This rugged phone really lacks the performance needed for Android 14

AGM H Max: 30-second review

I've seen many similar designs from different brands that all share the same five-year-old Unison SoC, and this is the AGM take on that concept.

As the Max design to the AGM H6, H5 and H3 models, the H Max is a full-sized phone that offers a curiously familiar 6.56-inch screen with a slightly odd resolution. That's the same size and resolution screen used in the Doogee Fire 6 and Fire 6 Power, but the H Max offers a smaller battery that makes it proportionally lighter.

This phone doesn't offer anything wonderful in the camera department, with the primary camera only being 13MP. The selfie sensor is only 5MP and is limited to 720p video.

The H Max comes with a case designed to handle bumps and knocks, is waterproof to some extent, and has a triple-slot SIM tray that can take two Nano SIMs and a MicroSD card.

This device is only €199 across Europe or £142 in the UK, making it extremely affordable.

This device is too large to be a practical daily driver; the specification is entry-level, and the camera isn't ideal. Yet, if you need a second phone to take into a wet or dusty environment to stop something unfortunate from happening to a premium phone, it might work well enough to keep you connected.

Sadly, the specifications of this phone and its price still don't make it a candidate for our best rugged phones round-up.

AGM H Max: price and availability

• How much does it cost? $112/£142/€199
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? You can get it in most regions directly from AGM, or from many online retailers.

Direct from AGM, this phone is available globally, specifically in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and Japan. But not from the USA, Asia (other than Japan), Africa or South America.

However, via AliExpress, it can be bought in the USA for only $112, and this is a specific American model, not the Russian or Global options.

The UK cost through AliExpress is only £95.01, so it's hard not to wait an extra week for delivery from that outlet.

Those prices easily make this one of the cheapest rugged phones around. However, I noticed that the Blackview BV5300 is slightly cheaper, and AGM makes the M10 and M6 feature phones, which cost about half as much.

The AGM H Max offers excellent value for money, but its price has significantly impacted the specifications in some areas.

• Value score: 4/5

AGM H Max: specs

AGM H Max: design

• Large phone
• Rubber plugs
• Left mounted cameras

This design has a rounded form with a texture on the underside, making it fairly easy to grip and manage. The styling is a bit non-descript, though the sides are metal, giving the impression of robustness, even if the likely impact points are plastic or TPU.

In terms of layout, it follows a conventional style, with buttons positioned where you'd typically find them. The power button, which has a thumb reader, sits on the right side with the volume rocker, predictably. On the left, you'll find a custom button along with the SIM/Micro SD card tray, which accommodates two Nano SIMs and a MicroSD card simultaneously, and not only one of each.

One interesting design choice AGM made was that the rubber plugs for the USB-C port and the 3.5mm audio jacks both have screws holding them in, hinting that maybe replacements might be made available.

Since the H Max doesn't have wireless charging, the USB-C cover, in particular, is going to be displaced lots of times, so I hope AGM makes spare plugs available.

Another design choice is that there is a through hole in the bottom left corner that would allow for a lanyard. I'm not sure how I'd feel about swinging a phone this large around on a lanyard, but it could be used to secure it on a backpack.

The one area that stands out as being less than ideal is the camera cluster. It doesn't project out much, though not at all would be better, but it's way over on the extreme left. It might not be in the path of most fingers holding the H Max, but for those who take landscape photos, it presents an alignment issue.

Maybe the engineers looked at the chosen camera sensor and concluded that wherever it went wasn't critical.

The AGM H Max isn't an elegant design, but it is not horrendous either.

Design score: 3.5/5

AGM H Max: hardware

• Old SoC
• 4GB + 128GB
• 10000mAh battery

Some other manufacturers of rugged phones are embracing innovative processor technologies, such as the new MediaTek Dimensity series. These 5G platforms offer solid performance for users needing more power and battery life.

That's not what AGM went with, but the same Unisoc T606 (aka T7200) that Doogee used in its Fire 6 line.

At this price point, there isn't much point saying nice things about how innovative the T606 was when it launched five years ago, but so much has happened since that release.

These days, even entry-level phones use chips made with a 6nm process, but the T606 uses an older 12nm FinFET process that is less power efficient.

This SoC also uses the ARM Mali-G57 MP1 GPU, which doesn't have a cult following among mobile gamers. With only 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, the H Max has been stripped down to the bone.

Not to be unkind, but the only great thing about the T606 is that it is presumably inexpensive to phone makers because time hasn't been kind to its 4G feature set.

Comparisons between this phone and the Doogee Fire 6 designs can be made naturally since they use the same silicon. The AGM H Max has much less battery capacity than the Fire 6 Power but is almost the same as the Fire 6 base model.

