Durable Kyocera Torque makes an appearance at MWC 2015 (hands-on)
Launching in Europe this spring, the rugged Kyocera Torque shows up at MWC 2015.
BARCELONA -- Unveiled in early February, a version of the Kyocera Torque made an appearance here at MWC. The device is Kyocera's first phone for Europe.
Although it has the same name as the Torque that's available from US carrier Sprint, the phone is more like Verizon's Kyocera Brigadier (or US Cellular and AT&T's DuraForce ) in terms of specs, and is internally differentiated by the model name s701.
Like many of Kyocera's devices, the Torque is designed to be very hardy. It can be submerged for up to 20 minutes in about 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) of water. It's also dustproof and can survive extreme temperatures. During my brief time with it, I dropped it on a hardwood-lined box from nearly 5 feet up, and the handset remained unbroken and unscathed.
The phone features a 4.5-inch display with a 1,280x720-pixel HD resolution and is sensitive enough to respond to gloved fingers. Unlike the Brigadier, however, the screen is not made out of extra-tough sapphire crystal.
It's powered by a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm and a hefty 3,100mAh non-removable battery. On the back there's an 8-megapixel camera and there's a 2-megapixel shooter in the front.
The Android 4.4 phone will launch first in Germany and France in the spring, although pricing wasn't announced.
Click here for more on CNET's coverage of MWC 2015.
