---
title: 'This phone was MADE for the Apocalypse...'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=DpyMQBoISkk'
video_id: 'DpyMQBoISkk'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 594
---

# This phone was MADE for the Apocalypse...

> Source: [This phone was MADE for the Apocalypse...](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DpyMQBoISkk)

## Summary

The video reviews the Tank 5, an ultra-rugged smartphone built to survive extreme conditions. It features a built-in 2K projector, huge battery, night vision camera, and is marketed as 'apocalypse-ready'.

### Key Points

- **Tank 5: The apocalypse smartphone** [0:03] — A rugged phone with a built-in 2K projector, 5× battery of an iPhone 17, and IP69 water resistance.
- **Included accessories** [0:29] — Comes with a black guitar pick, white USB-C cable, and 120W charging brick.
- **Build and water resistance** [0:36] — Large fan grills for projector cooling, IP69 rating, and a recessed plastic screen protector for drop protection.
- **Scratch test results** [0:52] — Screen scratches at level 6 (glass), deeper grooves at level 7. Sapphire would scratch at 8-9.
- **Unique features** [1:09] — 120 lm camping light with strobe, night vision camera, IR blaster, 4m laser rangefinder, and 2K DLP projector.
- **Projector performance** [2:41] — 220 lm DLP projector with laser autofocus and keystone correction. Works well in dark, projects up to garage-door size.
- **Sponsor: NordVPN** [3:42] — NordVPN offers geolocked content access, 9500+ servers, encrypted Wi-Fi, and internet monitoring.
- **Night vision cameras** [5:10] — Three 50 MP cameras: normal, telephoto, night vision. Infrared LEDs enable photos in absolute darkness.
- **Display and durability test** [5:54] — 6.7-inch 1440p 120Hz AMOLED (3000 nit). Lasted 25 seconds in flame test, then turned green (likely due to removed plastic protector).
- **Internal teardown: cooling and battery** [6:19] — Massive copper heatsink (62g), 17,600 mAh battery (more than 3 Galaxy S26 Ultras). Turbo fan similar to gaming phones.
- **Projector internals** [8:59] — Separate R, G, B lasers combined by mirrors and lenses. Watertight with rubber gasket.
- **Final verdict** [9:38] — Well-rounded apocalypse sidekick. Downsides: heavy, requires better belt. Price comparable to iPhone 17.

### Conclusion

The Tank 5 delivers exceptional durability, innovative features like a built-in projector and night vision, and a massive battery, making it a compelling choice for extreme environments, albeit with a weight penalty.

