Why You Can Trust CNET Kyocera Hydro Elite (Verizon) review: Kyocera's best waterproof Hydro to date
The Hydro Elite is a waterproof handset that features Android 4.1, wireless charging, and an 8-megapixel camera.
With every new waterproof Hydro device, Kyocera adds incremental, but necessary improvements. But with the $49.99 on-contract Hydro Elite from Verizon, I'm glad to see Kyocera made even bigger strikes.
Kyocera Hydro Elite (Verizon)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
True, Verizon offers plenty of great, if not better, non-waterproof phones as well, and the handset's still hampered by some of the same problems often seen in Kyocera smartphones--a slow processor and average call quality, for example. But its notable spec improvements make it the best Hydro phone Kyocera yet.
Living up to its "elite" name, the device sports a more stylish design and an upgraded 8-megapixel camera. In addition, not only does it have 4G LTE (bringing the total now to three Kyocera handsets in the US with LTE), but it's also the company's first Android smartphone on Verizon Wireless.
Design
Compared to Kyocera's past line of Hydros (which include the original, the Edge, and the Xtrm), the Elite looks the most modern and compact. Gone are the bulbous profile and the toy-like rounded corners I usually expect. Instead, much like the sleek Sony Xperia Z, you wouldn't be able to guess that they are both waterproof devices, and with its squarish corners and narrow width, the Elite actually looks a bit like the iPhone 4.
The Elite measures 4.82 inches tall, 2.38 inches wide, 0.43 inches thick, and weighs 4.51 ounces. Its left and right edges house a volume rocker and Micro-USB port, respectively. Up top are a 3.5mm headphone jack and a sleep/power button marked by a small red line.
Its back's top half is stylized with a glossy, wood-panel design, and features a rear-facing camera, LED flash, and two small slits for the audio speaker. The bottom half (which makes up the battery door) has a matte, dimpled texture that helps with grip. A small indentation at the bottom edge enables you to pry off the battery door. Inside, you'll find a 2,100mAh battery, and slots for a microSD card (up to 32GB) and SIM card.
Clear and responsive, the smartphone's 4.3-inch HD touch screen has a 1,280x720-pixel resolution. Although I could see speckling when the screen displays a swatch of white, as well as some color banding with dark colors when I watched HQ videos on YouTube, for the most part, text and icons looked sharp, the screen was adequately bright, and it was sensitive to the touch. It was one of the more accurate screens I handled from Kyocera, and as a result, texting was much easier on the device's digital keyboard than other past products.
Below the display to the right is a small light that blinks on and off for notifications. Above the display is a 1.3-megapixel camera. You'll notice that there is no in-ear speaker next to it. That's because the Elite features Smart Sonic Receiver technology. This means that the phone has a ceramic transducer inside that transmits audio via the hard tissue inside your ear, thus providing audio without the need for another speaker. It works comparably to an in-ear speaker, though with the phone's call quality (which I will explain in more detail below), I didn't find it to perform any better than having a speaker.
Go ahead and dunk it
The handset can withstand being splashed with water and "blowing rain," according to Kyocera. It can also reportedly survive a full dunking in up to a meter's depth for 30 minutes. Though we didn't have a deep pool to test that spec out, I can attest that the Elite is indeed waterproof enough for our tests. It kept on ticking after several dunkings, and lived through 30 minutes of being completely underwater in a shallow bowl. Lastly, it endured staying in a 20 minute shower, where it repeatedly got wet and splashed.
Software features
Three software add-ons that are unique to Kyocera handsets are MagniFont, MaxiMZR, and EcoMode. MagniFont improves text readability by increasing the font size one level larger than the "Extra Large" or "Huge" setting that is common in Android. Tucked under the Settings menu is MaxiMZR, which lets you limit the data connection of apps running in the background to conserve battery life. Finally, EcoMode adjusts certain device settings (like the dimness of your screen or turning on/off haptic feedback) to conserve energy.
Out of the box, the phone runs Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Though I'd like to see a more recent version of the OS, the Elite still packs plenty of features like Google Now, which you can access by long-pressing the home key and swiping up. It also comes with Chrome, Gmail, Plus, Local, Maps with Navigation, Messenger, Search, Talk, and YouTube. The Google Play stores for Books, Magazines, Movies & TV, and Music are included as well.
Verizon threw in a bunch of its own apps too, like My Verizon Mobile, which lets you check your data use and minutes; Verizon Tones music and media store; the video portal, Viewdini; and an app for video calling that just prompts you to download either ooVoo or Tango. The carrier also included apps for setting up visual voice mail and your mobile hot spot, its branded navigating app, and VZ Security.
There are also basic task-management apps, such as an alarm clock, a calculator, a calendar, a native e-mail client, a video editor, an audio recorder, two redundant weather apps (though one of them includes news), and a voice dialer.
Other apps include several Amazon apps (the store itself, Kindle, MP3, its app store, and Audible), an app for American Express cardholders, Facebook, NFL Mobile, the mobile office suite Polaris Office 4.0, a gaming portal, a DiXiM media player, Slacker Radio, and the IMDB movie database app.
Lastly, you'll get Bluetooth 4.0, 16GB of internal storage, 1.5GB of RAM, and wireless charging -- a first for a Kyocera smartphone in the US.
As an aside, it's important to note that while you can always transfer files (like photos and videos) from your Elite to your computer via a microSD card or Bluetooth, I personally ran into some trouble transferring files directly from the handset to my computer through a direct USB cable connection. Kyocera has confirmed with me that this is a compatibility issue that the Elite has with some PCs. According to the company's statement, it will address this issue in an "upcoming over-the-air-software update to Hydro Elite."
