Kyocera Torque durability demonstrated at MWC 2015
BARCELONA, Spain – Kyocera may not be a company associated with handsets in Europe, but it’s looking to change that perception. With the recent announcement of Kyocera’s entry into this market with the Torque, a ruggedized LTE smartphone certified with the United States Military Standard (MIL-STD-810G) in 11 categories. The Torque is set to initially launch in Germany and France.
The MIL-STD-810G certification covers criteria in the following categories: dust, shock, vibration, high temperature, low temperature, rain, low pressure, solar radiation, salt fog, humidity and immersion. I can think of a few friends who should purchase this device immediately, given the number of phones they have gone through.
I can also see this being a hit with mountain bikers or extreme sports enthusiasts. It’s great that there are now all of these sports-oriented apps available for a smartphone; but who wants to risk their smartphone falling in the mud, getting rained on or hit by a tree while they are mountain biking. And if anyone has tried the ski-tracking apps, I’m sure they have also experienced their batteries draining due to the cold and only partial statistics being tracked. And you can use the touchscreen while wearing gloves and even when wet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFW9x3th0Do
Kyocera also has some interesting concepts for the future. Although only concepts at this time, a couple worth mentioning are an emergency kit that could be distributed during natural disasters, which includes solar charging capabilities and devices; and solar charging through the screen of the device that also works with fluorescent lighting and doesn’t require a bulky solar panel on the back of the device.
And just in case you were wondering, it really is waterproof.
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Claudia Bacco, Managing Director – EMEA for RCR Wireless News, has spent her entire career in telecom, IT and security. Having experience as an operator, software and hardware vendor and as a well-known industry analyst, she has many opinions on the market. She’ll be sharing those opinions along with ongoing trend analysis for RCR Wireless News.
