RUMOUR: The Nokia 3720 Classic – a tough customer

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Spec-wise the Nokia 3720 Classic is nothing to write home about – a handset with S40 OS, 2.2-inch screen, 3.2-megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth and a microSD slot.

But it’s more than just another midrange Nokia release. It’s a rugged phone, designed to be both water and dust resistant. It will also withstand a bit of a bashing. The leaked photos show that it isn’t a bad looking phone either.

The following promo videos are rumoured to be of the Nokia 3720 – showing just how tough it is:

(via NokNok)

Samsung launches "Solid Extreme" handset

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Rugged phones are a quite specialised market and even if their biggest markets are builders and extreme sports enthusiasts, there’s still a competition for features that mirrors the main phone market.

The Solid Extreme is Samsung’s first entry into that market, and it’s a pretty good one too. There’s your regular temperature insulation, dust and water resistance and protection from drops of up to 2m.

On top of that, there’s a torch, extra-loud speaker, noise cancellation features, and glove-friendly keypad. Spec-wise, there’s a 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 and video player, FM radio, Bluetooth, microSD support and Li-ion battery. It weighs just 103g.

The handset will launch in red and black from April, and will be available on Vodafone and O2.

Samsung Mobile

Chuck Norris' PDA – the Getac PS535F

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Do you work in a field where you need rugged equipment? Perhaps you’re a field engineer, a geologist, or maybe even a stuntman? Well, then the Getac PS535F is right up your alley. It’s a super-rugged PDA for use in tough environments.

It comes equipped with a GPS, 3.5″ VGA touchscreen, 3-megapixel camera, altimeter, electronic compass and Windows Mobile 6.1. There’s no modem, annoyingly, but it does have Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. There’s 2GB of onboard memory.

The device weighs 300g, has battery for 8 hours and in keeping with its rugged design, it’s resistant to drops, water, dust and extreme temperatures. I’ve got an email in to Getac asking how much it’ll cost and when it’ll be available, so I’ll update this post when I know more.

Cod eats phone, fisherman catches cod, phone returned to owner

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Andrew Cheatle is a lucky chap. He lost his phone on a beach a couple of weeks back and assumed it’d been lost at sea. On a shopping trip to replace the handset, however, his girlfriend’s phone rang. She handed it to him, saying it was some guy going on about a cod.

On the end of the line was fisherman Glen Kerley. He’d found a handset in the belly of a cod, and figured he’d try and return it to its owner. After going to meet him, he was reunited with his (rather battered) handset, and after it dried out, he was amazed to find it worked perfectly.

So what was the handset that survived a week in a fish? I wasn’t sure, so I consulted the masses on Twitter. The wonderful @lovelychaos was first with the answer – it’s a Nokia 1600 – a handset designed for use in developing countries. Well, I guess it’s proved its worth!

i-mate launches 810-F: unspectacular phone name for spectacularly active lifestyles

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i-mate may not have excelled itself in the gadget name-choosing department, but its newest 810-F handset offers advanced features in a rugged, waterproof shell that’s designed to withstand knocks and scrapes.

The hardware features a full QWERTY keyboard and 320×240 resolution impact-resistant touch screen, 3G connectivity and 2.2GB of storage. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 for all your email, music, gaming and web surfing needs.

Military-grade hardware: the Stinger 553 SFF PC

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Have you got a dusty, vibration-filled, humid place that you desperately need to put a PC in? Me too! That’s why I’m going to be buying the Stinger 553 SFF PC, from CodaOctopus Colmek. It’s based around an Intel Atom processor, and packs 2GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD and eight USB ports.

I doubt it’ll cope with Far Cry 2, despite probably being able to survive all the stresses of the game if it were reality. It conforms to MIL-STD-810F and MIL-STD-461E environmental standards and MIL-STD0704E power supply voltage standards, whatever that means, and measures just 5″ x 5″ x 3″, so it’s a tiny wee thing. No price, heh, but with an aluminium alloy chassis, I doubt this thing will be cheap.

Stinger 553 (via Engadget)

Related posts: LaCie intros LaCinema Rugged: portable multimedia-friendly hard drive | Five reasons why Condurro’s rugged LM801 mobile phone is more useful in the city

Panasonic ToughBook CF-U1 most rugged yet. Warehouse workers rejoice!

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No, I’m not taking the Michael out of warehouse workers — I’m aware that many professionals need to use a compact, rugged PC at work, and the Panasonic ToughBook CF-U1 could just fit the bill.

It surprised the reviewer at Trusted Reviews because Panasonic has used Intel’s Atom chip for its UMPC. Things just get better from there, it seems.

Specs wise, it features the Z520 Atom 1.33GHz processor with Hyper Threading Technology (single core but with added “oomph”), up to 32GB solid state disk, 1GB of RAM, 1,024 x 600 screen resolution, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. It comes either with Vista or XP…