Kyocera DuraXTP (Sprint) Review - Review 2022

Characteristic phones have become rare in the U.s., simply they haven't gone extinct. Kyocera is notwithstanding pumping them out, and the ultra-rugged DuraXTP for Sprint ($216) is a new flip phone that gives yous the ability to make calls, send texts, and do some limited Web browsing. It'due south one of the simplest rugged phones bachelor on Dart, and a solid choice equally long as you lot don't heed its limited functionality. The less expensive Sonim XP Strike offers the same basic capabilities in a processed bar form gene.

Blueprint and Features

At iv.xiii by 2.15 by 0.99 inches (HWD) and five.75 ounces, the Kyocera DuraXTP is beefier than your boilerplate clamshell, though it'south still easier to fit in your pocket than a brick like the Sonim XP6 (5.39 by two.54 past 0.81 inches; nine.52 ounces). The Sonim XP Strike is a scrap of a closer friction match, at 4.96 by 2.36 by 0.98 inches and 6.52 ounces.

The DuraXTP's trunk is fabricated of hardened black and grayness polycarbonate, with a rubbery finish along the edge. Rubber flaps embrace both the micro USB port and audio jack, protecting the phone from water and dust, and in that location's a Push-to-Talk button on the left side, under the book rocker. There are ii Keyguard buttons up elevation; they let you lot take or reject phone calls, and turn on the speaker.

The telephone meets war machine specification 810G, allowing it to hold up against stupor, vibration, blowing rain, and farthermost temperatures. It's too OSHA-certified, and so it can be used in chancy environments where it may exist exposed to flammable gases. With IP68 certification, it tin can withstand 30 minutes of submersion in up to half dozen feet of water. The DuraXTP survived several half dozen-foot drops on the rubberized floor of the PCMag test lab, likewise as drops on the street outside. It emerged no worse for the vesture across a few scuffs. The phone also held upward just fine after existence placed in a drinking glass of h2o for 30 minutes.

There are two displays. The one on the outside is a 1.08-inch, 102-by-xc-pixel, black-and-white LCD, which is useful for delivering notifications and telling the time. Flipping the phone open reveals a full-color, two.four-inch TFT display. At 320-by-240 pixels, information technology is reasonably abrupt for its size (167 pixels per inch), and it gets very bright, so y'all should have no problem using it in direct sunlight.

The keypad below has large backlit keys that tin can be used with gloved hands. At that place are Talk, Speaker, Cease, Dorsum, and Camera buttons on height—all located around a directional navigation pad. Beneath the keypad is the grille for the loud front-facing speaker.

The back panel is a hard slice of plastic, held in identify past a metal screw. Opening information technology up gives you access to the removable battery, SIM card slot, and microSD carte slot (which accepts cards up to 32GB).

Network Functioning, Connectivity, and Battery

The DuraXTP runs on Sprint'southward 3G network, supporting CDMA (800/1900MHz) and GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) bands. There's no Wi-Fi connectivity, and data speeds are slow. That's non a big bargain, since the phone is clearly not congenital for heavy Net access.

Call quality is good, with articulate, natural tones. The earpiece and speaker can both get loud, and are easy to hear in noisy environments. Dissonance cancellation is decent, just some degree of background noise is nowadays, resulting in slightly garbled transmissions.

At 9 hours and 3 minutes of talk time, battery life is practiced. Yet, it'southward no match for the Sonim XP Strike, which manages 12 hours and 50 minutes. Still, 9 hours should be enough to get y'all through a full twenty-four hours of fifty-fifty heavy utilize.

The phone has GPS and Bluetooth 3.0, every bit well as a 3.5mm sound jack. Sound quality is fine on wired and Bluetooth headsets.

Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions

The DuraXTP uses the Brew Mobile Platform. Information technology has a simple UI, with Messaging and Contacts shown on the dwelling screen for quick admission. Striking the OK button in the middle of the management pad takes you lot to a grid or list view of different options, similar the Business relationship, Alarm, Photos and Videos, Settings, and Tools. Under Tools, you can find additional apps similar Calendar, Stopwatch, World Clock, and Voice Memos.

In that location's a music player, assuasive the device to play MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, AMR, and MIDI files. It can also open BMP, GIF, JPEG, and PNG images, and supports MPEG4, H.263, and H.264 video. You'll need to utilize a microSD menu to load songs, though, since there's only 512MB of internal storage.

There'due south nothing you can exercise that requires a lot of processing power, and then the Qualcomm QSC6185 chip and 256MB of RAM is more sufficient.

See How We Test Cell Phones

The phone has a 5-megapixel camera rear-facing camera and LED flash to a higher place the exterior display. Information technology'south slow to launch and cumbersome to apply, asking if you want to launch the camera, video, or enter settings every time you lot open up it. Pictures are noisy indoors and outside, with cold colors. The camera is capable of capturing 720p video, but at that place'due south no stabilization and then recordings are often shaky and blurry.

The Kyocera DuraXTP is a simple, functional feature telephone. It'due south less expensive than the Sonim XP Strike, and more than elegant than the Kyocera DuraPlus. But unless y'all demand a supremely rugged flip phone, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck these days with a smartphone. The LG Tribute 2, for instance, gets you full internet access, a amend camera, and apps, for the half the price of the DuraXTP. And we haven't reviewed information technology however, but the rugged Kyocera TorqueXT ($360) looks to be a solid, Android-powered alternative, although information technology costs a bit more.

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Further Reading

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/old-cell-phones/10381/kyocera-duraxtp-sprint-review

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