Design and stability
Smartphones for outdoors have to look martial. The Gigaset certainly lives up to this cliché. The housing is molded from a special two-component plastic and surrounded by a metal frame. This is intended to protect the display particularly well. According to the manufacturer, the phone can survive a drop from a height of up to 1.2 meters. We dropped it from a height of one meter onto concrete and apart from minor scratches on the casing, it survived the fall well.
The outer buttons are large and sturdy and also withstand a fall well. The metal housing is protected at the four corners by the special plastic. This is matt black with orange lines and looks very stylish.
The display
The display is equipped with Gorilla Glass 3. This is a specially hardened glass that protects against scratches and drops. It also comes with a protective film. This can be recognized by small air bubbles around the sensors. This provides additional protection for the display. It is not a protective film, as with normal smartphones, which you remove after purchase, but one that should stay on.
The display itself is an IPS LCD with a large 6.1 inch diagonal. It is the same size as that of the current iPhone 11, although it does not go all the way to the edge due to the protective housing. This makes the housing larger than the iPhone.
The resolution is 1560x720 pixels. This corresponds to 283 PPI. It was very stable in our test and impressed with good colors and sharp edges. The brightness of the display is 455 cd/m2. It is therefore very easy to read even in direct sunlight.
The touchscreen can be operated well and accurately. It reacts in real time and we didn't notice any delays.
The camera
With 13 megapixels, the camera is rather mid-range. Sharp details are not the camera's strong point. However, the photos are fine for snapshots on the move. The colors are rather cool to neutral.
If you zoom in on the photos, however, you can clearly see the lack of sharpness.
The front camera has 8 megapixels and is sufficient for a selfie in between or a video call.
Battery
The battery is really huge with its 6,200 mAh. With normal use throughout the day, the Gigaset only had to be plugged in to charge every three days during the test. If you don't use it much, just once a week is enough. I remember earlier times with the Nokia 6110, when that was still enough ;-)
The battery can be charged via USB-C cable or wirelessly with up to 15 watts. We found the latter option in particular very exciting, so you don't have to fumble with the cover of the charging socket every time. However, a charging process can take 6-7 hours when the battery is empty. It is almost twice as fast with a cable.
Water and dust
We sank the smartphone in the pool and left it there for a while and also buried it in the sand in the Dubai desert. The GX290 survived both tests flawlessly.
According to the manufacturer, the device is protected against water and dust to IP68. 30 minutes in 1.2 m deep water should not be a problem. However, make sure that this does not mean salt water.
Speed and memory
The phone is powered by a Mediatek chip. More precisely, a Helio P23 with 3 GB RAM - mid-range in the smartphone sector. The device runs Android 9.0 Pie, which is not annoying with all kinds of useless apps. In everyday use, the speed of the processor was completely sufficient. Larger apps load more slowly than on a top smartphone with a significantly faster processor. However, without this direct comparison, this is not a problem in practice.
WhatsApp, web browser, YouTube and other apps run quickly and without any problems. The only 32GB of memory is more of a negative. With a few photos, videos and apps, space can get tight here. Fortunately, micro SD cards with up to 512 GB can be inserted to expand the limited memory.
Further features
WLAN with n standard, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC are available. Plus a USB-C port. Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity and light sensor as well as fingerprint sensor and compass leave nothing to be desired.
The device supports GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+ and LTE. A nano-SIM is required and it is dual-SIM compatible.
It measures 162x79x15mm and weighs 279g.
Our conclusion
If you're looking for a solid outdoor device with a long-lasting battery that can survive a dip in the river or a fall on the ground, the Gigaset GX290 is just right for you. It is by no means a lightweight, but the battery life has to come from somewhere.
We liked it in everyday use. With a street price of around 260 euros, it's definitely worth the money.