Remember back when Telstra sold Dave? (How cool is it giving a phone a name like Dave?) Dave was a phone made by ZTE which was a ruggedised 4G Android phone with the model number T83, followed by the Telstra Tough Max (T84). Ausdroid has today received images of what is possibly the followup to Dave.
The new model is a T85 from what we are led to believe and from the two images we received definitely looks like a ruggedised phone. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to put the clues together and come up with the conclusion that the new T85 leaked to us is a follow up to the T83 and T84. Both phones were ruggedised phones. You can see images of them below:
****UPDATE**** Since publishing this piece we have received more information, including the training manual. It seems that the T85 is in fact the Telstra Tough Max 2. It will be a ZTE phone once again and have 4GX connectivity along with the Blue Tick. The other specs include a 16MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera.
The display is a 5 inch “Daylight Viewable Scratch Resistant display covered with Gorilla Glass 3. There is a 3000mAh battery, with wireless charging and Quick Charge 2.0 (suggesting a Qualcomm chip inside). It has actual physical Android navigation buttons and a flashlight button. There is also an RF port for “enhanced regional coverage”.
As expected in a ruggedised phone it is IP67 waterproof, dust and shock resistant.
There are many out in the community who NEED a ruggedised phone and with so few to choose from it is good to see Telstra bringing one back. We wonder if Telstra will show off it’s ruggedness like they did last time and send it through Tough Mudder — a few of us here at Ausdroid would love to test them out on the course.
What is the flash ligth button for.
How do you sync the t85 to my hysense smart TV ? Bluetooth won’t recognise either.
Any idea when these phones will be available in Australia?
OMG! Telstra, who’s technology that is sold to the public is usually so outdated has actually released a mobile with Qi charging. Jumping ahead of major brand phones. Now if we can just get them to release stock standard modems with all gigabyte ports (And a minimum of 6 ports) then we are heading in the right direction.
But what about the T84? You know what happens when OEMs displease the versioning gods…
Edit: ok fine there is one never mind
We used the T83’s at work for our sales reps. They seemed to like them, and having basically stock Android was a major plus. Unfortunately we moved to iPhone SE’s because we couldn’t get T83’s any more (plus I’m assuming Telstra had bulk stock they wanted to get rid of). It’s a shame they didn’t release this earlier.