AGM M7: The Unsmashable Anti-Smartphone - MakeUseOf

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The AGM M7 is a budget semi-smartphone that is almost unbreakable and looks like something from the pre-smartphone era but offers much more. Those looking for a smartphone experience will be disappointed, but those looking for something unique will find this hybrid beast compelling.

Specifications

Brand: AGM
Storage: 8GB
CPU: MediaTek MT6739
Memory: 1GB
Operating System: Android 8.1 (Custom)
Battery: 2500mAh (TYP), removable
Ports: USB2.0 Type-C
Camera (Rear, Front): 2M/0.3M
Display (Size, Resolution): 2.4inch QVGA Touch Panel

Pros

Almost unbreakable
Battery lasts 4 days and is replaceable
Incredibly loud speaker
Dual-SIM and expandible with SD card

Cons

No Play Store or Google Account integration
Typing is clunky
Facebook, Tiktok and Browser apps poorly implemented

Smartphones complement modern living. Their bright touch input displays bring endless media sources from hundreds of apps right into our pockets. If smartphones are less robust and have shorter battery lives than the mobile phones that preceded them, the trade-offs seem worth it.

The AGM M7 begs to differ. At first glance, it seems like the anti-smartphone. A rugged brick that harks back to the pre-smartphone era with big touch buttons, a replaceable battery that lasts 4 days, and an IP 69k rating all for just shy of $100.

However, this phone isn't a complete throwback, as it features a modified version of Android 8.1, and its color display is also a small touchscreen. Oh, and it also has a massive 3.5-watt speaker on the back.

The AGM M7 is a strange but wonderful, loud and unbreakable, semi-smart phone, but is it right for you?

AGM M7: First Impressions

The defining feature of AGM phones is their rugged, almost unbreakable design, and the M7 is no different. For its form factor, it is large. At 14 cm tall it's a hair shorter than a Google Pixel 4a, but it's almost 2cm thick. It's chunky.

This size accommodates big, tactile buttons and a textured, easy-to-grip exterior. You also get a user-definable button on the left side along with a top-mounted LED torch - which makes it a much more practical prospect than regular smartphone flashlights.

Glass screens can still be a point of failure for rugged phones, so a smaller area of glass overall is probably an advantage for the M7. It does have cameras, but we'll come back to those later, as the defining feature is the 3.5-watt rear speaker. I've never seen anything like this on a phone before, but the prospect of a super loud ringer that can be heard even over machinery or foul weather will be a draw to many.

The battery compartment is well designed. After removing the cover, you are presented with another composite plastic seal protecting the battery, which is removable.

Removable batteries in a rugged phone are something to get excited about, but it does also come with a problem that we'll cover later in the review.

It's Android, but Not as You Know It

The paired down version of Andoird 8.1 that comes with the M7 supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and use as a hotspot for other devices. It also features versions of WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, Skype, and Zello, along with some stock apps for calendar, clock, sound recording, and an FM radio. There is no play store, so what comes on the phone is what you get, and some things work a little better than others.

Unusually for an Android device, you can't sign in to your Google account, making it hard to bring contacts with you and sync the calendar without using a USB connection or storing data on your SIM card.

This is likely a product of the simplified Android build, but outside of that things like connectivity and setup feel identical to standard android.

How Rugged Is Now?

The AGM is IP69k rated, which means it is completely sealed from dust ingress, waterproof up to 2 meters underwater, and capable of taking drops of up to 2m. It's also functional from -20C to 60C.

In drop tests the M7 was solid. It took a few scrapes and a small dent to the speaker grate, but the phone never flinched or restarted when dropped. The battery cover would fly off sometimes, but the second cover kept the battery safe and in place.

The phone also survived being "forgotten" in a lake, used as a mud shovel, and being thrown around by a rampaging toddler for the best part of a day.

The phone also claims the MIL-STD-810H standard, which sounds fancy but doesn't actually have anything to do with the military directly, and is so unregulated that it's a meaningless metric of toughness.

However, it's not really an issue, as AGM takes ruggedness seriously. It's the hallmark of their phones and once again it seems like they've nailed it. This phone would survive things that I would not.

What's Good About the AGM M7?

On the surface, the AGM M7 is a simple phone designed to have a good battery life, take an absolute beating, and make a lot of noise. It does all of these things perfectly, and a phone that feels like a pre-smartphone era handset with WhatsApp, Skype and the Zello push-to-talk app (with the side button as transmit by default) is a good fit.

The top-mounted LED is bright and its position makes it an actually useful torch compared to other phones. Even when locked, a long press of the zero key toggles the torch, and the keypad is useable even with thick gloves.

The speaker is very loud, doesn't distort even at high volumes, and gives as close to a rounded sound as is possible for something this size.

The charging dock is a useful addition, though it is an optional extra available for a further $9.90 from AGM, and my M7 came with a fairly decent set of budget waterproof Bluetooth headphones made by JBL and AGM in tandem. I'm not sure if these come with every purchase, but it was a nice touch.

