AGM H5 Pro test: Loud smartphone for outdoor use

Outdoor activities are becoming more and more popular. Some smartphone manufacturers have also noticed this in the meantime. Accordingly, one can currently observe a steadily growing segment of customized outdoor smartphones. These brands, mainly from the Far East, supply friends of outdoor sports and camping with new devices year after year. Features like integrated night vision cameras, long-lasting batteries, and of course reliable protection against damage make a big difference compared to conventional smartphones. With AGM, a still fairly unknown manufacturer has only recently entered the competitive market. In today’s AGM H5 Pro review, we want to take a closer look at whether the promising key data also serves as a selling point in practice.

These include a long-lasting 7000 mAh battery as well as a certificate for highest robustness. AGM even has the edge over its competitors in terms of software. For example, Android 12 is available ex-works, which is not a matter of course for outdoor smartphones. However, the coolest thing about the AGM H5 Pro is probably the integrated speaker on the back. It is supposed to be up to 109 dB loud and has an integrated RGB light. With this, you should be able to celebrate a small outdoor party even in the most remote regions without a Bluetooth box.

Technical data

Scope of delivery

The packaging of the AGM H5 Pro comes across as rather unexciting. In addition to the smartphone itself, the matching accessories are also hidden in a brown cardboard slipcase. These include the USB charging cable (USB-A to USB-C) and the corresponding power adapter with 18 watts of power. On top of that, you get replacement rubber covers that are supposed to protect the ports.

The scope of delivery is comparatively meager for a smartphone from the Far East. The competition often offers a matching case. However, we do not want to criticize the AGM H5 Pro in any way. After all, the body presumably offers more than enough protection against drops at first glance.

AGM H5 Pro review: Design and workmanship

• Large size and high weight (360 grams)
• Hull reminds of armor
• Large speaker with LED ring on the back

The AGM H5 Pro is anything but an inconspicuous smartphone. It thus joins the design language of other outdoor smartphone manufacturers. With its dimensions of 176.2 x 85.5 x 23 mm, it is not only anything but handy. The weight of 360 grams also quickly makes it clear that this is not a smartphone for conventional users. I definitely had problems operating the AGM H5 Pro comfortably from time to time with my medium-sized hands and quickly switched to two-handed operation.

Those who are bothered by this should keep this in mind. The smartphone’s body is almost reminiscent of a real armor and makes quite an impression with its carbon look, especially on the back. The eye-catcher is undoubtedly the large speaker, which comes in a chic aluminum look. AGM has given it a chic RGB ring, which is not only supposed to set the mood when playing music.

On top of that, it serves as a handy notification light. At first glance, you might also think that there are four lenses arranged around the speaker. But that is not the case. These are in fact three cameras and a flashlight. Directly under the speaker is the fingerprint sensor, which worked very reliably in the test.

Reliable protection thanks to strong casing

• Protection against drops from up to 1.5 meters
• Safe for up to 30 minutes in water up to 1.5 meters deep without damage
• Robust plastic mix

Of course, you can’t expect a smartphone in this price range to actually have an expensive carbon cover on the back. Instead, AGM relies on plastic here. But in the overall picture, the plastic casing does not look cheap at all. This can probably be attributed to the fact that the manufacturer does not use just one type of plastic, but relies on a mix. The case edges provide additional protection and a bit of grip. Rubber is used here. Which brings us to the most important feature of an outdoor smartphone – protection against damage.

This is given not only visually, but also in practice. After all, the AGM H5 Pro comes up with IP68, IP69K & MIL-STD-810H, which is the highest certificate in the field of robustness. Thus, the outdoor smartphone should not only be able to survive half an hour in one and a half meters of water without damage. Even falls from waist height should not be a problem. The AGM H5 Pro’s protection against water damage in particular requires your cooperation. Rubber covers ensure that no water penetrates. However, you should replace them regularly to really have protection against water.

Practical special button

• Special button can be freely assigned
• 3.5mm jack connector
• Protection by rubber covers

Time to take a look at the sides. On the right, you find the classic combo of volume rocker and on/off button on the AGM H5. The USB-C port and the 3.5 mm jack are well protected under a rubber cover on the bottom. On the left side, you will not only find the SIM and SD card slot, which is also protected by a rubber cover. On top of that, there is an orange special button that you can assign freely. In the test, it proved to be practical to turn the flashlight on and off with it, for example.

The front is dominated by the 6.52-inch HD+ display. Below the centered teardrop notch is the front-facing camera and above it is the earpiece. Of course, the AGM H5 Pro cannot score with super-thin screen edges. You will find a bezel of 3 mm on each side. At the bottom, it even measures 8 mm. However, this will not bother fans of outdoor smartphones at all. After all, high build quality and appropriate protection are more important for them. And both are definitely given in the AGM H5 Pro.

AGM H5 Pro review: The display

• 6.52-inch display with HD+ (720 x 1600 pixels) and 60 Hz
• high screen brightness
• good color reproduction

Let’s take a look at the 6.52-inch display of the AGM H5 Pro. This one resolves in HD+ (720 x 1600 pixels) and offers a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Both might not be up to date, but you have to keep both price and field of use in mind here as well. Those who are not too hard on the outdoor smartphone will certainly not be bothered by the sometimes somewhat pixelated pictures and texts. Apart from that, there is not much to complain about.

In the test in summer conditions, I noticed the very good screen brightness in particular. 500 cd ensured that I could see everything well even in sunshine. There were only problems when the display was directly exposed to light. However, this was more due to the reflection of the display glass than the screen’s brightness. Since AGM relies on an IPS panel, there are no great contrasts like in OLED smartphones. But you get vivid colors and above all stable viewing angles.