Camera and video
Unlike past Hydro devices that usually feature a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, this handset packs an 8-megapixel camera instead. And while photo quality still had room to improve, especially in terms of focus and sharpness, pictures taken on the Elite were some of the better ones I've seen on any Kyocera phone. Overall, images were easy to make out, colors were true-to-life (though could've been a bit more vibrant), and touch focus worked quickly enough.
The rear-facing and 1.3-megapixel cameras both had three different auto exposures, a brightness meter, five white balance options, image stabilization, three picture qualities, a timer, optional grid lines, and geotagging.
However, the 8-megapixel camera also has four different types of focus (like macro and touch), a digital zoom, flash, a contrast meter, five picture modes (which included HDR, multishot, and eight color effects), six scene modes, and eight photo sizes (ranging from 640x480 to 3,264x2,448 pixels). In contrast, the front-facing camera only has the eight color effects for its picture mode, and it can take photos in only three photo sizes (from 640x480 to 1,280x960 pixels).
Video quality was also good -- though the camera had some trouble with keeping focus. You can see that the lens would go in and out of focus, and video footage would have a slight "pulsating" movement while this occurred. Once the camera locked in focus, however, objects were clear and easy to make out. Audio picked up well and colors appeared accurate.
As for video options, both cameras have audio muting, and they still retain the same brightness meter, white balances, color effects, exposures, image stabilization, and grid line functions seen in camera mode. Only the 8-megapixel camera, though, has both auto and touch focus, digital zoom, flash, a contrast meter, time lapse features, and five video qualities (from MMS for texting to 1080p HD). The highest quality the front-facing camera can record is in 720p.
Performance
I tested the Hydro Elite in our San Francisco offices (CDMA 850/1900). Though volume could stand to be higher, call quality on my end sounded good. Voices were clear, albeit a bit staticky at times, audio didn't clip in and out, and none of my calls dropped. The speaker yielded a bit more mediocre results: I could hear voices fine, but at times my colleague sounded tinny or harsh if the volume was turned up too loudly.
On the other hand, I was told that I didn't sound so great. My colleague reported that my voice sounded muffled and faint, as if I was speaking under a cloth, and that he could hear a lot of background noise. When he was put on speaker he could hear his voice unpleasantly echoing and I sounded far away.
Kyocera Hydro Elite (Verizon Wireless) call quality sample
Listen now:
Fortunately, using Verizon's 4G LTE network, data speeds were fast. Though I'm not complaining, I did notice that as I carried out each data speed trial, the handset performed just a bit faster than the last, despite my restarting the phone every time. Regardless, on average, CNET's mobile site loaded in 5 seconds and our desktop site loaded in 13. The New York Times' mobile and desktop site took about 8 and 15 seconds, respectively. ESPN's mobile site took 6 seconds, and its full site loaded in 9 seconds. Furthermore, it took about 2 minutes for the 35.01MB game Temple Run 2 to download and install. Oddly, despite these rather respective speeds, Ookla's Speedtest app consistently showed me unusually low scores, with an average of 1.64Mbps down and 1.79Mbps up.
| Kyocera Hydro Elite | Performance testing |
|---|---|
| Average 4G LTE download speed | 1.64Mpbs |
| Average 4G LTE upload speed | 1.79Mbps |
| App download (Temple Run 2) | 35.01MB in 2 minutes |
| CNET mobile site load | 5 seconds |
| CNET desktop site load | 13 seconds |
| Restart time | 47 seconds |
| Camera boot time | 2.22 seconds |
The device is powered by a dual-core Snapdragon 1.5GHz processor. In general, the Elite can carry out small but necessary tasks with no trouble. It never crashed or stuttered while I played Temple Run 2 or even the graphics-intensive game, Riptide GP. However, at times, it can be slow. Though it may not be noticeable to an unfamiliar eye, some actions take a hair longer than I'd prefer. For example, returning to the home pages, unlocking the lock screen, and switching between portrait and landscape mode seemed just a bit sluggish. On average, it took about 47 seconds to restart the phone, and 2.22 seconds to launch the camera.
During our battery drain test the 2,100mAh battery lasted 4.8 hours of continuous video playback. Anecdotally, the handset had a decent battery life and could last through the workday without a charge on low to medium use. It has a reported talk time of up to 13 hours and a standby time of 9.84 days. According to FCC radiation standards, it has a digital SAR rating of 1.39W/kg.
Conclusion
As one of two waterproof phones on Verizon (the other one being the Casio G'zOne Commando 4G LTE), the Elite won't let you down if you drop it in a pool or the kitchen sink.
But there are some important factors to consider. The Commando 4G LTE is free under contract, and at the sake of looking way less attractive, it has a more rugged build. This means that if you fear more than just water, the handset will be able to sustain more damage when it gets dropped down the stairs and the like.
In addition, Verizon also carries better on-contract phones, though they aren't water-resistant. For instance, the HTC Droid DNA, which is also $49.99, has a fast quad-core processor, and a bigger, sharper screen. Likewise, the Motorola Droid Mini boasts a newer version of Android and a better 10-megapixel camera, though you'll need to cough up $100 for it.
However, if you still desire a reliable water resistant device, and you don't need as much protection as the Commando 4G LTE provides, get the Elite. It has a slimmer design that an average person would hardly recognize it as a waterproof phone. Furthermore, at $49.99 on contract, you can still purchase this midrange handset without breaking the bank.