Sprint announces Kyocera Torque, rugged LTE droid

Today Sprint and Kyocera announced the Torque Android smartphone. The handset brings support for LTE, a Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset with dual-core 1.2 GHz Krait CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 5 MP rear camera and 1.3 MP front-facing one.

The Kyocera Torque will be running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It will be sporting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC connectivity as well as a microSD card slot for expanding the built in storage by up to 32 GB.

Now comes the interesting part - the Kyocera Torque is both IP67 certified and is built to Military Standard 810G. This means that in addition to being able to withstand water up to a meter deep for 30 minutes the smartphone can operate for up to three hours at -4° to 122°F (-20° to 50°C). It can also handle drops from four feet, withstand heavy dust and exposure to salt fog, 95% humidity, solar radiation exposure, low pressures up to 4572 meters, etc.

The Torque can literally withstand more than its owner in some cases.

Kyocera has placed its Smart Sonic Receiver tech inside the Torque, which enhances the sound in the ear and eliminates the need for a traditional speaker in the device, helping achieve the remarkable element resistance. This is done by transmitting sound via vibrations directly to the eardrum.

Pricing and specific availability will be revealed this quarter and the device will hit the shelves in the Spring.

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