Enlarge Image Oukitel

Smartphones can complete a dizzying array of tasks, but they arguably have one weakness when compared to the feature phones of old: fragility.

Chinese phonemaker Oukitel is trying to address that constant source of woe as it promotes its new Android-powered U7 Pro smartphone. The Shenzen-based company on Tuesday released a video showing the resilience of the phone's screen. In it, you can see the U7 Pro being used as a cutting board, miraculously emerging without a scratch after various vegetables were sliced and diced atop it.

Many smartphone users have found high-tech devices a little too delicate for comfort, with a 2013 poll showing that as many as a quarter of iPhone owners were using a unit with a broken screen. Oukitel, however, seems to enjoy abusing its devices in graphic public demonstrations, in September drilling through its K4000 series smartphone to prove that the phone could still work with a hole in it.

For non-culinary endeavours, the U7 Pro is a fairly basic smartphone. It has a 5.5-inch display with a HD resolution of 1,280x720 pixels, a 13-megapixel rear camera and 8GB of internal storage. The device is powered by a meagre 1GB of RAM and a 1.3GHz, quad-core MediaTek processor.

It does, however, come equipped with a projector, rather like the quirky Samsung Galaxy Beam series, which is likely where the "Pro" in U7 Pro's comes from.

Another strength is its price, with Oukitel promoting the phone as the most cost-effective 5.5-inch smartphone. The U7 Pro is being sold at $70, which equates to AU$100 or £45, though US, UK and Australian availability has yet to be announced.