By Luke HopewellJanuary 14, 2020

The Tough Max is back, and it’s tougher than ever. But how tough is tough? We put it to the test in our studio to find out.

What is it?

It’s not only Tough by name, it’s tough by nature. Our new Tough Max 3 has military-grade IP68 water and dust resistance and an immersion rating of 1.5 metres for 30 minutes. It has huge battery power – almost a third bigger than the Tough Max 2 – and packs all the mod-cons, including fingerprint sensor, USB-C charging and NFC.

The Tough Max 3 is available from today for $499 outright, and on our 24- or 36-month repayment options on our new plans at an extra $20.79 or $13.86 per month (plus plan costs) respectively.

And right now, you have the chance to win a ute that’s as tough as your new phone! For a limited time, when you add the Telstra Tough Max 3 to any month-to-month mobile plan, you could win an Isuzu D-Max valued at $51,990! Terms and conditions apply^*.

How tough is tough?

This bad-boy is tough as nails. We took it to our studio to get hands-on and to put it through its paces, and it truly does what it says on the tin.

Normally, we’d be terrified to drop any of the devices we get through our studio, with their shiny design and glass-on-glass construction. What we found with the Tough Max 3, however, is that it definitely deserves its name!

To capture our video, we had to drop the Tough Max 3 on the studio floor over, and over, and over again. And after we did that, we then started dropping it into a tank of water!

After about five hours of dropping the Tough Max 3, we ended up doing more damage to our studio floor than we did to our phone. Truly incredible stuff.

To continue putting it through its paces, we threw dust at the device which simply wipes off, and we then dropped it in water, just to make sure it was extra clean! And still, it persisted, with an incredibly bright screen and long-lasting battery to boot. That’s because the Tough Max 3 can sit in up to 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes, thanks to its IP68 water resistance.

And to make sure your rugged phone stays pretty for longer, it comes with a tempered glass screen protector in the box so you don’t have to buy one.

We also tested the Tough Max 3 wearing gloves, as many of its users will. The problem with a lot of phones is that you can’t use it when you get your hands covered or even dirty, but the Tough Max 3 has a fantastic feature that allows you to unlock it just by looking at it: no additional interaction required. Other devices require you to swipe up once your face is recognised, but the Tough Max 3 knows its knitting when it comes to unlocking in the field.

The Tough Max 3 isn’t your ordinary phone. It’s an extraordinary device that’s designed to stand up to extraordinary stuff.