whole lot to ask for a phone

[Guest iostoplesor]

Sprint and Kyocera team up yet again to make that mid-range phone that does just enough to make you consider it if you're in the right price bracket

Sprint and Kyocera are a bit of a dynamic duo in the U.S. wireless market, releasing new devices together every time you turn around. Between Sprint itself and its prepaid carriers Boost and Virgin Mobile, Kyocera pretty heftily Binary Matrix Pro Review  blankets the low- to mid-range market with solid, waterproof and often rugged devices. The Kyocera Hydro Vibe on Sprint is another entrant squarely in that mid-range group, offering a few neat features, respectable hardware and access to Sprint's Spark LTE network for just $29 on-contract or $229 without any agreement.

That's not a whole lot to ask for a phone with some pretty competent specs, including a quad-core processor, 4.5-inch display, complete waterproofing and a neat bone-conducting speaker. But in many ways it's just what everyone expected — the Hydro Vibe was never going to be a device with barn-burning performance or crazy features, it's meant to fill a very specific niche on Sprint's network that Kyocera has been filling for years. And they keep making these devices because people keep buying them — read along and see if you should consider being one of those customers with our full review of the Kyocera Hydro Vibe.


The Kyocera Hydro Vibe is a small and thick, by today's standards, with gratuitous use of hard plastic and a few different textures and finishes that try to make it look fancy but generally make it seem cheap. You've got a shiny Safe Trader App Review chrome plastic rim that encircles the screen and down the edges, which then meets up with a shiny black plastic rim and continues to a textured removable back plate. There's a shiny chrome (but different shade from the other chrome) power button on top, volume keys on the left side and camera button on the bottom right. Kyocera painted its logo above the screen on a bezel that doesn't have a speaker grille due to its use of a bone-conducting speaker, and three capacitive keys are found opposite it on the bottom bezel.

Even without any overtly-rugged design elements, the Hydro Vibe is IP 57 water and dust resistant, meaning it can survive a dunk in water up to three and a half feet for 30 minutes — far more than you'll need in any usual situation with a phone. An added bonus is that Kyocera doesn't cover up any of the ports or buttons with little flaps (see, it is possible, Samsung) that will eventually break off anyway. It protects the removable battery, SIM and SDcard with a rubber gasket-sealed back panel.

[Rachel]

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