Japan’s Kyocera Communications has announced through a press release the launch of its latest waterproof LTE-enabled smartphone, the Hydro Reach, on Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA, both of which operate as Sprint’s MVNO brands in the country. The smartphone is one of the three new pocket-friendly devices to be launched on Boost and Virgin recently and will cost just $99.99 (plus taxes) without contract. The device and is the latest installment in the company’s ‘Hydro’ line of Android-powered smartphones that come with waterproofing as their highlight feature. Announcing the launch of the device on the two prepaid carriers, Mr. Chuck Becher, vice president and general manager of sales and marketing at Kyocera Communications, said that the device is aimed at people with “active lifestyles” and will be a great choice for the outdoorsy types looking for a handset “without the price tag or worry that comes with more expensive, less durable devices”.
Coming to some more info on the Hydro Reach, the device comes with IPX5 and IPX7 certifications, which renders it fully waterproof when immersed in up to 3.28 feet (1 meter) of water for as long as 30 minutes. The company also claims that the phone will be fully operational even with a wet screen, which is certainly a welcome feature. As for the phone’s internals, it features a 5-inch qHD (960 x 540) display panel and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 MSM8909 chip that comes with an integrated quad-core application processor clocked at 1.1 GHz. 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage come as standard, as does a microSD card slot for capacity expansion.
The rest of the tech specs, too, are par-for-the-course for a device in this price range, including a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of recording up to 720p videos at 30 fps and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for selfies and video chats. There’s also support for Stereo Bluetooth (4.1 + LE/EDR), voice recognition and hearing-aid compatibility. To round things off, the smartphone also comes with a 2,160mAh Lithium-ion battery and runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box. As for Boost and Virgin, the two of them have also just started offering the LG Stylo 2 and the Samsung Galaxy J on their networks alongside the Hydro Reach.