Verizon sells a lot of 5G-enabled smartphones, ranging in (typical) price from as little as US$ 400 to a whopping US$ 2,000, but although we have no idea how much the carrier's latest Ultra Wideband-compatible device is set to cost, we can safely assume this bad boy will easily stand out from the pack.
That's because the Kyocera DuraForce Ultra
5G UW is Big Red's first-ever 5G-capable rugged handset. Powered by an upper
mid-range Snapdragon 765 SoC, the "ultra-rugged" Android phone will
undoubtedly be pricier than the likes of the US$ 550 Motorola One 5G UW, US$ 600
Google Pixel 4a 5G UW, or US$ 700 LG Velvet 5G UW, not to mention the US$ 400 TCL 10
5G UW. Unlike its "mainstream" Snapdragon 765-packing cousins, which
can often crack under the tiniest amount of pressure, the decidedly nichey
DuraForce Ultra is virtually unbreakable.
Even if you like torturing mobile devices
(we're looking at you, Zack Nelson from popular DIY YouTube channel
JerryRigEverything), you might not be able to hurt this waterproof, dustproof,
salt, fog, solar and shock-resistant tank of a smartphone, which also carries
MIL-STD-810H certification guaranteeing full protection for drops from up to 5
feet directly onto concrete.
As you can imagine, all that is bound to
take a toll on the handset's weight and overall dimensions, although Kyocera is
keeping those numbers under wraps (for pretty obvious reasons) for the time
being. In addition to that and the recommended price, the commercial release
date is up in the air as well.
Fortunately, pretty much everything else
is already etched in stone, painting the DuraForce Ultra 5G UW a fairly
promising mid-end picture. You're looking at a reasonably sharp 5.45-inch FHD+
display with massive bezels and rubber bumpers around the angled corners, a
large 4,500mAh battery under the muscular hood, a 24MP main camera accompanied
by a 16-megapixel wide-angle lens and 3D Time-of-Flight sensor on the back of
the phone, as well as a single 8MP front-facing shooter.
