So I then dropped it 15 feet, with a little English added, over my balcony into the garden below. But that's not a big drop - my iPhone can handle it, too. Next, I dropped the Duraforce six feet onto a thin pillow to see how it reacted to a shock. The Kyocera DuraForce was unaffected by a 30-minute stint in my freezer. It still worked fine, even as the frozen drops melted. I then froze the DuraForce to 2✯ for a half hour. There's a reason Apple techs swab the iPhone's ports for moisture when a customer brings in a dead unit.) (There's no way I would try this with my iPhone. Its screen stayed on while soaking, and the smartphone worked without issue when I retrieved it.

I let the DuraForce sit, turned on, in a clean toilet bowl for 10 minutes. First, I did the toilet test, since smartphones on work belts and work jackets seem to like to fall in the toilet. Kyocera challenged me to abuse the DuraForce. I dropped the Kyocera DuraForce into a toilet for 10 minutes, with no ill effect on the hardened Android smartphone.

Kyocera markets the DuraForce as a smartphone that can withstand the elements - extreme temperatures, dust, shock, solar radiation, salt fog, 'blowing rain,' and shallow-water immersion (six feet) for as long as 30 minutes - in compliance with the IP68 rating and the Mil-Std-810G standard for hardened gear. This ruggedized Android smartphone is meant for construction workers, utility linemen, oil riggers, security guards, coaches, park rangers, and other folks whose work environments are rough and tumble. Instead, it's designed to be abused yet continue working. Something The Hulk would carry around.īut as the name suggests, the DuraForce is not meant to be stylish. It's heavy, bulky, and not exactly pretty. In a world of me-too Android smartphones, the Kyocera DuraForce stands out.

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