New Kyocera DuraPlus Cell phone from Sprint

 

 New Kyocera DuraPlus Cell phone from Sprint

The Kyocera DuraPlus ($69. 99) ought to include a heavy equipment warning: when you drop it, it could trigger harm to the equipment.  The DuraPlus is a huge brick of a push-to-talk cell phone, and considered one of many first to hook into Sprint's next-generation Direct join service.  It's loads like Kyocera's current DuraMax ($69. 99, three. 5 stars) and DuraCore ($49. 99, three stars), however trades their flip-style kind issue for a slab design which will be simpler to make use of out within the sphere.  The DuraPlus  is sweet for voice-only, push-to-talk communication, however it's an enormous cellphone with few different options. Here's more about Kyocera DuraPlus.

Kyocera DuraPlus Design and name Quality

Colleagues passing my desk saved stopping to remark on the large dimension of the DuraPlus.  At 5. three by 2. 2 by . 9 inches (HWD) and a whopping 6. 7 ounces, the DuraPlus is certainly not going to suit in your pocket, however it'll match in your software belt.  although the just about indestructible Sonim XPthreethree00 power ($525, three. 5 stars) is one other large handset, it wears its dimension extra gracefully than the DuraPlus does.  The DuraPlus's exterior is made principally of grippy, scratch-resistant black rubber, with metallic accents on the entrance.

The DuraPlus is a rugged telephone that meets army specification 810G, which makes it immune to dust, excessive temperatures, low pressure, rain, salt fog, shock, and vibration.  it could possibly additionally be submerged in as much as three toes of water for three0 minutes.  The cellphone survived quite a few drops to the ground of the PCMag Labs, alongside with half an hour's price of submersion in a container of water.  A plastic screw secures the battery cowl tightly, however you may simply unlock it together with your fingernail.

The phone's 2-inch, 320-by-240-pixel liquid crystal display seems sharp.  The font is slightly small by default, however you are able to make it bigger.  The keypad has too many operate keys, however at the very least all the keys are large, raised, and well-spaced, which ought to make it attainable to dial whereas carrying gloves.  one among these perform keys prompts the surprisingly highly effective LED flashlight on high of the phone, which can are available in useful relying in your work surroundings.

The DuraPlus is a dual-band EV-DO Rev.  A (850/1900 MHz) machine with no Wi-Fi.  Reception is common and voice high quality is nice general.  Voices sound wealthy and clear within the earpiece, however whereas the quantity goes loud, it isn't loud sufficient to be heard in a loud work surroundings.  The speakerphone, however, may be very clear and goes tremendous loud, which is one thing we felt was missing on the DuraCore and DuraMax.  Calls additionally sounded good by a Jawbone period Bluetooth headset ($129, four. 5 stars) and the Nuance-powered voice dialing labored properly.  Battery life was wonderful at 9 hours and 27 minutes of discuss time.

Kyocera DuraPlus Direct Connect

Sprint's new CDMA push-to-talk system combines the quick web speeds and nationwide protection of Sprint's CDMA community with the instantaneous push-to-talk of the outdated Nextel iDEN community.  That's great, however it doesn't actually matter for a tool just like the DuraPlus, which isn't constructed for heavy internet entry.

you wish to be in a dash protection space so as to make use of the DuraPlus, however you are able to nonetheless make push-to-talk calls to Nextel iDEN subscribers.  Direct join helps name Alert With Text, which sends an audio alert and textual content message to a different subscriber, alongside with Group join, which may join 20 subscribers collectively directly.  you may additionally use the Direct join button to mass-message as much as 200 Direct join subscribers in a single shot, or to ship recorded messages to e-mail addresses or handsets through textual content message. 

For this review, I examined Direct join between two totally different DuraPlus telephones.  It takes a few second or to provoke the connection, after which transmissions are almost instantaneous.  Voice high quality is evident and also it is advisable to no hassle listening to someone, even in a loud setting.

Kyocera DuraPlus Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions

Rugged kind issue and Direct join aside, the DuraPlus is an virtually characteristicless characteristic cellphone.  the primary menu is similar 12 icon grid that dash has used on many flip telecellphones withprior to now (including the DuraCore and the DuraMax), which supplies the cellphone a dated really feel and look.  To make issues worse, this interface requires no less than 9 button presses to carry out easy duties like pairing a Bluetooth headset.  There's an entry NetFront four. 1 browser for studying WAP pages, however the display is simply too small and shopping is gradual.  There's help for TeleNav GPS Navigator, which will get you voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions, in addition to dash household Locator.

There's a nonstandard 2. 5mm headcellphone jack on the appropriate aspect of the cellphone for voice headsets.  The telephone has a meager 64MB of free inner reminiscence and no microSD card slot, however with out a music or video player, this shouldn't be a problem.

for those who want a loud, rugged, brick of a telephone to shout instructions through, the Kyocera DuraPlus is a good alternative.  for a similar price, the Kyocera DuraMax is a rather smaller rugged flip phone, and provides a good digital camera and a microSD card slot to the combo.  The Kyocera DuraCore prices $20 less, and is basically the identical telephone because the DuraMax, minus the digicam.  If these telephones aren't loud sufficient for you, and also you don't thoughts sticking with Sprint's steadily declining iDEN network, the Motorola Brute i686 ($139. 99, three. 5 stars) will get you very loud push-to-talk, albeit for the next value.  And if you're actually wanting to make the most of Direct Connect, the Motorola Admiral ($99. 99, four stars) is a rugged Android smartphone with glorious multimedia features, in addition to entry to extra than four50,000 apps within the Google Play retailer.

Benchmarks

Continuous discuss time: 9 hours 27 minutes

Kyocera DuraPlus price when launched is $69.99

Posted in: Sprint