We had heard rumors months ago that the Kyocera Hydro ELITE was coming to Verizon and now Big Red confirms these rumors with a press release assuring us of an August 29 release date and pricing on a two-year contract of only $99 with a $50 mail-in rebate. Not bad for a phone that can withstand 1 meter of water for 30 minutes, but this phone is more than just about keeping the water out. It fills a nice void on Verizon by giving them a phone for their active, outdoor customers, with waterproof capabilities at a reasonable price and supplements their higher priced Casio G’zOne Ravine 2 at $200.
The sleek Hydro ELITE is a global-ready 4G LTE Android smartphone that is built to be a tough phone, capable of those drops in puddles at the bus stop or horsing around the swimming pool. It is not only waterproof and dunk proof; it also comes with an impact resistant screen. Extreme-survivalist Bear Grylls, the star of the hit series “Get Out Alive” and father of three active boys, helps showcase the phone in Kyocera’s video shown below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y551VFuO-a4
While not known for their leading edge specifications or design, Kyocera’s Hydro Elite is slightly elevated to deliver. It comes with a 4.3-Inch 720P display, 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8MP Camera, 1.3MP FFC, 16GB internal memory, microSD slot, 2100mAh battery, wireless charging, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and Smart Sonic Receiver technology, designed to make the phone audible under the noisiest conditions. Rather than using a typical speaker, Kyocera replaces it with a ceramic actuator that actually picks up the vibrations from your voice and transmits a clearer and cleaner sound, much like the Jawbone headsets that get their sounds from the vibrations in your jawbone.
If you are a hiker, camper, boater, angler, jogger, of all around outdoors person, you may want to check out the Kyocera Hydro ELITE at Verizon.