Kyocera has produced some peculiar phones for the U.S., like the Kyocera Echo for Sprint back in 2011. Since then, the company has kept it simple has largely focused on the mid-range market. One of it’s latest offerings, the Brigadier, is a ruggedized Verizon-exclusive smartphone that will only cost you only $50 on a new two-year contract. 

en you think of a rugged phone, there are a few things that come to mind: It can take a beating, it’s possibly water-resistant, more than likely, it’s ugly as sin. You can check all three boxes for the Brigadier, though it’s not without noting a few tricks that make it a bit more interesting than your average mid-range smartphone.

A design only a manufacturer could love

Homnick

y ruggedized phones seemingly need to be designed like a Transformer is beyond me. The Brigadier is ugly, it didn’t have to be. Samsung proved that rugged phones don’t need to look bad with the S5 Active, which admittedly isn’t gorgeous, but it’s much more approachable than Kyocera’s offering. 

en manufacturers make rugged phones, the term “seeing is believing” seems to heavily affect the design. The intentional choice to leave screws exposed design a product with jagged edges has little to do with how sturdy it is. However, if you’re looking for a rugged phone, this design is more likely to draw you to it.  

The Brigadier has more buttons than most smartphones, offers up a few that you don’t normally see. You’ll find the 3 physical navigation buttons for back, home, multitasking on the front of the phone, volume rocker on the left side, power button on the top. It also features a dedicated camera shutter speaker phone buttons. 

ke the Galaxy S5 Active, the Brigadier sports an extra button that you can customize to open any app, which can come in hy if you want quick access to the flashlight or dialer. 

Hardware hides a few surprises

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The Brigadier comes with a 4.5-inch, 720p HD display, 1.4GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 8 megapixel camera with single D flash, 2 megapixel front facing camera. ile these specs are your stard, mid-range affair, the Brigadier also ships with a massive 3,100 mAh battery Qi wireless charging support out of the box. The addition of the large battery wireless charging really does help this phone st out. 

The ruggedized smartphone carries an I8 rating, which means it can be submerged in 6 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. It also sports a MISTD-810G rating (same as the S5 Active) to withst exposure to many different environmental extremes, such as temperature, dust, vibration, just to name a few. 

Sapphire Shield display is the cherry on top

As if the Brigadier wasn’t sturdy enough, one of the most interesting features is that it has a Sapphire Shield display, besting the fortified glass found on most smartphones today. th a mineral hardness of 9, the synthesized Corundum is the second only to diamond, meaning that the screen on the Brigadier is ridiculously strong.

Essentially scratch-proof, I attempted to jab prod at the display with keys even a knife, but couldn’t make a noticeable mark. The hardness of the display ensures that you won’t need a screen protector with the Brigadier.

Slightly tweaked, unimpressive software

th the exception of a few tweaks, there’s nothing particularly special about the Brigadier’s software. It’s slightly skinned Android that retains the familiar way to navigate, with no huge surprises.

The biggest deviation from the stard Android experience is found in the lock screen. A “launch” button sits at the bottom of the lock screen, will reveal options for Camera, Start, one when tapped. The Start option unlocks the phone, while swiping to the other options will bring you to the corresponding apps. Other than this, the user interface keeps a fairly stard Android home screen setup. 

It’s nice to see the Brigadier ship with one of the latest versions of the OS, Android 4.4.2. th manufacturers paying most attention to flagship phones, the chances of it receiving more than one major update is somewhat low, but that’s not to say it won’t get some Android /a> love in its lifetime.  

A few stout additions to the Brigadier are a barometor app to measure altitude atmospheric pressure, as well as a compass widget.

Good battery life that could get better with updates

know the Brigadier can take a beating, but its built to last in more than one way. cking a beastly 3,100 mAh battery, it’ll get you through the day, well into the night. ile this is all you need, software optimization could extend the battery life even more later on.

The Brigadier lasted 9.5 hours in our battery test, which includes placing it in Airplane mode, setting the display to 100 lumens, playing a HD video until the battery runs out. 

The phone’s battery test results are nothing to scoff at, but here’s something to think about: The HTC One (M8), Samsung Galaxy S5, G3 all have smaller batteries more powerful hardware than the Brigadier, yet all three lasted longer in the same battery test. ile there are many factors that could affect the battery life on a smartphones, software optimization can help immensely, I’m guessing that Kyocera could give the phone some love in this department to make it last even longer. 

A sturdy phone for the rugged lifestyle

Homnick

ke most heavily ruggedized phones, the Brigadier is a hyper-specific smartphone that caters to a small subset of users. Nonetheless, the mid-range phone performs well, has a battery that will easily last you all day, is very affordable. us, you’ll get a Sapphire Shield display Qi-reless charging, which are pretty sweet features to have in a mid-range smartphone.

Given that there aren’t many rugged smartphones out there, if you’re on Verizon reless need a phone that can take a beating, the Brigadier most definitely gets the job done.