Gadgetory

it's rugged dustproof water-resistant and frankly quite bland hi I'm Sara my troth with Cena and this is a first look at the very cool vortex the big selling feature of the 280 dollar vortex is at its water resistant and dustproof it can survive for up to 30 minutes in a metre of water without getting damaged the phone has a rugged plastic build to make it look extra tough on the top of the vortex is the headphone jack which has a sealed cover to soft water from getting in on the left side you'll find the power/lock button on the right there's a volume rocker if you turn the screen on but don't unlock the phone hold the volume button the phone's flashlight turns on which is a nifty feature behind the textured back cover there's a watertight sealed compartment for the battery SD card and SIM card the vortex has a scratch-resistant 4.5 inch gorilla glass screen the 960 x 540 pixel display is bright and easy to read in full sunlight though the colors look muted the phone is running Android 40 ice cream sandwich which launched in 2011 and looks dated still the phone comes with all the typical Android apps like YouTube and Google Play performance wise the vortexes 1.2 gigahertz dual-core processor and 512 megabytes of RAM give it enough power to handle everyday tasks like checking email or watching videos without any problems and mobile games like temple run ran fine in my testing the phone only supports 3g HSPA and 2g data connections which means apps won't download as fast and you'll have issues streaming high-definition video on the back of the phone there's a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash there's also a point three megapixel front-facing camera near the earpiece up close indoor shots turned out great with lots of fine detail but outdoor shots looked washed out video recorded with the vortex looks fuzzy all in all the very cool vortex is worth considering if you need a budget phone that can hold up to dirt dust and water though many other rugged phones have nicer designs and newer Android software the vortex cost much less and you can use it with any carrier worldwide what both pluses in my book you can read my full review on cnet com I'm Sara met Rob and this has been a first look at the very cool vortex