Bear Grylls Likes The Kyocera Torque, Doesn’t Take Sh*t From Other Smartphones


Bear Grylls, tough-guy of many words uttered in a gruff, pee-drinking, yet hopeful voice is endorsing a smartphone. Let’s be real here, if he says it’s waterproof, dirt-proof and drop-proof it probably is. But let’s take a closer look, shall we?

The Kyocera Torque is an LTE Android phone running Ice Cream Sandwich and retailing on in the US from March 8 and has a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. So that all sounds pretty…nothing.

But what about the whole rugged shenanigans? The Torque can sit in 95 per cent humidity for 10 days without damage, or get submerged in three feet of water for 30 minutes. It can even boot and function in temperatures ranging from -20 to 50 degrees Celcius. Yeah, OK, that sounds legit. The phone qualifies under Military Standard 810G (MilSpec), which means it can survive intense dust, rain, vibration and pressure. Apparently it even holds up in salt fog!

The phone also includes Kyocera’s “Smart Sonic Receiver” technology, released last year, which uses traditional sound wave transmission, but also adds vibrations that move through the user’s body tissue to reach their eardrum and inner ear directly. Not really sure if it works, but Kyocera claims that it aids sound quality in noisy environments.

Bear has made three ads about the Torque (like the one above), but Kyocera senior VP and general manager of global sales and marketing, Eric Anderson, has some things to say about Bear:

Bear Grylls is the ultimate survivor, in both his extreme adventures and the challenges he deals with day-to-day like the rest of us. Most of us know him as an intrepid adventurer, who has withstood the most extreme environments, but he’s also a businessman and a parent, and he appreciates the value of a smart, rugged device like Torque that can seamlessly support those different sides of his lifestyle.

In summary, Eric Anderson likes the Kyocera Torque, loves Bear Grylls. [Sprint via Engadget]


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