For most phones, a 10000 mAh battery capacity sounds decent, and it's plenty for general use but nothing exceptional for a rugged phone. The Doogee Fire 6 comes with 10400 mAh, and the Fire 6 Power has 15500 mAh with an almost identical platform to support.

The power situation is downgraded the most from the Doogee designs because the H Max doesn't support any faster charging than 10W, and that's the maximum that the included power supply will deliver.

That slows down the recharging speed when compared to the 33W that many phones, including the Fire 6, can achieve.

However, as we'll find out in the benchmarks, once the battery is charged, it lasts an impressive amount of time.

The battery capacity is the redeeming feature of the H Max since the SoC, as the memory and storage capacities are a little too retro to provide enough power to make Android 14 sing.

• Hardware score: 3/5

AGM H Max: cameras

• 13MP and 2MP sensors on the rear
• 5MP on the front
• three cameras in total

The AGM H Max has three cameras:

• Rear camera: 13MP Samsung S5K3L6 primary camera, 2MP Macro
  Front camera: 5MP GalaxyCore GC05A2

Often, phones take images of around 13MP. That's more than enough pixels to print at A4 or letter size without the image becoming pixelated. In a modern phone design, the sensors are often better than 13MP, and they use the 'pixel binning' technique to enhance the picture quality by averaging the data from four sensor pixels to create a 13MP output.

But in the AGM H Max, the sensor is 13MP, so what you get is the best results that the Samsung S5K3L6 sensor can achieve, and no more. It was used in the Nokia 5.1 Plus in 2019 and the Samsung Galaxy A10 five years ago.

This is all good news for the T606 SoC because the Samsung S5K3L6 ensures that the SoC isn't the oldest piece of technology in this phone.

But, and I can't believe I'm saying this: the Samsung S5K3L6 can produce some crisp and well-saturated results. Compared to the cameras typically seen on low-cost phones, this sensor is a revelation.

What appears to make the biggest difference is that the camera application has been properly configured to get the most from the Samsung S5K3L6. There is a manual Pro mode, panorama capture, and even time-lapse video. Macro photography isn't as impressive as this defaults to the secondary 2MP sensor.

Sadly, the best video resolution is 1080p at 30fps, and there is no frame speed control at any of the three available resolutions. Therefore, while the AGM H Max has a few recommendations for still image taking, these don't extend to video capture.

The phone doesn't support Widevine L1, offering L3 instead, so you won't get better than 480p video streaming from most of the big streaming services. But, since the best the screen could manage is only 720p, this isn't a huge downgrade.

Shockingly, the AGM H Max camera is substantially better than expected, though it's not on the same level as the ones with more modern Samsung sensors.

AGM H Max Camera samples

Image 1 of 15

• Camera score: 3.5/5

AGM H Max: performance

• Lacklustre SoC
• Great battery life

Those who read my review of the Doogee Fire 6 Power will already be prepared for how much of a slug the T606 SoC can be, and in the AGM H Max, the theme is unchanged.

The benchmark results between the AGM H Max and the Doogee Fire 6 Power is a level of separation largely covered by testing variance.  

The one knockout feature here is how long it lasts on the 10000mAh battery, which is almost as much as the Doogee Fire 6 Power, and that has 50% more battery. As these both have the same SoC, that doesn't make sense. It suggests that there is some power-stealing app on the Doogee Fire 6 Power or the screen takes more power to run.

What might be a factor, and I have no empirical evidence for this, is that the smaller amount of memory and storage needs less power to run. Whatever the reason, the run time of over 31 hours from 10000 mAh is excellent.

However, the charging speed of this phone isn't good, achieving only 10% of the capacity in thirty minutes. Therefore, it could take five hours to charge fully if wholly exhausted.

I've seen rugged phones with larger batteries recharge fully using wireless charging faster than that.

Overall, the performance of the T606, which has only 4GB of RAM, 128 GB storage, and 10W charging, is the reason this device is so cheap.

• Performance score: 3/5

AGM H Max: Final verdict

I was confused about who might buy the Doogee Fire 6 range. With the AGM H Max, I can see the logic that might draw some people to make this modest investment. However, I'm not convinced that the performance of this SoC will delight many customers.

The low performance of the silicon might help some buyers. The battery capacity is large, and the USB-C port can reverse charge other devices if needed.

However, there is only one undeniable justification for this phone: its incredibly low price.

If you are going somewhere wet or dusty, using the AGM H Max as a sacrificial device to save your premium device will work. Just don't expect it to take the best quality pictures and video or have a stellar performance.

The AGM H Max is more about managing your expectations for phone capabilities with this budget level.

Should I buy a AGM H Max?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

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