I have to be honest, I have never reviewed a phone before. It was a little intimidating taking on something like this. I find It’s a whole lot easier reviewing hunting gear, boots, camping gear and hiking gear. Phones are more complicated. All that aside, I found the Kyocera DuraSport 5G UW to be a small, ruggedly designed phone with plenty of features.
Why a rugged phone like the DuraSport?
Most people have an iPhone or an Android, but we also know they are super expensive. Kyocera is now offering an affordable alternative: the DuraSport 5G. This phone lets you take advantage of the capability of 5G no matter where you are on the grid. They pair the reliability of the Verizon network with a rugged design to withstand whatever outdoorsmen and folks who work outside throw at it. This phone is tested to withstand drops, sand, extreme temperatures and water without failure.
Whether you are on the ranch, on the farm, at the construction site or in the outdoors you need your phone to be able to be there when and if you need it. This phone comes with a full 2-year standard warranty, and you do not need an additional case to keep it safe. The protection for this phone is integrated into the design. The phone is engineered to have a smaller, slimmer foot print. As well, this model is built to use the 5G network to provide fast video and video chats. If you are looking to show off the kiddo’s first wild turkey to grandma or share a video of a work project with a customer, fast video is important these days.
The camera is more than adequate during the day and excelled in low-light conditions. The programmable button on the side of the phone made it easy to take snaps and shoot video. This unit is set up to use the Android operating system and works with all of the major apps. We downloaded several and all worked great. The DuraSport comes with Qi Wireless charging or USB-C charging.
We found the Kyocera DuraSport 5G UW to be a capable phone that lasted over 34 hours of pretty solid use. We took calls, sent texts, sent photos, checked emails and shot close to 50 photos and about 3 minutes of video during that time. Charging was simple and easy and fast with the USB-C 27W brick and cable provided. Qi Wireless charging was at 8.1w and still seemed pretty quick.
We had a pretty good opportunity to test out this phone as a wireless hotspot on the road and it worked extremely well allowing us to connect a macbook and transfer files easily over 5G. The speeds were more than sufficient for day to day use.
Overall if you need a seriously rugged phone, take a look at this one. For a rugged, fast phone in a very crowded market, this one is quite reasonable. It is simple to use and tough as nails. If you are looking for an alternative to today’s fragile phones, the Kyocera Durasport 5G UW is the phone you should be looking at.
