Kyocera DuraMax
Universal Dual Car Adapter
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Kyocera DuraMax Motorola
OEM Vehicle Charger
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he Kyocera DuraMax ($69.99) is a rugged flip cell phone, and one of the first to hook into Sprint's next-generation Direct Connect service. That's in lieu of Nextel's ancient (and now crumbling) iDEN network, which the carrier will begin decommissioning in 2013 and switch off entirely in 2017. The DuraMax is certainly tough enough to get the job done, but it's pretty dated otherwise. And some users may prefer more volume in the earpiece and speakerphone.
Design, Call Quality, and Push-To-Talk
The DuraMax feels like a workhorse phone, with its non-slip, scratch-resistant, rubberized housing. It measures 4.0 by 2.1 by 1.0 inches (HWD) and weighs a solid 5.1 ounces. It also meets military specification 810G, which means it's resistant to dust, vibration, shock, extreme temperatures, low pressure, hard rain, salt fog, and other trying conditions. It can even be submerged in three feet of standing water for 30 minutes. The 1-inch monochrome 96-by-64-pixel and 2-inch, 240-by-320-pixel LCDs are standard fare for flip phones, and are pretty easy to read. The numeric keypad is excellent, with big, well-spaced keys that will clearly stand up to abuse. Someone wearing thick gloves shouldn't have any problem dialing this phone, either.
he DuraMax is a dual-band EV-DO Rev. A (850/1900 MHz) device with no Wi-Fi. Reception is average and voice quality is excellent, with a loud tone in the earpiece and no background hiss, although it sounds a little "shouty" compared to other Sprint phones, as if the other person was speaking too close to the mic. Transmissions through the mic were perfect. Calls also sounded clear through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4 stars). The Nuance-powered voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth, although it took a few seconds to start up each time. Battery life was excellent at 7 hours and 38 minutes of talk time.
The speakerphone was loud—louder than most consumer phones I test. But it doesn't quite reach deafening Nextel-like levels, and it also distorts considerably at the top volume setting.
Direct Connect, Sprint's broadband CDMA-powered, push-to-talk service, is pretty interesting. Direct Connect has higher bandwidth capacity for data than iDEN, which is renowed for its extreme sluggishness. Direct Connect supports Call Alert With Text, which sends an audio alert and SMS to another subscriber letting them know why you're trying to reach them, and Group Connect, which brings 20 subscribers together all at once. In addition, you can mass-blast up to 200 Direct Connect subscribers nationwide, or send recorded messages to email addresses or handsets via text message, all with the Direct Connect button. While the DuraMax itself isn't compatible with Nextel's iDEN network—you'll need to be in a Sprint coverage area—it does let you connect to iDEN subscribers' phones.
For this review, I tested Direct Connect using two DuraMax phones—and mostly liked what I heard. Both responded just about immediately to pushing the Direct Connect button. If I had already been talking to the other phone, cueing it up again was instant; otherwise, it took a short moment (less than a second, on average) to initiate a connection. After that, latency was roughly 600 milliseconds between the two phones. Voice quality was reasonably clear, but again, not as loud as some Nextels I've tested. Still, I'd be satisfied with what I heard, as long as I wasn't using the DuraMax on a loud construction site.
Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions
Aside from Direct Connect, the DuraMax is a decent but umimpressive flip phone. The main menu consists of 12 icons arranged in a familiar grid pattern, the same one Sprint has used on many flip phones in recent years. It's looking pretty dated, and it required far too many button presses for simple tasks like pairing a Bluetooth headset. The Access NetFront 4.1 browser is fine for reading WAP pages, but too sluggish and clumsy for desktop HTML. The DuraMax supports Sprint Family Locator, as well as TeleNav GPS Navigator for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions—handy for getting to job sites or clients in a hurry.
The nonstandard 2.5mm headphone jack supports PTT headsets. There's no music or video player, so the lack of stereo music support doesn't matter. Kyocera hid the memory card slot beneath a watertight, locking battery cover and underneath the battery. Sprint throws in a 1GB microSD card, and my 32GB SanDisk card worked fine, but don't plan on swapping cards often. There's also 64MB of free internal memory.
The 3.2-megapixel camera includes an LED flash, but no auto-focus. Test photos were nicely balanced, with accurate if somewhat flat color, and average detail levels. Indoor shots looked a little mottled and pasty, though, with overexposed sunlit windows. Recorded videos were of the useless, 176-by-144-pixel variety at 13 frames per second.
Equipping your employees with a set of Kyocera DuraMax handsets can be a good way to leave Nextel's iDEN network behind for good. But if you love your current Nextel, with its ear-splitting speakerphone and earpiece volume, the DuraMax may not offer enough oomph. If you want to save some money, or you need a phone without a camera for security reasons, check out Kyocera's other new Direct Connect model, the DuraCore. (We haven't reviewed that one yet; stay tuned.) Motorola i686 ($119.99, 3.5 stars) is a comparable iDEN model if you're willing to give Nextel one last go-around. Finally, if you don't need push-to-talk or extreme ruggedness, and just want a good flip phone, the budget-priced Samsung M360 (Free, 3 stars) is worth a close look.
