The reasons i was considering a tab active 2 were budget which is low and its water resistant a "rugged" model as i am a bit hard on stuff and will have it 2 nites a week at a club i work at.
In this case, you could look towards those phones that are built as a brick.
Here are 3 to consider, comparison:
https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=9407&idPhone2=11300&idPhone3=11766
Kyocera is very solid and durable (close to Nokia 3310), but the innards (phone itself) is weak. But if durability is only requirement, it does it very well.
CAT phones are known for being durable (my friend who works on construction uses CAT phone, and his has survived all kinds of drops and abuse). CAT is better in terms of phone innards, compared to Kyocera.
That said besides the water resistant would a regular tag in a good rugged case be about the same as far as durability goes?
Difficult to say. One could argue, that phone, which is built gound up, to be dropped (e.g CAT phones), are more durable than standard phone inside heavy-duty enclosure. Still, i think, that high-end, heavy-duty enclosures, offer superb protection and can outperform purpose built durable phones.
Personally, i'd go with modern phone (e.g A53 5G) for all the fancy features, and get the best heavy-duty enclosure to protect it.
For A53 5G, best heavy-duty enclosure seems to be SUPCASE Unicorn Beetle Pro,
enclosure comparisons, link 1:
https://pocketnow.com/best-rugged-cases-samsung-galaxy-a53/
enclosure comparisons, link 2:
https://www.androidpolice.com/best-samsung-galaxy-a53-cases/
On 2nd link, 5th enclosure (that see-through one) is the very same one, as i have on my A52S 5G. I bought it for better grip and some additional protection (haven't dropped my phone as of yet
).
Also is GSM, CDMA phased out or just 4g and below is whats phased out,
Completely depends on where you live. I live in Europe (Estonia) and 2G isn't going anywhere. 3G will be shut down by the end of this year (reminding me that my missus needs a newer phone since her phone can only use 3G
). 4G is currently used here and 5G network is being built as of right now.
As far as the rest of the world goes;
2G, understood as GSM and CDMA, has been superseded by newer technologies such as 3G (UMTS / CDMA2000), 4G (LTE / WiMAX) and 5G (5G NR); however, 2G networks were still available as of 2023 in most parts of Europe, Africa, Central America and South America, and many modern LTE-enabled devices have the ability to fall back to 2G for phone calls, necessary especially in rural areas where later generations have not yet been implemented. In some places, its successor 3G is being shut down rather than 2G – Vodafone previously announced that it had switched off 3G across Europe in 2020 but still retains 2G as a fallback service. In the US T-Mobile shut down their 3G services while retaining their 2G GSM network.
Various carriers have made announcements that 2G technology in the United States, Japan, Australia, and other countries are in the process of being shut down, or have already shut down 2G services so that carriers can re-use the frequencies for newer technologies (e.g. 4G, 5G).
In 2022, Android 12 introduced a system setting to disable 2G connectivity for the device, as 2G is considered to be insecure.
Criticism
In some parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, 2G remains widely used for older feature phones and for internet of things (IoT) devices such as smart meters, eCall systems and vehicle trackers to avoid the high patent licensing cost of newer technologies. Terminating 2G services could leave vulnerable people who rely on 2G infrastructure unable to communicate even with emergency contacts, causing harm and possibly deaths.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G
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