AGM H5 Pro review: performance

• MediaTek Helio G85 a bit weak on the chest
• Streaming, chatting, internet surfing no problem
• demanding 3D games only possible with jerks

The name AGM H5 Pro makes it clear that there is also a standard version of the outdoor smartphone. The latter had to put up with the accusation of being a bit weak in terms of performance when it was released. Accordingly, AGM replaces the MediaTek Helio G35 from the standard version with a MediaTek Helio G85. This is composed of two Cortex A75s with up to 2 GHz and six Cortex A55s with up to 1.8 GHz. Despite the upgrade, this is of course still not a performance machine. Nevertheless, the power of the AGM H5 Pro is sufficient for the most important things that are needed on the go. Tasks like surfing the Internet, watching YouTube or Netflix did not pose any problems. There are a few small jerks now and then, but they can be tolerated.

However, if you want to play graphics-hungry games with your smartphone, we would rather advise you against the outdoor smartphone. Not only the processor, but also the memory has been revised compared to the standard model. You get 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash storage. If that is not enough, you can create even more space for pictures, videos and the like thanks to the expandable storage. The fact that the AGM H5 Pro comes with Android 12 ex-works is really cool and anything but a matter of course. The operating system remains virtually untouched on the outdoor smartphone and you can enjoy it in its purest form. Accordingly, I did not experience any performance drops in the test.

Triple camera with moderate image quality

• Three cameras (48 MP, 20 MP and 2 MP) + flashlight on the back
• Front camera with 20 MP
• Image quality only satisfactory

There are a total of three different camera lenses on the back of the AGM H5 Pro. The main camera on the top left has a resolution of 48 MP, and the macro camera next to it on the right has 2 MP. Below the macro camera you find the infrared camera with a resolution of 20 MP. The fourth lens-like circle on the back is again not a camera, but the flashlight. There is no need to say much about the image quality.

So you shouldn’t expect miracles from the AGM H5 Pro. You have to have excellent lighting conditions to get satisfactory results. Even if you activate the optional HDR mode, the pictures unfortunately often suffer from exposure errors in normal lighting conditions. The colors also look rather pale than vivid. On the other hand, the image sharpness is not lacking. Even small details can be recognized well. If the light conditions are rather weak, the picture quality drops even more. Unfortunately, you usually only get blurry results that suffer from image noise.

A real highlight is undoubtedly the night vision camera, which is also known from other outdoor smartphones. This relies on infrared technology to create recognizable images even in the dark. However, the infrared rays also ensure that you only get black-and-white results here. The results are good and invite you to play around, not only during outdoor excursions. You can even recognize a few things in absolute darkness. Last but not least, the AGM H5 Pro also offers a selfie camera with a resolution of 20 MP. This does what it is supposed to, but does not deliver convincing results either.

AGM H5 Pro review: Connectivity

The AGM H5 Pro comes with a practical dual-SIM slot. On the one hand, you can use this to be able to use two different SIM cards in the smartphone. Alternatively, you can also use a combination of a SIM card and a microSD card. The outdoor smartphone might not support 5G, but it offers the most important bands for 4G LTE. LTE band 20, which is the most important band in Germany, is also included. Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 5 are on board for wireless connections and transmissions. The NFC chip also allows features like contactless payment.

The loudest smartphone speaker ever

• Large speaker with up to 109 dB
• LED ring for visual music background and notification light

AGM is very proud of what is probably the most standout highlight of its outdoor smartphone – the speaker. This is unmistakably emblazoned on the back of the device and can really make noise. With a power of 3.5 watts and a maximum volume of 109 dB, you can safely leave your Bluetooth speaker at home, or what? Well, the whole thing has to be put into perspective a bit, unfortunately. The speaker may be incredibly loud. But what comes out is a bit flat on the chest. Thus, there are mainly mids on the ears, but rich basses or trebles are lacking.

However, those who don’t have high demands on music quality anyway, or perhaps mainly listen to podcasts anyway, should be quite happy with this. When you talk about the round speaker on the back, you also have to mention its surround. I really like it. On the one hand, it can dance along with the rhythm of the played music. On the other hand, it can also be used as a notification LED for incoming messages.

Battery with a lot of endurance

Besides robustness, an outdoor smartphone should also have a good battery life. And here, the AGM H5 Pro delivers decent results. The 7000 mAh battery provides a standby time of up to 400 hours. In my test, the AGM H5 Pro could even last three days until I had to connect it to the power again – and that with normal use.

By the way, the four golden dots on the lower back of the outdoor smartphone are not an optical gimmick. They are rather contact points that are used when inserting the phone into the optional docking station. This might make some people feel better about the fact that wireless charging is not possible.

AGM H5 Pro review: Conclusion

The AGM H5 Pro is undoubtedly a niche product. Many will probably buy it as a second smartphone when they want to go camping in the wilderness on the weekend. The robust device can definitely be practical as a work smartphone on the construction site as well. However, it is not the first model that combines things like robustness, long battery life and a good price. You’ll have to start looking for arguments to buy it.

However, it scores over the competition mainly with its unique speaker, which won’t win any hi-fi awards, but is capable of high volumes. However, it also has to admit defeat to the competition in some points. Besides a rather weak processor, the display and the only satisfactory camera will certainly not please some people. However, those who can overlook these issues will get a good outdoor smartphone at a low price. Especially in combination with a power station like the EcoFlow River Pro (test) or the Bluetti EB70, you are well equipped with the AGM H5 Pro even for longer camping trips.