Gadgetory

if you're not interested in smart phones that can dive to the bottom of a lake and fall off a mountain or deal with solar radiation in this video probably isn't for you I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our quick review of the Kyocera torque it only takes one look at the torque to see exactly who Kyocera built this phone for hot tip it's not speck worshipers the dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 plus at 1.2 gigahertz backed up by a gig of ram and a paltry 4 gigs of on-board storage expandable via microSD isn't top-of-the-line neither is the 4-inch 480 by 800 IPS display or the 5 megapixel primary camera it's a different kind of spec that sets the tork apart durability sprint has enlisted the aid of outdoor survivalist Bear Grylls to pitch this 14 millimeter thick 156 grams smartphone to rugged types consumers who need the toughest of the tough in their mobile devices the torque is certified to mil spec 810g and ip67 ratings meaning it can stand up to among others dust shock vibration blowing rain solar radiation salt fog and immersion for up to 30 minutes in up to one meter of water in fact on a recent episode of pocket now live our review unit spent almost the entirety of the Hangout in a pitcher of water even receiving a phone call with no ill effect the torque is chunky and awkward as a result and it's hardware is not without its downsides the direct connect button on the side is far too easy to push waking up the screen constantly and despite its durability rating we were able to jar loose our memory card with fairly slight impacts the recessed screen is a smart move in terms of scratch protection but it causes some usability problems and while it's bright it's not terribly viewable from the sides on the plus side the bottom placed front mounted speakers are outstanding they're incredibly loud in both speakerphone and media modes and they dry out quickly after being immersed unfortunately the software is something of a speed bump the torch ships with Android 4.0 we were expecting that back at MWC Kyocera told us that's a limitation forced on the phone by Sprint's Direct Connect walkie-talkie service which doesn't yet support jellybean what disappointed us though was its responsiveness or lack thereof the UI is laggy and nowhere is this more apparent than in the keyboard whether you use the default swipe or the stock Android keyboard input lags constantly it's impossible to get up to a reasonable typing speed even after installing a third-party keyboard like Swift key whether this is a problem imposed by the ruggedized display or by the Torx special software build it's very frustrating there's also the matter of the pitiful 4 gigs of on-board storage less than a gig of which is user-accessible out of the box which makes the use of an expansion card almost mandatory if you're planning on downloading a lot of apps taking a lot of photos or videos or participating in really any of the other activities that justify owning a smartphone we tested the Kyocera torque over the course of 11 days on Sprint's CDMA and LTE networks in the Greater Boston area we found reception to be good on both networks but there's an annoying hitch here Sprint's Direct Connect walkie talkie feature only works on 3G so if your phone is using the faster 4G LTE network you won't get any radio calls and you won't be able to make any so you have to force the phone to stay on 3G if you want to receive those we realize this is probably a technical limitation but it seems ridiculous to make customers choose between fast data speeds or to a radio functionality it's yet another compromise in the torques design one which Direct Connect users in particular aren't likely to appreciate on the plus side when you're able to use it Direct Connect works very well walkie-talkie calls made to both modern CDMA and older I den or Nextel phones went through without a hitch it's a much less buggy experience than it once was and the loud speakerphone makes hearing the other party very easy in terms of phone calls the torque packs an interesting addition the smart sonic earpiece uses tissue conduction via a ceramic transducer rather than a traditional speaker during our testing that resulted in a little more fuzz on our side of the call but it also let us hear callers quite well even in situations with a lot of ambient background noise and even through industrial-grade ear protection caller said we didn't sound all that great on their end calling our sound distant but they could ultimately understand us with minimal effort there are plenty of customizations and feature settings available in the camera application though touch to focus is not supported which disappointed us we liked the dedicated camera key on the torx hardware as it let us take an underwater photo or two which is fun results overall are just okay with fair colour reproduction but exposure problems and fuzzy edges and a serious discoloration at the center of some photos prevent us from giving this camera a rave review overall the stills will work for casual photos and social media sharing just don't expect any miracles video is fine at 1080p though we wish there was better focus control and a less jumpy playback during fast pans sprint quotes 18.9 hours of talktime on the 2500 milliamp hour battery which is a big figure but it's easy to believe the torque did quite well in our usage testing easily lasting over a full day with moderate use and even holding up admirably after 18 hours of medium to heavy use including a series of benchmarks battery endurance was better over 3G of course but when we did switch over to LTE we managed to average speeds of 10 megabits down and just over 4 up not amazing compared to some competitors but certainly respectable considering that Sprint's 4G rollout is still in its infancy if you need to squeeze even more lifetime out of the device the torx eco mode and Maximizer are there to manage your milliamp hours most rugged smartphones are an exercise in compromise and the torque is no exception the hardware is wonderfully built perfect for an outdoorsman or a construction worker but it's writing checks the software can't always cache the people this phone is targeted at don't have time to fiddle with Android and tweak their settings to optimize their smartphone experience they need their phone to just work and thanks mostly to the awful typing experience the torque often doesn't unless you move at a very slow and deliberate pace and wait for the software to catch up to you that gets old very quickly and if your try to get things done on any kind of a schedule it becomes infuriating as a voice centric device the torque does a nice job especially in terms of its speaker its battery life and its ruggedness but what point is paying for the bells and whistles of a smartphone without being able to fully harness it's smarter features there are already a bevy of cheaper feature phones out there that are just as rugged Kyocera has said that it has plans to upgrade the tour to jellybean when Sprint's Direct Connect services ready though so if you're willing to trust that that update improves the devices responsiveness the torte can be had for 99 bucks and a two-year sprint contract we don't advocate buying any phone based on such an assumption but those searching for a rugged smart phone have always been faced with limited options full of once again compromise and that holds true here we give the keys here a torque for sprint a six point five out of ten it's going to do it for our quick review of the Kyocera torque if you enjoyed the video please give us a thumbs up and leave a comment below if you have something to say follow us at all our social media destinations and thank you for watching more coming from pocket now so stay tuned