5G technology. Almost all smartphones that came out on Dimensity 700 had the 5G prefix in their name: Samsung Galaxy M13 5G, Xiaomi Poco M3 Pro 5G, TCL 30 5G and so on.

In the official store on AliExpress, the Blackview BL8800 Pro smartphone costs about 26,000 rubles. There is a version without a thermal imager, but with a night vision camera. Such a device is 5000 rubles cheaper.

Specifications
Equipment
Appearance, keys and other elements
Display
Working hours
Communication options
Thermal imager and cameras
Memory, processor and performance
About sound
Impression

Specifications

Dimensions and weight	176.2 x 83.5 x 17.7 mm, weight 365 grams
Body materials	Matte plastic, glass and metal
Display	6.58 inches, 1080 x 2408 pixels, IPS, 60 Hz, 450 cd/m2 Aspect Ratio 18:8 Glove mode
operating system	Android 11.0 (Doke 3.0)
Network	2G: 850/900/1800/1900 3G: B1/2/4/5/6/8/19 4G: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28A/28B/30/66 5G N1/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41/77/78/79 two nano sim cards
Platform	MediaTek Dimension 700: 2 x Cortex-A76 2200 MHz, 6 x Cortex-A55 2000 MHz 7 nm Liquid cooling, copper pipes Mali G57 MC2
Memory	8 GB LPDDR4x RAM 128GB UFS 2.1 internal storage Without memory card
Wireless interfaces	Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.1
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo
Sensors and connectors	Fingerprint scanner in the power button, accelerometer, gyroscope, accelerometer, light and proximity sensors, USB-C connector NFC, OTG
Main camera	50 MP, f/1.7, Samsung ISOCELL JN1 FLIR Lepton thermal imager + 5 MP assistant camera 2+2 MP auxiliary modules for depth measurement
Front-camera	16 MP, f/2.0
Battery	Dual, 8380 mAh, 33 W AC adapter Up to 30% in 30 minutes Up to 100% in 90 minutes Power Bank Mode
Protection	IP68, IP69K, MIL-STD-810H
Colors	Orange, black, green
Price	~ 26,000 rubles on AliExpress

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Equipment

Smartphone
Power adapter
USB cable
SIM card ejector
Instruction
Warranty card

Appearance, keys and other elements

As soon as we see in the device name"Protected" - we instantly draw in our head a huge pood bar made of plastic, metal and glass. Actually, this is what Blackview BL8800 Pro looks like - this is a classic armor-piercing machine.

Separately, it is worth noting that his defense waspumped up to the maximum level. There is IP69K and MIL-STD810 with an "H" prefix. Everything that is possible was stuffed into this standard: protection from solar radiation, from pollution by liquids, from temperature shock, fungus, salt fog, acidic atmospheres, freezing, and so on. It is difficult to find out how true this is, but the smartphone withstands immersion in water, there are no problems.

There are three colors for this model: orange, black and green. The differences are only in the frame in front, the place where the carabiner is attached and two strips on the back of the cover. I had the green one.

The ends of the device are reinforced with rubberized "ribs". There are marsh-colored metal inserts on the right and left.

The back of the device is designed simply: vertical stripes (glossy grooves between them) and an octagonal camera block.

Smartphone BL8800 is very heavy - 371 grams. Some tablets weigh so much. I had to carry my phone in my chest bag. And he doesn’t fit anywhere else or simply pulls his pockets.

Nevertheless, it is convenient to use it.He sits well in the hand, does not slip, the corners do not press on the palm. Another issue is the duration of operation. The device is definitely not for social networks, long correspondence, and so on: I took it out, talked (wrote a message), put it in my bag.

The assembly is excellent, not cheap, let's say so. Absolutely shameless thing.

On the front panel:

Camera
Light and proximity sensors
Missed events indicator
Speaker. The sound is excellent, loud, clear, there is a margin.

On right:

Rectangular power button. It also acts as a fingerprint scanner. It is pleasant to press, the course is average.
Two separate volume buttons

Left:

Slot for two Nano SIM cards. Surprisingly, you cannot put a memory card in this model. This is the first time I've seen this with inexpensive protected models.
Button to launch various applications. Same type as "food".

Bottom:

The main microphone, USB-C under a tight plug (difficult to open), speakerphone.

On the back side:

4 cameras and thermal sensor, two-section flash
Carabiner strap attachment point
Noise canceling microphone

Total: large, heavy, but comfortable; design for an amateur, not pretentious; quality materials, assembly too; powerful protection against anything and everything.

Blackview and Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra for size comparison:

Display

Display

6.58 inches, 1080 x 2408 pixels, IPS, 60 Hz, 450 cd/m2
Aspect Ratio -18:8
Glove mode

The usual, relatively large screen with a frame of 7 mm. Viewing angles are maximum. The picture is not distorted at angles. Classic IPS panel with low ripple.

The brightness of the backlight is small, but enough to work in the light. I didn't experience any problems. The brightness range is wide: at night it does not blind.

The screen refresh rate is normal - 60 Hz.

Total: a good FullHD + IPS display with normal backlight brightness.

Working hours

This BL8800 Pro uses twobattery with a total capacity of 8380 mAh. In theory, a device with such a battery should work indefinitely, but even the manufacturer indicates rather modest test results:

12 hours of video
10 hours of games
17 hours of surfing the web
Up to 720 hours standby

I got even better numbers:

Up to 15 hours of video
Up to 11 hours of toys
Up to 25 hours of screen glow in the PC Mark test.

