Smartphones are always getting more powerful, but they aren't getting much stronger. Cases help, but most offer only limited protection. If you work in a rugged environment, or just have kids that like to play with your stuff, it's probably worth it to consider a more durable smartphone. But until recently, rugged smartphones have underperformed compared with their fragile counterparts.
Kyocera is helping to change that trend with the $99.99 Torque for Sprint, the first push-to-talk phone with LTE support. It's got a rugged design, a booming speaker with innovative technology that makes it easy to hear no matter where you are, and enough power to run all the Android apps and games you please. It's the best push-to-talk smartphone there is, and nabs our Editors' Choice award for rugged smartphones on Sprint.
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Design and Rugged Tests
The Torque measures 5.06 by 2.65 by 0.51 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.76 ounces. It's one big piece of kit that may be tough to wiggle into tight pockets, but will fit fine on a tool belt or in a handbag. Encased in lots of black, grippy rubber, the Torque looks better suited for construction sites than soccer moms, though you can probably let your kids kick this thing around on the field without causing too much damage.
The 4-inch, 800-by-480-pixel TFT LCD is serviceable, but not particularly impressive. It gets very bright if you turn off the automatic setting, but color saturation and details are just average. It's big enough that I had no trouble typing on the Swype-enabled on-screen keyboard, but it's small enough that it's easy to hold and operate comfortably with one hand. There are three physical function keys beneath the display. A covered 3.5mm headphone jack sits on top, flanked by Power and Speaker buttons. There's a Camera button on the right and volume controls on the left, along with your Direct Connect button, which is outlined in yellow. There's also a covered Power port on the bottom.
The phone meets U.S. military spec 810G for dust, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, blowing rain, low pressure, solar radiation, salt fog, and humidity. It also meets IP67 for dust and water immersion, so when all of its ports are tightly closed, you can submerge the phone in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes.
The Torque survived our usual series of five-foot drops onto the rubbery material that makes up the floor of the PCMag Lab, as well drops onto the concrete outside. There's a lock on the back cover of the phone, which helps keep the plate in place, but it's so light you can unlock it with your fingernail. The cover did become somewhat dislodged, but not until after multiple drops, so it actually held up better than the AT&T Samsung Rugby Smart, which came apart much more easily. To test water resistance, I placed the Torque in a container of water for 30 minutes at a time with the screen turned on. After taking it out and drying it off it worked just fine.
Network, Call Quality, and Smart Sonic
This is Sprint's first Direct Connect phone to support the carrier's burgeoning LTE network. And while Sprint LTE is still dreadfully scarce, at least you'll be able to tap into the drastically improved speeds when it's turned on where you live. Sprint's LTE is limited in New York City, where we tested the Torque, so all of our tests were conducted over 3G.?
Direct Connect uses the same instantaneous push-to-talk of the old Nextel iDEN network. You can still make push-to-talk calls to Nextel subscribers, but Sprint is turning that network off in June. You get a lot more functionality with Direct Connect, anyway. Call Alert With Text, for instance, sends an audio alert and text message to another subscriber. Group Connect can connect 20 subscribers together at once. And you can also use the Direct Connect button to mass-message up to 200 Direct Connect subscribers in one shot, or send recorded messages to email addresses or handsets via text message.?
For this review, I tested Direct Connect between the Torque and a Kyocera DuraXT. It only takes a second to start the connection, and after that transmissions are instantaneous. Voices sound very clear, and speaker volume is positively booming. There's some crackle on the higher register when volume is set to maximum, but it's not a deal breaker, and you probably won't even notice it if you're making a call from a noisy outdoor environment. ?
This is also an excellent phone for voice calls. Reception is average, and calls sound a little thin but crisp and clear in the earpiece. Again, the speaker function booms. Calls made with the phone are outstanding?clear, rich, and bass-y, with good background noise cancellation. Calls were also clear over a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset and standard Android voice dialing worked without issue.
(Next page: Processor, Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions)
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/zPT98PDYG5M/0,2817,2416539,00.asp
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