Energizer Hard Case P28K review: first look at the phone with a week-long battery

With most phones, the battery is worked discreetly into the design. With the Energizer Hard Case P28K, the company worked the other way around: it essentially grafted a phone onto a 28,000mAh battery pack. The result: an Android phone that can last a full week off one charge.

Even more impressively, Energizer has achieved this for a killer price. When it launches later this year, it will cost 250 euros. In the rest of this first-look Energizer Hard Case P28K review, I’ll explore what you get for your money.

Energizer Hard Case P28K review: design

The word “chunky” doesn’t do justice to this inch-thick phone. It’s a brick. A slab. It is not a phone that slips discreetly into a jeans pocket. And that’s reflected in a weight of 570g and depth of 27.8mm.

But then again, it’s not as if you’ll ever need to take a backup power unit in your bag; if anything, this becomes your backup power unit as you can charge from it via the USB-C port.

The other argument in its favour is that this is an easy phone to pick up even if you’re wearing gloves.

One way that Energizer keeps the price down (and battery life up) is to include an IPS panel rather than OLED. It’s also a 60Hz screen, which you will notice if stepping down from a 120Hz display.

Aside from this, its quality is perfectly good, and with a 6.8in diagonal and 1,080 x 2,460 pixels it’s both large and sharp.

Energizer Hard Case P28K review: speed, camera, action

Another way Energizer keeps the price competitive is to include modest specifications. That extends to the MediaTek CPU, but also sticking with Wi-Fi 5 and a slower USB-C 2.0 connection if you ever need to transfer data by cable.

The main camera has a 60MP sensor, with a 20MP ultrawide sensor and 2MP macro to back it up, and it produced perfectly reasonable results – on a well-lit show floor. We’ll have to wait to see how it performs in real life.

Android 14 certainly worked perfectly smoothly when I used it, even if it lacks the smoothness of phones with faster refresh screens.

Energizer Hard Case P28K review: price and availability

Perhaps the biggest surprise here is the price: €249.99 when it’s released worldwide later this year – probably October 2024. “We try to have an aggressive price to get as many people as possible,” said Carsten Kramer, Sales Administration Manager for Avenir Telecom.

But not at the expense of quality. “We are committed to having the same quality control as you would expect from any Energizer product,” he added. “That’s at the centre of Energizer.”

Who should buy the Energizer Hard Case P28K?

“We are aiming for people who may be outside a long time,” said Carsten. “People who may not have any access to an electrical source.” He cited people who work in the field or remote areas – or simply adventurous travellers.

This is also why the Hard Case P28K has been built to IP69 standards, with the 6 indicating strong protection against dust and the 9 showing it can withstand jets of water.

And, as the bumpers on the side indicate, this phone has been built to survive drops and hard knocks too.

While it’s way too large to use as a day-to-day phone in the office, what a great second phone to take with you on demanding trips. That’s why the Energizer Hard Case P28K made its way onto our list of the best products of MWC Barcelona 2024.

Related: Doogee DK10 review: first look at a “performance monster”