Simultaneously with the BL8800 Pro, I tested anothersmartphone (I can’t specify the model - NDA). It is ordinary, but with a 5000 mAh battery and an IPS screen, it showed 17 hours of video, 12 hours of games and 20 hours of testing in PC Mark.

In general, a miracle, in my subjective opinion, did not happen. Even with an 8000 mAh battery, the mid-range device lasts up to two days.

The smartphone is charged from a wired charger at 33 watts.The first 30 minutes fill the battery by 30%. Up to 100% charged in 1 hour 30 minutes. The device has a charge limit, because the smartphone is powered by 60 W and 120 W adapters in the same hour and a half.

As for the PowerBank function, it works strangely. When the second device is turned on, the BL8800 Pro does not charge it, but discharges it before our eyes, taking energy for itself.

But when the second device is turned off, the BL8800 Pro is already charging it. Tested on Xiaomi 12 Lite and 12x.

Communication options

Network	2G: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 3G: WCDMA:B1/2/4/5/6/8/19 4G: FDD: B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/18/19/20/25/26/28A/28B/30/66 5G N1/3/5/7/8/20/28/38/40/41/77/78/79 two nano sim cards
Wireless interfaces	Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.1
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo
Sensors and connectors	Fingerprint scanner in the power button, accelerometer, gyroscope, accelerometer, light and proximity sensors, USB-C connector NFC, OTG, Google Play Market

Of the features of this model:

5G support
Support 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi
NFC support
Two Nano SIM cards
Support OTG mode
Working with VoLTE
Working with VoWi-Fi

From the point of view of the quality of communication, there are no problems. I have MTS, and in the country the Network is more or less decent on any device.

Thermal imager and cameras

We already had a review of a smartphone with thermal imagingcamera. I can’t say that such a camera came in handy every time I took a photo or video, but there were moments where a thermal imager was useful. More details on the link below.

Doogee S98 Pro review: a flagship smartphone with a thermal imager

An "alien" smartphone, fully protected, with a night vision camera and a thermal imager ...

The Blackview BL8800 Pro also uses a thermal imager. Unfortunately, the manufacturer does not provide data on the sensor. It is only indicated that this is a FLIR Lepton.

Apparently, this refers to the world's smallest thermal imaging sensor with a resolution of 80x60 pixels with a refresh rate of about 9 Hz.

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In my opinion, this sensor is morepampering, as it has a very low resolution and is much inferior to the same sensor in the Doogee S98 Pro (256x192 pixels, -15 - +550 degrees, 25 Hz): less information, narrow data range. That is, with the help of the BL8800 Pro, you can roughly find out where the heating or cooling takes place, but it is poorly suited for the professional path.

The main camera here is a 50MP Samsung ISOCELL JN1. It shoots very well both during the day and at night. Decent detail, wide dynamic range, low artifacts and noise.

The device also has lenses. One is needed to display the image simultaneously with the thermal imager, and the other two are needed to blur the background.

The front camera takes decent pictures.

The device makes video in 1080p resolution at 30 fps. The quality is so-so.

Total: there is a thermal imaging camera, but purely for show (although all functions work fine and stably); the main camera is good; frontal - good; video is normal.

Examples of photos and videos:

Original photos (zip, 88 MB) >>>
Sample video (MP4, 38 MB) >>>

Memory, processor and performance

The Blackview BL8800 Pro smartphone is equipped with 8 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 128 GB of UFS 2.1 internal memory. Oddly enough, but there is no memory card in the gadget. It doesn't look like Chinese.

The speed of RAM is very high for this type of device - 25,000 MB / s. The speed of the built-in memory is also rather big - 570/200 MB / s. Well done, we tried to use non-budget solutions.

The SoC is MediaTek Dimensity 700, introduced back in 2020. There are two clusters for 2 cores and 6 cores. Despite the 7 nm manufacturing process, the smartphone is still heated.

In general, the phone is not slow, it works smartly andwithout lags. With games, too, everything is fine: it pulls COD at high settings up to 40 fps. In the test, Antutu scores around 350,000 points, which is generally normal.

Total: the smartphone works stably, does not slow down, all games are launched and run at maximum settings; under load, the case heats up.

Google Android 11 is used as the system. For some reason, it has not been updated to the 12th version. Well, I didn't really want to.

About sound

The speaker plays loudly, cleanly and without overload. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack. Otherwise, it would have to be isolated from water and dust.

The device understands Bluetooth audio codecs of the following formats: SBC, AAC, aptX, aptXHD, LCAD. Quite good.

Impression

As for me, all secure devices are oneface. However, there are manufacturers who are trying to find some unique features. For example, Blackview's BL8800 Pro has a thermal imager. Yes, few people need it, but the technology itself can be useful. The regular version of the BL8800 has a night vision camera - also a feature.

The 8000 mAh battery showed slightly above average results. I expected more from him. The smartphone will last two days at full load.

The main camera shoots well for this class of devices. The front one is fine too.

The BL8800 Pro has every possible communication thing: 5G, NFC, VoLTE and VoWi-Fi, Wi-Fi ac and so on. You won't be left without communication.

Many will appreciate the complete protection against everything and everything - IP69K and MIL-STD810H.

Smartphone cons:

No memory card slot
No 3.5mm
Very heavy
Heats up under load

At a cost of about 26,000 rubles, the device is adequate. The main thing is that it has no obvious jambs, brakes, oddities in software and hardware.

The main competitor is Doogee S98 Pro for 24,000rubles. It has a better thermal imager, a night vision camera, more built-in memory. But the protection is slightly weaker, the operating time is shorter, the screen is smaller, the RAM and processor are slower.

The author expresses his gratitude to Blackview for providing the BL8800 Pro smartphone for review.

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