Meet the Oukitel WP19, the only smartphone with a battery that can power a laptop

An obscure Chinese smartphone vendor is set to enter the Guinness World Records with the world’s largest battery on a smartphone. 

Oukitel has announced that its WP19 rugged smartphone will pack a 21,000mAh battery, which is enough to charge an Apple iPhone 13 six times over. 

The huge battery could even be used as an emergency portable laptop battery charger to trickle charge laptops that have a Type-C connector. With the appropriate tweaks, you should be able to use it as a mobile hotspot or a true wireless security camera.

 A powerbank glued to a rugged smartphone

Given its headline feature, one cannot expect this phone to be slim. At 29mm, it is the thickest smartphone we’ve come across with a weight of 570g. The rest of its specification is solidly mainstream; 8GB RAM, 256GB onboard storage, a Mediatek Helio G95 system on chip, a large 6.78-inch FHD+ screen, Android 12 and more.

While the lack of 4G connectivity will dampen our enthusiasm, the presence of a 64-megapixel Samsung camera sensor, a 2-megapixel macro one and a 20-megapixel Sony night vision camera at the back could prove to be a winner for those looking for a good all-rounder device that can used in the wild without fear of running out of battery.

The handset is currently on pre-order at Oukitel’s official store on Aliexpress (opens in new tab) for just under $600 (about £480, AU$830), a price that includes free delivery for most territories worldwide but excludes custom duties and taxes as well as any handling fees couriers may charge. Expect the first shipments to be delivered in August 2022.

Smartphones with big batteries have become more widely available since the buzz generated by the ill-fated Energizer Power Max P18K Pop back in February 2019. Since then two 13Ah smartphones (Ulefone Power Armor 13 and Blackview BV9100) and a 15Ah smartphone (the Oukitel WP15) have been launched.

The price tag might be a bit hard to swallow though given that smartphones with the same feature set (bar the massive battery) can be had for half the price. So would the convenience of having a huge battery justify that equally-humongous price premium?