Sturdy Design with Restraint
The Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro comes with a large plastic body, plenty of buttons, a microSD card slot, a headphone jack, a removable back cover, and a removable battery – all features that harken back to simpler, more harmonious phones that we have gotten used to seeing these days. It measures 6.65 × 3.15 × 0.39 inches (HWD) and weighs 8.29 ounces, making it lighter than the Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3 (8.36 ounces) and the Sonim XP10 (11.3 ounces). The XCover6 Pro is slightly taller and wider, but thinner than the DuraForce Pro 3 (6.06 × 2.95 × 0.57 inches) and the Sonim XP10 (6.3 × 3.0 × 0.6 inches).
Good Display and Balanced Performance
The phone features a 6.6-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 2408 × 1080 pixels and an adaptable 120 Hz refresh rate with a peak brightness of 480 nits. LCD screens do not offer the same level of contrast as OLED screens (like those in the DuraForce Pro 3), but the colors look good here. The screen brightness is suitable for indoor use, but you might need to seek shade if you’re trying to view it in bright sunlight – I expected it to be brighter for something designed for outdoor use. A Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ scratch-resistant glass covers the screen, which is more scratch-resistant than standard Gorilla Glass Victus. The selfie camera is placed in a small U-shaped cutout at the top of the screen.
Sturdy and Adaptable Design
The side edges and the back panel have vertical grooves, making the XCover6 Pro easy to hold. There are two rear cameras in a small module that protrudes less than one millimeter from the back edge. If you remove the plastic back cover, you will find a replaceable 4050 mAh battery, a SIM card tray, and a microSD card slot for additional storage. The XCover6 Pro also includes a built-in eSIM and supports dual SIM card configurations if needed. (Source: Iyaz Akhtar)
Balanced Performance with 5G Coverage and Strong Speeds
The XCover6 Pro runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor, which was first introduced in 2021. It comes with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage with the option to add up to an additional 1 TB via a microSD card.
In testing, the XCover6 Pro managed to handle most tasks without issues. Productivity apps like Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive loaded quickly and functioned smoothly. Running multiple apps at once did not seem to affect the phone at all.
In the Geekbench 6 test, which measures raw computing power, the XCover6 Pro scored 1,106 in the single-core test and 2,834 in the multi-core test. In comparison, the DuraForce Pro 3, which runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 processor, achieved similar results by scoring 1,049 and 2,821 in the same tests.
The Samsung XCover6 Pro scored 12,677 in the PCMark Work 3.0 test, which assesses general mobile tasks, far surpassing the score of 9,526 for the DuraForce Pro 3. (Source: Geekbench / PCMark)
While running the resource-intensive game Genshin Impact at medium settings (60 frames per second), I noticed only one stutter during a 20-minute test session. Increasing the settings to maximum caused some slowdowns. Games like Alto’s Odyssey and Mario Kart Tour ran without any interruptions. (Source: Iyaz Akhtar)
During the tests, the XCover6 Pro showed impressive performance with a consistently smooth experience.
Our battery tests, where we play HD video over Wi-Fi with the screen brightness at maximum, show that the XCover6 Pro lasted only 8 hours and 45 minutes, which is much less than the DuraForce Pro 3’s battery life of 13 hours.
5G Coverage with Strong Speeds
The XCover6 Pro’s radio supports sub-6 GHz C-band 5G, meaning it can connect to the major 5G networks from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. However, it does not support the faster mmWave 5G service. Additionally, the XCover6 Pro includes NFC and Bluetooth 5.2.
On the Verizon network in New York City, the XCover6 Pro reached download speeds of 568 Mbps and upload speeds of 93 Mbps. The Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3 performed slightly better, with download speeds of 674 Mbps and upload speeds of 111 Mbps. (Source: Iyaz Akhtar)
The XCover6 Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E but not the latest Wi-Fi 7 specifications. When tested near a Wi-Fi 6 access point, the maximum download speeds reached 331 Mbps, while the maximum upload speeds reached 8.38 Mbps (that slow upload speed is due to the service provider, not the phone). In comparison, DuraForce Pro 3 achieved download speeds of 471 Mbps and upload speeds of 12.8 Mbps when tested in the same location.
