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The words "built like a tank" can't ring any truer with the heavy-duty Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro, a frighteningly heavy Android phone that thinks it's a pocket cinema. Re-released under the 8849 branding in March 2025, this rugged beast packs curious specs.
I've fiddled with projectors before and find them to be creative replacements for TVs in cramped spaces. The idea of a portable projector being as small as a phone is amazing, but the Tank 3 Pro is so heavy that it shoots itself in the foot from a portability perspective. At 694 grams, this thing weighs three times as much as the 218-gram Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Is this thing worth your time and money, then? The phone's key features are superb, to say the least, but it's not as affordable as you would expect a Unihertz phone to be. Here's how I feel about the Tank 3 Pro.
Unmatched mix of unusual features
It's not every day you come across an Android phone with a 100 Lumens 120Hz DLP projector built-in. You even get auto and manual keystone options, with a physical knob on the side to manually adjust focus and keystone settings for the projection.
What really took me by surprise was how easily I could launch and use the projector. There's no learning curve; it's a plug-and-play experience. You're essentially projecting your phone's screen, so you can watch Netflix or YouTube, play games, doomscroll social media, shop online, or do just about anything an Android phone can do, but on a larger display.
It's as easy as using the Cast feature on an Android phone, but even simpler. All I had to do was point at a wall and project my screen, allowing me to watch videos, give presentations, or browse photo galleries with friends on the go, regardless of my location.
The projected display gets shockingly big while maintaining clarity. The projected screen features a 480p resolution and can be as large as 100 inches.
I found that the picture quality looks really good for such mid-specs, with decent sharpness and vivid colors, even in a dim to dark room. It's an excellent mid-range quality projection ideal for watching videos like movies, anime, etc.
The auto keystone works superbly well. I do wish there was a mounting hole bored into the back or some sort of phone case that added compatibility with standard projector stands. The lack of one makes it quite challenging to place the phone on a platform or at a high enough angle properly to aim at a wall or screen.
The speaker gets quite loud, even if it's not the best quality. Thanks to Bluetooth 5.3, this is easily resolved by using a decent Bluetooth speaker for audio instead. The phone also has Wi-Fi 6 and a 3.5mm audio jack for connectivity.
Such a feature requires a ton of power, and boy does this phone deliver. You get a massive 23,800mAh battery and there's a 120W charger included in the box. These are the two main reasons why the Tank 3 Pro is such a hefty lad.
Putting this phone in your pockets is a quick way of pantsing yourself.
The weight of the device is justified in this case, since it helps the phone last for a week on a single charge. Even with heavy use of the projector, you can squeeze out several days of usage.
The fun doesn't stop there. I don't know how they did it, but the Tank 3 Pro is a rugged phone with an IP68 waterproof and shockproof rating, despite having a cooling fan, a projector, extra buttons, and a gigantic flashlight. There are so many variables that could potentially interfere with waterproofing, and yet they don't.
In fact, there is a dedicated underwater use mode that allows users to navigate the phone using only buttons.
Custom keys and SOS function take things further
It feels like you could have a perfect doomsday companion in the Tank 3 Pro. The phone has a projector for entertainment, plus there are handy add-ons like a multi-use toolkit, a bright camping light, and two extra mappable buttons on the side.
The campfire light gets blindingly bright, features three brightness levels, and has different modes that make the light stay still, change color, or flash. There's a multi-use toolkit with handy features, including an alarm bell, a speedometer, a magnifier, a measuring scale, and a compass. This, combined with dual-band GPS, makes it an indispensable companion for outdoor adventures with emergency situations in mind.
As for the customizable buttons, these can be set to open any app you like. There are several preset functions that can be assigned as well.
My final thoughts on the Tank 3 Pro
Since there's no bloatware on this device, it's even easier to play around with the phone and learn how to use its special features and settings. Unihertz has promised three years of updates for the phone, which is comforting, seeing as it runs the outdated Android 14 out of the box. There's no bloatware either, which is unusual for a Chinese brand like Unihertz.
Other noteworthy features of the Tank 3 Pro include a Dimensity 8200 chipset, a 6.79-inch 120Hz FHD display, a 200MP main camera, a 64MP secondary camera with night vision, dual-SIM support, and expandable storage up to 2TB. And this isn't the usual trope where there's one SIM slot and another convertible SIM card slot that can only accommodate a SIM or a memory card. Unihertz was generous and added three distinct slots.
The phone's memory options are great too, with 16GB or 18GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. This can further be expanded up to 36GB by using some of the ROM as RAM temporarily, giving a performance boost when needed.
In the natural order of things, it all comes down to the price. The Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro starts at $629.99 for the 16GB/512GB variant, while the 18GB option costs $719.99. Those are pretty steep numbers.
Compared to the best Android phones, this is a mid-range price. However, the market that this phone is trying to compete in is portable projectors. You can score a high-quality portable projector like the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 for about $600. The XGIMI MoGo 4 is priced at $499. You get undeniably better resolution and picture quality from such options, and I haven't even mentioned older models from these brands that are much cheaper.
Despite this, the Tank 3 Pro outperforms the portable projector competition with its massive battery. It's a unique mix of features in a very niche product. The projector is more than just a neat little party trick; it can be extremely useful for teachers or professionals, enabling them to create and show presentations on the fly. Depending on who you are, you might just find it a very convenient assortment of features inside one heavy brick of a phone.
Pocket cinema with Android
It looks like a cheap rugged phone from a Chinese OEM, but don't shrug it off just because of that. The Unihertz 8849 Tank 3 Pro offers an unusual mix of features, competing with both Android phones as well as portable projectors in one go. It's a curious oddity, one that might just fit the bill for someone out there.
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