Smartphones have increased in size over the past few years, with displays of six inches or more now quite common. Unihertz went in a different direction with its rugged Atom smartphone, though, which only had a 2.45-inch screen. Now the company is following that up with the Atom XL sporting a relatively massive 4-inch display.

As Liliputing reports, Unihertz teased the Atom XL last week, but has since posted a coming soon page with a lot more details. This is still a small, rugged phone, but the increase in display size is sure to make it easier to use and more appealing to consumers.

The Atom XL is a 4-inch Android 10 smartphone with dual SIM cards, a micro SD card slot, fast charging, a fingerprint sensor, global LTE support, IR Blaster, and built-in GPS, GlONASS, and BeiDou navigation. It's also IP68 and MIL-STD-810G certified, meaning it's water, dust, and shockproof to a level most users will be very happy with, especially compared to the protection most popular smartphones ship with today.

When PCMag reviewed the 2.45-inch Atom early last year, we found it had a few bugs, was too small for text input, and had a poor camera. Hopefully the bugs have been worked out for the Atom XL, the larger screen will certainly help with text input, and as for the poor camera, Unihertz decided to use a 48MP camera in the XL so hopefully that complaint disappears, too.

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You can't actually buy the Atom XL yet as Unihertz is planning a crowdfunding campaign starting on Feb. 25. You can sign-up for a launch alert, though, and in so doing become eligible for the "super early bird price" of $219 (normal price will be around $280). There's also going to be an Atom L model offered for just $169. The difference between the two handsets is a DMR Walkie-Talkie two-way radio, which the Atom L doesn't include.

Considering the price point, protection, and still relatively small size, it already sounds like the Atom XL is going to a great second phone just like the Atom was.

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