{"id":397,"date":"2026-10-12T02:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opportunist.global\/?p=397"},"modified":"2026-10-12T02:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T02:04:08","slug":"tank-5-pro-review-a-brick-for-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opportunist.global\/index.php\/2026\/10\/12\/tank-5-pro-review-a-brick-for-the-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brick for the Wild: The New Tank 5 Pro"},"content":{"rendered":"

A phone that lasts up to two weeks without a socket, charges your other gear, projects in 2K and sees heat in the dark.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"8849
Tank 5 Pro. Cameras, four infrared LEDs and the camping light on the back, projector cooling vents on the side. Photo: 8849<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I did a five-day hike across the Finnish tundra, from Hetta to Pallas. There was no electricity along the way, so I carried two power banks, together just under a kilo, and charged two foldable Pixels from them. They lasted exactly the five days.<\/p>\n

That’s why I decided to invest in a new prepper phone for the wild.<\/p>\n

I picked the Tank 5 Pro<\/a> from the 8849 brand, which is a power bank in its own right. It has a 17,600 mAh battery and can charge your other devices over USB-C. On top of that it packs a 2K projector, a FLIR thermal camera, night vision, a laser rangefinder and a seriously powerful light. The name Tank is no accident: it weighs 715 grams and is 3.4 centimetres thick.<\/p>\n

Up to two weeks without a socket<\/h2>\n

The battery is made of two 8,800 mAh cells, 68 Wh in total. My Pixel 10 Pro Fold has 5,015 mAh, so the Tank carries roughly 3.5 times more energy.<\/p>\n

In practice mine lasts one to two weeks on a charge. The manufacturer doesn’t publish a standby figure at all, so I looked for an independent measurement. TechRadar<\/a> tested the base Tank 5 with the same battery, and in the PCMark benchmark, where the phone works non-stop with the screen on, it lasted 32 hours and 25 minutes. The projector is the biggest energy hog. According to the manufacturer, a full battery is good for 5 hours of projection (6 in night mode), so a two-hour film takes about 40%. If you stare at the screen all day, count on four or five days.<\/p>\n

When you do get to electricity, the ultra-fast 120 W charger that comes in the box fills it in about 90 minutes. TechRadar measured 46% in half an hour.<\/p>\n

Over USB-C it delivers up to 25 W to other devices, so you can top up a watch, a headlamp, a GPS unit or a second phone. I can charge my Pixel from it about three times, so the power banks can stay at home. And the Tank is lighter than my two power banks from the hike, while also carrying a projector, a thermal camera, night vision and a light.<\/p>\n

Cinema on the tent wall<\/h2>\n

According to the manufacturer, the Tank 5 Pro is the first phone with a 2K projector, and I couldn’t find any projector phone with a higher resolution. Its predecessor, the Tank X, projected in 1080p. 2K here means 2048 \u00d7 1080 pixels, which is Full HD stretched slightly wider. The projector uses a Texas Instruments DLP chip with 220 lumens, laser autofocus from half a metre to four metres, and four-point keystone correction of up to 45\u00b0. Its lens doubles as a flashlight.<\/p>\n

The image on the wall is a couple of metres across, and it really is beautifully clean and sharp. It does need darkness, though. At dusk, in a tent or in a darkened room it’s excellent; in daylight it doesn’t stand a chance. The sweet spot is 1.5 to 2 metres from the wall, and further away brightness and sharpness drop.<\/p>\n

\"Tank
The Tank 5 Pro projecting the phone screen onto a wall, here in portrait mode.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Download your films to a microSD card before you leave (the phone takes up to 2 TB). You won’t have signal in the wild anyway.<\/p>\n

It hums. What can you do about it?<\/h3>\n

Yes, it hums. A DLP projector needs active cooling, and the fan kicks in shortly after you switch it on. The noise meter in the Toolbox app, which measures right on the Tank, so right next to the fan, showed me 30 to 31 dB in normal projector mode and 28 to 29 dB in night mode. That’s roughly the level of a whisper. During an action film it doesn’t matter, but during quiet dialogue you can hear it. The fan can’t be switched off, and I found no quiet mode in the documentation or in any review. Here’s what helps:<\/p>\n