When I took the XCover6 Pro the maximum distance possible from the access point in my apartment, the speeds dropped to 55 Mbps for downloads and 6.59 Mbps for uploads, while the DuraForce achieved 59.9 Mbps for downloads and 12.8 Mbps for uploads. In other words, Wi-Fi performance is balanced with competing devices.
Call quality is good. Voices sound slightly muffled, but the phone does a good job of rejecting background noise, which should be especially welcome when used outdoors. The earpiece speaker measured 86.9 dB and the external speaker measured 78.8 dB in testing, meaning the phone can easily be heard in noisy environments.
As for audio quality from the single speaker, you won’t get much bass. The maximum speaker output was 95.6 dB while playing Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, while softer songs like The Beatles’ “Blackbird” showed no distortion even at maximum volume. I recommend using wireless earbuds or wired headphones to hear all the details of your music.
Surprisingly Satisfactory Cameras
Durable phone cameras are usually lackluster compared to traditional smartphones, as photography isn’t often the main selling point for such devices. However, the overall image quality from the XCover6 Pro is very good.
The phone includes a 50 MP main camera and an 8 MP ultra-wide camera. By default, the main camera uses pixel binning technology to produce 12.5 MP images, but you can take full 50 MP shots if you wish. The ultra-wide camera relies on true 8 MP images with no tricks. Like other Samsung devices, the XCover6 Pro produces vibrant images while maintaining detail. The main camera seems to struggle with backlit subjects, whereas the ultra-wide camera does not face the same issue. Main camera (Source: Iyaz Akhtar) Ultra-wide camera (Source: Iyaz Akhtar) Full resolution (Source: Iyaz Akhtar)
As for selfies, the 13 MP camera features good detail and slightly saturated colors. The portrait mode strongly distinguishes the background, but you can adjust this in the Samsung Gallery app after taking the photo. From left to right: Regular mode and Portrait mode (Source: Iyaz Akhtar)
Up to
The ability to record video at 4K30. Due to the lack of optical image stabilization, videos with a lot of movement appear shaky. This means that your motion shots won’t be steady. Strangely, audio is captured well from behind the camera, but the sound from in front of the camera seems noticeably low.
Smooth Software
The XCover6 Pro runs on Android 13 with Samsung’s One UI interface. Samsung claims that the device will receive five years of security updates and four operating system updates. In comparison, the Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3 only gets two operating system updates with security updates until July 2026. (Source: Samsung / PCMag)
Samsung’s version of Android is straightforward and easy to use. There are some Samsung-exclusive tweaks, such as the ability to easily access more than three apps on the screen at once. Samsung also includes its Dex program so you can connect the XCover6 Pro to a monitor for a desktop-like experience for productivity tasks.
Durable and Adaptable Design
The Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro offers an experience that fits its price of $599. It looks good, provides solid performance, and has reasonably good cameras. It is also reasonably durable. Unfortunately, the removable back cover is prone to coming off upon impact. Because of this, we can’t recommend the phone if durability is your main concern. If it is just part of what you’re looking for, the XCover6 Pro provides a well-balanced experience. But for greater durability, we suggest taking a look at the more expensive Kyocera DuraForce Pro 3, which doesn’t offer much in terms of performance but has a longer battery life and truly rugged design.
Specifications of Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro
Battery life (as tested): 8 hours and 45 minutes
Camera resolution (rear; front camera): 50 MP, 13 MP, 8 MP; 32 MP
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G
Dimensions: 6.65 × 3.15 × 0.39 inches
Operating system: Android 13
Screen resolution: 2408 × 1080 pixels
Screen size: 6.6 inches
Source: https://me.pcmag.com/en/mobile-phones/21208/samsung-galaxy-xcover6-pro
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