JCB Toughphone Pro-Smart TP909 review

The phone has a standard Android installation with all the apps you’d expect, so it was easy to set it up on our various Google and corporate accounts. We didn’t get on with the standard TouchPal keyboard, which we thought made it unnecessarily difficult to enter numbers or punctuation, but it’s easy to switch to the normal Android version or install an alternative from Google Play. There’s only around 50MB of space free for apps on the internal storage, so you’ll have to be on top of moving apps to the microSD card – a 4GB model is included.

JCB has supplied some apps to suit the phone’s rugged, contruction-centric image. There’s a spirit level, a sound level meter and a surveying tool, which tells you height, elevation, pitch and roll. You also get a flashlight, but this just lights up the screen, so is really only useful if you have nothing else available. Pressing the DIY Supplies button simply brings up a map of every B&Q in Britain. I was hoping to see Russells Hardware, Tooting High Road.

There’s no doubt that the JCB Toughphone Pro-Smart TP909 will resist the elements, and we were particularly impressed with its water-resistance. It’s also a proper, if slightly slow, Android smartphone. However, the awful camera, low screen brightness and weak ring and vibrate all count against it. If you only need your phone to be ruggedised occasionally, we’d recommend a waterproof case for a normal smartphone.