What's Bad About the AGM M7?

The Camera. In general. Low-quality cameras paired with low-fidelity color screens were little more than a gimmick when they emerged over a decade ago, and this is no different. It could be functional as a way of taking quick notes in good lighting, but nothing more.

The removable battery is a great idea and I applaud AGM for making it work in an IP69k rated phone. The only problem is that there doesn't appear to be any way to get spare batteries from AGM. They aren't listed on their website, and their EU aftersales website gives a 404 error. I'm sure that AGM will be able to provide them but at the time of recording this review, I haven't received a reply to the email I sent to the service team - though it has only been a few days.

No Play Store or Google account integration might seem a bad thing to you, but in fairness, the M7 does advertise this fact on the purchase page. The M7's failings don't come from what it lacks. Instead, they are the product of poorly integrating what is there. I'm not fully convinced that the smarter elements of this phone went through much development at all.

You Can Browse, But You Won't Enjoy It

When mobile phones initially began adding basic browsers to their firmware, they were a nice idea in principle, but functionally near unusable. Fifteen years on, the M7 falls into this trap for different reasons.

The browser works for basic searches, and you can even log in to your email services, watch YouTube, and enable desktop mode for logging into various services. The issue here is the screen. It's just too small and low resolution to really work. Pair with that the fact that the browser requires frequent use of the touch screen to access some buttons and selections, and it quickly becomes something you'd only use in a real pinch.

The same is true of the TikTok and Facebook apps: fine ideas in principle but not much fun to use with the small screen and keypad combination.

Demon Texters of the 90s Will Be Disappointed

Typing, in general, is painful on this phone. Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "of course it is, it's a keypad." That's fair.

But, to people of a certain age, keypad typing was the norm. When I was a teenager a seemingly revolutionary technology called T9 predictive texting made writing messages much faster. Instead of picking each letter individually, you could tap each letter key once, and the phone would predict words from the possible letter combinations and put them in place, allowing you to change it after the fact when it got it wrong.

The M7 does have word suggestions, but they pop up after the fact and it doesn't have any single keypad pressing input. I'm aware that this may not be an issue to some folks - T9 was popular for a relatively small slice of time, some older folks never adopted it, and some younger folks won't have even heard of it.

I can only assume this was the case in the AGM team, as when comparing the typing user experience with phones released 20 years ago, it is a massive step backward and a missed opportunity. T9 emulation for Android already exists, I don't know why it's missing here.

If there is one general flaw to this phone, it is the implementation of Android it uses. It is clearly still biased towards the touch screen and the keypad suffers as a result. This is no problem when using the M7 like an old-school mobile phone, it just makes the smart elements feel a little clunky overall. The thing is, once you've settled your expectations, even these seemingly glaring flaws don't matter much.

Criticizing elements of the M7 doesn't change the overall experience - one I did not expect to enjoy but thoroughly did, and still do.

AGM M7: The Verdict

It became clear while making this review that a phone with one foot in the mobile phone era and one in the smartphone era is never going to be able to stand up to either one individually, especially sitting at the $100 price point.

After a couple of days, the flaws were mostly forgotten, and this hybrid monster of a phone began to make sense. It's not going to replace a smartphone, and I'm not even convinced it would make a good phone for non-tech savvy folks or the elderly, but I'm still using it, and I think it comes down to what the M7 offers.

For some folks, limitations are liberating. We've grown accustomed to always having the digital world in our grasp, and it can be especially difficult to drag yourself from it when you are a freelancer with no concept of a healthy workday!

For the 9 days I reviewed this phone, I carried my smartphone turned off as well just in case I needed it. It turns out I didn't, and after day 3 I didn't even miss it. The AGM M7 takes away everything, then adds back a few things you need. Yes the Tiktok and Facebook integrations are clunky and yes the browser and text input is a mess, but it's functional enough to use in a pinch.

I've loaded albums onto into the memory that I meant to get round to listening to years ago, actually selectively downloaded podcasts rather than just listen to whatever is just there. I have relatively quickly let go of the feeling that I need to document every interesting aspect of life with photos I'll likely never even look at again.

It's nice to not worry about battery life, it's nice to know I can just throw it in my pack and head out riding, running, or even wild swimming, and know that not only will the phone be ok, but that checking emails, Slack or wasting time on Reddit aren't even viable options despite having a fully connected Android phone with me.

It's not a retro throwback, but it's not quite a smartphone either. The AGM M7 is unique, and for some people, it represents the balance they desire. I've no idea if AGM had this in mind when they threw this insane combination of features into a phone - but it works for me.

AGM M7

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About The Author

Ian Buckley (212 Articles Published)

Ian Buckley is a freelance journalist, musician, performer and video producer living in Berlin, Germany. When he's not writing or on stage, he's tinkering with DIY electronics or code in the hope of becoming a mad scientist.