NEW ORLEANS—Kyocera introduced two new smartphones at the CTIA Wireless trade show on Tuesday: the Hydro, a water-resistant Android 4.0 device, and the Rise, the only keyboarded Android 4.0 phone we've seen so far. I spent some time with both of them and they're good entry-level models.
Let's start with the Rise. Kyocera says 69 percent of consumers want QWERTY keyboards in their phones. I'm not too sure about that—HTC, for one, told me a few weeks ago that they've seen low demand for hardware QWERTY. But you can't deny that at least some market is out there, and I'm glad to see Kyocera addressing it.
The Rise has pretty basic specs: a 3.5-inch, 480-by-320 IPS LCD screen, a 1Ghz Qualcomm S2 processor, 2GB of storage with a memory card slot, a 3.2MP camera, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1. It's being announced with CDMA EVDO Rev. A, which targets it for Sprint, Virgin, Boost, and Cricket. (Verizon and MetroPCS are largely moving on to LTE phones.)
The Rise isn't a slim phone, measuring 4.4-by-2.4-by-.56 inches and weighing in at 5.5 ounces; the thickness comes from the slide-out keyboard of well-separated, bubbled keys. It's no Motorola Droid 4. But it'll cost a lot less than the Motorola Droid 4.
The Rise looks a lot better in person than it does in press shots. The photos don't do justice to the keyboard, which has raised, clicky keys. It's a four-row keyboard, so no dedicated number keys. One pleasant surprise: a dedicated menu button below the screen, which you don't see on some Android 4.0 phones.
The screen is noticeably low-res if you're coming from a more powerful smartphone, but the IPS LCD technology gives it vibrant colors—it doesn't look cheap or washed out.
The body is made of black and silver plastic, and the sliding mechanism is solid. The plastic used isn't the greatest—this is no Nokia polycarbonate—but it's neither flimsy nor shameful. Basic Android apps, including Angry Birds Space, ran perfectly adequately on the 1Ghz processor.
The Hydro essentially swaps out the Rise's keyboard for water resistance. You've got the same specs here, except that the phone is now slimmer at .5 inches and lighter at 4.16 ounces. It's also covered by a waterproof coating, and can survive being dunked under three feet of water for 30 minutes.
Kyocera is a Japanese company, and it points out that water resistance is a very popular feature in Japan. As reps from Fujitsu and Casio told me back in 2009, apparently Japanese people spend a lot of time in the bath.
The Hydro is noticeably lighter than the Rise. I'd call it almost too light, but I like really solid-feeling phones. Performance is just the same as the Rise, and it has the same screen. I couldn't see the waterproof coating, and I was surprised to find there's no plug over the headphone jack. The textured back, secured with a screw, is a nice touch, and it's much easier to hold than the very smooth plastic used on the Rise. Once again, this feels like a quality entry-level phone.
Both phones will launch later this summer, and "carriers will be named later," Kyocera said. Virgin, MetroPCS, and Cricket are prime potential customers.
