Sprint made the ruggedized Kyocera Torque officially official nearly a month ago, but while the carrier was happy to talk up the device's toughness at that time, it was a little less forthcoming about the Torque's availability. That's changed today, as Sprint has revealed that the Kyocera Torque will be rolling onto its shelves on March 8 for $99.99 with a two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate.
One of the main features of the Torque is its ruggedization. The new device is built to Military Standard 810G and can withstand all kinds of harsh environments, including dust, extreme temperatures, solar radiation, blowing rain and salt fog. It also meets the IP67 standards for sprayed water and immersion in up to one meter of water for 30 minutes. Another unique feature of the Torque is its Smart Sonic Receiver tech, which transmits sounds both as normal sound waves as well as vibrations that are carried through the body tissue and to the eardrum for improved sound clarity.
When it comes to more traditional specs, the Torque is packing a 4-inch 800x480 touchscreen and 1.3-megapixel camera on its face, as well as a 5-megapixel shooter on its backside. Sandwiched inside its ruggedized body is a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB RAM, 4GB storage, microSD card slot, 4G LTE connectivity, Sprint Direct Connect push-to-talk support and a 2,500mAh battery powering the whole show. The Torque will come to market with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich preinstalled.
It's not terribly often that we see new rugged Android smartphones hit the market, but the Torque will soon be tumbling its way onto Sprint shelves to help expand Hesse and Co.'s lineup of ruggedized hardware. Obviously not everyone needs a tough device like this, but for the folks that do, the Torque looks like it could be a handset worth considering thanks to its support for 4G LTE and Sprint Direct Connect. Sprint's full announcement of the Torque (along with a photo of a snowy Bear Grylls holding his very own unit) is available for your perusal at the link below.
Via Sprint
