Popular companies like Nokia and Samsung are featuring a line of rugged cell phones that don’t mind taking a bit of a beating.
For travelers, extreme sports enthusiasts, blue collar workers, and anyone else who doesn’t care so much about the thinness of their phone or having a delicate touch screen, phones like Nokia’s 3720 Classic and the Sonim XP3 Quest 2.0 might be preferable to the iPhone 3G.
According to Nokia, the 3720 can be smacked with a golf club, shot with a paintball gun, dropped from serious heights, dipped in jelly, and dunked in beer.
Basically, this phone can take whatever any fraternity might dish out for rush week.
Same goes for the Sonim, which the company claims is “built for life in the big city, off-road, the back country, and the world’s waterways.”
The Sonim can be submerged in water, used as a hammer, and features an extra-loud ring audible over the sound of a jackhammer.
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9 Comments... join the discussion!
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Never had to worry about my phone being dipped in jelly, but those phones do seem pretty cool.
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I hope I never have to hear the “louder than jackhammer” ring.
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I wish the Blackberry would make a rugged phone. Two months into my two year contract and the thing is already banged up.
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My husband just dropped his new phone into the lake. This is the 4th phone to meet its demise in 2 months. I think he will no longer be allowed to have phones unless its one of the above mentioned cellulars.
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My iphone has withstood a lot! It’s been drop kicked, stepped on, and worst of all dropped in the toilet.. and it still works!
If you do drop a phone in liquid, put it in a bag a rice for a few days – it sucks all the moisture out! The Nokia 3720 looks worth checking out though. I’ve always wanted a phone that doubles as a hammer!
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this is why you get a durable phone
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I have a friend who works in a mobile phone shop, he says the most common phone that comes back for repairs at the moment is the iPhone, something to bare in mind for those on the road! I (and my friend in the mobile shop) both have the Nokia 5800, but being a touch screen model I’m not going to be reccomending it for travel at the moment, by the time I finish with it and discover if it’s tough or not there will be a new model out anyway.
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I’ve soaked my last 2 cell phones… When will these be available in Canada? I work around construction sites, and cell phones have to be built tough but still be functional. This sounds like the perfect phone for what I would put it through. Just being “splash” resistant doesn’t cut it… and being able to hear it ringing over a jack hammer.. I’ve missed so many calls simply because I couldn’t hear the phone ringing over the noise around me. Even vibrate doesn’t help all the time unless I’m holding my present phone in my hand when it rings. Bring it on!
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