Sprint gets some Torque and adds LTE coverage

By Joshua Sherman Published June 3, 2013

Check out our full review of the Kyocera Torque rugged smart phone.

Sprint is busy this week, announcing a new Android-powered, LTE touting, rugged smartphone, as well as launching LTE in more than half a dozen more cities. The new smartphone, the Kyocera Torque, is the first rugged smartphone of its kind, and LTE coverage will be expanding to cities including Austin, and Boston.

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The Kyocera Torque is Sprint’s answer to those looking for not only a rugged, Android smartphone, but also LTE connectivity, and access to Sprint’s Direct Connect network for push-to-talk capabilities. The phone actually boasts an impressive Military Standard 810g, meaning it is extremely resistant to almost anything nature can throw at it, and likely beyond what the average person will experience. However, the phone is designed to be fully featured for anyone who wants a full Android experience, LTE connectivity, and a phone that won’t break on the job. The Kyocera Torque includes a dual-core Snapdragon processor, 4-inch Gorilla Glass display, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and a 5-megapixel camera.

Kyocera & Sprint say that the Torque also uses a “Smart sonic receiver” so that it can send HD Voice to your ears without even having a speaker. Unless you work in construction or you’re an absolute butterfingers when holding your phone, then this might be a little overkill for the average user.

As for the LTE expansion, Sprint is beginning its 2013 roll-out quite strongly, having promised just a week ago 28 more LTE cities to arrive in the coming months. It’s a good thing too, now that T-Mobile has promised to up the ante with LTE in 2013, and will bring Sprint closer to reaching its goal of finishing its LTE rollout by the end of the year. While regions such as New York are still waiting for the green light for LTE, Sprint has launched LTE coverage for more than half a dozen cities, including Austin, Boston, Western Puerto Rico, and Gettysburg. If Sprint keeps up with this pace for 2013, then its customers will have a lot to be cheering about come end of year.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Joshua Sherman is a contributor for Digital Trends who writes about all things mobile from Apple to Zynga. Josh pulls his…

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