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Sprint has announced a new Android smartphone for those who find themselves around water more often than not. It’s the Kyocera Hydro Vibe, and it’ll be headed to store shelves in four short days as it’s slated for a May 9th release. This 4G LTE smartphone (Spark capable) doesn’t dole out the most powerful specs we’v ever seen:
- Android 4.3, Jelly Bean
- 4.5-inch qHD capacitive, impact-resistant touchscreen display
- 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and video camera; 2-megapixel front camera
- Near Field Communication (NFC)-capable for easy file sharing with other NFC-enabled devices
- Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor with 1.2GHz quad-core CPU (Snapdragon 400?)
- Wireless charging (PMA)
- 2,000mAh battery for longer use on a single charge, plus Kyocera’s proprietary Eco-Mode and MaxiMZR power-management apps
- 8GB of on-board memory, expandable to 32GB with microSD™
That said, it should be a pretty capable smartphone for the price ($10 per month for 24 months), and it should execute its primary responsibility of withstanding reasonable amounts of water just fine. Need something with a lot more oomph (and with a lot more dollar signs)? That’s what the waterproof Galay S5 is for.
Those on Virgin Mobile will be happy to know that Sprint will be sending hand-me-downs to the no-contract prepaid carrier starting May 27th for just $150.
[via Sprint]
Waterproofing is the future.
Kyocera still makes phones?
The Kyocera Torque is a great phone. Rugged & water resistant.
Kyocera makes phones? I didn’t even know the company existed, haha.
Android 4.3 ?? Are you serious. and it does have some casual specs.
If it was 4.2 I might have asked the same question. It being a low-mid end device I’m not terribly surprised.
Water resistant at that price point is great, meaning Virgin Mobile.
I love that it’s waterproof. I won’t feel so guilty chucking it off a bridge.
Some hobo might find it in a few years and give it to another one (since he’ll probably be using an iPhone).
I’d rather see it sink to the bottom of the ocean. This way if Aquaman needs a phone, he can use that. Crappy phone for a crappy hero.
Lol kyocera….whenever I hear that name I can’t help but think back to that dual screen “industry first” piece of crap they released a few years ago. Think it was called the kyocera echos