Oscal Marine 1: Affordable rugged smartphone is pretty compact and has three card slots

Blackview is a relatively well-known smartphone maker who is also selling many of its products on Amazon. Now, the brand has introduced a new rugged phone called the Oscal Marine 1, which is now available for preorder for $146 directly from the manufacturer. Shipping is scheduled to kick off on April 25, but prospective buyers should be aware of the limitations of this budget smartphone.

For instance, the 4GB RAM is rather paltry, but the 128GB eMMC 5.1 storage can be expanded via microSD. The memory can only be expanded via a swap file. The smartphone is powered by the Unisoc Tiger T615, which is not 5G-capable but does support two SIM cards and the widely used 4G band 20. Another positive are the three separate card slots, which means that microSD storage expansion and dual-SIM operation are not mutually exclusive.

The Blackview Oscal Marine 1 measures about 6.9 x 3.2 x 0.5 inches and weighs almost 11 oz. Moreover, the rugged handset is equipped with a 5,100mAh battery that can be charged with up to 10 watts. Meanwhile, the 6.56-inch display has a resolution of 1612 x 720 pixels and a refresh rate of 90Hz. IP68, IP69K and MIL-STD-810H certifications are advertised, as is a 13-megapixel main camera and a 5-megapixel selfie camera.