## Transcript

When someone says something is built
like a tank, they're talking about this
smartphone specifically. This Tank 5 is
about the same price as an iPhone 17,
but has five times the battery life,
four times the thickness, and a literal
built-in 2K resolution projector beam
that shines out of the top, projecting
big screen movies onto any surface. But
we'll get to that more in a second.
Today, we're going to find out if the
Tank 5 is actually ready or not for the
apocalypse. Right out of the box, we see
a black guitar pick for some reason, a
white USBC cable, and a 120 watt
charging brick. The phone itself is an
absolute unit with huge fan grills on
either side to help keep the projector
cool, even with the massive inlets. The
Tank 5 still has an IP69 water resistant
rating. And it'll be very interesting to
see how they accomplish that from the
inside here in a few seconds. But first,
the scratch test. The Tank 5 has two
screen protectors. A blue tinted screen
protector comes off first. And here's a
size comparison between the Tank 5 and
an iPhone 17 Pro. Basically twins. The
Tank 5 has a few perks that the iPhone
can only dream of, like a built-in 120
lm camping light that can also strobe
for emergencies, incoming flash warning.
There's also a night vision camera and
of course a projector up top, which
we'll get to in a second. I'll peel off
the permanent clear plastic screen
protector next. What's cool about this
screen protector is that it's inlaid
down between the frame rails of the
phone. So, no part of the glass can ever
touch the ground during a drop, which
should help out quite a bit during the
end of times. But just for curiosity's
sake, let's see what the screen is made
from underneath all that plastic. If
there was more plastic under here, the
screen would start scratching at a level
two or three. But if it's glass, like
what we're seeing now, it would start
scratching at a level six with deeper
grooves at a level seven. We haven't
seen a Sapphire screen in a really long
time, but Sapphire would start
scratching at a level eight or nine. We
have a front-facing 32 megapixel hole
punch selfie camera protected by glass
and a long thin plastic earpiece grill
which won't ever be falling out on its
own. Obviously, what makes the Tank 5
such a tank is that it's got a built-in
exoskeleton made from armored metal
plates and rubber on all the sides.
Permanent protection. We have the
fingerprint scanning power button and
large intake fan grill over here on the
right with lots of black rubber and
shiny silver metal.
Up at the top though is where things
start getting incredibly interesting. We
have an IR blaster so you can change the
channels on the TV I am legend style.
Then we have a 4 meter laser
rangefinder. Not so great for sniper
shots but still good for measuring stuff
without having to bring a tape measure.
And of course, we have the 2K resolution
220 lm DLP projector. The only thing
that would make this even more perfect
for the apocalypse is if we had a hand
removable SIM and SD card tray to store
movies on when the grid goes down. And
look at that, perfection. Now, I did
have my doubts about the quality of this
projector and its brightness at night.
Here on my brightly lit desk, you can't
see all that much. But as soon as you go
outside at night, the Tank 5 can throw
up a big screen image as large as a
garage door no problem. It's actually
kind of insane. Plus, with the laser
autofocus and automatic keystone
correction, that's where it squares up
the image on the wall all by itself. The
operation is pretty foolproof. Not going
to lie, I am rather impressed. Even
walking down the street, I can be
watching Jerryrigg tearowns on a 50-in
flat screen hovering right above the
sidewalk, as one often does. No iPhone
can do that. If streaming or watching
movies is your thing, you probably
already know that sometimes you can get
locked out of your streaming accounts if
you travel outside of your own country.
One quick little trick from today's
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to 10 devices at a time. While the
projector is running, there is a
substantial amount of air flowing
through the internal ducts. Very similar
to some of the gaming phones we've seen,
except for this one is much louder with
much more air flow.
You can stay anonymous online with
NordVPN and get 4 months extra with my
link nordvpn.com/jerryrig.
Peace of mind is totally worth a few
bucks a month and that link is down in
the description. Once the apocalypse
brings down the grid though, you'll
probably want to make sure you have your
movie saved to the SD card. The left
side of the phone has our volume button,
fan output vent, and programmable
buttons for the camping and strobe light
on the back. The bottom of the phone has
our lanyard hook, so you can attach the
brick to a string and wall up some
zombies with it. And inside the
watertight flap, we have a USBC port and
a headphone jack. Pretty essential for
stealth supply runs. What's cool about
the cameras here on the back of the
phone is that they can take pictures in
absolute darkness. One is a 50 megapixel
normal main camera. Then a 50 megapixel
telephoto.
Then we have the 50 megapixel night
vision camera. The row of infrared LEDs
are here to illuminate the night vision
sensor so it can take pictures without a
visible flash.
Yeah, the pictures look a little
nightmarish, but it does indeed work.
The back of the phone is metal and the
material over the camping light is
plastic with of course copious amounts
of black rubber surrounding every corner
for better drop protection. Making our
way to the screen, the Tank 5 spared no
expense with a 6.7 in 1440p
120 Hz 3000nit AMOLED display that
lasted for about 25 seconds before going
green and not recovering. It probably
would have lasted a bit longer, but we
did remove that plastic exterior layer.
And finally, the bin test, which yeah,
you already know. The biggest downside
of buying the Tank 5 is that you'll also
need to buy a better belt so that your
pants stay up when it's in your pocket.
But with a 5day battery life, maybe
that's a trade-off you're willing to
make. Either way, now it's time to
analyze the Tank 5 from the inside and
see how they managed to cool that 220 lm
projector. Grabbing my smartphone tool
kit. I'll need a couple of these bits.
There's a series of T5 screws holding
down the armored metal panels to the
sides of the phone. With the panel off,
we can see the hexagonal protective
grade opening for the internal cooling
fan. And using that same T5 bit, I'll
remove the other armored panel from the
other side. Then I can start pulling out
the 12 additional screws holding down
the back panel. With those unscrewed,
the entire back panel can be pulled
away, revealing a massive red gasket
that when clamped by the screws, keeps
the tank IP68 and IP69 watertight. Just
like we saw inside of that beatbot pool
cleaning robot, this phone is definitely
made to survive aquatic plenches.
And you might be like, "But hey Jerry,
what about those two massive openings
for the internal cooling fan?" And I'm
glad you asked. With the phone turned
off, we can remove quite a few more
screws. Philip said, "This time around,
the lower loudspeaker can pull away. The
Tank 5 can reach 97 dB, but there does
not appear to be any balls inside. I'll
lift up the camera lens plate. This
exposes the motherboard and the camera
sensors. I'll unplug the camping LED
lightboard just like a little Lego along
with the two battery plugs and the
motherboard extension ribbons.
The motherboard herself has four more
black screws holding her in place and I
imagine the projector is somewhere
mounted behind it. However, the 50
megapixel main camera does not have OIS.
Neither does the night vision camera nor
the 50 megapixel telephoto. It is cool
though that each of the processing chips
on the board have their own little
corresponding thermal pad, allowing the
mid-frame to turn into a heat sink. The
mid-frame heatsink is nothing though
compared to the copper heat sink for the
projector, which we can now see peeking
out from behind the mid-frame. With that
metal mid-frame unscrewed, it lifts up
with the 17,600
mAh battery. That's more capacity than
three Galaxy S26 Ultras put together.
This battery can power the projector for
5 hours straight or the phone alone for
about 5 days. It's a rather impressive
unit. Behind the battery and mid-frame
is the most copper we've ever seen
inside of a smartphone. 62 g worth of
copper to be exact. Enough to make 1,033
pennies. May they rest in peace. The
projector module comes out with that
copper plate still bolted in place. But
now we can see the cooling fins attached
to the copper plate and heat pipe that
sit down inside of the air duct. This
allows the air passing through the foam
to cool down the fins, which cools down
the whole unit. All of which is made
watertight by another large red rubber
gasket. Thumbs up for cool engineering.
The Turbo fan looks very similar to what
we see inside of the Red Magic gaming
phones, just quite a bit bigger this
time around. My favorite part of this
whole tearown, though, is what we find
inside of the projector itself. See, the
projector unit is a 220 lm 2K DLP
projector, meaning it has separate light
sources for the red, green, and blue
lasers. So, when the lasers themselves
shine in through the outer housing, the
internal electronics combine the light
using mirrors and lenses to create the
image that shoots out the front of the
projector module. You can see the light
sources on the boards that shine in
through those outer edges. I'm pretty
impressed. The Tank 5 appears to be a
very valuable, well-rounded sidekick for
all kinds of apocalyptic scenarios. Nice
work. The discount link for NordVPN is
down in the description. Hit that
subscribe button if you haven't already.
We are super close to 10 million. And
thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you
around.